Financials: JDSU, Emcore, Endwave and Bookham
JDSU's loss narrows
Despite the wider company hitting a four-year revenue high in its most recent quarter, JDSU's communications products group is still struggling to operate profitably.
Overall, the San Jose firm posted sales of $312.9 million in its second quarter, a huge increase on both the prior year and sequentially that was mainly due to its acquisition of the test and measurement firm Acterna, which now rates as JDSU's biggest division in terms of revenue.
The communications group, which includes the InP chip manufacturing operation, made sales of $109.6 million in the three months up until December 31, 2005, up slightly from the $107.5 million figure posted in the previous year.
The division made an operating loss of $10 million, compared with a $12.8 million loss one year ago.
Emcore beats guidance
Diversified chip, module and semiconductor materials supplier Emcore has raised its financial expectations for the fiscal year after beating its own forecast in the latest quarter.
Growing revenue in each of its three sectors "“ electronic materials, fiber-optics and photovoltaics "“ pushed overall sales to $39.9 million for the period ending December 31, 2005.
That is equivalent to a 48% increase on last year, although Emcore has made a series of acquisitions during that time, including laser designer K2 Optronics. Emcore is yet to break even, however, and made a net loss of $6.5 million in the period.
CEO Reuben Richards and the Emcore team have raised their fiscal 2006 revenue guidance to $159 million-$171 million, and at least one financial analyst has raised significantly his target for Emcore's share-price from $9 to $12.
Defense boost for Endwave
A 65% year-over-year increase in sales from its defense systems division propelled Californian RF module vendor Endwave to full-year revenue of $48.8 million in 2005.
Despite that boost, the firm still posted an operating loss and a net loss of $0.9 million.
Bookham revenue down sequentially
San Jose-based Bookham saw a slight sequential drop in its revenue as sales of soon-to-be-discontinued products to Nortel continued to decline.
While Bookham has pumped $50 million onto its balance sheet in the past few months in a whirlwind of financial activity, it still piled up a net loss of almost $12 million in the latest quarter.
Revenue in the next quarter is expected to continue on a downward path to between $51 million and $54 million.
