Portal Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2000 Financial Results; Annual revenues of $103M, Q4 revenues increased 252% from prior year - Company Financial Information

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 28, 2000

Portal Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRSF), Tuesday reported financial results for the fourth fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2000. Revenues for the quarter were $39 million, a 252 percent increase over revenues of $11.1 million for the comparable quarter in the prior year and a 39 percentage sequential increase over the previous quarter. Net income for the quarter was $.4 million ($.0 per share) compared to a net loss of $6.7 million ($.05 proforma loss per share) for the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year.

For the 2000 fiscal year, also ended January 31, 2000, Portal generated revenues of $103 million, a 286 percent increase over revenues of $26.7 million for the 1999 fiscal year. Net loss for the year was $7.6 million ($.05 proforma loss per share) compared to a net loss of $17.4 million ($.15 proforma loss per share) in the prior fiscal year.

"Our fourth quarter results clearly demonstrate that worldwide demand for Portal's customer management and billing software grew at a phenomenal pace," said John Little, founder and chief executive officer of Portal Software. "This past year, Portal has played a key role in helping many of the world's leading service providers build exciting new Internet-based businesses. By providing the market with the business infrastructure that is driving the Internet economy, we plan to capitalize on our market momentum and continue cementing our leadership position during FY 2001."

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Portal set the following three goals to measure its performance: begin initial implementation of the company's wireless Internet strategy; continue penetrating the high-speed access market and continue expanding Portal's international presence. The company successfully accomplished these goals.

During the quarter, Portal made significant progress in the wireless Internet market. The company focused heavily on building its market coalition, forming several strategic partnerships with key technology and systems integrators such as LHS, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Cap Gemini and Logica. As a result, Portal and its partners will jointly develop and deliver solutions that enable mobile service providers to support new wireless Internet applications. In addition, both Telenor Mobile, the leading mobile telecommunications company in Norway and Sonera, Finland's leading telecommunications company recently selected Portal's Infranet to support new SMS, WAP and GPRS-based wireless Internet services. Portal also actively participated in wireless Internet standards organizations by becoming the first billing vendor to join the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum as well as a founding member of the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum.

In the high-speed Internet access market, Portal continued to expand its substantial market leadership this quarter. Significant business was closed with Fastpoint Communications, a leading reseller of DSL services from Covad Communications; BlueStar Communications, the Southeast's largest provider of DSL services and C1 Communications, the first provider of DSL technology to customers in Canada. In addition, Portal signed deals with Eureka Broadband and Allied Riser Communications. These new design wins provide facilities-based broadband Internet services to small- and medium sized business tenants over in-building networks. Further strengthening its industry partnerships, a strategic agreement was signed with PricewaterhouseCoopers to address time-to-market challenges for DSL providers and enable them to remain competitive by rapidly rolling-out service offerings.

Portal continued its aggressive international expansion in the fourth quarter. The company announced new Japanese operations, located in Tokyo, to support the specific sales and marketing requirements for the region. The appointment of Shinichi Sugihara, former general manager of Netscape Japan, was also announced. Portal made significant progress in Latin America including new customer deals with Avantel and Axtel, leading telecommunications companies in Mexico; CTC Internet, a leading provider of Internet services in Chile; Advance Telecommunicaciones S.A., a leading provider of IP services in Argentina and IFX, an Internet service company delivering dial-up Internet access to more than 100 cities throughout Latin America.

"We are pleased with the continued acceptance of our software worldwide," said Jack Acosta, chief financial officer, Portal Software. "We experienced significant growth in all regions which resulted in record revenue for both the fourth quarter and full year."

Portal Software, Inc., is building business infrastructure for the Internet. Based in Cupertino, Calif., Portal is a leading provider of customer management and billing software for Internet and emerging, next-generation communications services. The company's real-time solution enables service providers to manage customers, support services and collect money. Portal's customers include US WEST, Qwest Communications, Deutsche Telekom's T-Online, Covad Communications, Inktomi, Juno Online, France Telecom and Demon Interactive. Information about Portal and its products can be found at http://www.portal.com.