Israel's Advanced Vision Technology (AVT) a provider of machine vision-based automatic optical inspection systems for the printing industry, announced its financial results for the first nine months of 2000. The first nine months of 2000 saw a period of continued revenue growth and new product introduction. During this period the first installations of the products introduced at DRUPA in May were carried out. Revenues for the first nine months of 2000 reached $ 9.7 million, a growth of 65 percent over the same period of 1999. Net profits reached $820,000 (7 cents per diluted share), compared to a net loss of $676,000 in the first 9 months of 1999 ((-9) cents per diluted share). Sales were negatively affected by an unfavorable currency exchange rate between the EURO and USD, and by the slow development of the overall business in Europe. AVT is now focusing its efforts to ramp up its operations in Europe by increasing its sales force and marketing investments. The financial results for the first nine months of 2000 are as follows: Revenues in the first nine months of 2000 increased by 65% compared to the respective period of 1999 to a total of $9.7 million. The revenues are growing in CAGR of 60% During this period AVT continued its strategy of penetrating new geographical market segments and had initial sales of its new products: PrintVision/Pro; PrintVision/Apollo; pRegister and PrintVision/Mercury. Gross Margin in the first nine months of 2000 reached 62% compared to 55% in the first nine months of 1999. Net profit for the first nine months of 2000 was $820,000 (8% of revenues) versus a loss of $676,000 for the first nine months of 1999. Earnings per diluted share were 8 cents for the first nine months, and 4 cents for Q3 of 2000 (a loss of 9 cents for the first 9 months, and a profit of 1 cent for Q3 1999). Operating expenses increased 50.8% in the first nine months of 2000 compared to the respective period of 1999. Gross R&D expenses for the first nine months of 2000 totaled $2,219,000, an increase of 48% over the respective period of 1999. In the first nine months of 2000 gross R&D expenses constituted 22.8% of revenues compared with 25.4% in the respective period of 1999. Sales and Marketing expenses increased 45.9% in the first nine months of 2000 over the respective period of last year, constituting 33.7% of revenues compared to 38% in the respective period of 1999. The company recorded financial income of $794,000 for the first nine months of 2000 compared to financial expenses of $38,000 in the respective period in 1999. Financial income includes interest on time and cash deposits, interest incurred on bonds and exchange rate differences. On September 30, 2000, 112 people were employed by AVT: 25 of these were responsible for operations and manufacturing, 39 for Research and Development, 35 for Sales and Marketing, and 13 for General and Administrative tasks.