Tag Archives: Acme Packet

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Oracle Stumbles but Deserves Forgiveness

Leave a comment

By Richard Saintvilus, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

I asked recently if Oracle can hold its momentum. After all, the stock had been on a considerable run of more than 40% since last year. Plus, with the recent acquisition of Acme Packet , there seemed to be nothing standing in the way of the database giant from further gains. However, after disappointed third-quarter results, which sent the stock tumbling down 8%, I got my answer.

Are we getting carried away?
In my recent article, which previewed Oracle’s earnings results, the Street missed the part where I warned investors of potential seasonality-related weaknesses in this quarter. I said:

  • We can make all of the predictions we want about earnings. Whether or not Oracle beats estimates or produces results that arrives in line with expectations, everything will hinge on how the company guides for the rest of the year and possibly fiscal 2014. I say this to caution investors to not be so focused on what the company reports this quarter.
  • Nevertheless, management guided for Q3 earnings per share of $0.64 to $0.68 — slightly higher than $0.62 per share earned a year ago. Revenue growth is projected to come in the area of 1% to 5% — ranging from $9.1 to $9.5 billion. Although these are not breathtaking projections, investors have to keep in mind that Oracle has not posted historically strong seasonal Q3 numbers.

The stock‘s punishment is a gross overreaction. And as I’ve said before, it’s a mistake to judge a company like Oracle on a per-quarter basis. Given Oracle‘s recent moves into the enterprise and the cloud, the real story is about where the company is heading, not where it is today.

Is there legitimate cause for concern?
At first glance, I can see why investors got spooked. Aside from missing both top- and bottom-line estimates, the degree of the miss was pretty significant. With revenue arriving more than 4% below estimates, this was the company’s worst miss in almost two years. However, management didn’t seem all that concerned about the business. Sales execution, however, was another issue.

Revenue arrived at $8.9 billion, representing a 1% drop year over year and falling short of Street targets of $9.38 billion. Management said that the decline was due to a “lack of urgency” within its sales force, particularly from those that were newly hired. Still, it doesn’t help knowing that chief rival salesforce.com just posted sales of $835 million, which beat consensus estimates of $830 million.

However, this isn’t something that would concern me. For Oracle, the weak sales execution just means that revenue is being pushed out farther than expected. It’s not a signal of loss of market share. Again, I pointed out earlier that Q3 is typically Oracle’s slowest quarter. And investors should expect these sales delays to be closed in the Q4 report, a notion that management agreed with.

Besides, it didn’t affect profitability by much. Net income still arrived at $2.5 billion, or $0.52 per share. Excluding items, earnings rose …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Can Oracle Hold Its Momentum?

Leave a comment

By Richard Saintvilus, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Shares of Oracle are up 23% since closing at $29.42 on Nov. 14. For that matter, since early September, the company has added $13 billion in market cap. And looking back farther, since reaching a low of $25.33 last May, the stock has surged 43%. And yet, shares are still making new 52-week highs.

The fact that the shares have soared so quickly have caused investors to wonder if there’s still room here to profit. While some stocks often take off and never look back, especially those in tech, Oracle has consistently given investors plenty of second chances to buy. And now is just as good a time as any, because Oracle’s now packing heat.

Where’s the “new” Oracle going?
We can’t talk about Oracle’s momentum without first knowing when and where it started. I’ve highlighted what the stock price has done over the past several months, but the company has done everything in its power to deserve the optimism, including a beat on both the top and bottom lines in the second quarter, which also included an 18% increase in profits.

However, the most impressive aspect of the report was the 17% surge year over year in  software licenses and subscriptions business — enough to exceed management’s own bullish projections. This suggests that Oracle’s cloud strategy is performing well, despite what bears may think. However, Oracle is a much different company today — helped by its recent acquisitions of Acme Packet , which has a 40% share in the session border control, or SBC, market.

Oracle now has a way to offer enterprise clients secure network sessions that supports multiple applications. What’s more, Acme Packet‘s product portfolio, which includes the Net-Net line of devices, now gives Oracle another way to better compete against enterprise rival Cisco. For that matter, Oracle’s ability to now pivot off its Cloud portfolio puts current rivals such as Salesforce.com and IBM at a disadvantage.

The ability to now attack new markets is one thing, but Oracle is able to leverage what the database giant already does well, especially considering the growing demand among service providers looking for ways to engage their customers in more effective ways. Hence, another shot at Salesforce and IBM. Oracle was always known as a savvy acquirer, but Acme Packet just might have been Oracle’s signature piece to its one-stop-shop enterprise model — a way to create separation from core rivals.

Great expectations
We can make all of the predictions we want about earnings. Whether Oracle beats estimates or produces results that arrives in line with expectations, everything will still hinge on how the company guides for the rest of the year and possibly fiscal 2014. I say this to caution investors to not be so focused on what it reports this quarter.

