-- Conference Call Scheduled for Friday, May 4, 2012, 8:30 a.m. EDT --

(PRNewswire) — GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), a leading source of geospatial information and insight, announced today results for its fiscal first quarter ended March 31, 2012.

"Today we are pleased to announce that we have moved up our quarterly conference call to tell you that we have been notified this week by the NGA of the full funding for our EnhancedView SLA for the 2012 contract term. We expect to receive our $111 million cost-share payment by the third quarter as previously disclosed. In addition, results for the first quarter were above our expectations, as our core business remained strong, and our international business continued to exhibit solid growth," said Matt O'Connell, GeoEye's chief executive officer and president. "We renewed a number of large international affiliate contracts, which gives us excellent visibility into our 2012 revenues. We performed well under our EnhancedView Service Level Agreement, and the construction of our GeoEye-2 satellite remains on time and on budget for a launch in the first half of 2013."

FIRST QUARTER RESULTS

Total revenues were $89.3 million for the first quarter of 2012, a 3.1 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011. Net income available to common stockholders for the first quarter of 2012 was $13.2 million, or $0.58 per fully diluted share, compared to net income available to common stockholders of $10.0 million, or $0.44 per fully diluted share, for the first quarter of 2011.

Operating profit was $25.7 million for the first quarter of 2012. Operating margin was 28.8 percent for the first quarter of 2012, compared to 27.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011. Adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP measurement defined as net income before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, non-cash recognition of stock compensation expense and other items) was approximately $46.2 million for the first quarter of 2012, compared to $43.8 million in the same period in 2011. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues was 51.7 percent for the first quarter of 2012, compared to 50.5 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

The company ended the first quarter of 2012 with unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $181.2 million; total assets of approximately $1.4 billion; stockholders' equity of $524.2 million and long-term debt of $511.8 million.

FIRST QUARTER 2012 OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

Revenue Mix

• Imagery revenues in the first quarter of 2012 were $62.5 million, or 70.0 percent of total revenues. Production and other services revenues were $20.7 million, or 23.2 percent of total revenues. The NextView cost share accounted for revenues of $6.0 million, or 6.8 percent of total revenues.

Geographic Information

• Domestic revenues were $65.8 million for the first quarter of 2012, or 73.7 percent of total revenues for the period. International revenues were $23.5 million for the first quarter of 2012, or 26.3 percent of total revenues for the period.
• International revenues were up 20.0 percent for the first quarter of 2012, compared to the same period in 2011. Domestic revenues decreased 1.9 percent for the first quarter of 2012, compared to the same period in 2011.

GeoEye-2 Capital Expenditures

• During the quarter, the company invested $60.4 million for the continued development and construction of the GeoEye-2 satellite and EnhancedView program, including $13.3 million of capitalized interest. To date, the company has invested $639.1 million in the GeoEye-2 satellite and EnhancedView program, including $76.4 million of capitalized interest.

FISCAL YEAR 2012 FINANCIAL OUTLOOK

Our estimates represent management's current expectations about the company's future financial performance, based on information available at this time. Our outlook does not reflect the impact of any potential changes to our U.S. government contracts, which could result from reductions of federal agency budgets currently under deliberation.

For the full year, the company is maintaining its previous revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share guidance. Our expectations for 2012 are for revenues to range from $355 million to $375 million, Adjusted EBITDA to range from $173 million to $190 million and earnings per share to range from $1.95 to $2.35.

CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATION

GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY) will host a conference call for investors and analysts to discuss financial results for the first quarter, which ended March 31, 2012.

When: Friday, May 4, 2012, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time

To Participate:
To participate in the call via phone, domestic callers may dial toll-free at (877) 776-4039 and international callers may dial (631) 291-4808 approximately 10 minutes prior to the start time. Callers may identify themselves to the operator as GeoEye conference call participants or by using the conference ID: 62701899. Questions will be accepted from phone participants during the live call after prepared remarks and as time permits.

The conference call will also be webcast on the "Investor Relations" section of the company's corporate Web site, www.geoeye.com. To directly access the live webcast go to: http://geoy.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm and click on the "May 4, 2012 Investor Update Webcast" link. Please allow 15 minutes before the scheduled start time to register, download and install any necessary audio software.

Replay:
An audio replay of the first quarter conference call will be available through midnight May 18, 2012, by dialing (855) 859-2056 and typing in the conference ID number: 62701899.

An archived webcast of the conference call will be available at the same URL address approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call.

Selected financial results for the company are as follows (dollars in thousands, except earnings per share):