When the best thing a company can find to say about its earnings is that they were solid it’s a sure sign that things are not going all that well and so it proved yesterday with Open Market Inc. Although the internet commerce software company said it beat its own fourth quarter estimates, fourth quarter revenues fell year-on-year. However, the company seems to be on the way back as it is at least an improvement from the third quarter and this week it signed a significant new deal with Lycos Inc (02/04/99). The Burlington, Massachusetts-based company reported fourth quarter net losses of $6.4m, after a $2.0m restructuring charge, up from $3.0m losses last time on revenues that fell 14% to $16.1m. During the quarter the company laid off 14% of its staff and took the charge accordingly. However, it also secured a number of significant new customers during the three months, including America Online Inc, Cablevision and KPN Telecom and introduced version 2.0 if its Live Commerce catalog and marketing software. For the year Open market recorded net losses of $34.9m, including the same charge, down from $58.0m losses in 1997, on revenues that rose just 1.4% to $62.1m. Cash and equivalents stood at $36.4m at the year end.
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