Polycom 4Q, FY08 earnings announcement

On Wednesday, Polycom posted its fourth quarter and yearly earnings for 2008. The company did just about the same in 4Q08 as it did a year ago, but closed FY08 with a "record" $1.1 billion for the company.  GAAP net income for 4Q08 was up by a nickel per share when compared to last year as well.

In 2007, Polycom closed out the year with $929.9 million, so adding another $170 million to the bottom line in a slumping economy is pretty good. Breakouts for net revenues in the fourth quarter work out to be 67 percent video solutions (further broken down into 54 percent video communication and 13 percent network systems) and 33 percent voice communications. Compared to last year, video is up slightly (63 percent in 4Q07) and voice is down a bit (37 percent 4Q07).

Icing on the cake was almost $51 million in positive operating cash flow in the fourth quarter, contributing to Polycom's 44th consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flow. The company departs 2008 with nearly $325 million in cash and investments and no debt.

During the company's earnings call, Polycom stated it has gross margins of around 60 percent on average on its speakerphone business. VoIP phones continued to be one of Polycom's fastest growing product lines in 2008, as the company saw customers putting out dollars to implement a "money saving solution."

For more:
- Polycom's 4Q08 and FY08 earnings announcement.
- Seeking Alpha has a transcript of Polycom's earnings call

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