Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZPN), a leading provider of software and services to the process industries, today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2010, ended June 30, 2010.
Mark Fusco, Chief Executive Officer of AspenTech, said, "The fourth quarter was a strong finish to our fiscal year. The combination of customers moving to our new aspenONE licensing model and new and expanded usage drove record quarterly and annual product related bookings that were well above our expectations. Most important, strong growth in our customer relationships during the fourth quarter contributed to double digit full year growth in the license portion of our total contract value during fiscal 2010. This reflects the underlying growth of our business, and we are optimistic that AspenTech is well positioned to continue growing its over a billion dollar total contract value in fiscal 2011 and beyond."
Fusco added, "In addition to validating market acceptance of our new aspenONE licensing model during fiscal 2010, we also made significant progress putting in place the foundation to grow the company's subscription cash flow model. We have not sold receivables to raise cash in nearly three years and we have steadily increased the portion of our business where customers have elected annual payment terms over the course of our multi-year contracts. We believe continued execution of this strategy will lead to strong growth in our free cash flow beginning in fiscal 2011."
Fourth Quarter Business Highlights
- Total contract value at the end of fiscal 2010 was approximately $1.2 billion, an increase of approximately 17% compared to the end of fiscal 2009. Approximately 10 percentage points of the growth in total contract value during fiscal 2010 was driven by increased license fees, with approximately 7 percentage points of the year-over-year growth related to including maintenance with the company's new aspenONE licensing model, which was launched at the beginning of fiscal 2010.
- Record product related bookings were approximately $138 million for the fourth quarter, leading to record full year product related bookings of approximately $366 million.
- Billings backlog was $389 million at the end of the fourth quarter, an increase from $270 million at the end of last quarter and $101 million at the end of fiscal 2009.
- The value of contractually committed, future cash collections associated with the company's subscription and multi-year term contracts was $625 million at the end of the fourth quarter, an increase from $537 million at the end of last quarter and $466 million at the end of fiscal 2009.
- The company closed 20 product related bookings of over $1 million during the fourth quarter, and 50 product related bookings between $250,000 and $1 million.
- Average deal size for product related bookings over $100,000 was $1.1 million in the fourth quarter.
Summary of Fourth Quarter Financial Results
AspenTech's total revenue of $38.2 million decreased from $71.3 million in the fourth quarter of the prior year, due primarily to the ratable revenue recognition associated with the company's new aspenONE licensing model.