Taleo Provides Q4 Business Update; Caps Powerful 2008
-- Signed A Record 27 New Enterprise Edition(TM) Customers
-- Closed A Record 12 Large Enterprise Deals
-- Enters 2009 with over $315 Million in Contracted Application Revenue
Backlog
-- Launches Performance Management Capabilities for SMB Market
-- Garners Leadership, Vision Accolades from Industry Analysts
Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO), the leading provider of on demand talent management
solutions, today announced a business update for the fourth quarter and
fiscal year ended December 31, 2008.
"2008 was an important year for us -- we made a quantum leap from a best in
class, recruiting management company to a bona fide leader in unified
talent management with powerful offerings across recruiting, performance
and compensation management," said Michael Gregoire, Chairman and CEO of
Taleo. "Even in a worsening economic environment, global businesses of all
sizes are turning to Taleo to help them better leverage what typically
amounts to 50%-70% of their costs: their people."
-- Q1 launch of Enterprise Performance Management product.
-- Q2 announcement of the acquisition of Vurv, a leading provider in the
talent management space with a large and impressive customer base.
-- Q3 introduction of Talent Grid strategy and strategic investment in
Worldwide Compensation.
-- Q4 on-time delivery of SMB Performance Management product.
-- Acquired a record 27 new Taleo Enterprise Edition(TM) recruiting
customers. Demand for Taleo's talent management solutions continued,
bringing Taleo's enterprise customer base to over 660 organizations around
the world. Additionally, Taleo signed a record 12 large enterprise deals
with a first year ASP greater than $250,000, up from 8 in the fourth
quarter of 2007. New Taleo Enterprise Edition(TM) customers in North
America included: Royal Caribbean, Panera Bread, VF Corporation, PPG,
Evergreen Packaging, Henry Schein, Dow Jones, VeriSign, Zions Bancorp, Booz
and Company, Air Canada Jazz, Neoris and Kinetic Concepts. Taleo also
signed a large multi-year outsourcing deal through its partnership with
IBM. In addition, Taleo's renewal rates remained strong even across
economically sensitive verticals such as Financial Services and Retail.
-- Exceeded Plan on Performance Management Adoption. The number of sales
of Taleo Performance(TM) exceeded the Company's objective for the year. In
the fourth quarter, the company closed several enterprise performance
management deals in North America and Europe, including Evergreen
Packaging. In addition, the company was highlighted by both IDC and Gartner
industry analysts for vision and execution excellence in their respective
market-wide analyses of Unified Talent Management and Performance
Management.
-- Closed two deals in alliance with Worldwide Compensation. Taleo
continues to work with strategic alliance partner Worldwide Compensation to
enable a best in class pay-for-performance solution. Together, the
companies closed two compensation management deals in Q4, Con-way
Transportation and Yellow Pages Canada, and currently have more than two
dozen joint sales opportunities in the pipeline. Further, Worldwide
Compensation received the "best in class" commendation in a report from
industry analyst firm Gartner, in the Compensation Management category.
-- Signed 175 new SMB Customers. Strong sales of Taleo Business
Edition(TM), a recruiting solution targeted at companies with less than
3,000 employees, further established Taleo as the leader for SMB
Recruiting. New TBE customers include: Spectrum Health Partners, Greenville
County Recreation District, Focus Management Group, Unitrends, Carmel
Country Club, Lithium Technologies, Meebo and Blue Diamond Growers. Taleo
also launched Taleo Business Edition Perform, specifically tuned for the
staff assessment and performance management needs of SMBs and has early
customer sales there too.
-- Continued Rapid International Adoption. New international customers
included: Fluxys, Alstom, Bouygues Construction, PSA Peugeot Citroлn and
Westfield Australia.
Taleo continues to work with its independent registered public accounting
firm, Deloitte & Touche LLP, to re-evaluate whether the company's current
and historical revenue recognition policies are appropriate under generally
accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP. Taleo
announced today that it will be restating its previously issued financial
statements for 2006 and 2007 and certain interim financial statements to
correct errors relating to the timing for revenue recognition for
consulting services revenue under certain of its historical arrangements
and the timing of revenue recognition for set-up fees. Taleo continues to
make progress in bringing its review process to closure, and, in connection
with that process, intends to submit a pre-clearance submission to the
Office of the Chief Accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In conjunction with this announcement, Taleo will host a conference call
2:00pm PST (5:00pm EST) today to discuss the Company's fourth quarter 2008
business update. A live and replay Webcast of the call will be available on
the Investor Relations section of Taleo's website at
. The
live call may be accessed by dialing 866-272-9941 (domestic) or
617-213-8895 (international) and referencing passcode: 4320-4189. A replay
of the call can also be accessed by dialing 888-286-8010 (domestic) or
617-801-6888 (international), and referencing passcode: 8264-6746.
Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO) is the leader in on-demand unified talent management
solutions that empower organizations of all sizes to assess, acquire,
develop and align their workforces for improved business performance. More
than 3,900 organizations use Taleo for talent acquisition and performance
management, including 48 of the Fortune 100 and over 3,300 small and medium
sized businesses across 200 countries and territories. Known for its strong
configurability and usability, Taleo runs on a world-class infrastructure
and offers 99.9% availability. Taleo's Talent Grid harnesses the resources
of the Taleo community of customers, candidates, and partners to power the
talent needs of companies around the world.
This release contains forward-looking statements, including statements
regarding the demand for and results from use of Taleo's solutions, Taleo's
review of its revenue recognition policies, and general business
conditions. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release
are based upon Taleo's historical performance and its current plans,
estimates and expectations and are not a representation that such plans,
estimates, or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking
statements represent Taleo's expectations as of the date of this press
announcement. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and
Taleo disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements in
the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and
unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
materially. Further information on potential factors that could affect
actual results is included in Part II, Item 1A of Taleo's Quarterly Report
on Form 10-Q, as filed with the SEC on August 11, 2008, and in other
reports filed by Taleo with the SEC.
Media Contact:
Jaime Spuhler
Tel: 904.520.6251
E-mail: jspuhler@taleo.com
Investor Contact:
Nate Swanson
Tel: 925.452.3156
E-mail: nswanson@taleo.com