SAN FRANCISCO – May 26, 2016 – Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK), provider of the leading software platform for real-time Operational Intelligence, today announced results for its fiscal first quarter ended April 30, 2016.

First Quarter 2017 Financial Highlights

• Total revenues were $186.0 million, up 48% year-over-year. 
• License revenues were $101.0 million, up 41% year-over-year.
• GAAP operating loss was $98.1 million; GAAP operating margin was negative 52.8%. 
• Non-GAAP operating loss was $1.4 million; non-GAAP operating margin was negative 0.7%.
• GAAP loss per share was $0.77; non-GAAP loss per share was $0.02.
• Operating cash flow was $35.7 million with free cash flow of $32.0 million.

“Q1 was a solid start to the year and we are pleased to welcome more than 450 new customers to the Splunk family,” said Doug Merritt, President and CEO, Splunk. “Our product team continued to deliver innovation in Splunk Enterprise 6.4, a new Splunk Cloud release, and new versions of Splunk Enterprise Security and Splunk User Behavior Analytics. We will continue to support our customers who are leveraging Splunk as their machine data fabric with increased investments in the Splunk platform, our ecosystem and high value solutions.”

First Quarter 2017 and Recent Business Highlights:

Customers:

• Signed more than 450 new enterprise customers.
• New and Expansion Customers Include: Auburn University, Central 1 Credit Union (Canada), Chicago Public Schools, Chipotle, Clemson University, Co-Operative Group (United Kingdom), Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Denver International Airport, FamilySearch, GoodData, Jetstar (Australia), LGA Telecom Pte Ltd (Singapore), NTT Docomo (Japan), Okta, Tesco (United Kingdom), University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System, University of Virginia, U.S. Courts, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, Virginia Department of Taxation, World Bank Group.

Products:

• Announced the general availability of Splunk Enterprise 6.4 and a new Splunk Cloud release, enabling customers to drive down the cost of big data analytics by reducing the storage costs of historical data by 40 percent to 80 percent.
• Announced the general availability of Splunk Enterprise Security 4.1 and Splunk User Behavior Analytics 2.2, providing customers with better machine learning, anomaly detection, context-enhanced correlation and rapid investigation capabilities.
• Announced the availability of Splunk Enterprise in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, allowing Azure customers to use and purchase Azure-certified Splunk Enterprise clusters in minutes.
• Announced the Splunk Add-On for Google Cloud Platform (GCP), a free add-on available on Splunkbase that provides IT Ops teams with secure access to GCP Pub/Sub events.
• Announced the new Puppet Enterprise App for Splunk, which helps DevOps teams collect and analyze performance data from Puppet Enterprise.

Strategic and Channel Partners:

• Splunk announced an alliance with Accenture to help organizations analyze machine data to drive high-impact business performance.
• Splunk was named the Cisco Global ISV Partner of the Year in the Cisco Partner Summit Global awards for enabling organizations to reduce operational and security risks, drive informed decisions across the organization and ultimately transform their business with Splunk Enterprise.
• Splunk announced it is leading a new Adaptive Response Initiative, bringing together the best technologies across the security industry to help organizations combat advanced attacks.
• Splunk announced an alliance with Verizon Enterprise to bring analytics-driven, predictive threat detection to enterprises and government agencies.
• Splunk announced an alliance with Herjavec Group that includes Splunk solutions at the heart of Herjavec Group’s new managed security service provider (MSSP) offerings.
• Splunk announced a reseller agreement with EMC. Joint customers will have a simple way to purchase EMC® solutions with Splunk Enterprise, Hunk, Splunk Enterprise and Global Support, Splunk Professional Services and Splunk Education.

Recognition:

• Coca-Cola North America, a Splunk customer, was named to the 2016 InformationWeek Elite 100 list of the top business technology innovators for its marketing transformation initiative.
• Splunk was named one of the “Best Places to Work” in the Bay Area for the ninth consecutive year by San Francisco Business Times.
• Splunk Enterprise Security was recognized as the Best SIEM Solution at the 2016 SC Magazine Awards.
• Splunk Enterprise was named Best Fraud Prevention Solution at the 2016 SC Magazine Awards.
• Splunk announced the winners of its Global Partner Awards at the Splunk Global Partner Summit, recognizing partners for their commitment to the Splunk Partner+ Program, joint customer success and outstanding performance.
• Haiyan Song, senior vice president, security markets, was honored as one of the 2016 Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by the National Diversity Council.

Events:

• Hosted SplunkLive! events in cities around the world, including Frankfurt, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City and Milan. Presentations can be found on the SplunkLive! website.
• Splunk showcased its big data solutions to solve critical healthcare issues for IT, security, medical staff and patients at HIMSS16.
• Splunk participated in the 2016 RSA Conference to demonstrate how Splunk solutions enable organizations to optimize security operations and improve security posture.
• VenueNext, a Splunk customer, spoke at the 2016 Gartner Business Intelligence & Analytics Summit to discuss how VenueNext is leveraging Splunk technology to help venue operators gain real-time visibility into operations and understand event-goer behavior.

Appointments:

• Splunk appointed Susan St. Ledger as Chief Revenue Officer.

Financial Outlook
The company is providing the following guidance for its fiscal second quarter 2017 (ending July 31, 2016):

• Total revenues are expected to be between $198 million and $200 million.
• Non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be between 2% and 3%.

