Corio Reports $83.7M Operating Loss For Year

Corio Inc., an application service provider backed by Microsoft, PeopleSoft, Sun Microsystems, and others, reported Tuesday fourth-quarter revenue of $14.1 million. Application-management-services revenue, consisting principally of recurring monthly fees from hosting arrangements, increased 57% to $6.8 million, from $4.3 million in the third quarter. Revenue from professional services was about $7.3 million. Corio execs said they expected professional service revenue to be about the same in the first quarter as the company looks for consulting and integration partners with whom to sell such services. This strategy will help Corio keep its professional-services headcount down and control costs, the company says.

For the fourth quarter, ended Dec. 31, the company reported a net loss of $19 million, including one-time charges. Excluding noncash amortization charges and interest income, the company reported a net loss of $18.6 million, or 38 cents a share, compared to a loss of $20 million, or 44 cents a share, for the previous quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $14 million, compared with $2.7 million in the year-ago period.

For the year, Corio reported a loss of $83.7 million, or $2.02 a share, compared with a loss of $33.8 for fiscal 1999. Revenue was $43.6 million, a 653% increase over the year before.

Corio's earnings teleconference, part of a CCBN.com Webcast, was interrupted several times by what sounded like an internal Computer Associates sales meeting Webcast. - Jennifer Maselli