Ariba Inc, which went public last month, says blue chip buyers were behind its increase in revenue during the third quarter. The company saw revenue of $11.9m for the quarter, up from $2.5m in the same period last time. But losses rose to $11.3m, up from $3.0m last time. For the nine months, revenue was $28.2m, versus $3.7m last time, and losses were $19.4m. The figures include the amortization of stock-based compensation. Exluding that, net loss would have been $6.0m compared with $2.6m last time.
Ariba claimed to be cash positive during the quarter, but said it continued to invest heavily and therefore wouldn’t be reporting profits over the next few quarters. Staff went up from 220 to nearly 350 during the quarter. The company charges transactional and membership fees for its browser-based software, and operates its own business-to-business e-commerce network. It now has a 17,000 seat system in operation at Cisco Systems Inc. Four of its ORMS operational resource management system customers have gone live during the last 90 days, and the company struck up strategic relationships with maintenance, repair and operating supplies company Grainger Inc, and enterprise business software firm J D Edwards & Co, which will resell Ariba software into the mid- market.
Ariba’s IPO, held on June 23 was priced at $23, raising $121m in an offering of 5.7m shares. The stock opened at $61 on the first day of trading and closed at $90m. The stock hit a high of $121 before the results were released, but then began a steady decline, closing at $95.75 on Monday night.
