Addressing Shareholders, IONA CEO Peter Zotto Highlighted the Company's Operational and Financial Progress and Market Leadership Position

Chairman, Kevin Melia, asserted the commitment and focus of the IONA team and Board at Annual General Meeting

DUBLIN, Ireland - Thursday, August 24, 2006 - Addressing shareholders at IONA Technologies' 2006 Annual General Meeting at the Berkeley Court Hotel, Dublin, Chief Executive Officer, Peter Zotto and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Kevin Melia outlined the company's operational progress and improved financial performance.

"Over the past year, I'm pleased to report we have made excellent progress in all areas of our business," said Mr. Zotto. "Through the consistent execution of our corporate strategy we achieved excellent results in our Artix™ business. Our Orbix™ (CORBA) business continued to provide customers with reliable, high performance infrastructure support for their mission-critical IT environments, and a stable and profitable revenue stream for IONA. We continue to develop and expand our strategic open source software initiatives, achieving broad industry recognition and establishing new industry relationships with key software infrastructure vendors.

"I am extremely pleased with our operational and financial performance as we realize the benefits of our ongoing cost management and accelerated revenue growth in Artix. We achieved Artix revenue growth of 120% in 2005 and 119% in the first half of 2006. We achieved year over year product revenue growth and a positive operating margin, excluding stock based compensation, for four straight quarters. We have maintained our CORBA market leadership, in line with our stated goal. Our balance sheet is strong and we remain cash flow positive with no debt. This significant progress is reflective of the steadfast commitment of the entire IONA organization to achieve industry leadership in the infrastructure software market."

Mr. Zotto added, "Throughout 2005, we continued to receive strong validation for Artix from independent analysts, customers and partners. Recently, Forrester Research identified IONA as an Enterprise Service Bus 'Leader'. Global 2000 customers, including Fujitsu Telecommunications, Reuters, Poste Italiane and Raymond James selected IONA for their strategic enterprise computing initiatives. Expanding our partner network to create new revenue opportunities remained an important part of the company's strategy. We strengthened existing marketing and technology relationships with companies such as Sun Microsystems and leading systems integrators including BearingPoint, CSC, Wipro, Satyam and NS Solutions, and added new relationships with platform providers including BEA and Microsoft.

Outlining the company's potential for enhanced market leadership and revenue growth, Mr. Zotto continued, "IONA is now firmly positioned at the forefront of two of the most important IT industry trends. The first is Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), a maturing enterprise computing model that can make IT more responsive, agile and efficient in the face of changing business requirements. The second is the Open Source software movement, which is growing rapidly and gaining acceptance at the enterprise business level. According to 1Gartner, by 2010 Global 2000 IT organizations will use open-source products in 80 percent of their infrastructure-focused software investments. SOA, combined with the benefits of Open Source software, promise tremendous value to customers as they seek to lower their IT costs while achieving enhanced business flexibility. Our position at the forefront of these key trends creates significant future revenue growth opportunities for IONA in our target markets."

He concluded, "IONA is a market-oriented company, focused on delivering customer value and profitably growing our infrastructure business. We intend to build on our enhanced market position in 2006 and beyond to deliver continued value for our customers and shareholders."

Chairman, Kevin Melia added, "The clear execution against the stated strategy in 2005 is evidenced by the consistent improvement in operational and financial performance over the past four consecutive quarters. Together with the Board, the IONA team remains firmly focused and committed to the achievement of leadership, growth and enhanced customer and shareholder value."

Editors Note:

Management Appointment - 2006

Robert McBride, Chief Financial Officer

Robert C. McBride was appointed Chief Financial Officer in February 2006 having served in an interim capacity since September 2005. Mr. McBride has responsibility for leading IONA's Finance organization and works closely with the CEO and the Board of Directors to increase long-term shareholder value through the execution of the company's business strategies.

About IONA

For more than a decade, IONA® Technologies (NASDAQ: IONA) has been a world leader in delivering high-performance integration solutions for Global 2000 IT environments. IONA pioneered standards-based integration with its CORBA-based Orbix® products. Artix™, IONA's extensible Enterprise Service Bus, enables existing enterprise systems to be integrated with an organization's common infrastructure components. IONA's sponsorship of the ObjectWeb Celtix open source ESB and leadership in the Eclipse Foundation SOA Tooling Platform Project are natural extensions of the company's history of solving integration problems by leveraging open standards and distributed architectures.

IONA is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. subsidiary headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts and offices worldwide. For additional information about IONA, visit our Web site at http://www.iona.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements concerning plans and objectives of management, expectations regarding future financial performance, profitability and market positioning, growth, demand and opportunity. The forward-looking statements made are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or indicated, including risks and uncertainties relating to the launch of IONA's integration software; growth in market demand for Web services and integration; IONA's sales model; volume, timing and seasonal patterns of product sales; impact of competitive products and pricing; development, launch and market acceptance of new and improved products; IONA's cost reduction efforts; the integration of any future acquisitions; undetected errors in software; and general economic conditions, including their effect on the acquisition of new accounts and the time required to close sales transactions. For a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties, please refer to our most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F and other periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements in this press release, which are current only as of the date when made. You should not expect that these forward-looking statements will be updated or supplemented as a result of changing circumstances or otherwise, and IONA disavows and disclaims any obligation to do so.

IONA, IONA Technologies, the IONA logo, Orbix, High Performance Integration, Artix, Mobile Orchestrator and Making Software Work Together are trademarks or registered trademarks of IONA Technologies PLC and/or its subsidiaries. CORBA is a trademark or registered trademark of the Object Management Group, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks that may appear herein are the property of their respective owners.

1Gartner: Market Focus: Open-Source Software, Worldwide, 2005-2010, 7 June 2006

IN NEWS & EVENTS...

Related Content

Need More Info?

Feel free to reach us by phone or email anytime of the day.

> View Phone Numbers
> Contact Us Form

Contact Sales

For pricing and license information please contact a sales representative in your region:
AMER, EMEA or APAC