Trading Update - Third Quarter Performance

SDL Maidenhead , United Kingdom
25 October 2001

SDL plc ("SDL" or "the Company"), the globalization products and solutions company, is pleased to announce its third quarter unaudited financial results for the period 1st July 2001 to 30th September 2001. Revenues for the quarter ended 30 September 2001 were £8.62 m (3% up on last year) and the loss before tax and goodwill amortisation was £0.71m. The cumulative revenues for the first 9 months were £25.37 m with a total loss before taxation and goodwill of £1.97m. At the year to date revenues increased by 27% over the same period in 2000. Net cash levels at the end of the period were over £10m.

  New service contracts during the year to date include Adobe, Rockwell, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard, with product sales remaining encouraging with recent sales to CR Laurence, EBSCO, LNP Engineering Plastics, International Paper, Compendium and the State of Oregon, together with increased volumes going through Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Teleroute companies using the SDLWebFlow Enterprise products.

Mark Lancaster, Chief Executive of SDL, commented:

"In view of the current volatility throughout the technology sector we have decided to inform the market of our current trading position. Trading in all areas of our business remains strong and we are pleased with our performance during this year despite the considerable difficulties in the market place. Despite the global slowdown in software and related services, SDL has still been able to grow its market share. This financial performance remains a strong vindication of our key strategy of maximising revenues and operating profits from our core services businesses whilst continuing considerable investment and development of leading edge globalization software solutions for both large and small companies that have global aspirations."

About SDL

SDL is the leader in Global Information Management (GIM) solutions that empower organizations to accelerate the delivery of high-quality multilingual content to global markets. Its enterprise software and services integrate with existing business systems to manage the delivery of global information from authoring to publication and throughout the distributed translation supply chain.

Global industry leaders rely on SDL to provide enterprise software or hosted services for their GIM processes, including ABN-Amro, Best Western, Bosch, Canon, Chrysler, CNH, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Philips, SAP, Sony, SUN Microsystems and Virgin Atlantic.

SDL has implemented more than 480 enterprise GIM solutions, has deployed over 150,000 software licenses across the GIM ecosystem and provides access to on-demand translation portals for 10 million customers per month. Over 1,000 service professionals deliver consulting, implementation and language services through its global infrastructure of more than 50 offices in 30 countries. For more information, visit www.sdl.com

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Nicola Bogle (SDL)
+44 (0)1628 417225
nbogle@sdl.com