Autonomy shares spin with contract wins

Autonomy's share price jumped today on news of US contract wins and Deutsche Bank's decision to upgrade its earnings forecasts.

UK-based Autonomy, which develops search and tagging technology for unstructured data, this morning confirmed contracts with the US Army, Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, although financial details were not released. Autonomy's house broker greeted the news as proof of the company's profitable business model. A recommendation to buy was then followed by a flurry of stock market activity which sent shares soaring to a peak of £16.54, up over nine per cent on opening. Fourth quarter 2000 results released by the company last week revealed that although revenue had trebled from the comparable period the previous year, earnings had failed to increase inline with the figure, which dragged down its share price. Autonomy is due to come in for some competition and could experience further swings in its share value with Lotus' forthcoming release of its Discovery Engine software, which incorporates knowledge management tools.