Financial

posted on 01 August 2008 06:16

In a terrific set results 3PAR's first 2009 quarter' revenues rose 80 percent year on year, taking the company into profit with the benefit of newly-recognized deferred revenue. CEO David Scott is no doubt beaming.

Revenues for Q1 09 were $43.0 million, a stonking 80 percent higher than Q1 08's $23.89 million. They would have been $40.7 million if newly recognized deferred revenue hadn't been included but that would still have been an impressive rise.

Net income was $678,000 ($0.01/share), again with the help of the recognized deferred revenue, but hey, a profit is a profit, especially the first one! This compares with a net loss in the year-ago quarter of -$4.7 million ($0.26/share). 

Scott said: "We are pleased to see 3PAR deliver another strong quarter of improved revenue growth and operating leverage. We are also delighted that, taking into account the recognition of previously deferred revenue, we reached an important milestone of profitability on a GAAP basis."

The company has instituted a $10 million share repurchase programme as a way of increasing shareholder value.

An issue it has is that, since it sells to managed service oroviders such as AT&T, Savvis and Verizon Business, it can't automatically record a new customer when they get a new customer. Instead a new customer for, say Savvis, using 3PAR kit only counts as a repeat Savvis order to 3PAR. So recorded unique customer numbers don't reflect the reality.

It appears that MySpace might represent a single customer contributing more than 10 percent of 3PAR's revenues in the quarter.

An analyst source suggests that fewer than half of 3PAR's customers are using its thin provisioning capability.

^{[Chris Mellor.]}