OMAHA, Neb. – March 31, 2003 -- FindEx.com, Inc. (OTCBB: FIND) announced results today for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2002.
For the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2002 the Company reported net sales of $976,228 as compared to $583,462 for the quarter ended December 31, 2001. This represented an increase in sales of 66%. Net income increased $4,330,826 for the quarter from a net loss of $4,237,223 in 2001 to net income of $93,603 in the fourth quarter of 2002.
Net sales for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002 increased 42% to $3,908,694 from $2,755,658 for the year ended December 2001. Net income increased from a loss of ($7,600,353) in the year ended December 2001 to net income of $216,978 in the year ended 2002.
Commenting on the above results, Steven Malone, Chairman and President of FindEx said, “Fiscal year 2002 marked the beginning of a dramatic turnaround for FindEx. Our initiatives have restored profitability and put us on a path towards real and dynamic growth in 2003. We have come a long way and we are far from the desperate position we were in a year ago. We have significantly restructured the company and we believe we are now in a position where we can meet our financial obligations to our content providers and vendors.”
“On the development front, we have released a new version of Membership Plus, our flagship church management product, a new fund accounting software product called Fund Accounting Plus, and most notably, a new version of QuickVerse, our premiere Bible Study product, for Palm OS handheld Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). This is the company’s first foray into non-Windows Operating Systems technology, but it will by no means be our last. In June, we will be releasing a version of QuickVerse that will run on Pocket PC based PDA’s. We also anticipate a September release of QuickVerse for the desktop, which will be version number 8 of our top selling Bible study software.”
In discussing the operating results of the Company, Kirk Rowland, Chief Financial Officer for FindEx, stated “Our renewed focus resulted in EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) of approximately $482,000 for the current year ended December 31, 2002; a significant improvement from a negative EBITDA of approximately $4,852,000 for fiscal year ended December 31, 2001. More importantly, we were able to restore profitability from operations. Our cash provided by operating activities improved by approximately $249,000 to cash provided by operating activities of $183,978 for 2002 compared to cash used by operating activities of ($65,500) for 2001. This allowed us to reduce our obligations to vendors and content providers by approximately $268,000, advancing the process of mending fences with our loyal suppliers.”
FindEx is a developer, publisher, distributor and supplier of “inspirational” and faith-based, off-the-shelf software products to individuals and religious and other spiritual organizations including schools, churches and other faith-based ministries.
In addition to the historical financial information contained herein, this release contains certain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on current management expectations and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company’s actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results. A number of factors, including those identified below, could adversely affect the Company’s ability to obtain these results: the Company is currently involved in a lawsuit the outcome of which could seriously impair its ability to operate as a going concern; a legal claim has been made against the company for a number of common shares exceeding 50% of the total current outstanding; the Company is experiencing and may continue to experience reduced revenues due to delays in the introduction and distribution of its products; the Company is delinquent in the payment of payroll taxes; the Company is under-capitalized and requires additional equity investment, the Company has a limited operating history upon which to evaluate its future success, the loss of key executives could harm the Company’s business, product returns that exceed anticipated reserves could result in worse than expected operating results, the failure of the Company to obtain CD-rom manufacturing and packaging services on a timely basis could materially harm its business, fluctuations in operating results may result in unexpected reductions in revenue and stock price volatility, and errors or defects in the Company’s software products may cause a loss of market acceptance and result in fewer sales. Certain of these risks are described in the Company’s Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31, 2002.