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ALTIGEN COMMUNICATIONS REPORTS RECORD FOURTH QUARTER REVENUE
- Fourth Quarter Revenue Up 15% to $5.2 Million due to Growth in System Sales
- Board Approves Share Repurchase Program for Up to $2 Million
Fremont, CA – Nov. 14, 2007 – AltiGen Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATGN), a
leading provider of VoIP business phone systems and Unified Communications solutions
for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), including companies with multiple distributed
locations, branch offices and call centers, reported its financial results for the fiscal 2007
fourth quarter and year ended September 30, 2007.
Gilbert Hu, chairman and CEO, stated, "Our record fourth quarter revenue reflects our
efforts to accelerate growth and build shareholder value. During 2007, we strengthened
management, expanded the sales model, enhanced our products and began executing on
our new strategic business plan. As a result, in the fourth quarter, we increased both
revenue by 15 percent, compared to the fourth quarter of 2006, and gross profit to 56
percent of revenue, versus 55 percent last year. We are very excited about the upward
trend in revenue this quarter, and we believe this solid momentum will continue.”
Jeremiah Fleming, AltiGen’s president and COO, said, "Over the past six months, we
placed a significant focus on amplifying our distribution channel. During this time, we
doubled our sales organization by adding channel sales, strategic account and
telemarketing personnel. We continue to integrate quality value added resellers (VARs)
into our team and currently have well over 200 in North America. We recently reached
an agreement with a leading North American master distributor of business telephone and
computer telephony products, bringing exposure to thousands of resellers. We also
released the new 5.1 version of our award-winning IP-PBX, which enables us to support
lower cost IP trunking and standard third party endpoints and has resulted in greater
scalability. The combination of all these factors with our new automated multi-site
enterprise communications manager has positioned us well to capture the growing
demand for VoIP and Unified Communications among small, medium and multi-site
businesses.”
"In fact, the market’s increasing emphasis on Unified Communications bodes particularly
well for AltiGen, as we offer solutions that unify the various aspects of business
communications – such as voice, email, fax and messaging – across one or more
locations,” Fleming added. "Our single server architecture provides an integrated VoIP
business phone system and Unified Communications platform that immediately delivers
increased productivity and cost savings. Simultaneously, our software-based system
enables companies to implement the features they need now, with the security that they
can easily add more features, users and locations as future growth requires.”
Financial Results
Revenue for the fiscal 2007 fourth quarter was $5.2 million, compared to $4.5 million a
year ago and $4.2 million in the previous quarter. Operating expenses, including the
increased investment in sales and marketing, totaled $3.2 million, compared to $2.4
million in the year ago period. Net loss for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 was
$144,000, or $0.01 per share, including stock based compensation expense of $186,000.
This compares to net income of $136,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, including stock
based compensation expense of $174,000 in the same period last year, and a net loss of
$526,000, or $0.03 per share, including stock based compensation expense of $161,000
in the previous quarter.
Phil McDermott, AltiGen’s CFO, said, "Although new sales programs take
approximately six months to begin to impact revenue, we already began to experience
results in the fourth quarter. Revenue from IP telephone sales increased 39 percent and
produced a positive impact on our margins. Additionally, sales of our MAX1000 IPPBX
continue to gain traction, increasing seven percent sequentially and 20 percent over
last year’s fourth quarter. Also, we drove revenue contribution from larger systems to 19
percent of total systems shipped versus 14 percent last quarter, a 35 percent increase.
While revenue was flat for the year, we are optimistic the growth we achieved in the
fourth quarter will continue."
Revenue was $17.9 million for both fiscal 2007 and 2006. Operating expenses, including
the increased investment in sales and marketing, totaled $11.2 million, compared to $10.2
million in fiscal 2006. Net loss for fiscal 2007 was $936,000 or $0.06 per share,
including stock-based compensation expense of $603,000. This compares to a 2006 net
loss of $12,000, or $0.00 per share, including stock-based compensation expense of
$801,000.
Stock Repurchase Program
The board authorized a repurchase program of up to $2.0 million of shares of AltiGen’s
common stock. Pursuant to the plan, the company will enter into a trading plan with a
securities broker and may continue through November 14, 2008.
Earnings Conference Call
AltiGen will conduct a conference call with investment professionals at 2:00 PM Pacific
Time (5:00 PM Eastern Time) today, November 14, 2007 to discuss AltiGen’s results of
operations for the fourth quarter. Dial (800) 862-9098 (domestic) or (785) 424-1051
(international) to listen to the call. The conference call ID is "7AltiGen.” A telephonic
replay will be available approximately one hour after the call through November 16,
2007. To access the replay, dial (402) 220-4948. A live Webcast will be made available
at www.altigen.com and will also be archived for 90 days at this link following the call.
About AltiGen Communications
AltiGen Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATGN) is a leading provider of VoIP
business phone systems and Microsoft-based Unified Communications solutions for
small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), including companies with multiple distributed
locations, branch offices and call centers. AltiGen's scalable, integrated, and easy to
manage all-in-one unified communications solutions enable an array of applications like
standards based SIP VoIP phones and servers, unified messaging, voicemail, call
recording, conferencing, call activity reporting, and mobility solutions that leverage both
the Internet and the public telephone network to take advantage of the convergence of
voice and data communications. AltiGen’s systems are designed with an open
architecture and are built on an industry standard platform. This adherence to widelyused
standards allows our products to integrate with and leverage our partner’s and
customer’s existing technology investment. For more information, call 1-888-ALTIGEN or visit the Web site at www.altigen.com .
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, without limitation, statements
regarding the continued market acceptance of our Voice over IP telephone systems, our
continued growth of the MAX 1000 VoIP phone system, our ability to continue this
upward revenue trend, our successful execution of adding new quality value added
resellers, including a successful partnership with a leading North American master
distributor, and the successful introduction of our new automated multi-site enterprise
communications manager. These statements reflect management's current expectation.
However, actual results could differ materially as a result of unknown risks and
uncertainties, including but not limited to, risks related to AltiGen's limited operating
history. For a more detailed description of these and other risks and uncertainties
affecting AltiGen's performance, please refer to AltiGen's Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2006 and all subsequent current reports on Form
8-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. All forward-looking statements in this press
release are based on information available to AltiGen as of the date hereof and AltiGen
assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
| AltiGen Contact:
Phil McDermott
CFO
AltiGen Communications
408-597-9000
pmcdermott@altigen.com
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Investor Relations
Christiane Pelz
Lippert / Heilshorn & Associates, Inc
415-433-3777 cpelz@lhai.com |
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