News

AUTONOMY CORPORATION PLC ANNOUNCES RECORD RESULTS FOR THE YEAR AND FOURTH QUARTER ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2000

Quarterly Revenues and Gross Profits Increase 198% and 213%, Respectively, Versus Q499 Gross Margins Increase to 96% Fourth Quarter Adjusted EPS is $0.04 per diluted share+

Autonomy's fourth quarter conference call will be available live on the World Wide Web at www.autonomy.com at 3:00PM GMT/10:00AM EST/7:00 AM PST.

SAN FRANCISCO, California and CAMBRIDGE, England - February 15, 2001 - Autonomy Corporation plc (NASDAQ: AUTN, LSE: AU., EASDAQ: AUTN), a global leader in infrastructure software for the Web and the enterprise, today reported record financial results for the year and the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2000.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

	Three Months Ended			Twelve Months Ended
	Dec. 31,	Sept. 30,	Dec. 31,	Dec. 31,	Dec. 31,
Results in US$	2000	2000	1999	2000	1999
($000's except per share)
Revenue	$21,461	$17,635	$7,197	$65,422	$21,982
Gross profit	20,671	16,724	6,600	61,547	19,178
Gross margin	96%	95%	92%	94%	87%
Adjusted net income (loss)+	$5,937	$5,024	$(1,571)	$13,343	$(5,296)
Adjusted earnings (loss) per share*
- basic +	$0.05	$0.04	$(0.01)	$0.11	$(0.04)
- diluted +	$0.04	$0.04	$(0.01)	$0.10	$(0.04)

Notes to European editors: adjusted profit before tax for the fourth quarter 2000 was $7,964,000.

* All share information reflects a 3-for-1 stock split effective as of August 1, 2000.

+ Excludes for the three and twelve months ended September 30, 2000 and December 31, 2000, expenses associated with listing Autonomy's ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange, and for all periods translational foreign exchange gains and losses and associated tax effects.

Significant Fourth Quarter Corporate Highlights

Revenue growth remains strong, up 22% sequentially and increasing 198% year-over-year
Average contract size during the quarter increases 34% sequentially to $437,000
Ongoing OEM royalties up 84% at $448,000 from the third quarter of $244,000
Margins remain high for the fourth quarter - gross profit margins increase to 96% from 95% in Q3 and operating margins remain strong at 28%
U.S. represents 44% of revenue for the fourth quarter
OEM channel strategy ahead of corporate expectations with new, high profile relationships signed in the fourth quarter of 2000, including Business Objects, E.piphany, Appropria, Portal Wave and iManage. Other OEM customers signed during the year include Sybase, Vignette, Novient, Evolve and Brio.
Continued growth of blue chip client base throughout the year, including significant Q4 customers such as, ABN Amro, Royal SunAlliance, Philips, Fireman's Fund, Hill & Knowlton, Qwest Communications, United States Department of Energy, Nestle UK Ltd and Blue Martini
Autonomy's Voice Suite delivered in the first commercial setting at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
Successful listing on the London Stock Exchange (November 2000)
Balance sheet remains strong with $137 million in cash at year end
Autonomy today announces a major new technology component that creates an intelligent XML environment, see separate release

Chief Executive Officer's Review

"During 2000, Autonomy successfully established itself as the standard in providing the fundamental infrastructure for automating the management and delivery of unstructured information. With more than 425 customers, ranging from major governments to many of the leading Fortune 500 companies, Autonomy's blue chip client list is global, diversified and growing. Specifically, during the fourth quarter we signed agreements with industry leaders including Philips, Sonera, Royal & SunAlliance, Fireman's Fund and General Electric. We also continued to execute on our indirect sales strategy by signing agreements with OEM and reseller partners including IBM Global Services, SAIC, Logicon, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Triple P, Business Objects, iManage and Portal Wave.

"At the heart of our success is the value proposition we bring to our clients. We enable enterprises to operate more efficiently, while providing our OEM and indirect channel partners with a solution to a fundamental problem - making sense and use of unstructured information. Further, the applicability of our technology continues to grow, as evidenced by the successful fourth quarter launch of Commerce Application Builder, which provides a technology solution addressing the management of e-commerce content, our announcement of peer-to-peer implementation of our technology, the first commercial deployment of our voice technology and the fact that we now support both WAP protocol and NTT DoCoMo i-Mode."

"Perhaps most importantly, our fourth quarter and year-end results highlight our profitable and scalable business model. Marked by consistently high gross margins and increasing profitability, top-line revenues increased three-fold in 2000, fueled by growth in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, while total headcount increased by only 37% to 179. In addition, while still early in its growth curve, our OEM royalty revenues continue to grow, providing a recurring high-margin revenue stream, which further enhanced our profitability. Finally, our balance sheet is strong, with over $137 million in cash at year-end, which leaves us well-placed to expand upon our leadership position and to penetrate new and existing markets worldwide."

Download the full report in Adobe Acrobat PDF format

Financial Media Contacts:	Analyst and Investor Contacts:
Kris Marubio, Director of Public Relations Autonomy Corporation plc 415-350-7339 Ann Travers Brainerd Communicators, Inc. 212-986-6667 917-687-6263 (mobile) Edward Bridges/Alastair Hetherington Financial Dynamics (44) 020 7831 3113	Ralph Harms, Chief Financial Officer Autonomy Corporation plc 415-243-9955 John Buckley Brainerd Communicators, Inc. 212-986-6667 917-543-3622 (mobile)