DALLAS-Glenayre Technologies Inc.’s net income dropped 77 percent in the first quarter, but the company announced several new contracts.
Glenayre reported net income of $3.2 million, or 5 cents per common share, well below its 1997 first-quarter bottom line of $13.4 million, or 22 cents per share, a drop of 77 percent. The company blamed the figures on declining sales to Asian customers, which fell about 40 percent in the fourth quarter of 1997.
Net sales fell 11 percent to $94.5 million in the first quarter, compared with sales totaling $105.8 million during the first quarter last year. President Gary Smith also noted the company has yet to receive an acceptable offer for its microwave communications business unit, which was put up for sale last summer.
“We will continue to focus on our two primary growth areas, paging and enhanced service products, to drive long-term shareholder value,” he said. “Given the anticipated growth in these two main sectors, we expect improved top and bottom lines for the rest of 1998.”
To illustrate that point, Glenayre announced several recent purchase orders, one from PageMart Wireless Inc. for $30 million in narrowband personal communications infrastructure, another valued at $13.5 million from China’s Posts and Telecommunications Authority for a 280 MHz paging network, and finally a repair and refurbishment contract from EPS Wireless Inc. through Glenayre’s Wireless Access Group.
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The agreement with PageMart Wireless of Dallas is a multiyear volume purchase contract to upgrade and migrate its existing nationwide network to a ReFLEX 25 messaging system.
According to Jim Marion, president of Glenayre’s Wireless Messaging Group, this project is the company’s first application of its migration solution, based on its GL-C2000 control system transmitters and receivers.
PageMart also chose Glenayre’s Wireless Access Group’s AccessMate as one of the advanced messaging devices for the new network.
In China, Glenayre was selected to install a FLEX-based system in the country’s Heilongjian province. The project will introduce infrastructure in 13 cities and expand coverage in the provincial capital of Harbin. Since 1990, Glenayre has supplied some 300 paging systems in the country.
The contract with EPS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Preferred Networks Inc., establishes EPS as a certified warranty service provider for AccessMate. EPS is one of the larger independent wireless product repair facilities in the country.