<B>TechTalk</B>
By Jay Campbell
<B>Strong Demand, Revenues</B>
Thanks in part to a strong early spring for the travel industry, publicly traded travel technology vendors enjoyed robust revenue growth and, for the most part, better-than-expected earnings during the three-month period ending March 31.
<B>Galileo</B>, <B>Pegasus Systems</B> and <B>Sabre</B> met or beat the profit expectations of Wall Street analysts who follow them. Meanwhile, newer players <B>Clarus Corp.</B> and <B>Extensity</B> posted lower-than-expected losses, while <B>Concur</B> reported a loss per share that was 12 percent deeper than analysts had anticipated. <B>GetThere.com</B> is scheduled to post results next week.
Galileo, which grew travel distribution revenues 9.4 percent over the prior March quarter, earned $71.2 million after accounting for one-time events--virtually flat compared with a year earlier but right on analysts' expectations on a per-share basis.
The company reported 6.2 percent lower U.S. air travel bookings as a result of a "slight" market share loss related to the transition of its sales force (<I>BTN,</I> June 7).
Sabre grew net earnings 2.6 percent year over year, to $75 million or about 5 percent higher than analysts anticipated. The company enjoyed 14.1 percent growth in travel distribution revenues and cited 350 percent higher bookings through <B>Sabre BTS</B>, which added 60 new customers during the quarter.
<B>Amadeus</B> reported 17 percent higher revenues and a profit of $48 million, up 54 percent. It said total bookings rose 5.4 percent.
All GDSs benefited from higher booking fees charged to suppliers, which Sabre pinned at 4.6 percent higher year-over-year, on average.
Pegasus reported 27.3 percent higher revenues of $10.7 million and net earnings of $3 million, or 14 cents per share. The per-share result was 17 percent higher than expected and 56 percent higher than what the company posted in the March 1999 quarter.
New customers acquired by expense providers Clarus, Concur and Extensity boosted revenues by 316 percent, 25 percent and 774 percent, respectively. Net losses totaled $6.7 million, $19.3 million and $7.8 million, respectively, but only Concur's results were worse than expected. All three companies spent more than twice as much on R&D than during the prior quarter. Extensity went public Jan 27.