Q4 revenues rise 52% year-over-year at site search vendor FAST

Oslo, Norway-based site- and enterprise-search technology company Fast Search & Transfer posted record Q4 and year-end revenues for 2005, the company reported. For the quarter, revenues grew 52% over the year-ago quarter to $31.1 million. Net income of $8.03 million more than doubled Q4 2004 income of $2.85 million.

For the year, revenues grew 62% year-over-year to $103 million. Net income of $17.4 million nearly tripled 2004 net income of $6.4 million. Contributing to financial results was the signing of a record number of new customers in the fourth quarter, surpassing the previous year’s new Q4 deals by 255%, according to Ali I. Riaz, president and chief financial officer of FAST.

The company says growth was driven by the adoption of the FAST Enterprise Search Platform, search derivative applications, and OEM enterprise search solutions by new customers and the expansion of existing relationships. New or expanded relationships spanned e-commerce, Internet search, media and other industry sectors and included America Online, Time Warner Telecom, TVGuide.com and others.