CyberCash Inc just managed to beat analysts estimates for its fourth quarter losses yesterday and also announced a new version of its payment component software for Microsoft Corp’s Site Server Commerce edition. Security and integration has been improved, says the Reston, Virginia-based company. CyberCash had warned in October that the fourth quarter could be a slow one for the company as the holiday season means merchants are concentrating on doing the transactions, rather than looking to change their payment processing methods over to a new system like CyberCash’s. In June the company also warned of a slow second quarter and fired one fifth of its staff. All in all not a great year for the company, and one in which it admits it failed to meet internal expectations, but it still managed to end the year with 9,400 online merchants using its software, a 275% increase over the end of 1997. During 1999 the company expects sale and marketing costs to increase as it further expands its merchant base and promotes the InstaBuy service, which it launched last year and which accounted for10% of 1998’s revenues. Research and development costs will also rise, says CyberCash. Net losses for the fourth quarter were 46 cents per share, two cents better than Wall Street expected, according to First Call. That translated to net losses of $8.0m, up from $5.1m last time, on revenues that rose 120.3% to $4.4m. Net losses for the year to December were $30.9m, after a $608,755 restructuring charge, up from $26.2m last time, which included charges totaling $2.5m, on revenues that rose 180.5% to $12.6m. CyberCash also puts the 1998 performance down to a slowdown in sales during the acquisition and integration of ICVerify. The shares closed down $1.9375, or 10.6% at $16.375.
