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AUTONOMY CORPORATION PLC ANNOUNCES RESULTS FOR THE TWELVE MONTHS AND FOURTH QUARTER ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2009

Record Full Year and Q4 results with strong organic growth; Full Year EPS (adj.) up 42%; Highest revenues and profits in Autonomy's history; Full Year revenues up 47%; Full Year Profit from Operations (adj.) up 59%

Cambridge, England - February 3, 2010 - Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software, today reported financial results for the twelve months and fourth quarter ended December 31, 2009.

Financial Highlights

Record full year revenues of $740 million, up 47% from 2008 including strong organic growth of 16%¹, and the successful integration of Interwoven

Gross profits (adj.) at $652 million for full year, up 42% from 2008; gross margins (adj.) at 88%

Record full year operating margins (adj.) at 44%, compared to 41% in 2008

Record full year profit before tax (adj.) at $323 million, up 55% from 2008

Record full year fully diluted EPS (adj.) of $0.97 (versus consensus of $0.97), up 42% from 2008. Fully diluted EPS (IFRS) of $0.80 up 31% from 2008

Full year and Q4 2009 revenue, profits and cash conversion in line with analyst consensus

¹ See supplemental metrics on page 5.

Download the full PDF version of the Q4 2009 Report (PDF)

Commenting on the results, Dr. Mike Lynch, Group CEO of Autonomy said today: "We are pleased to announce another excellent set of results for Autonomy. Over the last five years, we have seen a five year adjusted EPS CAGR of 73% and Autonomy has grown to become one of Europe's largest software companies. Looking back on 2009, despite an economic environment that can be described at best as difficult, and an unhelpful FX headwind, Autonomy produced outstanding results with adjusted profit from operations growing by 59% at a time when most of our software peers have seen small or negative growth. We delivered this strong growth on top of an exceptionally strong performance in Q4 2008."

Dr. Lynch continued: "During 2009 Autonomy did a lot of work to prepare for a possible upturn in 2010, including significant new IDOL product developments, launches and expansion of our IDOL hosted capabilities. After this exceptional expenditure we are now seeing our cost base return to its traditional model with an operating margin of 50% in the fourth quarter. The driver for our business is the need for computers to understand and process human friendly information automatically. We believe this driver will continue to accelerate, and as customers find discretionary budgets again we expect to see good growth in the Meaning Based Marketing (‘Promote') applications of our technology alongside our resilient information governance (‘Protect') applications. On the larger theme of Meaning Based Computing, we have extended our technologies from the unstructured world to the structured, with validation of this endeavour with the first IDOL SPE customers signed and first showcase events."

"We continue to see our strongest growth in the new models of the software industry such as OEM and cloud computing. Whilst it may still take a little time for people to understand how these models differ from traditional software businesses, we believe the momentum in these areas is accelerating."

Dr. Lynch concluded: "We begin 2010 with the strongest Meaning Based Computing portfolio in the industry and an ever-expanding understanding in the market of the challenges associated with unstructured information. With our unmatched product portfolio, scale and vision, we look forward to the challenges to be presented in 2010 regardless of the environment. At the very end of Q4 2009 we began to see some indicators of an initial improvement in the macro environment, which gives us confidence in the outlook for 2010, and accordingly we are adjusting our business plan."

Twelve Month 2009 highlights

Cemented Autonomy's position as the industry leader, dominating enterprise search with the largest market share and fastest growth, and achieving top marks from Gartner for eDiscovery technology

Successful launch of IDOL SPE, Arcpliance, ICE, IDOL Social Media and Interwoven product range built on IDOL

Winner of industry accolades, including: Her Majesty the Queen's Award for Enterprise 2009 and Britain's Most Admired Software Company Award 2009

Acknowledged as the leader in cloud computing and the hottest enterprise software company

66 deals over $1 million and 47 new OEM agreements signed during 2009

Record net profit (adj.) of $232.8 million, up 57% from 2008 (IFRS: $191.6 million, up 45%)

R&D investment up 26% year-on-year

Very strong cash collection from customers; cash collection at 102% of revenues Q4123

One of the highest revenue to cash conversion ratios in the industry

Cash conversion for 2009 at 80%, 91% when lagged by to allow one quarter for the cash to be collected and 99% when adjusting for lagging by one quarter and paying down of the acquired Interwoven trade debt

Positive cash flow generated by operations of $286.6 million (2008: $178.8 million), up 60%

Gross cash of $242.8 million with debt of $197.5 million, giving net cash of $45.3 million.

