Test and Measurement: NetScout, Viavi, Ixia results

Results are coming in for the first quarter of the year, and network testing and monitoring companies seem to be facing a relatively weak quarter overall.
NetScout reported that its fiscal fourth quarter resulted in revenues of $285.9 million, about 68% of which was product revenue and 32% of which was service related. The company reported a net loss of $3.6 million for the quarter. For the full fiscal year, its total revenue was $955.4 million with a net loss of $28.4 million. NetScout said its Danaher Communications acquisition impacted both three-month and 12-month comparisons as the company more than doubled its revenues. Year-over-year revenues for the quarter, for example, went from $119.3 million to $285.9 million, while net income dipped from $20.8 million to a $3.6 million loss as NetScout digests the purchase.
NetScout President and CEO Anil Singhal said in a statement the coming year “is shaping up to be an important year of transition.” Among other endeavors, NetScout expects the first phase of its “combined probing solution” leveraging the Danaher acquisition will be introduced at its user conference next month.
Ixia, meanwhile, narrowed its loss for the quarter compared to a year ago. Ixia reported lower revenues – $112.7 million for the first quarter of 2016, down from $121 million a year ago. However, it improved from a net loss of $9.6 million during the first quarter of 2015, to a net loss of $2.7 million this year. President and CEO Bethany Mayer said the company was facing “near-term headwinds,” but confident in its strategy.
Meanwhile, Oleg Khaykin, president and CEO of Viavi Solutions, told investors the company’s “two counter-cyclical segments” allowed it to deliver a robust quarter and exceed the midpoint of its revenue and earnings per share guidance. Strength in its anti-counterfeiting business countered lower than expected carrier and enterprise spending in Viavi’s network and service enablement segment.
Viavi reported net revenues of $220.4 million for its fiscal third quarter, with net income of $27.4 million. Revenues increased 3.8% year-over-year and net income saw even stronger growth, climbing from $14.9 million in the year-ago quarter to $21.6 million in Viavi’s 2016 fiscal third quarter.
In other test news this week:
–P3 Communications continues to boost its presence in the Americas with a newly expanded Toronto-area office. The Mississauga office is home base for 14 engineers who conduct testing across Canada.
P3 Communications recently opened a new office in Brazil as well, and its parent company P3 Group unveiled a new mobility innovation center in the Detroit area to serve as its automotive development center for the Americas.
–Keysight Technologies reports it is the first and only vendor to achieve Global Certification Forum-validated dual-band and dual-carrier test cases for HSDPA in bands I-VIII, in support of commercial deployments planned for this year.
–Kaelus introduced a new benchtop passive intermodulation tester (pdf) for manufacturing environments. The IBA series analyzer has an optional range-to-fault and an optional internal DC power/antenna interface bias tee.
–Spirent Communications is working with Aston Martin Racing in a technical partnership to evaluate connected car technologies, such as assessing the accuracy of GPS information and monitoring interference. The partnership is set to continue through the 2016 World Endurance Championship season and involves testing automotive technologies on Aston Martin’s 2016 V8 Vantage GTE race cars. Spirent said it’s enabling capture of real-world signals that can be replayed in the lab to create realistic scenarios and benchmark GPS accuracy.
–Rohde & Schwarz’ SwissQual Freerider II systems were recently used to benchmark Swiss telecom operators’ networks. Swisscom won out in the testing conducted by tech website chip.de (The benchmarking results are only available in German, so unless you speak fluent Deutsch, you’ll want a browser that can translate the page).
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