VIENNA, Va., Dec. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Convera Corporation (Nasdaq: CNVR) - www.convera.com - a leading provider of vertical search services for publishers, today announced financial results for the three-month period ended October 31, 2008.

Revenue from continuing operations for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 decreased to $239,000 or 8% from $259,000 in revenue recorded in the third quarter of last year and decreased $230,000 or 49% from $469,000 of revenue recognized in second quarter ended July 31, 2008.

The decline in revenue is due to a contractual dispute with a significant customer. Revenues from providing services to this significant customer for the three months ended October 31, 2007 included $234,000 of minimum revenues and $270,000 of minimum revenues for the three months ended July 31, 2008. As a consequence of this dispute, we recorded no revenue from the customer during the three months ended October 31, 2008. We will not recognize any additional revenue with this customer until the dispute is resolved. We continue to provide them service and both parties are working to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.

Search traffic activity from the Excalibur supported vertical sites continued to grow due to our audience development efforts, increasing 17% from 30.8 million searches in the second quarter to over 36 million searches in the third quarter ended October 31, 2008.

As of today, a total of 82 Excalibur supported vertical search sites are under contract with customers, 47 of these sites have been commercially launched and 35 sites are in development. These contracted sites represent publications in over 24 major vertical industries.

On December 9, 2008 we launched the beta version Converanet (www.converanet.com), an online search directory portal that contains all the search engines we have developed for our customers in a single website. Converanet is designed to help drive traffic and advertising revenue for our customers. In addition, Converanet is generating Ad revenue through the Microsoft Ad Center contract that we signed in September 2008. Under this contract, Convera directly earns revenue from Microsoft provided paid search ads to Converanet and other Convera owned sites.

We continue to make progress in building search traffic and page views for our customers. President and CEO of Convera, Pat Condo, stated, " Now, with the launch of Converanet, and having the Microsoft ad network partnership, we offer the B2B community two new programs to increase traffic and advertising revenue while offering Convera the additional opportunity to earn advertising sales, including direct sales when ads are sold on Converanet."

The loss from continuing operations for the three-month period ended October 31, 2008, was $6.0 million, or $0.11 per share, (which includes $ 2.0 million in depreciation and stock compensation expenses which are non cash expenses) compared to a loss of $5.9 million, or $0.11 per share, (which includes $1.3 million in depreciation and stock compensation which are non cash expenses) for the comparable year-ago period and a loss of $3.6 million (which includes $1.1 million in depreciation and stock compensation which are non cash expenses, offset by $0.7 million in other income from the recognition of previously deferred revenue that was collected in a prior period) for the three months ended July 31, 2008.

The loss from continuing operations for the three months ended October 31, 2008 reflects lower revenue growth as discussed above and reduced expense levels when compared to the prior year. The reduced expense levels result from the reduction in staffing levels and Convera's continuing efforts to discontinue non-strategic activities.

With the launch of Converanet and our self service operation, we reduced the cost structure of our sales, marketing and customer service groups in November 2008. The Company will record a severance charge for the nine people terminated in this action of approximately $400,000 during the fourth quarter ended January 31, 2009. We expect this move to reduce our annual expense base by $2.5 million while having no significant impact on our ability to serve our customers effectively.

The results for the three months and nine months ended October 31, 2007 include the $17.5 million net gain from the sale of the RetrievalWare enterprise search business which was completed in August 2007. The net gain from the sale of the RetrievalWare business was reported as a component of discontinued operations.

Net loss for the three months ended October 31, 2008 was $6.0 million or $0.11 per share, which compares to a net income of $11.7 million or $0.22 per share, for the comparable period of the prior year.

Cash and investments as of October 31, 2008, totaled $26.8 million.

The attached financial information compares the results of operations for the three months and nine months ended October 31, 2008, to the same period in 2007, and the balance sheets as of October 31, 2008 and January 31, 2008.





    The condensed, consolidated statements of operations for the Company for
the three months ended October 31, 2008 and 2007 appear below and are
presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the
United States. All amounts, except per share amounts, are expressed in
thousands of U.S. dollars.


