Verity Posts 7th-Consecutive Profitable QuarterVerity Posts 7th-Consecutive Profitable Quarter

As the software industry creeps toward a possible recovery, search software continues to surge. In fact, Verity Inc., maker of sophisticated corporate information-retrieval and -classification technologies, has reported its seventh-consecutive profitable quarter.

Verity posted first-quarter profit of $1.8 million on revenue of $26.6 million for the period ended Aug. 31, compared with a profit of $1.4 million on revenue of $22 million a year earlier. The company demonstrated strength all around, with software licensing up 15% from last year. Services revenue rose 28%.

The company is rolling on, having recently launched Ultraseek 5.1, its first rebranded product since it acquired Inktomi Corp.'s Ultraseek corporate-search assets last year. And Verity released a major upgrade of its K2 Enterprise information-retrieval platform. It also reached a settlement with BroadVision Inc. related to a copyright-infringement suit it filed against the portal-software vendor more than two years ago.

Verity's noteworthy deals during the quarter included several key government contracts with the likes of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Centers for Disease Control, and the International Monetary Fund. The company also was strong in the tech sector, where it booked sales to Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, and Computer Sciences. Better yet, the market pressures that have forced software vendors to lower prices appear to have eased.

President Anthony Bettencourt told analysts on a conference call Wednesday, "The pricing is holding."