2008-08-14
Restructuring of Birdstep EasyConnect Completed
(Oslo, August 14th 2008) Birdstep Technology ASA reported second quarter 2008 revenues of NOK 23.5 million, compared to NOK 20.3 million in the corresponding quarter last year. The restructuring of Birdstep EasyConnect was completed during the quarter and the company made several key customer wins, i.e. TeliaSonera and Acer, strengthening the position in the emerging USB and embedded modem markets.
− Birdstep finalized the restructuring of the EasyConnect business segment during the second quarter, with cost reductions effective from the third quarter. We also reported all time high activations on our platform, driven by the growth in the USB modem market and made several important customer wins, says Torbjörn Sandberg, CEO of Birdstep Technology.
Birdstep Technology’s second quarter 2008 consolidated revenues was NOK 23.5 million, compared to NOK 20.3 million in the corresponding quarter 2007. EasyConnect had revenues of NOK 4.3 million (- 27.0%), Birdstep Database NOK 2.5 million (- 48.8%), Secgo Software NOK 8.7 million (+ 25.4%), and ServiceFactory NOK 8.1 million (- 2.6%).
Consolidated EBITA, excluding stock option costs was NOK - 11.3 million, while operating cash flow was negatively impacted by change in net working capital and late invoicing following the implementation of a new ERP system. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter were NOK 81.0 million for the group.
- The first half of 2008 was challenging for Birdstep with a thorough restructuring of the EasyConnenct business segment, where the decline in the traditional plug-in-modem market and the restructuring has had short term negative revenue effects, as previously announced. We have now closed the product development department in Oslo, reduced the headcount with 10 per cent and are working in line with our new model. For the ServiceFactory and Segco business segments, the development was satisfactory in the second quarter, says Sandberg.
During the quarter, Birdstep Technology made an EasyConnect Go agreement with TeliaSonera International Carrier, and an EasyConnect Inside agreement with Acer, in addition to the previously announced agreements with 3UK and Elisa Finland. Birdstep Technology today also disclosed Hewlett-Packard as the global pc manufacturer, of which the company entered into an agreement August 27th 2007.
For further information, please contact:
Torbjörn Sandberg, CEO of Birdstep Technology ASA, phone +46 705170964
About Birdstep (www.birdstep.com)
Birdstep Technology ASA is a software vendor listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) under the ticker `BIRD`. The company has four business segments, located in Norway, Sweden, Finland and the United States: EasyConnect offers connection and service management clients for network operators and lap top manufacturers, Service Factory offers network operators to rapidly deploy and manage large networks with advanced features, Secgo Software provides seamless and safe connectivity to business data for OEM-providers and corporations, while Database provides enterprises with high-performance embedded databases for in-memory database usage and persistent storage devices. The company has 100 employees and is headquartered in Oslo.
For additional information about Birdstep’s products, services, partners and customers please visit us at: www.birdstep.com.