I was invited to an Autonomy lunch / presentation yesterday on how, via their IDOL platform they can optimise SharePoint, especially in large distributed organisations. I can’t help but be impressed by the progress they’ve made and the resilience of Mike Lynch and his team. Deriving meaning from unstructured data might once have been seen as an esoteric search backwater but not now - its the foundation of a £3bn market cap business that looks set to enjoy continued growth. I remember tracking the stock not long after IPO and it took a beating for a while (poor IR programme?, understood but unloved?, a high value / low volume pipeline promising lumpy cash flow?). Look at its performance in the last 5 years v. the FTSE Techmark 100.
Of particular note is the trend-bucking trajectory in the last few months. With Interwoven now in the stable, a balance sheet that would make rivals blush and regulatory and governance imperatives driving strong demand in key markets (e.g. compliance and risk management, reputation management, e-discovery and legal disclosure), their challenges are enviable ones. It may not be the search brand de nos jours and some of that strong potential might already be priced into the stock, but if there’s a better “value stock” right now, I’ve yet to see it.