Xero, Bottomline Post Net Losses

Small business cloud accounting firm Xero and B2B payments and procurement firm Bottomline Technologies have each released their latest earnings reports this week.

Xero pleased investors with a 48 percent spike in revenue for the first half of FY2017, but according to reports Thursday (Nov. 3), the good news was overshadowed by its nearly $19 million net loss for the period.

According to the company, the loss can be attributed to Xero’s migration from Rackspace to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Reports said the firm expects the transaction to be complete in the second half of FY2017. Despite the net loss, Xero CEO and Founder Rod Drury said he is pleased with his company’s direction.

“Our focus is to build a sustainable global business with high margins, while managing our cash,” he said in a statement. “Our revenue growth has allowed us to continue the significant investment in our platform, back office and team to support our global footprint.”

“We are thrilled to deliver strong results while we build the long-term foundations for scale, including a complete re-platforming of the business,” he continued.

In an earnings call, Drury added that the migration to AWS will help Xero capitalize on machine learning.

Bottomline Technologies, meanwhile, released its own quarterly earnings results for Q1 of the fiscal year. The firm revealed a 13 percent increase in subscription and transaction revenues compared to the same period a year ago, with revenues for the quarter hitting $83.1 million.

Still, Bottomline also reported a net loss of $10.5 million, significantly higher than the $4.3 million net loss reported the same period a year prior.

“Our results in Q1 were a solid step forward and a good start to the fiscal year,” Rob Eberle, Bottomline president and CEO, said in a statement. “Subscription and transaction revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA and core EPS all reflect disciplined execution against our plan.”

The executive highlighted Bottomline’s recent partnership with Mastercard, as well as subscription and transaction revenue growth, all of which give him “confidence that our strategic plan will drive increased shareholder value.”