Alvarion's outlook disappoints

Alvarion announced an improved fourth quarter in terms of net loss, but the company's stock fell as analysts remain concerned over the company's first-quarter revenue and profit guidance as well as Alvarion's announcement that an improvement will not likely come until the later half of the year.

Thanks to lower expenses, Alvarion reported a narrower net loss for the fourth quarter that decreased to $1.30 million from $4.85 million compared with the prior-year quarter. Sales for the quarter fell 14 percent to $60.24 million from $70.09 million in the year-ago period. Most analysts were looking for revenues of $59.09 million for the quarter. 

Net loss for the full year came in at $7.19 million from $5.46 million in 2009. Revenues decreased to $245.24 million, slightly above he consensus estimate, from $281.28 million in the previous year.

Alvarion President and CEO Eran Gorev said during the company's conference call with analysts that 2009 was a challenging year, highlighted by the global credit crisis. "Telecommunications and wireless broadband in particular were certainly impacted by this as well. Credit is still tight; this is not news to all of you. Operators have been and continue to manage their cash very carefully and number of investment plans that were put together at the end of 2008 going into 2009 will put on hold. And we've seen the impact of that throughout 2009," he said, according to transcripts from Seeking Alpha.

Gorev cited the delay in U.S. broadband stimulus fund awards, which were expected to be granted in the fourth quarter, and India's constant delay of releasing WiMAX licenses were two significant business delays for the company.

These are two, while very important, but only two of a number of other examples of some delays in respect of a number of business catalysts [that] are still expected to happen during 2010," he said.

For more:
- see this Reuters article [1]
- read this transcript [2] from Seeking Alpha

Related articles:
Wireless in the fourth quarter of 2009 [3]   
Nokia Siemens expands OEM agreement with Alvarion, effectively ends WiMAX infrastructure business [4]  
Alvarion lassos $100M WiMAX deal with Open Range [5]
Zacks: Prospects good for Alvarion [6]