Wireless LAN vendor Meru Networks reported Tuesday its initial first-quarter results as a publicly traded company. It posted strong revenue growth, but not enough to overcome a net loss.
Fiscal 2010 Q1 total revenues were $19.6 million, up 28% over the same period a year ago (though the company only went public on April 1 of this year). Revenues from just products and service grew even more strongly to $15.9 million, an increase of 62% over a year ago.
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But by both generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and non-GAAP measures, Meru's first public quarter added up to a loss: $35.8 million according to GAAP, or a whopping $74.19 per share, compared to a comparable calculation for a year ago of $1.9 million and $5.14 per share. Those results included charges of just over a half-million dollars for stock-based compensation expense and just over $35 million for the "adjustment to fair value of the warrant liability." Full details are online at the Meru site.
The non-GAAP net loss was $97,000 or $0.20 per share, which was an improvement over the calculation for the prior year's period, with a net loss then of $2 million or $4.75 per share.
Meru's stock has been slowly dropping from a post-IPO high of $20.03 per share to its lowest point so far of $13.83 on May 7. It's been on a rebound since then, closing at $15.51 on Monday.
The company raised $59.1 million in new capital when it went public on April 1.
By comparison, archrival Aruba Networks, the first and until Meru the only wireless LAN startup to go public, had fiscal 2010 Q2 revenues of $62.7 million, an increase of approximately 31% over Q2 2009. Aruba's GAAP net loss for the fiscal second quarter of 2010 was $4.4 million, or $0.05 per share, compared to a net loss of $6.8 million, or $0.08 per share a year before. GAAP results for the fiscal second quarter of 2010 also included $9.0 million of non-cash stock-based expenses, $1.2 million of amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets and $0.5 million in litigation reserves.
Aruba's non-GAAP results, which exclude things like non-cash stock-based expenses and amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets: quarterly net income of $6.3 million, or $0.60 per share, a jump of $4.3 million compared to a year ago. Aruba's stock closed Tuesday at $11.86. The company reports its Q3 results next week.
John Cox covers wireless networking and mobile computing for "Network World." Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnwcoxnww
Email: john_cox@nww.com
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