Avaya Inc a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, today reported income from continuing operations of $71 million or 15c per diluted share in the first fiscal quarter of 2006.
The company said diluted earnings per share included a benefit of $13 million or 3c per diluted share, after taxes, related to a change in its vacation policy. In addition, diluted earnings per share included an expense of $3 million or 1c per diluted share, after taxes, related to the adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123(R).
SFAS 123(R), which requires the expensing of equity-based compensation, was effective for the company beginning on 1 October 2005.
In the same quarter last year the company reported income from continuing operations of $33 million or 7c per diluted share.
The company`s first fiscal quarter 2006 revenues increased 8.8% to $1.249 billion, compared to revenues of $1.148 billion in the first fiscal quarter of 2005. The first quarter of 2006 included the full quarter contribution from the Tenovis acquisition. Avaya said its Global Communications Systems revenues rose 11.7% year-over-year and Avaya Global Services revenues increased 5.8% over the same period. The company`s operating income for the quarter was $107 million.
Avaya generated $106 million in operating cash flow and had $726 million in cash at the end of the quarter.
"During the quarter, Avaya shipped its eight millionth IP line, with shipments increasing 16% compared to the year ago quarter," said Don Peterson, chairman and CEO, Avaya. "Within the United States, IP telephony lines rose 21% over the same period. As we move through 2006, our global size and scale, technology and applications leadership and the scope and breadth of our solutions and services portfolio position us to benefit as enterprises continue to evolve to IP telephony."
Share repurchase programme
Avaya said it repurchased 7.9 million shares of common stock during the first fiscal quarter at an average price of $11.32, or a total of $90 million. Since the inception of the company`s share repurchase programme during the second quarter of 2005, Avaya has repurchased a total of 19.5 million shares at an average price of $10.11, or a total of $197 million. Since the inception of the programme, the company has reduced its diluted common shares by 3%.
First fiscal quarter highlights
Avaya announced several customer wins, market share updates, alliance partnerships and new solution offers since the last quarter.
* InfoTech named Avaya the leader in US Enterprise Telephony with 21% share and in US IP telephony with 22% share for the third calendar quarter of 2005.
* For the fourth consecutive quarter, the Dell `Oro Group named Avaya the global market leader in Enterprise Telephony in the third calendar quarter of 2005 with 19% market share two points ahead of the nearest competitor.
* For the eighth consecutive quarter, Synergy Research named Avaya worldwide leader in enterprise IP telephony in the third calendar quarter of 2005 with 22% of the global market by shipments and 25% by revenues.
* Miercom, a leading network consultancy and product test centre, awarded the highest score ever recorded in its annual large-scale IP PBX shoot-out to Avaya. As a result, Avaya earned the "Best in Test" award for high-end IP PBX solutions from Business Communications Review magazine, which featured an article on the test results in its January 2006 issue. This is the second consecutive year Avaya won this award.
* Bank of Communications, one of the largest banks in China, will deploy 2500 lines of Avaya Interactive Voice Response systems to enhance customer self-service at Shanghai HQ and several regional offices.
* Aramex, a transportation company based in the Middle East, is implementing IP telephony at three sites in Dubai, with plans to roll out other offices in Jordan, New York, India and 200 offices across five continents with a total deployment to more than 4 000 employees.
* Gas Natural, a leading natural gas distributor in Spain, is migrating to an IP contact centre and converged communication network for over 1 000 distributed contact centre agents and using mobility applications such as unified communication, softphone and wireless.
* During the FIFA World Cup Final Draw an Avaya converged communications network powered the first in a series of events leading to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The new, open standards-based network reduced the cost of call traffic and enabled attendees, FIFA employees and accredited users to work flexibly and access the network from a variety of locations within the Messe, Germany complex.
* The company announced Avaya VPNremote for its family of Avaya 4600 model IP telephones. The feature embeds virtual private network remote capabilities into these IP telephones. Easily installed in a remote or home office, the solution provides telecommuters with an "always on" business-class, IP telephone.
* The new Avaya IP Video Telephony Solution integrates Avaya Communication Manager software for IP telephony with desktop video conferencing, group video conferencing, and multipoint network solutions from Polycom. This enables video to be more easily used in daily communications and enables video conferencing across multiple parties using various communications devices by creating a unified network.
* A collaboration with Symbol Technologies integrates Symbol`s advanced data capture, mobile computing platforms and wireless infrastructure with Avaya`s Internet protocol telephony software and mobile client applications. This is particularly helpful for businesses in retail, healthcare, manufacturing environments where campus workers use mobile computers, scanners and other technologies.
Share
