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SolarWinds Announces First Quarter 2013 Results

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(1) Amortization of Intangible Assets. We provide non-GAAP information which excludes expenses for the amortization of intangible assets which primarily relate to purchased intangible assets associated with our acquisitions. We believe that eliminating this expense from our non-GAAP measures is useful to investors, because the amortization of intangible assets can be inconsistent in amount and frequency and is significantly impacted by the timing and magnitude of our acquisition transactions, which also vary in frequency from period to period. Accordingly, we analyze the performance of our operations in each period without regard to such expenses.

(2) Stock-Based Compensation Expense and Related Employer-Paid Payroll Taxes. We provide non-GAAP information which excludes expenses for stock-based compensation and related employer-paid payroll taxes. We believe the exclusion of these items allows for financial results that are more indicative of our continuing operations. We believe that the exclusion of stock-based compensation expense provides for a better comparison of our operating results to prior periods and to our peer companies as the calculations of stock-based compensation vary from period to period and company to company due to different valuation methodologies, subjective assumptions and the variety of award types. Employer-paid payroll taxes on stock-based compensation is dependent on our stock price and the timing of the taxable events related to the equity awards, over which our management has little control, and does not correlate to the core operation of our business. Because of these unique characteristics of stock-based compensation and the related employer-paid payroll taxes, management excludes these expenses when analyzing the organization's business performance.

(3) Acquisition Related Adjustments. We exclude certain expense items resulting from acquisitions including the following, when applicable: (i) amortization of purchased intangible assets associated with our acquisitions (see Note 1 for further discussion); (ii) legal, accounting and advisory fees to the extent associated with acquisitions; (iii) changes in fair value of contingent consideration; (iv) costs related to integrating the acquired businesses; and (v) restructuring costs, including adjustments related to changes in estimates, related to acquisitions. We consider these adjustments, to some extent, to be unpredictable and dependent on a significant number of factors that are outside of our control. Furthermore, acquisitions result in non-continuing operating expenses, which would not otherwise have been incurred by us in the normal course of our organic business operations, with respect to each acquisition. We believe that providing non-GAAP information for acquisition related expense items in addition to the corresponding GAAP information allows the users of our financial statements to better review and understand the historic and current results of our continuing operations, and also facilitates comparisons to our historical results and results of less acquisitive peer companies, both with and without such adjustments.

(4) Income Tax Effect of Non-GAAP Exclusions. We believe providing financial information with and without the income tax effect of excluding items related to our non-GAAP financial measures provide our management and users of the financial statements with better clarity regarding the ongoing performance and future liquidity of our business.

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