MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (October 21, 1997) -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) today reported its financial results for the third quarter ending September 30, 1997. Net revenues were $150.1 million, a 50 percent increase over revenues of $100.0 million for the same period in 1996. Net income for the third quarter in 1997 was $11.7 million, or $0.13 per share. The growth in net income represents a 53 percent increase over net income of $7.7 million or $0.09 per share for the third quarter of 1996.
"Netscape showed continued strong growth in the third quarter, making significant strides in its three areas of business: Intranets, Extranets and the Internet," said Jim Barksdale, president and chief executive officer of Netscape. "Our core products, Netscape Communicator and Netscape SuiteSpot 3.0, continue to be adopted by such major enterprise customers as the Department of Defense, Mobil Corporation and Bell Canada. In addition, we have continued to expand our offerings in the areas of business-to-business commerce and the Netscape Web site, with a number of new products, partnerships and services."
In September 1997, Netscape outlined its three-prong business strategy: Wire every business by enabling Intranets; link businesses to one another via Extranets; and connect individuals to businesses via the Internet. In the third quarter, the company took significant steps in each of these areas. Netscape Communicator client software and Netscape SuiteSpot server software continued to be widely adopted for use in Intranets, Extranets and Internet applications by such companies around the world as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Edward Jones, ICA Fluor Daniel, PPD Pharmaco Inc. and Scotia Capital Markets.
As part of its strategy to wire every enterprise, Netscape announced plans to work with various industry partners to deliver its software to business customers. For example, Netscape announced relationships with leading telecommunications firms to build a global Internet applications backbone, enabling firms to offer Internet services for individuals and corporations. Based on a new product called Netscape SuiteSpot Hosting Edition, these applications are designed to link people and businesses together with solutions from simple Internet connectivity and email, to premium services such as Intranet hosting and electronic commerce. Netscape also announced that it is working with more than 40 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), including Digital Equipment Corp., IBM, Hewlett-Packard Company, Novell, Silicon Graphics, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc., to distribute Netscape's leading client software to enterprise users.
To link businesses to one another, Netscape and Actra, a joint venture between GE Information Services and Netscape, announced the availability of the Netscape CommerceXpert family of software, an integrated family of Internet commerce applications. In addition, Bell Emergis, a division of Bell Canada, announced that it would use Netscape CommerceXpert to build a virtual private network to host mission-critical Internet commerce application services.
Further contributing to its business-to-business strategy, Netscape grew its worldwide professional services organization from 103 employees at the end of 1996 to 165 employees in the third quarter of 1997. This organization provides enterprises with architecture and design creation, major systems pilots and Web-based application development.
Netscape also continued to team with industry partners to drive interoperability inside and outside the enterprise. Netscape, Sun and IBM announced that they would collaborate on the Java Porting and Tuning Center to speed Java performance and ensure timely, consistent distribution of Java implementations for the industry. In addition, Netscape and Sun announced that Netscape plans to deliver a 100% Pure Java version of its Netscape Navigator browser in early 1998, which will integrate Sun's HotJava technology.
To link individuals to businesses via the Internet, Netscape announced in September Netscape Netcenter, a new free online service for busy professionals. In conjunction with Netcenter, Netscape announced relationships with hundreds of content providers and other industry partners to provide information and services to Netcenter members. These relationships include China Internet Corporation, a Netscape Affiliate partner which intends to provide Netscape Internet services in China; software.net, which is running a service called Netscape Software Depot for the sale and download of more than 100 third-party products; Individual, which will run Netscape Industry Watch by Individual, for providing vertical industry news online; Excite, which will run the International Guide by Excite, a directory of selected sites; and the international search partners Excite, Yahoo, Infoseek and Lycos. In addition, the company announced that more than 700 'push' channels would be part of Netscape Channel Finder, its online directory of Netscape Netcaster channels. Netscape also announced in the third quarter that it would make Netscape Navigator 4.0 browser software available as a stand-alone product, separate from Netscape Communicator. The company simultaneously announced the 'Netscape Everywhere' initiative and new relationships aimed at bringing Netscape client software to millions of new users in homes, education and enterprises worldwide. The 'Netscape Everywhere' initiative includes distribution of more than 130 million copies of Netscape client software through books, magazines, networking products, communications software, Internet services and computer hardware bundles to home users over the next 12 months. Netscape also released three new retail client software suites that expand the Netscape product line for home and small business use.
Maintaining its technology leadership, Netscape also previewed 'Aurora,' a next-generation client software technology currently under development for integrating information from the Internet and the desktop. This future component of Netscape Communicator will be designed to provide a single easy-to-use interface for users that seamlessly integrates and manages information from multiple sources -- from Web sites and push channels to personal bookmarks and email, and from legacy databases to office documents and local desktop files -- without requiring an expensive operating system upgrade.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The company offers a full line of Netscape Navigator clients, servers, development tools and commercial applications to create a complete platform for next-generation, live online applications. Traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "NSCP," Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California.
Additional information on Netscape Communications Corporation is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to info@netscape.com or by calling 650/937-2555 (corporate customers) or 650/937-3777 (individuals).
Netscape Communications, the Netscape Communications logo, Netscape, Netscape Navigator, Netscape SuiteSpot, Netscape SuiteTools and Netscape Communicator are trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation. All other product names are trademarks of their respective companies.