Santa Cruz, Calif. — Plantronics reported higher net revenues and net income for its fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year, ended March 31.
Its fourth-quarter net revenues were $208.7 million, compared with $194.7 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. Net income for the quarter was $19.8 million higher than the previous fourth quarter’s $10.1 million.
Net revenues for fiscal year were $856.3 million, an increase of 7 percent, compared with $800.2 million for fiscal year 2007. Net income for the year grew to $68.4 million, up from the previous year’s $50.1 million.
Ken Kannappan, president/CEO of Plantronics, said, “Our improving results reflect the focus we’ve had on increasing profitability across the organization and that our concerns of economic weakness were not as great as we had anticipated in the fourth quarter. We ended the fiscal year on a strong note due to healthy demand from international markets, which offset the challenging economic conditions in the financial services sector in North America.”
In its audio communications group (ACG), net revenues were $185.4 million for the fourth quarter were up 7 percent, compared with $173.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. For fiscal year 2008, revenues were up by 11 percent, from $676.5 million, to $747.9 million. This growth was driven by strong demand for Bluetooth headsets for the mobile market and increases in sales of office wireless, computer and gaming headsets, and the Clarity line of products. Bluetooth headset sales for the fourth quarter were up by 40 percent from a year ago, Plantronics said.
In its audio entertainment group (AEG), which includes Altec Lansing, fourth-quarter net revenues of $23.4 million were up 8.8 percent, from $21.5 million in the year-ago quarter, primarily as a result of new product introductions driving an improvement in the docking audio segment, offset by a decline in PC audio sales. Fiscal year 2008 revenues were $108.4 million, down from $123.6 million in the prior year.