                                                      Three Months Ended
                                                           October 31,
                                                     2008               2007
    Continuing Operations:                        (unaudited)      (unaudited)
      Revenues:
      Hosted services                                 $239              $259

      Operating Expenses:
      Cost of revenue - hosted services              1,892             2,457
      Sales and marketing                              911               772
      Research and product development               1,216             1,140
      General and administrative                     2,288             2,239
      Total Expense                                  6,307             6,608

      Operating loss                                (6,068)           (6,349)

      Other income , net                                98               482

      Net (loss) from continuing
       operations                                  $(5,970)          $(5,867)

    Discontinued Operations:

      Loss from discontinued operations                -                (240)
      Gain from sale of discontinued
       RetrievalWare operations                        -              17,759

      Income from discontinued operations              -              17,519

      Net income (loss)                            $(5,970)          $11,652

      Earnings(loss) per share - basic &
       diluted
      Continuing operations                         $(0.11)           $(0.11)
      Discontinued operations                          -                0.33
                                                    $(0.11)            $0.22

      Weighted average number of common
         shares outstanding - basic and
          diluted                                   53,327            53,218



    The condensed, consolidated statements of operations for the Company for
the nine months ended October 31, 2008 and 2007 appear below and are presented
in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United
States. All amounts, except per share amounts, are expressed in thousands of
U.S. dollars.


                                         Nine Months Ended
                                            October 31,
                                           2008       2007
                                       (unaudited) (unaudited)
    Continuing Operations:
      Revenues:
      Hosted services                     $1,110      $838

      Operating Expenses:
      Cost of revenue - hosted services    5,573     6,461
      Sales and marketing                  2,560     2,984
      Research and product development     3,509     3,335
      General and administrative           5,712     9,153
      Total Expense                       17,354    21,933

      Operating loss                     (16,244)  (21,095)

      Other income , net                   1,222     1,451

      Net (loss) from continuing
       operations                       $(15,022) $(19,644)

    Discontinued Operations:
      Loss from discontinued operations      -        (221)
      Gain from sale of discontinued
       RetrievalWare operations              -      17,759

      Income from discontinued
       operations                            -      17,538

      Net Loss                          $(15,022)  $(2,106)

      Earnings(loss) per share - basic
       & diluted
      Continuing operations               $(0.28)   $(0.37)
      Discontinued operations                -        0.33
                                          $(0.28)   $(0.04)

      Weighted average number of common
         shares outstanding - basic and
         diluted                          53,320    53,101

The condensed, consolidated Balance Sheets for the Company as of October 31, 2008, and January 31, 2008, appear below and are presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. All amounts are expressed in thousands of U.S. dollars




                                           October 31, 2008   January 31, 2008
    Assets                                      (Unaudited)

    Current Assets:
        Cash and cash equivalents                  $26,817           $36,641
        Accounts receivable, net                       484               182
        Escrow, Prepaid expenses and other             857             4,002
          Total current assets                      28,158            40,825

    Equipment and leasehold improvements, net        3,767             4,913
    Other assets                                       598               629
          Total assets                             $32,523           $46,367

    Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity
    Current Liabilities:
        Accounts payable                              $604              $699
        Accrued expenses                             1,793             2,282
        Deferred revenues                               61               651
          Total Liabilities                          2,458             3,632


    Shareholders' Equity                            30,065            42,735

            Total liabilities and
             shareholders' equity                  $32,523           $46,367

About Convera(R)

Convera is the leading provider of vertical search services for publishers. Convera enables publishers to generate additional revenue by creating customized search applications for specialist audiences under their own brand.

Convera vertical search applications can combine publisher proprietary content with an editorially vetted best of the Web for specific professional audiences, providing an authoritative and comprehensive search experience. Many of the world's largest publishers are working with Convera to accelerate their e-publishing strategies, meet growing online revenue goals and build loyal online professional communities.

This release, including any statements from Convera personnel, contains statements about Convera's future expectations, performance, plans, and prospects, as well as assumptions about future events. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including without limitation, business and economic conditions and trends; the ability to continue funding operating losses; fluctuations in operating results including impacts from reduced corporate IT spending and lengthier sales cycles; continued success in technological advances and development; possible disruption in commercial activities caused by terrorist activity and armed conflict, such as changes in logistics and security arrangements; reduced customer demand relative to expectations; competitive factors; and other risk factors listed from time to time in the company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from our expectations as the result of these and other important factors relating to Convera's business and product development efforts, which are further described in Convera's filings with the SEC. These filings can be obtained from the SEC's website located at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statements are based on information available to Convera on the date of this release, and Convera assumes no obligation to update such statements. Convera(R) and the Convera design logo are trademarks of Convera in the United States and other countries.

SOURCE Convera Corporation