Bulletproof dips into the red after tough year

Bulletproof has chalked up a $6.1 million loss in a challenging year for the cloud provider, despite revenue growing four percent.

The company reported revenue of $49.2 million for the financial year ending 30 June 2017, along with an underlying EBIT loss of $2.1 million, down from a $900,000 profit last year.

Bulletproof continued to face challenges in the first half of the financial year, which carried over from the previous year, according to chief executive Anthony Woodward.

"We have now made significant changes to the business operations and profitability, resulting in a strong second half that reflected the impact of these changes," he added. "We are confident that with continued effort, FY18 will benefit from these and other ongoing changes to deliver stronger value to shareholders."

Bulletproof saw a number of staff changes throughout the year, including 30 engineering positions cut, which the company said would result in $4.5 million in annualised savings. A number of executives also left Bulletproof, including chief operating officer Mark Rainbard after just six months, and chief financial officer Kylie Turner. Co-founder Lorenzo Modesto also announced he would depart earlier this week.

The company has also been embroiled in a legal stoush with Cloud House, a New Zealand cloud provider Bulletproof acquired in January last year to establish its presence across the Tasman. Cloud House directors alleged that Bulletproof's management decisions caused the company to miss its first earn-out target, which Bulletproof refutes. Bulletproof lodged a defence claim last week.

Bulletproof's net loss consists of a $1.3 million restructuring cost and a $1.5 million goodwill impairment to the New Zealand business, but it was professional services that took the biggest hit. Professional services revenue was down 15 percent year-on-year due to significant slowdown from some major clients in the first half of the year.

On the bright side, Bulletproof touted ongoing customer relationships with Victoria's Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Simplot and Mirvoc. Bulletproof also launched its end-to-end offerings for Azure public cloud while maintaining its relationship with AWS, and partnered with Accenture to help drive more professional services and managed service opportunities.