Accedian Networks’ revenue climbs 38% in 2014
Accedian Networks saw its revenue grow 38% in 2014, thanks in large part to global Long Term Evolution mobile network expansion.
The Montreal-based company also cited North American small cell deployments and increased demand for enterprise-to-data center connectivity as factors behind its revenue growth.
Accedian specializes in performance assurance for mobile networks.
While Accedian would not reveal its exact revenue figures, the privately held company said it gained 88 new customers in 2014, spanning mobile, wireline and financial services network operators including KVH, TMX Atrium and T-Mobile (Poland).
Key wins included multiple global tier 1 mobile operators.
Looking ahead, the company said it plans to boost staff by 15% over the first and second quarters of 2015.
“We are riding the wave of global LTE expansion as mobile networks become more open in a competitive, multivendor environment,” Patrick Ostiguy, Accedian Networks’ founder, president and CEO, said in a prepared statement.
América Móvil net profit falls
América Móvil ended the fourth quarter of 2014 with a 77.8% decline in net profit.
In its financial report, the company owned by billionaire Carlos Slim claimed that an increase in comprehensive financing costs was the result of unrealized foreign exchange losses.
América Móvil noted that the U.S. dollar rose 12.6% in the quarter against the Mexican peso, 13.4% against the Brazilian real, 24.2% against the Colombian peso and 13.6% against the Euro.
For Q4 2014, América Móvil’s total revenue was $15.25 billion, an increase over the $14.86 billion reported for Q4 2013.
América Móvil finished the year with a net debt of $35.49 billion, up from $34.50 billion the previous year or the equivalent of 1.7 times the EBITDA for the last 12 months, adjusting for the company’s currency exposure.
As for customers, América Móvil said it ended 2014 with 368 million access lines, 8.4% more than a year earlier, reflecting the consolidation of Telekom Austria.
Of that number, 289 million were wireless subscribers. Brazil is the company’s largest and fastest-growing market with 107.2 million accesses, a 5.7% increase from the year before.
Cisco beats expectations
Enterprise demand for Cisco’s networking gear is more than offsetting any weakness in the service-provider segment. The company said that revenue for the most recent quarter was up 7% year-on-year, while net income shot up 67%.
Cisco sold $11.9 billion worth of products and services during the most recent quarter, beating Wall Street’s expectations by $100 million. Net income was $2.4 billion, and earnings per share were 53 cents for the quarter. As a result, Cisco is increasing its quarterly dividend by 2 cents per share.
Cisco’s higher net income is partially due to cost cuts; the company has slashed its headcount in recent years. In 2011 Cisco announced 11,500 job cuts, followed by 4,000 cuts announced in 2013 and 6,000 last year.
“Wireless was strong as a product refresh contributes along with Meraki,” noted analyst Simon Leopold of Raymond James Equity Research. Cisco spent more than $1 billion to buy Wi-Fi access pointmaker Meraki in 2012. This month, Meraki’s three founders abruptly left Cisco.
Routers are a core business for Cisco, and router sales have been under pressure as operators delay refreshes while they evaluate virtualized solutions. The outlook for Cisco’s sales to wireless service providers is less robust than the outlook for sales to enterprise customers.
“Service providers remain a challenge as evident in weak routing results barely up year-on-year and down quarter-on-quarter, and likely stays that way for quarters,” said Leopold. “Globally, enterprise orders grew 10% year-on-year. Service provider video, down 19% year-on-year, remains difficult and with 6% year-on-year growth, we considered security disappointing.”