Fourth quarter 2009 Highlights

Blue chip fourth quarter wins include: American Airlines, Amgen, AT&T, BAE Systems, Boeing, Charles Schwab, Citi, Ericsson, KPMG, McAfee, Merck, Peugeot Citroen, Qatar Airways, Santander, Whirlpool and Wolters Kluwer, as well as new and repeat licenses with multiple government, defence and intelligence agencies around the globe including in the US, the UK, NATO, Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden

12 OEM deals signed including new deals and extensions with McAfee, HP, Trend Micro and Sybase

Strong organic growth of 18% from Q4 2008

Record quarterly revenue of $223.1 million, up 53% from Q4 2008

Gross margin (adj.) back in targeted range at 89%

Record profit before tax (adj.) of $111.0 million, up 51% from Q4 2008 (IFRS: $96 million, up 36%)

Operating margin (adj.) returns to record highs of 50% (Q4 2008: 50%), confirming one-time nature of IDOL SPE investment in Q3 2009

Fully diluted EPS (adj.) of $0.33, up 35% from 2008 (IFRS: $0.29, up 21%)

Record cash collection of $216.0 million generated from Q3 2009 revenues of $191.6 million; positive cash flow generated by operations of $72.2 million (Q4 2008: $58.0 million), up 25%

Cash conversion at forecast levels of 58% (Q4 CFFO/Q4 adj EBITDA), reflecting the fact that the Q4 2009 cash flow generated by seasonally weaker Q3 2009 business is divided by the seasonally stronger Q4 2009 EBITDA, and payment of Q3 2009 exceptional payables of $24 million relating to new product launch (adjusting for this: 78%). Cash conversion is 97% (Q4 CFFO/Q3 adj EBITDA) when lagged by one quarter to reflect growth

Average selling price for meaning-based technologies at $390,000 (Q4 2008: $400,000)

Deferred revenue increased to $173.5 million (Q4 2008: $99.2 million)

DSOs back in normal range at 88 days (Q4 2008: 84 days) due to strong cash collection during the quarter

Cost base returned to traditional model after Q3 2009 product launch costs, with fixed cost base modulated by seasonal marketing spend and revenue-tracking sales commissions

Twelve Month and Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights

Revenues

Revenues for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, totalled $739.7 million, up 47% from $503.2 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. During 2009 there were 66 deals over $1.0 million. In 2009, Americas revenues of $517.2 million represented 70% of total revenues, and Rest of World revenues of $222.5 million represented 30% of total revenues.

Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009 totalled $223.1 million, up 53% from $145.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2008. During the fourth quarter of 2009 there were 24 deals over $1.0 million. In the fourth quarter of 2009, Americas revenues of $162.3 million represented 73% of total revenues, and Rest of World revenues of $60.8 million represented 27% of total revenues.

The increase in revenues in the year and the fourth quarter is a combination of strong organic growth and the successful integration of Interwoven.

Gross Profits and Gross Margins

Gross profits (adj.) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, were $651.9 million, up 42% from $458.2 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. Gross margins (adj.) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, were 88%, compared to 91% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. Gross profits (IFRS) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009 were $602.3 million, up 37% from $438.7 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. Gross margins (IFRS) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009 were 81%, compared to 87% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. Gross margins were impacted at the beginning of 2009 as a result of the Interwoven acquisition, and in Q3 2009 by the IDOL SPE Quick Start program, but have returned to historic levels in Q4 2009 as planned.

Gross profits (adj.) for the fourth quarter of 2009 were $199.4 million, up 50% from $133.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2008. Gross margins (adj.) for the fourth quarter of 2009 were 89%, compared to 92% for the fourth quarter of 2008. As previously announced, the one-time additional costs in Q3 2009 from the IDOL SPE Quick Start program were not repeated in Q4. Gross profits (IFRS) for the fourth quarter of 2009 were $184.8 million, up 44% from $128.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2008. Gross margins (IFRS) for the fourth quarter of 2009 were 83%, compared to 89% for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Profit from Operations and Operating Margins

Profit from operations (adj.) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009 was $328.9 million, up 59% from $207.5 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. Operating margins (adj.) were 44% in 2009, up from 41% in 2008. Profit from operations (IFRS) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009 was $272.2 million, up 46% from $186.5 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. Operating margins (IFRS) were 37% in 2009 consistent with 37% in 2008. Operating margins (adj.) have increased year on year due to the increased revenues and the operating leverage within the Autonomy business model. Operating margins (IFRS) are static due to higher non-cash charges related to the purchased intangibles acquired with Interwoven.

Profit from operations (adj.) for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $112.6 million, up 55% from $72.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2008. Operating margins (adj.) were 50% in the fourth quarter of 2009, consistent with 50% in the fourth quarter of 2008. Profit from operations (IFRS) for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $96.9 million, up 37% from $70.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2008. Operating margins (IFRS) were 43% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to 49% in the fourth quarter of 2008. Operating margins (adj.) have returned to record highs of 50% following the completion of the IDOL SPE quick start spend in Q3 2009. Operating margins (IFRS) have decreased due to the higher non-cash amortization of purchased intangibles.

