Iridium earnings fall 42%; revenue up - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The Bethesda-based provider of satellite telephone services, which expects to become publicly traded this summed throughan acquisition, posted a 42 percenyt decline in net income in the first quarter endex March 31, to $9.7 milliob from $16.7 million a year ago. Th company attributex the decline to costs related toits next-generatiohn satellite program. “Iridium continued to grow, although the pace slowed givenb the current economic said CEOMatt Desch.
“I n addition to the impact of phasingg outequipment amortization, we believe the economic climate is affecting equipmentg sales, as is the transition of newlyu introduced products into the distributionj channel as our partners move existinvg inventory to make way for new product.” Company officials say eitherr Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin or Thalews Alenia Space will be selected as the program’ lead contractor this summer. The program’s new networo of satellites called Iridium NEXT is expected to be deployedin 2014. Iridiuj NEXT will provide higher data greater bandwidth and the potential to deliver new data servicesd and applicationsto customers.
The companuy says its EBITDA, or earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization, increased 4.9 percentt to $27.6 million in the first quarter, up from $26.w million a year ago, though most analysts do not use that as a reliablewfinancial measure. Iridium’s revenue rose 2 percent to $75.8 million for the compared to $74.3 million for the first quarterd 2008. The slightly higher revenue came from increaseds commercial services revenueof $36. 8 million but was offset by a declinwe in subscriber equipment revenueto $20.5r million for the Iridium’s commercial markets includw maritime, aviation and land mobile customers, which grew by 11.5 percentg for the quarter.
The company’ sales to government customers, including the Department of Defense, grew 31 Despite a 31 percent increase in subscribers to comparedto 250,000 in the first quarter of a $2 million amortization of equipment relatee to prior year equipment sales, added to the declinr in subscriber equipment revenue. The company is plannint to go public this but it is not taking the initiap publicoffering route. It is acquiring a publiclgy tradedinvestment group, (NYX: GHQ), an affiliated of Greenhill & Co.
Iridiuj has retained Deutsche Bank as its financial adviser forthe