News

ACI parent wants to put 'trying time' behind it with restated earnings

February 16, 2003

OMAHA, Neb. -- Transaction Systems Architects of Omaha, parent of ACI Worldwide, on Feb. 13 reported that first-quarter 2003 profits rose 24 percent to $3 million, compared with restated profits of $2.42 million a year earlier. Per share, profits increased a penny to 8 cents.

The company a month ago restated financial results going back to 1998. 

Revenue for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 fell 15 percent, from a restated figure of $73.24 million to $62.49 million. Most of the decline, $9.5 million, was in software license fees; $1.1 million was in services revenue.

License fees were at issue in the restatement, according to a report in the Omaha World-Herald. The company in August said it was examining its longstanding practice of booking revenue from software licensing when agreements were made, even though the fees were collected in installments over several years. The licenses in question were sold in 1999.

The restatement released Jan. 14 had the effect of pushing revenue from earlier periods into later ones. With the restatement, the company reported lower revenues for 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Greg Derkacht, president and chief executive, talked in a conference call on Feb. 13 of putting the "busy and trying time" behind his company. "The future is now our main focus," he told analysts and investors.

The earnings report, however, repeated a caution issued with the restatement, that the company probably will be the subject of an inquiry or an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC has made informal contact with Transaction Systems, the company said, but has not given notice of either a formal inquiry or an investigation.

Following the Feb. 13 report, Transaction Systems' stock rose 73 cents to close at $5.93 a share. Its 52-week high was $12.20 on April 17; its low was $5 on Oct. 10.