The company is updating its previous guidance for its fiscal year 2017 (ending January 31, 2017):

• Total revenues are expected to be between $892 and $896 million (was approximately $880 million per prior guidance provided on Feb. 25, 2016).
• Non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be approximately 5% (unchanged from prior guidance provided on Feb. 25, 2016).

All forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures contained in this section “Financial Outlook” exclude estimates for stock-based compensation expenses, employer payroll tax expense related to employee stock plans, amortization of acquired intangible assets and adjustments related to a financing lease obligation.  

While a reconciliation of non-GAAP guidance measures to corresponding GAAP measures is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, many of these costs and expenses that may be incurred in the future, the company has provided a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures in the financial statement tables for its fiscal first quarter 2017 non-GAAP results included in this press release. The exclusion of these costs and expenses will have a significant impact on Splunk’s non-GAAP operating margin.

Conference Call and Webcast

Splunk’s executive management team will host a conference call today beginning at 1:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. ET) to discuss the company’s financial results and business highlights.  Interested parties may access the call by dialing (866) 501-1535.  International parties may access the call by dialing (216) 672-5582. A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available through Splunk’s Investor Relations website at http://investors.splunk.com/events.cfm.  A replay of the call will be available through June 2, 2016 by dialing (855) 859-2056 and referencing Conference ID: 6355619.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding Splunk’s revenue and non-GAAP operating margin targets for the company’s fiscal second quarter and fiscal year 2017 in the paragraphs under “Financial Outlook” above and other statements regarding customer demand and penetration, market opportunity, expected investments and innovations and growth strategies. There are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including: Splunk’s limited operating history and experience developing and introducing new products, including its cloud offerings; risks associated with Splunk’s rapid growth, particularly outside of the United States; Splunk’s inability to realize value from its significant investments in its business, including product and service innovations; Splunk’s transition to a multi-product software and services business; Splunk’s inability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies; and general market, political, economic and business conditions.

Additional information on potential factors that could affect Splunk’s financial results is included in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2016, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Splunk does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

Splunk, Splunk>, Listen to Your Data, The Engine for Machine Data, Hunk, Splunk Cloud, Splunk Light, SPL and Splunk MINT are trademarks and registered trademarks of Splunk Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective owners. © 2016 Splunk Inc. All rights reserved.

SPLUNK INC.
Non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations

To supplement Splunk’s condensed consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”), Splunk provides investors with certain non-GAAP financial measures, including non-GAAP cost of revenues, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP research and development expense, non-GAAP sales and marketing expense, non-GAAP general and administrative expense, non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share (collectively the “non-GAAP financial measures”). These non-GAAP financial measures exclude all or a combination of the following (as reflected in the following reconciliation tables): stock-based compensation expense, employer payroll tax expense related to employee stock plans, amortization of acquired intangible assets and adjustments related to a financing lease obligation. The adjustments for the financing lease obligation are to reflect the expense we would have recorded if our build-to-suit lease arrangement had been deemed an operating lease instead of a financing lease and is calculated as the net of actual ground lease expense, depreciation and interest expense over estimated straight-line rent expense. In addition, non-GAAP financial measures include free cash flow, which represents cash from operations less purchases of property and equipment. The presentation of the non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Splunk uses these non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making purposes and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons. Splunk believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information about Splunk’s operating results, enhance the overall understanding of past financial performance and future prospects and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision making. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures facilitate comparisons to competitors’ operating results.

Splunk excludes stock-based compensation expense because it is non-cash in nature and excluding this expense provides meaningful supplemental information regarding Splunk’s operational performance. In particular, because of varying available valuation methodologies, subjective assumptions and the variety of award types that companies can use under FASB ASC Topic 718, Splunk believes that providing non-GAAP financial measures that exclude this expense allows investors the ability to make more meaningful comparisons between Splunk’s operating results and those of other companies. Splunk excludes employer payroll tax expense related to employee stock plans in order for investors to see the full effect that excluding that stock-based compensation expense had on Splunk’s operating results. These expenses are tied to the exercise or vesting of underlying equity awards and the price of Splunk’s common stock at the time of vesting or exercise, which may vary from period to period independent of the operating performance of Splunk’s business. Splunk also excludes amortization of acquired intangible assets and makes adjustments related to a financing lease obligation from its non-GAAP financial measures because these are considered by management to be outside of Splunk’s core operating results. Accordingly, Splunk believes that excluding these expenses provides investors and management with greater visibility to the underlying performance of its business operations, facilitates comparison of its results with other periods and may also facilitate comparison with the results of other companies in its industry. Splunk considers free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by the business that can be used for strategic opportunities, including investing in its business, making strategic acquisitions and strengthening its balance sheet.

There are limitations in using non-GAAP financial measures because the non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by Splunk’s competitors and exclude expenses that may have a material impact upon Splunk’s reported financial results. Further, stock-based compensation expense has been and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a significant recurring expense in Splunk’s business and an important part of the compensation provided to Splunk’s employees. The non-GAAP financial measures are meant to supplement and be viewed in conjunction with GAAP financial measures.

The following tables reconcile Splunk’s non-GAAP results to Splunk’s GAAP results included in this press release.