FalconStor's Feelin' It

FalconStor Software Inc. (Nasdaq: FALC) hit an earnings milestone today, recording its first profitable quarter ever (see FalconStor Posts Q4, 04).

In fact, quarterly and yearly figures were up across the board. The storage software vendor saw fourth-quarter earnings of $300,000 ($0.01 EPS) on revenues of $9.5 million. That compares to net losses of $2.2 million ($0.05 per share) year-on-year and $2.3 million ($0.04) sequentially. Revenues for the quarter were up 87 percent in year-on-year terms ($5.1 million) and 27 percent sequentially ($7.5 million).

For the full year, revenues reached $28.7 million, a 69 percent pop from 2003. Net losses inched up to $5.9 million, or $0.13 per share; losses for 2003 were $7.4 million, or $0.16 per share.

Those revenue figures topped average analyst estimates of $9.21 million for the fourth quarter and $28.42 million for the year.

The gains highlighted continued momentum for FalconStor, primarily in its OEM business. The company provides a variety of software that partners integrate into their wares, including the areas of virtualization and iSCSI networking. Although they declined to name names, company execs said in an earnings call today that they now have a couple OEMs that account for 10 percent of sales.Prominent on the list of partners: EMC, which licenses FalconStor's virtual-tape software for the Clariion Disk Library. However, one "Tier 1" vendor remained noticeably absent from the rolls. That company -- widely understood to be Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) -- uses FalconStor software in an iSCSI service pack and possibly has a virtualization product in the works (see FalconStor's Flyin' and HP Making Virtual Progress).

In the meantime, FalconStor also signed up a host of new OEMs in the past several months (see Next IT Expands FalconStor OEM, FalconStor, Copan Partner, and Hitachi, FalconStor Cooperate). Those deals are expected to help boost next year's earnings: FalconStor's guidance for 2004 is $48 million to $55 million in revenues, and EPS of 10 cents to 18 cents.

In addition, the company hopes to expand its relationships with current OEMs, broaden its OEM base beyond storage to SMBs and vertical markets, and port its software to more intelligent switch platforms.

Brett Mendel, Senior Analyst, Byte and Switch Insider