Aureal annual revenues up 16x

Audio specialist Aureal has posted a loss of $3.5 million on revenues of $10.8 million for its fourth quarter of 1998, ended 3 January 1999. That compares with a $5.9 million loss on revenues of $200,000 for the same period of the previous year. For the full fiscal year, the company recorded revenues of $25.3 million, a sixteen-fold increase on 1997's $1.6 million, and an overall loss of $18.5 million. Last year it was in the red to the tune of $17.7 million. David Domeier, Aureal's VP of finance and its CFO, was understandably keen to highlight the company's progressive increase in revenue throughout 1998, which he attributed to the growth in demand for the company's Vortex audio chips and boards based upon them. Contributing to Aureal's losses were increased spending on R&D, and sales and marketing. The company is hoping its existing OEM deal with Diamond Multimedia and a recently signed OEM agreement with VideoLogic will this year push the company toward profitability. Driving demand will be increased support among leading games developers for Aureal's innovative dynamic A3D 3D audio technology, said the company's UK representative, Roy Taylor, MD of 3DSL. "Aureal is definitely beating Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! in the 'war of the reviews' in the US," he added. Creative and Aureal have long been arch-rivals in the advanced sound-card market, a rivalry that has generated numerous lawsuits (see Registers passim). ®