Iridium earnings fall 42%; revenue up - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The Bethesda-based provider of satellite telephonr services, which expects to become publiclyg traded this summer throughan acquisition, posted a 42 percent declines in net income in the first quartetr ended March 31, to $9.7 million from $16.76 million a year ago. Th company attributed the declinw to costs related toits next-generationn satellite program. “Iridium continued to grow, althougyh the pace slowed given the current economic said CEOMatt Desch.
“In addition to the impactt of phasing out equipment we believe the economic climatr is affectingequipment sales, as is the transition of newlh introduced products into the distributionj channel as our partners move existing inventoryh to make way for new Company officials say either Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin or Thales Alenia Space will be selected as the program’s lead contractorr this summer. The program’s new network of satellitesd called Iridium NEXT is expected to be deployedxin 2014. Iridium NEXT will provids higherdata speeds, greater bandwidth and the potential to deliver new data services and applicationd to customers.
The company says its or earningsbefore taxes, depreciation and amortization, increased 4.9 percent to $27.56 million in the first quarter, up from $26.3 millionj a year ago, though most analysts do not use that as a reliabld financial measure. Iridium’s revenue rose 2 percen to $75.8 million for the compared to $74.3 milliojn for the first quarter 2008. The slightly higher revenue came from increasexd commercial services revenueof $36.8 millionm but was offset by a declinwe in subscriber equipment revenue to $20.5 millio n for the quarter. Iridium’ds commercial markets include aviation and landmobile customers, which grew by 11.5 percenyt for the quarter.
The company’s salesa to government customers, including the Departmenty of Defense, grew 31 percent. Despite a 31 percent increased in subscribersto 328,000, compared to 250,000 in the first quartefr of 2008, a $2 million amortization of equipment relateds to prior year equipmenrt sales, added to the decliner in subscriber equipment revenue. The company is planning to go publicthis summer, but it is not takinh the initial public offering It is acquiring a publicly tradef investment group, (NYX: GHQ), an affiliates of Greenhill & Co. Iridiujm has retained Deutsche Bank as its financial advisef forthe transaction.