Financial: Periphonics Reports Preliminary Results For Third Quarter And First Nine Months Of Fiscal 1999 - Company Financial Information

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, March 15, 1999

Periphonics Corporation (NASDAQ:PERI), a leading worldwide provider of products and services for call processing solutions used in Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and Telecom Enhanced Network Services, Monday announced that, based on a preliminary review of results, it expects to report approximately $32.0 million in total revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 1999 ended February 28, 1999 compared with total revenues of $33.6 million in the same period in fiscal 1998. Based on these revenues, the company anticipates reporting diluted earnings per share for the quarter of between $0.09 and $0.11 compared with $0.17 in third quarter of fiscal 1998.

For the first nine months of fiscal 1999, the company expects to report total revenues of approximately $98.1 million, an increase of approximately 16 percent compared with total revenues of $84.8 million in the first nine months of fiscal 1998. The company anticipates reporting diluted earnings per share of between $0.29 and $0.31 for the first nine months of fiscal 1999 compared with $0.24 per diluted share in the prior year period.

Peter Cohen, Periphonics Chairman and CEO, said, "Revenue for the third quarter was below anticipated levels due largely to delays in closing a number of sizable customer orders on which we had expected to recognize revenue during the period. As a result of the lower revenues, earnings per share for the fiscal third quarter will be below analyst estimates. As we've often stated in the past, our business is characterized by fluctuations in quarterly results due to a number of factors including long sales cycles and timing of large orders. We believe that our business is fundamentally sound and it is continuing to improve on a year-to-year basis.

"As we move into our fiscal fourth quarter, our business backlog is up slightly from where it was three months ago and, based on continuing sales activity within the customer base, we expect to close many of the delayed orders in the current quarter. We believe this, combined with a substantial pipeline of business opportunities, will enable us to achieve improved revenue and profit growth in the fourth quarter and going forward into fiscal 2000."

Mr. Cohen also noted that the company has repurchased approximately 560,000 shares of its stock under a 1.3 million-share authorization announced during the fiscal first quarter. "Approximately 740,000 shares remain in the repurchase program authorized by our board of directors. We plan to continue repurchasing shares as appropriate based on our belief that the company's strong position in a growing worldwide marketplace offers significant potential for profitable long-term growth and share-price appreciation."

Periphonics Corporation is a global leader in the development, marketing and support of products and professional services for Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and Telecom Enhanced Network Services. The Company's products and services utilize such technologies as interactive voice response (IVR), advanced speech processing with large vocabulary recognition, natural language processing and text-to-speech, as well as interactive processing via Web browsers, messaging, and fax. Periphonics also provides comprehensive professional services including project management, software application development, call center integration and script and grammar development. The Company's products and professional services help its customers enhance their customer service offerings, increase caller satisfaction, reduce operating costs and often create new revenue opportunities by automating call and transaction processing. Periphonics is an ISO 9001/TickIT registered company with systems installed in more than 50 countries. FMI: www.peri.com.