Internet commerce software developer Open Market, Inc. announced net revenues of $15.2 million and a net loss of $5.8 million for the first quarter of 1998.
Net losses equaled $5.8 million or $0.18 per share, compared to a net loss
of $41.1 million or $1.39 per share for the same period of 1997. While losses were considerably lower, Q1 revenue was up around $4 million from $11.4 million for the first quarter of 1997.
The Burlington, MA-based company, founded in 1994, blamed lower than
expected earnings on contractual difficulties.
“We fell somewhat short of our revenue target because two significant software contracts were delayed beyond quarter end,” said Gary Eichhorn, president and CEO of Open Market. “I am pleased to report that the largest of these contracts is now signed and will be accounted for in Q2. Revenues for the quarter grew approximately 33% from the same period last year.”
The company provides business-to-consumer and business-to-business
Internet commerce, information commerce, and commercial publishing services.
In an earnings statement, Open Market cited the award of three e-commerce patents as first quarter operating highlights:
- The Payment Patent that’s designed to enable secure, real-time payment using credit and debit cards over the Internet.
- The Network Sales Patent that addresses the use of “electronic shopping carts” and the passing of payment and purchase information through a URL.
- The Session Identifier Patent which is designed to analyze how users browse through content on a Web site.
New clients of the company include Swisscom, Harcourt Brace, Property Loss
Research Bureau/Liability Insurance Research Bureau, BusinessWeek Online,
ClubComputer.com, and PLATINUM technology.
In addition, Open Market announced on April 8 a strategic relationship with Sun Microsystems under which the company will port its LiveCommerce catalog software to the Sun Solaris operating environment.