SDL translates globalisation into growth

(By Anthony Miller). UK-based translation software firm SDL is another player seemingly swimming against the economic tide, reporting that 2008 numbers will come in ahead of consensus expectations. We haven’t commented about SDL before on UKHotViews but this is an omission we need to address as, with revenues a tad under £160m, they are clearly more than a dot on the horizon. In fact, SDL have had a pretty impressive record in recent years. In The Holway Report back in 2000 we wrote how SDL had grown revenues nearly 30% to £13m (yes, thirteen) but posted an £800K pre-tax loss. This will now be a pre-tax profit of over £25m. As UK- and US-based IT vendors march ever more boldly into non-English-speaking markets, the need for local language support increases dramatically. We’ll take a closer look at SDL when it announces its prelims towards the end of Feb.