Earthport, the UK Internet payments start up, is warning of a shortfall in revenues following delays in migrating its payment software to a new industrial strength infrastructure platform.
Jonathan Baile, recently appointed CEO of earthport, says: "Whilst the delay in our revenues is disappointing, the introduction of licence fees to our pricing model, in addition to transaction-based revenues, gives us a solid base from which to grow the business. Furthermore, we are actively seeking implementation partners to help us meet the strong demand for our services."
He says the company has granted its first licence for the earthport wallet, netting a one-off fee worth £2 million, to an unspecified international IT company. He says the company has received a number of expressions of interest in relation to payment for further licences.
Development of Version 3 of the earthport payment platform, built with support from IBM, EMC and eircom, has been slower than forecast but is said to be nearing completion. Largely as a consequence of this, earthport is forecasting that revenues for the full year to 30 June 2001 will be "materially lower" than expected.
The earthport wallet is currently being implemented by direct bank Egg and mobile Internet company Mvivia, under their own brands.