Strong Q3 Saturday, October 23, 1999
https://seattle.dbusiness.com/index.asp?layout=story&doc_id=10905
AVT reports strong Q3 results
10/22/99 11:15:00 AM
By Jeanne Lang Jones, dbusiness.com
KIRKLAND, Wash. Oct. 22 (dbusiness.com) - AVT
Corp. reported a robust 37 percent increase in
earnings per share in the third quarter, as it continues
to benefit from a string of recent acquisitions of other
messaging companies and the increasing popularity of
compatible Microsoft software for corporate computer
networks.
AVT (Nasdaq: AVTC) is a unified messaging company
with technology that enables users to send and
receive voicemail, e-mail and fax messages on the
device of their choosing, including their desktop PC,
office telephone, laptop computer or cell phone.
AVT (www.avtc.com) had net income of $5.3 million, or
33 cents per diluted share, compared with net income
of $3.6 million, or 24 cents per diluted share. Sales
increased 25 percent to $33.2 million from $26.4
million for the period last year.
For the first nine months, AVT had net income of
$11.7 million, or 74 cents per share, on sales of $93.9
million, including a non-recurring charge of $2.38
million related to its acquisition of MediaTel Corp. in
April. That compares to earnings of $9.2 million, or 61
cents per share, for the period last year, which
included a $287,000 charge related to AVT’s
withdrawal of a proposed follow-on stock offering in
February 1998.
Excluding these non-recurring charges, AVT’s income
for the nine-month period increased 50 percent to
$14.1 million, or 89 cents per share, from $9.4 million,
or 63 cents per share, a year earlier.
Both AVT and rival Active Voice Corp. (Nasdaq:
ACVC) in Seattle have benefited from their close
working relationship with neighbor Microsoft Corp. The
increasing embrace by business customers of
Microsoft’s Windows NT software for corporate
computer networks, the company’s Exchange server
and Microsoft Outlook e-mail service has helped both
messaging companies move up market to target large
corporations.
According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, the
market for unified messaging that lets you read or
listen to all your messages on whatever device you
choose will swell to a $5 billion by 2002.
However, there has been indifference on Wall Street to
a series of product upgrades by AVT this month and
its release of a new Web browser-based messaging
technology that lets users broadcast secure e-mail
and fax messages to many recipients in one
transmission over the Internet from their PC, laptop or
cell phone.
Meanwhile, rival Active Voice has seen its stock jump
up on recent news its unified messaging products had
bested AVT, Lucent and Key Voice in Computer
Telephony Magazine's product shootout comparison.
In afternoon trading Friday, AVT was down $2.31, or 6
percent, to $31.25. The stock has traded in the range
of $16 to $40.50 in the past 52 weeks.
Active Voice was down 6 cents to $20. Its 52-week
range is $5.75 to $24.50.
Jeanne Lang Jones covers the Puget Sound region for
dbusiness.com. E-mail her with story ideas or
comments.
dbusiness.com
Saturday, October 23, 1999
AVT reports strong Q3 results
10/22/99 11:15:00 AM
By Jeanne Lang Jones, dbusiness.com
KIRKLAND, Wash. Oct. 22 (dbusiness.com) - AVT
Corp. reported a robust 37 percent increase in
earnings per share in the third quarter, as it continues
to benefit from a string of recent acquisitions of other
messaging companies and the increasing popularity of
compatible Microsoft software for corporate computer
networks.
AVT (Nasdaq: AVTC) is a unified messaging company
with technology that enables users to send and
receive voicemail, e-mail and fax messages on the
device of their choosing, including their desktop PC,
office telephone, laptop computer or cell phone.
AVT (www.avtc.com) had net income of $5.3 million, or
33 cents per diluted share, compared with net income
of $3.6 million, or 24 cents per diluted share. Sales
increased 25 percent to $33.2 million from $26.4
million for the period last year.
For the first nine months, AVT had net income of
$11.7 million, or 74 cents per share, on sales of $93.9
million, including a non-recurring charge of $2.38
million related to its acquisition of MediaTel Corp. in
April. That compares to earnings of $9.2 million, or 61
cents per share, for the period last year, which
included a $287,000 charge related to AVT’s
withdrawal of a proposed follow-on stock offering in
February 1998.
Excluding these non-recurring charges, AVT’s income
for the nine-month period increased 50 percent to
$14.1 million, or 89 cents per share, from $9.4 million,
or 63 cents per share, a year earlier.
Both AVT and rival Active Voice Corp. (Nasdaq:
ACVC) in Seattle have benefited from their close
working relationship with neighbor Microsoft Corp. The
increasing embrace by business customers of
Microsoft’s Windows NT software for corporate
computer networks, the company’s Exchange server
and Microsoft Outlook e-mail service has helped both
messaging companies move up market to target large
corporations.
According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, the
market for unified messaging that lets you read or
listen to all your messages on whatever device you
choose will swell to a $5 billion by 2002.
However, there has been indifference on Wall Street to
a series of product upgrades by AVT this month and
its release of a new Web browser-based messaging
technology that lets users broadcast secure e-mail
and fax messages to many recipients in one
transmission over the Internet from their PC, laptop or
cell phone.
Meanwhile, rival Active Voice has seen its stock jump
up on recent news its unified messaging products had
bested AVT, Lucent and Key Voice in Computer
Telephony Magazine's product shootout comparison.
In afternoon trading Friday, AVT was down $2.31, or 6
percent, to $31.25. The stock has traded in the range
of $16 to $40.50 in the past 52 weeks.
Active Voice was down 6 cents to $20. Its 52-week
range is $5.75 to $24.50.
Jeanne Lang Jones covers the Puget Sound region for
dbusiness.com. E-mail her with story ideas or
comments.
dbusiness.com