Taxation

The effective tax rate for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, was as forecast at 28.0%, down from 29.1% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. The decrease from 2008 is a combination of the full year impact of the change in the UK corporation tax rate from 30% to 28% combined with the standard utilisation of losses during 2009.

The effective tax rate in the fourth quarter of 2009 was 27.5%, up from 27.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Foreign Exchange Impact

The effect on revenue of movements in foreign exchange rates in the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, was a decrease of $7.9 million compared to 2008 (i.e. if revenues were reported for each quarter using the same exchange rates as those prevailing in the previous year, revenues in 2009 would have been $7.9 million higher, or $747.6 million). In 2009 the U.S. Dollar strengthened versus Sterling to an average of $1.57 versus $1.86 in 2008.

The effect on revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009 of movements in foreign exchange rates was an increase of $1.2 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. In the fourth quarter of 2009 the U.S. Dollar weakened slightly versus Sterling to an average of $1.63 versus $1.58 in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Net Profits

Net profit (adj.) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, was $232.8 million, or $0.97 per diluted share, compared to net profit (adj.) of $148.0 million, or $0.68 per diluted share, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008. Net profit (IFRS) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, was $191.6 million, or $0.80 per diluted share, compared to net profit (IFRS) of $131.7 million, or $0.61 per diluted share, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2008.

Net profit (adj.) for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $80.5 million, or $0.33 per diluted share, compared to net profit (adj.) of $53.5 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2008. Net profit (IFRS) for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $69.4 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, compared to net profit (IFRS) of $51.4 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2008.

IAS 38 Charges and Capitalization

Under IAS 38 the company is required to capitalize certain aspects of its research and development activities. R&D capitalization for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, was $24.7 million (2008: $11.2 million), offset by amortization charges of $8.9 million (2008: $4.8 million) during the year arising from historical R&D capitalization. The capitalization and offsetting charges resulted in a net credit (before tax) in the year of $15.8 million (2008: $6.4 million). R&D capitalization increased in the year primarily due to the new IDOL SPE product reaching commercial exploitation phase in Q3 2009, but returned to historical levels in Q4 2009. The net margin impact for the full year is 2% (2008: 1%).

R&D capitalization in the fourth quarter of 2009 was $5.6 million (Q4 2008: $2.4 million). Capitalization has returned to traditional levels of approximately 2.5% of revenues after completion of IDOL SPE in Q3 2009. Q4 2009 R&D capitalization is offset by amortization charges of $3.2 million (Q4 2008: $1.5 million) arising from historical R&D capitalization. The capitalization and offsetting charges resulted in a net credit (before tax) in the quarter of $2.4 million (Q4 2008: $0.9 million), and a net margin impact of 1% (Q4 2008: 1%).

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

Cash balances were $242.8 million at December 31, 2009, an increase of $43.6 million from $199.2 million at December 31, 2008 (prior to the Interwoven acquisition). Movements in cash flow during 2009 of note (other than those discussed above) included:

Acquisition of Interwoven Inc for an aggregate consideration of approximately $800 million funded by an underwritten placing of ordinary shares, a new revolving credit facility from Barclays and a portion of Interwoven and Autonomy's cash reserves;

Early repayment of the Interwoven credit facility of $37.5 million;

Expenditure on product development, resulting in a cash outflow of $24.7 million (2008: $11.2 million). The increase in R&D spend in 2009 is attributed to new R&D efforts associated with the acquisition of Interwoven and the one-off spend in relation to the development of new products;

One-off costs incurred at the end of Q3 2009 relating to the new IDOL SPE product, which were paid in full in Q4 2009; and

Whilst there were no acquisitions in the quarter, Autonomy invested $4.3 million in a public offering of shares by blinkx plc.

Trade receivables at December 31, 2009, were $230.2 million, compared to $141.3 million at December 31, 2008. Accounts receivable days sales outstanding were 88 days at December 31, 2009, compared to 84 days at December 31, 2008 and 97 days at September 30, 2009. As forecast, DSOs returned to the company's normal range of 85-90 days after one-off factors that impacted Q3 2009. Deferred revenues were $173.5 million at December 31, 2009, compared with $99.2 million at December 31, 2008. Despite the difficult economic climate, bad debt write off in the year was less than 1% of revenues.

Accrued income at December 31, 2009 was not material, at under 5% of revenues.

Supplemental Metrics

Autonomy is supplying supplemental metrics to assist in the understanding and analysis of Autonomy's business.

