8x8 Reports FY Sales Gain, Deal With Aastra

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 6/1/2009

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. — 8x8 reported higher sales in its fiscal year, ended March 31.

Total revenue for the fiscal year was $64.7 million, compared with $61.6 million for fiscal 2008, a 5 percent year-over-year increase. 8x8 business services revenue grew 38 percent year over year, from $29.1 million in fiscal 2008 to $40.2 million in fiscal 2009, and accounted for 62 percent of the company's overall revenue in fiscal 2009, the company said.

A GAAP net loss of $2.5 million was reported for fiscal 2009, compared with GAAP net income of $30,000 in fiscal 2008. 8x8 said the loss for fiscal 2009 resulted from a series of write-offs and charges incurred in the company's fourth fiscal quarter.

8x8 reported a GAAP net loss for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 of $3.9 million, compared with net income of $691,000 for the same period of fiscal 2008.

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, 8x8 said it increased its business communications services subscriber base by 1,307 net new business customers, compared with 838 in the same period last year and 962 in the third quarter. This increase resulted from the combination of 2,792 gross new business customer additions, and an improvement in business customer churn to 2.7 percent, compared with 3.6 percent in the same period last year and 2.9 percent in the prior quarter.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 was $15.8 million, compared with $16.3 million for the same period of fiscal 2008 and $16.2 million for the previous quarter.

8x8 has also partnered with Aastra, a provider of communications products, to debut co-branded Virtual Office business IP phones. The phones will be bundled with 8x8's services and will be sold at Office Depot locations.

Aastra will supply the co-branded 8x8/Aastra 6755i Virtual Office IP phone, while 8x8 provisions and manages the 8x8 Virtual Office hosted IP PBX service.

The 8x8/Aastra 6755i Virtual Office IP phone replaces the Virtual Office ST2118 analog business phone. The plug-and-play IP telephones are designed to serve as endpoints for the 8x8 Virtual Office hosted IP PBX business phone service.

The 6755i features 8x8's network address translation (NAT) traversal technologies to facilitate use from any high-speed Internet connection worldwide, 8x8 said. The phone reportedly plugs into any broadband Internet connection to allow users to make or receive calls without performing any network configuration or firewall manipulation. Features include corporate directory display an embedded XML browser.

It is currently available for a $199 suggested retail. Additional models are available online at www.officedepot.com.