VANCOUVER, British Columbia-Wireless modem maker Sierra Wireless upped its fourth-quarter expectations to $37 million in revenue, and also announced a new deal with laptop maker Hewlett-Packard Co. The news helped boost Sierra’s stock by 14 percent to $13.19 per share.
Sierra has been in the doldrums during the past year due to its failure in the smart-phone business and its sluggish wireless modem sales. However, the company said it may be turning the corner due to increased customer demand.
“We concluded that an update to our previously issued guidance was prudent given that our current revenue expectation is significantly stronger than originally expected,” said Jason Cohenour, the company’s president and chief executive officer. “We are pleased and encouraged by the strong demand we saw for our new and existing products during the quarter. We remain very focused on driving continued growth in our core business and on returning to profitability and industry leadership.”
For the quarter, Sierra previously expected revenues of $32 million, but increased that to $37 million. The company also expects better net income as well as positive cash flow.
As for the company’s deal with HP, Sierra said its MC5720 EV-DO PCI Express Mini Card will be embedded in HP’s new Compaq nc6140 Notebook PC.
