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Net2Phone Reports 3rd Quarter Fiscal
2003 Results
Revenue increases; Gross margin remains above 40%
Unveils plan to provide improved transparency of business results
and flexibility to create partnerships with cable operators or other
interested parties
NEWARK, NJ - June 9, 2003 - Net2Phone, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTOP), a leading
provider of Voice over IP (VoIP) services, announced results for
the third quarter ended April 30, 2003. The company also unveiled
its plan to provide additional clarity regarding the financial results
of its business operations as well as a strategy to accommodate
the varying business needs of cable operators ready to deploy a
residential telephony service.
Financial Results
Consolidated revenues for the third quarter totaled $23.8 million,
as compared to $23.1 million in the prior quarter. Gross margins
for the third quarter were above 40% for the eighth consecutive
quarter, at 40.5%.
Loss from operations for the quarter was ($9.8) million compared
to ($139.6) million during the prior year's quarter. EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization) for the
quarter was ($7.5) million compared to ($132.5) million during the
prior year's quarter. Both loss from operations and EBITDA include
certain non-operational and/or non-recurring items that management
excludes in assessing the Company's performance. As a result, the
Company also reports adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the impact
these aforementioned items have on the Company's results. The company
believes adjusted EBITDA provides investors with a measure of the
company's operational progress that corresponds with the measure
used by management.
Net2Phone's adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was ($3.1) million,
an 8% quarterly improvement over adjusted EBITDA of ($3.4) million
in the prior quarter, and a 73% year over year improvement over
adjusted EBITDA of ($11.4) million. EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA are
not terms defined by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)
and may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures prepared
by other companies. The attached Condensed Consolidated Statements
of Operations provides a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA
to GAAP measures and other information.
Capital expenditures during the third quarter totaled $1.2 million.
As of April 30, 2003 the Company held a total of $102.0 million
in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, as compared
to $111.6 million at the end of the prior quarter.
New Corporate Structure
The Company's management today also announced a planned change
in its corporate structure. This plan, which is subject to approval
by the Board of Directors, calls for the creation of two wholly-owned
operating subsidiaries and is intended to provide the investment
community with a clearer picture of Net2Phone's operations, and
the ability to understand the value elements of its two business
lines. Net2Phone, Inc., which will act as a holding company, will
own both subsidiaries. The company plans to provide segment reporting
of the results of these subsidiaries as their structures are completed
in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003. The new structure will also
allow each of the newly created units to facilitate its growth opportunities
through investments by strategic partners in each subsidiary, if
appropriate.
One of the new subsidiaries, Net2Phone Global Services (NGS), is
to be comprised of the company's international retail VoIP business
and domestic calling card business, while the second, Net2Phone
Cable Telephony (NCT), is focused on delivering an end-to-end managed
telecommunications solution to cable operators utilizing VoIP technology.
The NGS business unit primarily aligns itself with international
regional partners that purchase calling time or hardware products
combined with calling time. This unit is expanding its market opportunities
by entering newly liberalized markets, diversifying products to
cater to businesses, as well as penetrating established markets
with competitive offerings. NGS will also incorporate Net2Phone's
rechargeable calling card business under its purview. This business
line delivers attractive margins with low churn.
NCT will be responsible for empowering cable operators with all
the tools they need to bring residential cable telephony to their
customers in the US, Western Europe and Latin America. Net2Phone
believes that its value proposition to a cable operator is attractive
because it minimizes financial, operational and technical risks
for the cable operator while giving them a flexible scalable proven
product to take to market.
"With VoIP on the cusp of reaching critical mass and cable
telephony taking off, now is the opportune time to showcase two
distinct operating units and enhance the standalone value of each
subsidiary," said Net2Phone CEO Stephen Greenberg. "Through
intense discussions with cable operators, we have learned that the
needs of each provider vary based on balance sheet, personnel and
existing telephony infrastructure. We can now tailor our cable telephony
models to suit the needs of the cable industry, while presenting
NGS' results of operations through segment reporting."
Please click here to view the Q3 Consolidated
Statement of Operations in PDF format. (Link will open in a new window)
About Net2Phone
Founded in 1995, Net2Phone is a leading provider of voice services
over IP networks worldwide, enabling toll-quality calls between
computers, telephones, and broadband devices. Recognized as the first
Company to bridge the Internet with the public switched telephone
network, Net2Phone has routed billions of minutes of traffic over its
award-winning network. Incorporated within the company are (1) Net2Phone
Global Services, which sells retail VoIP solutions globally and (2)
Net2Phone Cable Telephony, which has developed a fully outsourced
standards-compliant telephony solution for cable operators. Traded on
the NASDAQ under the symbol NTOP, Net2Phone's strategic partners and
investors include Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: LMC.A; LMC.B) and
IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT; IDT.C). For more information about Net2Phone's
products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
These forward- looking statements involve risks and uncertainties
and actual results could differ materially from those discussed
in the forward-looking statements. For this purpose, any statements
contained in this press release that are not statements of historical
fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Factors which
may affect the Company's results include, but are not limited to,
the Company's ability to expand its customer base, the Company's
ability to develop additional and leverage its existing distribution
channels for its products and solutions, dependence on strategic
and channel partners including their ability to distribute the Company's
products and meet or renew their financial commitments, the Company's
ability to address international markets, the effectiveness of the
Company's sales and marketing activities, the acceptance of the
Company's products in the marketplace, the timing and scope of deployments
of the Company's products by customers, fluctuations in customer
sales cycles, customers' ability to obtain additional funding, technical
difficulties with respect to the Company's products or products
in development, the need for ongoing product development in an environment
of rapid technological change, the emergence of new competitors
in the marketplace, the Company's ability to compete successfully
against established competitors with greater resources, the uncertainty
of future governmental regulation, the Company's ability to manage
growth, obtain patent protection, and obtain additional funds, general
economic conditions and other risks discussed in this Report and
in the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. All forward-looking statements and risk factors included
in this document are made as of the date hereof, based on information
available to the Company as of the date thereof, and the Company
assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or
risk factors.
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