Having reduced full year losses from £16.3m to £1.7m and returned to monthly operating break-even, leisure sector software developer Gladstone has set its sights on a raft of potential acquisitions. According to chief executive Ben Merrett, who took the reigns of a then deeply troubled Gladstone ten months ago, the company has 'built up a pipeline of acquisition prospects over the last six months'. Merrett expects this pipeline to be the major driver of growth for the company, explaining that 'we expect [acquisitions] to take us into new areas of business'. Merrett's comments accompanied the release of full year figures to August, also revealing a £60,000 increase in revenue to £8.6m. Though this may seem a fairly static performance, last year's comparable figures covered a 14-month period. Improvements at the bottom line reflected 'the clearing out of a number of unwanted costs'. Changes have also been made to the nature of contracts. Gladstone now asks customers to rent, rather than buy, its software lowering initial revenues, but affording greater security long term. '25% of revenues are now committed as maintenance before the start of the year' claims Merrett. Speculative.

Gladstone	AIM	£11.91m	24.50p	0.00p
Click here for interactive charting
Other company articles:
Gladstone			02/05/2008
Gladstone			16/01/2008
Gladstone			24/12/2003
Gladstone			23/12/2002
Gladstone			26/04/2002