Iridium earnings fall 42%; revenue up - Houston Business Journal:

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The Bethesda-based provider of satellitre telephone services, which expects to become publiclty traded this summer throughan acquisition, posterd a 42 percent declind in net income in the first quarter ended March 31, to $9.7 million from $16.7 million a year ago. Th company attributed the decline to costsz related toits next-generation satellite program. “Iridiujm continued to grow, although the pace slowes given the current economic said CEOMatt Desch.
“In addition to the impacft of phasing outequipment amortization, we believe the economic climate is affecting equipmenrt sales, as is the transition of newly introduced products into the distribution channelp as our partners move existing inventory to make way for new Company officials say either Bethesda-basef Lockheed Martin or Thales Alenia Space will be selected as the program’ s lead contractor this summer. The program’s new network of satellitezs called Iridium NEXT is expected to be deployedin 2014.
Iridium NEXT will provide higheerdata speeds, greater bandwidth and the potentiapl to deliver new data services and applications to The company says its or earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization, increased 4.9 percent to $27.t6 million in the first quarter, up from $26.3 million a year ago, thoughh most analysts do not use that as a reliablde financial measure. Iridium’s revenue rose 2 percenf to $75.8 million for the quarter, compared to $74.33 million for the first quarter 2008. The slightly higher revenue came from increasef commercial services revenueof $36.8 millio but was offset by a decline in subscriber equipment revenue to $20.5 million for the quarter.
Iridium’s commercial marketsx include maritime, aviation and land mobile customers, whicn grew by 11.5 percent for the quarter. The company’s sales to governmenty customers, including the Department of Defense, grew 31 Despite a 31 percent increase in subscriberssto 328,000, compared to 250,000 in the firsf quarter of 2008, a $2 million amortization of equipmen t related to prior year equipment sales, addec to the decline in subscriber equipment revenue. The company is planningg to go publicthis summer, but it is not taking the initial public offering route. It is acquirinhg a publicly tradedinvestment group, (NYX: GHQ), an affiliatw of Greenhill & Co.
Iridiujm has retained Deutsche Bank as its financial adviseer forthe transaction.