Twelve Months Ended Dec. 31, 2009
Organic Growth*	16%¹
Cash conversion (LTM CFFO/LTM adj EBITDA**)	80%
Cash conversion (lagged to account for growth and seasonality of the business)	91%
Cash conversion (lagged to account for growth and seasonality of the business and acquired Interwoven trade debt)	99%
Cash conversion as a percentage of the theoretical maximum (87%)	91%

Three Months Ended Dec. 31, 2009
Product including hosted and OEM*	$153m
Service revenues*	$9m
Deferred revenue release (primarily maintenance)*	$61m
OEM derived revenues*	$27m
Organic Growth*	18%¹
Deals over $1 million	24
Tax rate	28%
Available tax losses*	$218m
Cash conversion (Q4 CFFO/Q4 adj EBITDA**)	58%
Cash conversion (lagged to account for growth and seasonality of the business)	97%

LTM revenue with terms >365 days in normal range (<2% of revenues)
Accrued income in normal range (<5% of revenues)

* The above items are provided for background information and may include qualitative estimates.

** Adj EBITDA is defined as operating cash flow before movements in working capital.

¹ The company integrates acquired businesses immediately upon acquisition such that it is not possible to identify results from acquired businesses separately from the results of the group. In order to estimate organic growth the company has combined the reported results for Autonomy and Interwoven for 2008, adjusted for $66m in FY2008 and $19m in Q4 2008 of discontinued operations, and then compared this to the reported results for the enlarged group in 2009.

Q4 Product Sales

During the fourth quarter of 2009, major customer wins included: American Airlines, Amgen, AT&T, BAE Systems, Boeing, Charles Schwab, Citi, Ericsson, KPMG, McAfee, Merck, Peugeot Citroen, Qatar Airways, Santander, Whirlpool and Wolters Kluwer, as well as new and repeat licenses with multiple government, defence and intelligence agencies around the globe including in the US, the UK, NATO, Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden. Repeat business from existing customers accounted for approximately 45% of revenue for the quarter.

Strategic Partnerships and OEMs

Autonomy's OEM Program continued to grow strongly during Q4 2009. Agreements were signed with 12 customers during the quarter, including new and extended agreements with McAfee, HP, Trend Micro and Sybase.

Q4 Corporate Developments

During the fourth quarter of 2009 Autonomy continued to extend its market leadership with the introduction of key new and upgraded IDOL technologies, including the launches of:

Industry's first Collection to the Cloud service for eDiscovery and compliance;

New archiving appliance for organizations seeking a simplified yet scalable solution to regulatory challenges;

New capabilities in Autonomy iManage to cater for updated Federal Data Privacy requirements under the HIPAA; and

Autonomy Records Management solutions achieved renewed US DoD 5015.2 certification.

During the fourth quarter Autonomy was recognised in multiple ways for its market leadership and unmatched technology, including being:

Awarded the highest possible rating in the December 2009 Gartner MarketScope for eDiscovery;

Named "Technology Provider of the Year" at the British Legal Awards 2009;

Lauded as the "Biggest Contribution to Business Technology" at the UK IT Industry Awards 2009; and

Voted Britain's most admired Software Company, BMAC 2009.

Scheduling of Conference Call and Further Information

Autonomy's results conference call will be available live at www.autonomy.com on February 3, 2010, at 9:00 a.m. GMT/4:00 a.m. EST/1:00 a.m. PST.

From time to time the company answers investors' questions on its website which may include information supplemental to that set forth above. Questions and answers can be found at: www.autonomy.com/investors/questions.

About Autonomy Corporation plc

Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, spearheads the Meaning Based Computing movement. IDC recently recognized Autonomy as having the largest market share and fastest growth in the worldwide search and discovery market. Autonomy's technology allows computers to harness the full richness of human information, forming a conceptual and contextual understanding of any piece of electronic data, including unstructured information, such as text, email, web pages, voice, or video. Autonomy's software powers the full spectrum of mission-critical enterprise applications including pan-enterprise search, customer interaction solutions, information governance, end-to-end eDiscovery, records management, archiving, business process management, web content management, web optimization, rich media management and video and audio analysis.

Autonomy's customer base is comprised of more than 20,000 global companies, law firms and federal agencies including: AOL, BAE Systems, BBC, Bloomberg, Boeing, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Daimler AG, Deutsche Bank, DLA Piper, Ericsson, FedEx, Ford, GlaxoSmithKline, Lloyds Banking Group, NASA, Nestlé, the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters, Shell, Tesco, T-Mobile, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. More than 400 companies OEM Autonomy technology, including Symantec, Citrix, HP, Novell, Oracle, Sybase and TIBCO. The company has offices worldwide. Please visit www.autonomy.com to find out more.

Autonomy and the Autonomy logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autonomy Corporation plc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Financial Media Contacts:	Analyst and Investor Contacts:
Edward Bridges / Haya Chelhot Financial Dynamics +44 (0)20 7831 3113	Marc Geall, Head of IR and Corporate Strategy Autonomy Corporation plc +44 (0)1223 448 000

Download the full PDF version of the Q4 2009 Report (PDF)