KTM Developer Launches New Company

Alexander Goerke, one of the most experienced and respected developers in the field of intelligent document recognition (IDR), has started a new company. Skilja, which is based in Germany, is focused on the area of document understanding. According to the company Web site, "Skilja.com features several articles per month about the technology of document understanding and decision making...Skilja is also company that actively works in producing software for document understanding. We do this either through consulting and project management in cooperation with other companies or by programming our own components."

For the last several years, Goerke has been with Kofax, which acquired a previous company he started, called LCI. LCI's technology has been incorporated in Kofax's Transformation Modules (KTM), which have been a key element in the Irvine, CA-based ISV's successful move upstream in the document capture market. Previous to founding LCI, Goerke was with SER AG, where his team created the Distiller capture product, which is now sold by Brainware, a competitor of Kofax's in the IDR space. Georke has been in the capture market since 1993.

We look forward to following the progress of his new company, as well as reading his posts on the emerging market of "document understanding."

Former Pegasus now Called Accusoft

Tampa-based imaging SDK vendor Accusoft Pegasus is now officially known as just "Accusoft." Accusoft, which is based in the Boston area, was acquired by Pegasus in 2009 and the company has used the joint name ever since. Pegaus had previously acquired SDV vendor TMS Sequoia in 2004 and last year acquired browser-based viewing tools and application specialist Adeptol.

According to the press release, "The transition of the company name to Accusoft reflects our dedication to provide an even broader range of products to enable our customers to create top-of-line products and integrate cost saving applications," said Jack Berlin, CEO of Accusoft. "With the new direction of the brand, we continue to differentiate ourselves in the global marketplace as a company with a very diverse product portfolio of applications and SDKs."

No, I'm not really sure what that means either - maybe just that Accusoft is a more encompassing name than Pegasus? Either way, the new Web looks good.

ReadSoft Posts Strong Numbers

Document capture ISV ReadSoft finished 2011 strongly, reporting 13% growth in terms of constant currencies for both the fourth quarter and the year. This included software license sales growth of 17% for the fourth quarter and 19% for the year. This helped ReadSoft increase its operating profit EBITDA for the year to $11 million on $98 million in revenue.

According to ReadSoft's financial report, in the fourth quarter, "All three market areas improved with 'U.S. and the rest of the world' in the forefront with 18% growth." ReadSoft, which is based in Sweden, also saw 13% growth in non-Nordic European markets - a geography where its top competitor Kofax has reported recent weakness.

Also, in the fourth quarter, ReadSoft reported one of the largest deals in the history of its company. The deal was with, "a leading European high-tech manufacturing group. ReadSoft partnered with a global systems integrator to deliver its SAP-certified invoice automation solution to this company with a newly established Shared Service Center, handling accounting and purchase services. The deal is worth [$1.4 million], and includes several years of maintenance."

ReadSoft Acquires foxray

ReadSoft, a leading capture software ISV, which is based in Sweden, has acquired German document capture ISV foxray, which develops a capture framework for high-volume environments. foxray's founders came from the ticketing arm of the German airline Lufthansa, and its xbound application acts as a framework that can incorporate multiple capture processes.

According to the ReadSoft press release, foxray's revenue is approximately 7 million Euro, just over $9 million. The initial acquisition price is 7.85 million Euro, with an additional .65 million Euro worth of ReadSoft shares going to foxray's two owners, who are going to remain on board. There are earnout incentives of up to an additional 3.3 million Euro through 2014.

Kofax Reports Half-Year Revenue

In line with pre-set expectations, Kofax's revenue for the first six months of its fiscal 2012 (ended Dec. 31) was basically flat. The Irvine, CA-based document capture technology ISV reported second-quarter revenue of $70 million with half-year sales coming in at $128.5 million.

"This was very consistent with the expectations we set in November," said Kofax CEO Reynolds Bish during a conference call with investors. "We are generally pleased with our overall progress, especially in light of challenging year-over-year comparisons due to a strong six months in the previous year and in light of the overall economic weakness in Europe."

Indeed, Kofax's overall revenue in Europe was down 12% on an organic constant currency basis in Europe, with software licenses down almost 23%. Software licenses, in fact were down 9% overall compared to last year, but a 10% increase in Maintenance Services helped offset this, which we're not sure is that great of a sign.

Overall though, Kofax remains financially healthy, with $62 million in the bank, and in the last year has executed a pair of acquisitions, Atalasoft and Singularity, that Bish indicated are already producing better than expected returns.

London traders seem to take the report in stride. After a week of slight gains preceding the results, Kofax's stock value shot up slightly in early trading before leveling off and finishing yesterday at just under 310 pence per share, which was near where they started. Plans for a public offering on the Nasdaq continue to be in the works.

Kofax Lands Million Dollar Upgrade

Document capture technology specialist Kofax recently announced a million upgrade by a "leading global semi-conductor manufacturer." The manufacturer is implementing a series of Kofax technologies, including the Kofax Transformation Modules, VRS, Kofax Monitor, and the Kofax Communication Server to enhance its Kofax Capture implementation in its A/P department. The manufacturer deals with approximately 2.6 million invoices per year and posts data to an ERP system and the images to a Mobius archiving application.

There is no mention of what type of workflow technology the manufacturer is using and Kofax's MarkView was not part of the deal, but nonetheless, any seven-figure capture deal is worth mentioning.

Psigen Posts strong first-half results

Document capture ISV Psigen recently announced it had 91% revenue growth for the first half of its fiscal year, which ended on Dec. 31. The Irvine, CA-based company credited "a strong domestic market, expansion into Europe and APAC, and a long list of competitive capture replacements," as driving its growth. Also, "The most recent quarter also included several large contract signings for services and OEM deals which will significantly boost revenue through 2012 and beyond."


Psigen's Irvine-based neighbor and competitor, Kofax, is scheduled to announce its Q2 results next week.
Kofax's stock value was up about 10% in the last week- not sure if this means a favorable report is coming or just a sign of overall market conditions. We'll see.

Lexmark Reports Strong Fourth Quarter for Perceptive

Perceptive Software apparently saw its revenue jump 40% in the fourth quarter of 2011 - up to $31 million. Part of that is attributable to the acquisition of BPM and output ISV Pallas Athena, which was announced in October, but 30% of the growth is said to have nothing to do with the acquisition. The fourth quarter growth rate is probably more in line with Lexmark's expectations than the third quarter growth of 15%, in which Lexmark seemed somewhat disappointed.

Part of  Lexmark's acquisition strategy was to expand the primarily North American Perceptive business internationally - taking advantage of Lexmark's worldwide footprint. That strategy seems to be paying off. Also it seems that while a restructuring plan has been put in place at Lexmark, there will be more hiring, rather than cuts, related to the Perceptive business.