Optical transport systems and services vendor MRV Communications Inc. (OTCQB: MRVC) reported “modest growth,” as it announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2013.
"We are continuing to make progress on our strategic initiatives to build a strong foundation and grow the company," says MRV CEO David Stehlin, who took over in January (see “David Stehlin new CEO of MRV”). "While second quarter year-over-year consolidated revenue growth was modest, we did see solid sales performance in our network equipment business in North America and Asia-Pacific. While Europe remained challenging overall due to the economic and political environment, we captured new business in both central Europe and Scandinavia. Tecnonet, our network integration business, continues to be impacted by the challenging Italian market but is doing a good job remaining focused on providing superior service to its customers in a difficult environment."
The network equipment business – still referred to as OCS – has continued to grow its customer base, adding 37 new customers in the second quarter, including a significant win with another multinational, tier one content delivery network (CDN) provider. This customer selected MRV for its data-center connectivity because our new optical transport products have the industry's highest bandwidth density and lowest power consumption, which are critical factors in this fast growing segment and validates our focus in this area, adds Stehlin. Additionally, the OCS business improved its gross profit margin to 53% thanks to a more favorable product mix and operational improvements.
"Our strategy of developing optical edge solutions that combine packet optical and sophisticated network management software technologies will provide our global customers with the advantages they need for key segments such as data center connectivity, 4G mobile backhaul, cloud computing and business Ethernet services,” Stehlin continues. “In the year since we announced our plan to make significant investments in these growing markets, we have added 138 new customers, won major deals in critical market segments, earned industry recognition and awards for our innovation all while starting to roll out key new products and improving the efficiency of the company."
MRV reported second quarter 2013 revenue of $38.2 million for the whole company, a half-million-dollar or 1% increase from $37.6 million in the second quarter of 2012. Gross profit as a percent of revenue for the second quarter of 2013 was 35%, compared with 35.4% in the second quarter of 2012.
Operating expenses in the second quarter of 2013 were $13.9 million, or 36% of revenue, compared with $14.6 million, or 39% of revenue, in the second quarter of 2012. In the second quarter of 2013, the company incurred an operating loss of a half-million dollars, compared with an operating loss of $1.2 million in the second quarter of 2012.
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