Acme Packet, a company providing session border control solutions, today revealed its plans for 2009 and the financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008 ended December 31, 2008.

 

Despite the economic downturn, the company reported an 8 percent sequential increase from the third quarter of 2008, with revenues of $30.6 million.

 

Total revenues last year increased 3 percent, rising from $113.1 million in 2007 to $116.4 million in 2008. 55 percent of Acme Packet’s (News - Alert) total revenues came from the U.S. and Canada, while 45 percent came from international consumers.

 

But despite its 8 percent increase in revenues, Acme Packet’s Net income fell 29 percent from $5.2 million for the fourth quarter in 2007, to $3.7 million for same period in 2008.

 

Net income on a non-GAAP1 basis for the fourth quarter of 2008 reached $5.6 million, or $0.09 per share on a diluted basis. For the fourth quarter of 2007, net income was $6.5 million, or $0.10 per share on a diluted basis, and $3.4 million, or $0.05 per share on a diluted basis, in the third quarter of 2008.

Acme Packet also reported a steep 51 percent drop in total income for 2008, falling from $23.9 milling in 2007 to $11.6 million for 2008.

 

After the financial results were announced, Brian Norris, director of investor relations at Acme Packet, along with Andy Ory, president and CEO, and Peter Minihane, CFO discussed the company’s plans and shared their market predictions for 2009.

 

According to Ory, “Acme Packet is pleased to report strong revenues, reflecting strong momentum in the market. Our company was an active buyer of stock for the fourth quarter and ended the year with no debt.”

 

Ory explained that although it is a challenging time to predict the company’s outlook for 2009, he believes it is still important to share this forecast.

 

For 2009, Acme Packet believes it will continue to grow, with revenues expected to reach $125.0 million, while non-GAAP1 net income in 2009 is forecast to range between $0.22 and $0.26 per share on a diluted basis. GAAP net income in 2009 is predicted to fall between $0.12 and $0.16 per share on a diluted basis.

 

The company currently expects other income, net (primarily interest income), to reach $1.0 million in 2009. Acme Packet’s business outlook for 2009 assumes weighted average shares outstanding of approximately 61 million and a non-GAAP1 effective tax rate of 37 percent.

 

Acme Packet previously announced that its Board of Directors authorized a $55.0 million common stock repurchase program. During the fourth quarter of 2008, the company repurchased approximately 1.9 million shares of its common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $8.2 million. After announcing the common stock repurchase program in February 2008 and through December 31, 2008, the company repurchased close to $6.8 million shares of its common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $37.5 million.

 

However, the company did not repurchase any additional shares from the end of 2008 through and including February 5, 2009. The common stock repurchase program will remain effective through February 28, 2009 unless terminated earlier by the Board of Directors.

 

Acme Packet has been leading the way with its session border control solutions. The company enables the delivery of secure, first-class interactive communications, including voice, video and multimedia sessions, as well as data services across IP network borders.

 

The company’s Net-Net family of session border controllers, multiservice security gateways and session routing proxies are the driving force for multiple applications in service provider, large enterprise and contact center networks-- from VoIP trunking to hosted enterprise and residential services to fixed-mobile convergence.

 

Last week, Acme Packet announced that InPhonex, a Miami-based Internet telephony service provider, selected its Net-Net 9200 session border controller (SBC) to expand its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service offerings.