Atlassian records $20m profit in first public quarter

Enterprise software firm Atlassian has published its first quarterly earnings report since it undertook the biggest ever float from an Australian company in the United States last December.

The company posted second quarter non-IFRS operating income of $20.3 million with revenue of $109.7 million, an increase of 45 percent year-on-year.

"We achieved a strong first quarter as a public company, with a combination of continued growth and profitability," Scott Farquhar, co-CEO and co-founder of Atlassian, said.

For the three months ending December 2015, the Nasdaq-listed company's net income was $19.1 million and net income per diluted share was $0.11, compared with $14.3 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2015.

"Our business performed well as teams increasingly rely on our software to collaborate around shared work," Farquhar said. "We continue to leverage our highly-automated distribution model to make deep investments in product development, which most notably resulted in the launch of three purpose-built versions of JIRA that takes our flagship product into new markets."

The former startup darling added over 2,600 new customers during the second quarter, ending the period with a total customer count on an active subscription or maintenance agreement basis of 54,262 -- a 27 percent year-on-year increase.

Prior to its Nasdaq listing, Atlassian was valued at AU$5.6 billion, but the heavily oversubscribed IPO saw the tech firm reach a AU$6.01 billion valuation.

Within the first 24 hours of going public, Atlassian's stock soared 32 percent, debuting at $27.67 and peaking at $28.50 before closing at $27.78.

The company's closing share price put its market value at nearly AU$8 billion.

Atlassian told shareholders on Friday that after expenses, the company raised net proceeds to the tune of $431.4 million from its IPO. Prior to going public, the company had never raised external financing in its 13 years of operation.

In November, Atlassian said in its filing with the US Securities Exchange Commission, it intends to use the proceeds from the IPO for working capital, operating expenses, and capital expenditures, as well as to acquire other businesses, products, services, and technologies.

Additionally, it revealed at the time that the company has maintained profitability for the last 10 years, citing between fiscal 2013 and 2015 the compound annual growth rate was 46.7 percent, resulting in $319.5 million of total revenue for fiscal 2015. Just over 50 percent of the company's revenue for FY15 was a result of maintenance charges.

The company's financial statement also showed between FY14 and FY15 it nearly doubled its investment in research and development, and as a result total operating expenses increased from $155.6 million to $266.2 million during the two financial years. Operating income dipped to $0.4 million in FY15 from $21.5 million in FY14.

Looking forward, Atlassian said on Friday it expects to post a total revenue in the range of $113 million to $115 million for the third quarter, and approximately $443 million to $447 million for the full fiscal year.

In April, Atlassian acquired French video conferencing firm Blue Jimp for an undisclosed amount. San Francisco-based real-time chat and messaging app Hall was also acquired by Atlassian in May, in a bid to support the HipChat platform.

Atlassian moved its shares and operations to the United Kingdom in early 2014 after receiving approval from the Australian Federal Court, amid complaints in 2013 that it was untenable to raise enough funds to support a startup in Australia thanks to a lack of support from the government.

"I think the local tax laws are a struggle, and I think equity-raising laws are a struggle, too. I'd like to see more of the policy changes to make the startup scene better," Farquhar said in an interview with ZDNet in February 2013.

"Most people, including myself, would recommend to startups to incorporate their companies overseas. I think the government can do a lot more with startups, and I'll keep pounding on that until we see some meaningful traction."

Last month, Atlassian rolled out an update to its JIRA Service Desk that adds machine learning, integrated customer satisfaction surveys, and automation for resolving problems and incidents.