—Ixia met its revenue guidance but delivered a net loss for the quarter, in the midst of what new CEO Bethany Mayer called a “challenging network equipment spending environment.”
Mayer told investors on Ixia’s quarterly call that the “near-term spending environment will continue to be challenging as carriers moderate their capital expense investments and prepare to virtualize their networks, while network equipment manufacturers transition their products and organizations to meet these new requirements. Over the longer term, we believe the technology transition to [software-defined networking], virtualization and [network function virtualization] presents a strong opportunity for Ixia.”
Asked about the implications of ongoing shake-ups in the network monitoring industry with the upcoming split of JDSU and NetScout’s acquisitions from Danaher, Mayer said that the time it will take for those transactions to go through represents a window of opportunity for Ixia.
Mayer said that “there’s going to be a lot of work on the NetScout/Danaher side to sort of swallow that – that’s a pretty big chunk of revenue and company to put together. And so we think that gives us a window of time that if we execute well, we’ll continue to do well from a revenue perspective. And then, with regard to JDSU, I think, we’re in a wait-and-see mode to see how that shakes out.”
“I think both of those companies are going to have their work cut out for them with what they have going on,” said Errol Ginsberg, Ixia’s founder, chairman and chief innovation officer, following up Mayer’s comment on the call. “As we’ve said many times, there’s some pausing going on with the carriers. And we see a lot of excitement happening in the enterprise. And we’re just going to focus on where the excitement is.
“Some of those other companies aren’t well focused,” Ginsberg added. “Some of them don’t have the products to address those markets.” He said Ixia’s offerings in test and network visibility have “really come together … and we have a lot more products to come if we are to address those markets. So right now we feel pretty good about where we’re at.”
Ixia’s total revenue for the quarter was up slightly year-over-year, to $114 million. The figure includes $17.3 million from its acquisition of Net Optics last December. Its net loss was $7.3 million, compared to a profit of $4.1 million during the same period last year. However, its results improved sequentially from a $15.1 million loss in the second quarter of 2014.
Overall, Ixia appears to be expanding its focus to include more enterprise networks as well as carriers, and setting itself up to take advantage of network shifts toward SDN and NFV – which is Mayer’s background, coming from Hewlett-Packard. One of the bright spots that Mayer highlighted on the quarterly call was Ixia’s growth in enterprise revenue, which she said was up 43% sequentially to a record $41.5 million and accounted for 26% of its total revenue. Investors sent the stock sharply upward after Ixia’s results were announced.
—Keysight Technologies now has frequency extension upgrades for its PXA, MXA and EXA X-series signal analyzers so that existing instruments can be upgraded to the maximum available frequency of the model. Keysight said that no other test equipment manufacturer enables the frequency range of a signal analyzer to be upgraded after its initial purchase, and that upgrading offers an alternative to buying new equipment.
The upgrade requires that the instrument be returned to a Keysight service center and also provides an opportunity for additional work such as upgrading to a faster CPU or new operating system, Keysight added.
—Rohde & Schwarz has been working on site acceptance for full-IP emergency radio communications in Germany as well as emphasizing the high-definition features of its oscilloscopes, which brings wave forms into sharper focus with increased detail and vertical resolution.
—EXFO is a founding member of Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks, which was launched this week in Ottawa, Ontario. The center is aimed at providing testing facilities, business support and mentoring, help finding financing, and promoting the development of “cloud-based applications in areas such as healthcare, energy, education, financial services and the environment.”
