Radvision bests Q4 expectations; issues poor Q1 guidance

Telepresence vendor Radvision (Nasdaq: RVSN), which earlier this year upped its fourth quarter guidance, today reported strong revenue and profit numbers that beat analyst estimates.

The company reported revenues of $21.8 million for the quarter, down 18 percent from the $26.6 million it reported in the year-ago quarter, but in-line with the $21.5 million to $22 million it anticipated. Earnings per share meanwhile, beat estimates by 15 percent. The company expected a loss of between 25-28 cents per diluted share on a GAAP basis, and 18-21 cents per diluted share on a non-GAAP basis, but reported a net loss for the quarter of $4.5 million, or 24 cents per diluted share, on a GAAP basis, and $3.1 million, or 17 cents per diluted share, on a non-GAAP basis. This compares with net income of $1.4 million, or 7 cents per diluted share, on a GAAP basis, and $2.9 million, or 16 cents per diluted share, on non-GAAP basis, a year ago.

The company closed the quarter looking for a bump in revenue from increased endpoint sales, and it got what it expected.

Chief executive Boaz Raviv said the sales were up 55 percent sequentially, and were "the main driver behind the better than expected performance of our Video Business Unit, and of our fourth quarter results overall."

He said video infrastructure products sales were up 25 percent sequentially, with sales to service providers--a target for the company--nearly doubling. "The strength of our technology and the broadening of our portfolio of solutions for the SMB market contributed to our record endpoint sales and success with Service Providers in the fourth quarter," he said.

The company this month also introduced its next-gen video system for the high end market, the Scopia XT5000, an endpoint it thinks will have a big impact on the SMB market, which Raviv said was "a significant step forward in our end-to-end strategy and it is key to our return to profitability and future growth."

Nonetheless, Radvision's outlook for the current quarter was anything but upbeat. It said it expects first quarter revenues of $17 million and a net loss of approximately $7.6 million, or 41 cents per diluted share, on a GAAP basis, and $6.8 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, on a non-GAAP basis. Wall Street was looking for revenues of $19.35 million and a net loss of about 24 cents per diluted share.

The Israeli company, which formerly was a supplier for Cisco's (Nasdaq: CSCO) telepresence offering, has struggled to regain its footing since Cisco bought Tandberg in 2009. It also faces stiff competition from Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM).

For more:
- see this release

Special Report: Enterprise Communications earnings in the fourth quarter 2011

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