Radvision lowers Q3 guidance, blames economy, competition

Telepresence vendor Radvision (Nasdaq: RVSN), which has struggled in recent quarters, lowered its third-quarter guidance, saying revenue would be in the $17 million to $17.5 million range, down 10 percent from its forecast $19 million.

The Israeli company said the revised numbers were due to government and enterprise buyers cutting their spending as worries about the global economy mounted and due to tougher competition in the videoconferencing market.

"When there's a macro-related pullback in enterprise spending, often times that will impact the smallest guys first and more severely," said Andrew Uerkwitz, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, who covers Israeli technology companies. "It's going to be tough for them because they're competing with the bigger players."

It's the third consecutive quarter that Radvision has lowered its guidance. The company is trying to establish itself as a competitor with the likes of Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM), but it has struggled, especially in the North American market.

The company's revenue was hit hard when Cisco bought telepresence company Tandberg. Before the sale Radvison had been a major technology partner with the networking company, and sales to Cisco, at one time, made up about 40 percent of Radvision's revenues.

Earlier this week, in an attempt to expand it appeal to companies looking to extend their videoconferencing reach to mobile users, Radvision announced an app, SCOPIA Mobile V3, for Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iOS devices that allowed users access to its platform.

Radvision is hoping SCOPIA Mobile V3 will expand their presence in the North American market.

"We know it's going to be difficult because Cisco and Polycom have almost a duopoly in the U.S.," said Bob Romano, VP for enterprise marketing at Radvision.

But Radvision, which has admittedly started slowly in North America, has been pushing hard, building out its sales and marketing infrastructure and working to gain reseller and customer attention. "We are investing in this market and we feel we are on the upswing," Romano said.

For more:
- see this Bloomberg article

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