This summary is based on the fourth quarter fiscal 2007 earnings call conducted by Blackboard Inc. (BBBB: chart) on February 5, 2008.

Management:

- VP of IR: Michael Stanton
- President and CEO: Michael Chasen
- CFO: Mike Beach

Key Investors Issues

- Revenues were up 23% to $63.2 million.
- Net income rose 20 times to $4.2 million or 14 cents per share.
- Cash flow provided by operations totaled $29.6 million, representing a 140% increase.

Full Year Highlights:

- Revenue was $239.4 million, a 31% increase from a year ago.
- Net income was $12.9 million or 45 cents a share, from a loss of $11 million or 39 cents a share in 2006.
- Cash flow provided by operations totaled $69.4 million for the year, which represents a 203% increase as compared to 2006.

Fourth Quarter Highlights

Revenues increased year-over-year by 23% to $63.2 million from $51.4 million in the prior year driven by continued growth in the annual licensing of enterprise level products, as well as continued strong growth from ASP hosting business.

- Product revenue was $57.4 million, representing an increase of 23% over the same quarter last year, while professional service revenue was $5.8 million, up 26%.
- Ratable recurring revenues increased 24% to $49.4 million compared to $39.8 million in 2006.
- Other revenues increased 36% to $8.4 million as compared to $6.2 million in the prior year.

Net income was $4.2 million or 14 cents per share, up 20 times from $201,000 or 1 cent a share in 2006 as a result of revenue growth and positive impact from tax provisions.

- The firm experienced a negative impact on earnings from currency translation losses relating to the pay down of certain inner company debt, which will significantly reduce the impact of translation, losses and gains in future periods.
- Gross profit excluding stock based compensation and amortization of acquired technologies was $47.1 million as compared to $37.3 million in the same quarter a year ago, representing an increase of 26%.
- Operating expenses, excluding the cost of revenue stock based compensation and the amortization of acquired intangibles, were $31.6 million representing an increase of 12% as compared to $28.3 million in 2006.
- The firm incurred stock based compensation expense of $3.3 million, amortization of acquired intangibles were $5.7 million, which was $300,000 higher than the original guidance, due to the acquisition of Xythos Software, Inc. in December.

The firm closed the quarter with $207 million in cash and cash equivalents.

- Accounts receivables increased slightly to $52.8 million, from $52.4 million in 2006.
- Current deferred revenues increased to $126.6 million, up 7% from the $118 million in 2006.
- The new purchase order policy resulted in $7 million of invoicing shifting from the last weeks of the fourth quarter to the first weeks of the first quarter in 2008.
- Cash flow provided by operations totaled $29.6 million which represents a 140% increase and capital expenditures were $4.9 million.

The firm ended with 3,536 clients, which included 1,915 US Higher Education institutions, 932 international clients, 388 k-12 entities and 301 publishers, commercial education companies, corporations and government organizations.

- With respect to licenses, the firm ended the year with a total of 3,935 enterprise category licenses.
- Up sale rate were enterprise license of Blackboard Learning System was 13% and the renewal rate, which represents the percentage of renewal dollars collected at the overall pool, targeted for renewal for the trailing four quarters was 92% which was higher than the 91% renewal rate reported in 2006.
- The firm had an annualized contract value of $198 million, representing an increase of 21% over 2006, resulting in average contract value per client of $56,000 and an average contract value per license of $40,500; represent an increase of 19% from the prior year.
- Total headcount was 890 people, with the bulk of the people in sales.

Deals Concluded:

- In US Higher Education deals included Colorado State University, Colorado, which licensed the Blackboard Learning System, the Blackboard Community System and the ASP hosting offering.
- Kendall College, which adopted the Blackboard Learning System and the Blackboard Content System.
- The Kentucky Community and Technical College System was the latest US Higher Education Institution to adopt the Blackboard Outcome System.

- On the international front, in England, both LewishamCollege and Newcastle College licensed the Blackboard Learning System to bring their academic institutions learning environments online.
- Amersham & WycombeCollege and NielsBrock College, Copenhagen are two of the newest enterprise clients in Europe to take advantage of the ASP hosting offerings.
- The firm ended the year with more than 60 international ASP clients at the Amsterdam hosting facility.
- The first two international sales of the Blackboard Outcomes System to the Caribbean University and the AmericanUniversity of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates were made.

- In K-12 Jefferson County Public Schools adopted the Blackboard Learning System, the Blackboard Community System and the Blackboard Content System.
- Similarly, the Mississippi Department of Education, center for professional developments, adapted the Blackboard’s learning system, the Blackboard’s Community System, the Blackboard Content System and the ASP hosting offering.