Bottomline reports $2m loss

Portsmouth-based Bottomline Technologies posted a net loss of more than $2 million, or 9 cents a diluted share, in the quarter ending Dec. 31.

The quarterly loss brings the total loss for the first half of the firm’s fiscal year to $3.6 million (15 cents a diluted share), according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The losses came despite revenues of $29.6 million for the quarter — a $3.5 million increase over the same quarter of the previous year, and $54.9 million for the first half, a $4.1 million increase.

Some $3.9 million in stock-based compensation over the half-year ($500,000 more than the previous year) accounted for some of the loss, but it also had to do with weaker sales from the company’s traditional software licenses, and the expense involved in shifting from sales to providing on site financial services.

The company also had to pay out various restructuring costs from the acquisition of Formscape, a British software financial solutions firm. The company paid $1.4 million in severance and facility exit cost as a result of the acquisitions, and expects to pay $860,000 more.

Altogether, total operating expenses for the quarter increased to $20 million, more than $6 million than the same quarter the previous year.

With the filing the company also released agreements on the salaries of its top executives. Former CEO Joseph Mullen, who is expected to take over as board chairman in May, would receive $300,000 a year until November, and $150,000 a year until November 2008. Earle, who took over as CEO last November, will receive $310,000, plus a potential bonus equal to that figure, and Chief Operating Officer Peter Fortune will be paid $161,700 for his base salary with a potential bonus of $280,000.

The agreements don’t detail any stock based compensation, except in the even of a change in control or termination. – BOB SANDERS