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Identity and Access Management Software Provider BIO-key Preliminary 2023 Results: Operating Loss Trimmed Approx. $3.5M on Approx. 29% Revenue Growth to $9.1M; Investor Call Tomorrow at 10am ETHOLMDEL, N.J., April 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key® International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions featuring passwordless, phoneless and token-less Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) authentication, announced preliminary results for its fourth quarter (Q4’23) and year ended December 31, 2023 (2023). The independent audit of BIO-key’s 2023 financial statements has not yet been completed and, therefore, the figures included herein are subject to change. BIO-key will host an investor call tomorrow at 10:00am ET (details below). Preliminary Results Highlights:
CEO Commentary “Looking forward, we expect increased deployment of enhanced IAM solutions as enterprises transition to the cloud and respond to a growing array of security incidents that highlight potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities. This trend is further supported by regulatory requirements and increasingly stringent Cyber Insurance underwriting standards that mandate enhanced multi-factor authentication and/or passwordless security solutions that are at the core of our offerings. “As passwordless authentication gains traction, our solutions are well positioned to provide organizations an integrated approach to managing and securing all of their identities with technologies they already use, while also supporting their future needs with a cost-effective platform. We also expect that passkey authentication, which has been embraced by Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, will continue to expand its penetration in 2024. To capitalize on this opportunity, BIO-key will soon launch, Passkey:YOU, a unique passwordless authentication solution that does not require the use of phones or hardware tokens, with planned enhancements expected later in the year. Outlook “Today BIO-key has more than 600 customers globally. Our business is predominately SaaS or subscription based, and most of our new business is sold through channel partners. We remain focused on an asset light go-to-market plan that leverages more than 150 Channel Alliance Partners, along with our targeted internal sale team. Together, we believe these channels position BIO-key for meaningful top- and bottom-line improvement in 2024, building on our base of annually recurring services and license fee revenues (ARR) with a blended gross margin of approximately 65%. “We will also continue to pursue cost reduction initiatives in 2024, to help accelerate our path to positive cash flow and profitability. Our Q4’23 bottom line included a $2.8M non-cash reserve on slow moving hardware inventory purchased for our Africa initiatives. We continue to explore opportunities to convert this inventory into cash. Importantly, during the first quarter of 2024 we enhanced our financial position with the execution of a $1.5M, 2-year license extension for a long-time customer and receipt the full license payment. We also continue to pursue large enterprise opportunities through our direct sales channel. For these and other reasons, we are particularly excited about BIO-key’s outlook for 2024.” Preliminary Financial Results 2023 revenues increased 29% to $9.1M from $7.0M in 2022, driven by increases in license fees (of $1.1M), hardware sales (of $0.5M); and services revenue (of $0.4M). Service revenue benefitted from custom services for new customer installations, Swivel Secure service fees, and conversions from on-premises deployments of PortalGuard to our PortalGuard IDaaS cloud platform. Hardware revenue benefitted from fourth quarter sales to an international defense agency in 2023. Likewise, Q4’23 revenue grew 26% over Q4’22, also driven by the aforementioned hardware sales to an international defense agency. The Company took a $2.8M reserve on inventory due to slow moving inventory purchased for large projects in Nigeria in Q4’23. This reserve was included in cost of hardware, which caused a decline in gross profit to $3.3M in 2023, from $4.6M in 2022 and a decline in gross margin to 36.5% in 2023 from 65.2% in 2022. BIO-key continues to explore opportunities to sell the product, including other markets, to convert inventories to cash. In terms of operating expenses, Selling, general and administrative costs were $7.3M in 2023, representing a 22% decrease from 2022. The decrease included lower sales and marketing expenses, including personnel and related benefits and outside services expenses. Research, development and engineering expenses also declined by $0.9M or 26% to $2.4M, due to reductions in personnel, related benefits and outside services expenses. On a preliminary basis, reflecting higher revenue and lower operating costs, BIO-key significantly trimmed its 2023 net loss 48% to $(6.2M), or $(11.45) per share, from $(12.2M), or $(27.26) per share, in 2022, even after including the $2.8 million reserve on inventory. Likewise, in Q4’23 BIO-key reduced its net loss more than 40% to $(4.1M), or $(5.54) per share, from $(6.7M), or $(14.58) per share in 2023. Preliminary Balance Sheet Conference Call Details
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