LivePerson First Quarter Revenue Increases 38%
Cash balance increases by $379,000 as Company delivers breakeven GAAP EPS
NEW YORK, May 1 -- LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPSN) , a provider of technology facilitating real-time online customer interaction, today announced financial results for the first fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2003.
Revenue for the quarter was $2.5 million, a 38% increase from the prior year period, and a 7% sequential increase versus the fourth quarter of 2002.
"LivePerson continues to see the impact of a strengthening sales pipeline," CEO Robert LoCascio stated. "This enabled us to surpass our expectations of 5% sequential growth. We have also increased the size of our direct sales force by 65% since January 1, and expect these new additions to begin generating revenue by the beginning of the fourth quarter."
A combination of new customer wins, increased revenue from existing clients and a greater proportion of new clients purchasing the higher-priced Sales Edition drove LivePerson`s growth in the quarter. New clients added during the quarter included Enterasys, Playboy and WellPoint, while growth continued within existing clients including Bell Canada, EarthLink, eBay and Forex. LivePerson has also entered into multi-divisional pilots of LivePerson Sales Edition with two Fortune 200 companies in the telecom and computer hardware sectors.
Net loss for the quarter was $(83,000) or $(0.00) per share, as compared to a net loss of $(1.2) million or $(0.04) per share in the prior quarter, and net loss of $(5.4) million, or $(0.16) per share in the first quarter of 2002. Net loss included a net restructuring charge of $1.2 million in the prior quarter, and a $5.2 million charge related to the cumulative effect of an accounting change in the prior year.
Earnings/(loss) before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the first quarter was $257,000 versus $47,000 in the first quarter of 2002. A reconciliation of the differences between EBITDA and the most comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles is located under the heading "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Information to GAAP" immediately following the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations included in this press release.
LivePerson considers EBITDA and cash from operations to be important financial indicators of the Company`s operational strength and the performance of its business. These measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results. The non-GAAP measures included in this press release have been reconciled to the nearest GAAP measure.
Cash balance increased by $379,000 to $8.4 million.
Financial Expectations
The Company currently expects the following financial results:
* Sequential quarterly revenue growth of at least 5%, to $2.7 million for
Q2 2003
* Annual revenue growth of at least 35%, to $11 million for the full year
2003
* EBITDA of $0.01 per share and breakeven EPS in Q2
* EBITDA of $0.05 per share and EPS of $0.01 for the full year
The difference between EBITDA per share, a non-GAAP measure, and EPS, is interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and is expected to equal $0.01 per share in Q2 and $0.04 per share for the full year.
Product Update
LivePerson has also received strong initial interest in the benefits of Live Keyword, a new feature that enables LivePerson users to dramatically increase the effectiveness of their online keyword search efforts. An alert function that ties search engine information to specific customers in real time enables LivePerson clients to immediately react to and adapt their resource allocation that drives traffic to their Web site. The feature operates with all standard search results technology, including FindWhat(R), Google(R), Overture(R), Yahoo(R) and others.
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