​Operating expenses send Atlassian $5.9m into the red

Nasdaq-listed Atlassian has announced its financial results for the 2016 fiscal year, reporting an IFRS operating loss of $5.9 million as a result of spending $118 million on overall operating expenses.

Total revenue for the year was up 43 percent year-on-year to $457.1 million and net income came in at $4.4 million.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016, total revenue came in at $127.6 million, up 39 percent from $91.8 million for the same quarter last year. Atlassian also suffered an $11.4 million operating loss for the quarter.

Despite the loss, Atlassian co-CEO and co-founder Scott Farquhar said fiscal 2016 was a landmark year for Sydney's startup darling.

"Over the past year, we grew revenue to more than $450 million, added over 12,300 net-new customers, generated over $95 million of free cash flow, and completed a successful IPO," he said.

"We are still early in our growth trajectory and expect fiscal 2017 to be another great year for the company."

Friday's results are the first yearly earnings report the company has filed since it undertook the biggest ever float from an Australian company in the United States last December.

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 added 3,519 net new customers during the fourth quarter with a total customer count on an active subscription or maintenance agreement basis of 60,950 -- a 25 percent increase over June 30, 2015.

Atlassian announced last month it had scooped up incident communication platform StatusPage, which remain as a standalone service and be integrated with Atlassian's service and ticket-tracking tools such as JIRA and Confluence.

"We are excited about the addition of StatusPage, our first acquisition as a public company," Farquhar said. "StatusPage is a standout company in its category and is a natural extension of the software development and IT operations processes where Atlassian is a leader."

Looking forward, Atlassian expects total revenue for the 2017 fiscal year to be in the range of $592 million to $602 million, with gross margin expected to be approximately 81 percent on an IFRS basis.

For the three months ended December 2015, the company posted non-IFRS operating income of $20.3 million with revenue of $109.7 million, an increase of 45 percent year-on-year.

The company's second quarter 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.

"We achieved a strong first quarter as a public company, with a combination of continued growth and profitability," Farquhar said in February.

In May, Atlassian's third quarter results revealed an IFRS operating loss of $4.9 million on revenue of $117.9 million.