10 February 2016

WANdisco plc

2015 year-end update

Big Data and ALM contract wins

Reduced cost base

WANdisco (LSE: WAND), the leading provider of non-stop Big Data, provides an update on trading and operations for the year ended 31 December 2015.

• Big Data and ALM contract wins
• 2015 revenue is expected to be slightly below analysts' expectations
• Further cost reductions in the second half are expected to result in a full-year adjusted EBITDA loss better than analysts' expectations
• Reduced net cash consumption in the second half
• $10m credit facility remains undrawn 

Revenue for the year ended 31 December 2015 is expected to be slightly below analysts' expectations. Despite new sales bookings continuing to show variability, revenue benefitted from deferred revenue released from prior period bookings, many of them multi-year contracts.

Cost control continued to be strong and as a result cash overheads were, as expected, lower in the second half than in the first half. The ongoing benefits of this, coupled with additional cost actions taken so far this year, will result in a significantly reduced cost base for 2016.

Adjusted EBITDA loss is expected to be less than analysts' expectations, a result of the solid revenue result and the progressive cost reductions achieved during the year. 

Big Data

The volume of contract wins secured in the first half was maintained in the second half. Contract wins, as indicated in previous announcements, continue to exhibit variability in the timing of their completion. An increasing number of contract wins are resulting from scale-ups with existing customers, showing the benefit of the growth in our customer base.

Our implementations have accelerated, with six of our Big Data customers now live and others in advanced deployment. We expect these implementations to lead in due course to additional scale-up contracts.

The latest version of our Fusion product was announced in December, addressing key requirements brought into focus by the rapid adoption of mixed, including cloud-based, data storage.

Our partner relationships developed significantly in the second half of the year. Marketing and co-selling activity increased with IBM, Oracle, Amazon and others.

ALM  

In our Application Lifecycle Management business, increased focus resulted in improved sales bookings towards the end of the year.

New customers since the end of the first half include corporations developing applications for gaming, hospital systems and securities trading. Add-ons for existing customers benefitted from greater sales focus, and have included a large user expansion at a global telephony software developer. Renewals have continued to contribute a substantial proportion of sales, including a significant renewal from a wireless network testing business.

Costs and cash consumption

Operating costs have continued to be reduced, with cash overheads, as expected, lower in the second half than in the first half. These reductions have resulted both from the simplicity and openness of the Fusion product's architecture and from generalised cost disciplines across all operating functions.

Principally as a result of reductions in cash overheads, our net consumption of cash was significantly reduced in the second half, resulting in a net cash balance of approximately $3m at the close of the year. With strong cash collection and further cost reductions so far in 2016, we have moved significantly closer to cash break-even.

Our $10m credit facility with HSBC remained undrawn at the close of the year.

Results date

Our audited results announcement will be released on 16 March 2016.

David Richards, WANdisco Chief Executive Officer, comments:

"Our live customers demonstrate that our Fusion product for mixed Big Data, including Cloud environments, is highly relevant to its marketplace. Our partners have recognised this by increasing their go-to-market activities with us.

In our ALM business, I am particularly pleased with our improved sales bookings towards the end of the year, validating our increased focus on this market.

We reduced costs progressively through the year. Whilst the timing of contract wins remains variable, I am confident that WANdisco enters 2016 on a strengthened operational footing."

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About WANdisco

WANdisco (LSE: WAND) is a provider of enterprise-ready, non-stop software solutions that enable globally distributed organizations to meet today's data challenges of secure storage, scalability and continuous availability. WANdisco's products are differentiated by the company's patented, active-active data replication technology, serving crucial continuous availability requirements, including Hadoop Big Data and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), including Apache Subversion and Git. Fortune Global 1000 companies, including Juniper Networks, Motorola, Intel and Halliburton, rely on WANdisco for performance, reliability, security and availability. For additional information, please visit www.wandisco.com.

Disclaimer

This announcement contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as assumptions about future events. Undue reliance should not be placed on any such statements because they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause actual results, and WANdisco's plans and objectives, to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. WANdisco undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement contained within this announcement, regardless of whether those statements are affected as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save as required by law and regulations.