Autonomy beats forecasts as it plans to spin off its Aurasma unit
AUTONOMY beat market forecasts yesterday to deliver a 16 per cent jump in quarterly sales, sending its shares up more than four per cent.
Its pre-tax profits hit £125m, ahead of a consensus target of £117m.
A strong performance in its high-margin cloud computing arm was the main driver, with revenues rising 37 per cent to £39m.
Chief executive Mike Lynch told City A.M. he expects the momentum to continue as the cloud becomes an increasingly important part of the Autonomy business.
Lynch also said the firm will spin off its Aurasma augmented reality division by the end of the year, with Autonomy investors being given shares in the new company.
This follows the model Autonomy applied to video search engine Blinkx, which was spun off from Autonomy in 2007.
The company also said the acquisition of Iron Mountain will produce synergies greater than the £25m first announced, with the benefits coming faster than previously expected.