News

ACI parent increases earnings estimate for '04

July 29, 2004

OMAHA, Neb. - Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSAI), the parent company of ACI Worldwide, said that net income for the third quarter was $18.7 million, or 49 cents per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $1.9 million, or 5 cents per diluted share, in 2003's third quarter.

Revenue for the latest quarter was $72.5 million, a decrease of two percent over the same quarter last year.

For 2004's third quarter, revenues were comprised of software license fees of $37.5 million, maintenance fees of $23.1 million and services fees of $11.9 million.

For the nine months ended June 30, revenue totaled $223.1 million, compared to $205.5 million for the same nine-month period in fiscal 2003, an increase of 9 percent.

Net income for the nine months ended June 30, 2004 was $36.7 million, or 97 cents per diluted share, compared to $5.2 million, or 15 cents per diluted share, an increase of 604 percent for the same nine-month period in fiscal 2003.

Operating income for the most recent nine months was $42.5 million compared to $23.4 million, which included a goodwill impairment charge of $9.3 million, a year earlier.

During the quarter, the company added 13 new customers, including seven new customers of ACI Worldwide, its largest business unit.  Solutions licensed to these customers included BASE24, BASE24-es, WINPAY24, and ACI Proactive Risk Manager. ACI  also licensed capacity upgrades to 13 customers and licensed seven new applications to existing customers during the quarter.

The company has revised its revenue estimate for fiscal 2004 from a range of $282 million to $292 million to a range of $291 million to $296 million. The company has also revised its EPS estimate from 74 cents to 83 cents to $1.10 to $1.17, which includes a 28-cent net one-time tax benefit.