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CyberSource Corp. yesterday reported net income of $207,000 for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, down 40.3% from $347,000 during the same period last year. Revenues rose 118%, to $57.7 million from $26.5 million, the Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of electronic-payment and risk-management products reported. Total operating expenses were up 153%, to $29.8 million from $11.8 million. An increase in sales and marketing expenses, to $17.5 million from $4.8 million, comprised most of the expense increase. CyberSource added about 27,000 new merchant customers during the quarter, bringing its total installed base to 245,000. Those merchants generated 469 million billable transactions, up 63.4% from 287 million transactions during last year's third quarter, according to CyberSource. Sales volume totaled $27.5 billion, up 130% from last year. Outside the U.S., CyberSource's European operations, based in Northern Ireland, processed 103 million transactions, up 87% from 55.1 million transactions last year. CyberSource's global acquiring operations generated $20.1 million in revenue during the quarter, up 68% from last year. CyberSource added 1,100 acquiring customers during the quarter, bringing its total to 4,000, and it added more than 60 independent sales organizations and 350 affiliate resellers. Online transactions, which represent a majority of CyberSource's merchant-processing business, are less affected by the economic downturn than are point-of-sale transactions, William McKiernan, chairman and CEO, said yesterday during a conference call with analysts. "As total retail-sales growth remains sluggish, online sales continue to grow at a much stronger pace, with particular resilience internationally," McKiernan said. "Domestic e-commerce sales growth has seen some deceleration from the early years of e-commerce. But e-commerce still remains an area where merchants seek great opportunity for growth compared to offline channels."