Management guided for Q3 earnings per share of $0.64 to $0.68 — slightly higher than $0.62 per share earned a year ago. Revenue growth is projected to come in the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Oracle Earnings: An Early Look

Leave a comment

By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Earnings season is winding down, with most companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still some companies left to report, and Oracle is about to release its quarterly earnings report. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarter reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed, knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

Oracle doesn’t have the same widespread notoriety that more consumer-facing companies have, but the business software giant has built itself back up from the tech bust to stand as an enduring presence in the tech industry. Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with Oracle over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Wednesday.

Stats on Oracle

 

  

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.66

Change From Year-Ago EPS

6.5%

Revenue Estimate

$9.38 billion

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

3.6%

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

3

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Are stronger results in the cards for Oracle this quarter?
Analysts have gotten slightly more optimistic about Oracle lately, keeping their calls for the just-ended fiscal quarter constant but raising their fiscal 2013 full-year estimates up by more than a nickel per share. The stock has also reflected that enthusiasm, rising 14% since mid-December.

Oracle once dominated the landscape in enterprise software, as it offered the must-have package that the biggest corporate customers wanted for their businesses. Over the years, competitors have made big moves in the space, but Oracle nevertheless has a reputation for quality that makes it the go-to choice for new and repeat customers.

Still, Oracle has seen the need to broaden its focus to become a more all-inclusive tech solutions provider. Its purchase of Sun Microsystems more than three years ago allowed Oracle to integrate software and hardware into a single package for its customers. More recently, its proposed buyout of Acme Packet seeks to do the same thing for networking, giving Oracle access to a Acme product that will allow its enterprise clients to handle 200,000 simultaneous calls.

Most experts believe that Oracle’s purchase of Acme is driven by the desire to attack Cisco Systems , which has been doing its own share of trying to move beyond its networking roots to incorporate cloud-related elements. Yet despite its strategic shifts lately, Cisco still seems more interested in defending its networking turf than in going up against Oracle directly. Similarly, Oracle should see its more direct competitors as a bigger threat, especially as IBM and other peers have taken their own steps to broaden their scope across the industry.

In its quarterly report, watch for Oracle to give more information about the status of and reasoning behind …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Here's What This $4 Billion Hedge Fund Has Been Buying

Leave a comment

By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Every quarter, many money managers have to disclose what they’ve bought and sold, via “13F” filings. Their latest moves can shine a bright light on smart stock picks.

Today let’s look at Farallon Capital Management, founded by Thomas Steyer in 1986, and employing a bottom-up fundamental investing strategy.

The company’s reportable stock portfolio totaled $4.3 billion in value as of December 31, 2012.

Interesting developments
So what does Farallon’s latest quarterly 13F filing tell us? Here are a few interesting details:

The biggest new holdings are Dollar General and EMC. Other new holdings of interest include Dynavax Technologies and Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold . Dynavax has likely hurt the Farallon portfolio, dropping sharply upon an FDA rejection of its hepatitis B vaccine Heplisav. The FDA left open the possibility of a more limited approval, but Dynavax now has more work to do, and it’s burning through cash, while its revenue has been shrinking. Fortunately, it does seem to have have ample cash to keep it afloat for a few years. Investors are right to worry about share dilution, too.

Freeport posted strong fourth-quarter results, and is cutting its costs, as well. It’s also expanding its scope, moving into oil and gas exploration — which has some investors not thrilled, seeing it as a loss in focus. The stock looks attractive, trading near a 52-week low, and with a forward P/E ratio of just eight. It sports a 3.8% dividend, too, and management is expecting moderate growth in the near-term. Bears worry about interest rate hikes from the Fed, though, which can make some alternatives to gold more attractive.

Among holdings in which Farallon Capital Management increased its stake was Westport Innovations . Westport designs low-emissions engines that run on natural gas, among other things. Many think its future is bright, thanks to a growing interest in alternative fuels, and currently low prices for natural gas — which may rise. The company recently inked a deal with a China-based natural-gas-fueling-station concern, and it’s also set to provide engines for two of the biggest U.S. transit fleets.

Farallon Capital Management reduced its stake in lots of companies, including Oracle . Oracle, meanwhile, has been shifting its focus from hardware to the cloud computing realm — though some are crying foul there. The company has been posting double-digit revenue and earnings growth rates over the past few years, and bulls see competitive strengths in its cash pile and strong customer roster. Oracle is buying telecom infrastructure specialist Acme Packet, which has some scratching their heads due to a lot of strong competition in its field.

Finally, Farallon’s biggest closed positions included Qualcomm and CBS. Other closed positions of interest include Molycorp , which has been struggling in a tough environment and worrying investors with a surprisingly large share offering and debt issuance, as well as negative free cash flow. Still, for those who can accept considerable risk and volatility, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Should Oracle Be Forced to Pay More for Acme Packet?

Leave a comment

By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Hopes of a bidding war for Acme Packet are fading fast. The stock is now trading below Oracle‘s $29.25 a share offer, which was made at the beginning of February. At least one investor thinks the database king should be forced to pay more.

In a lawsuit filed in a Delaware court, Willard Love accuses Acme Packet‘s board of failing in their fiduciary duty to procure a fair offer for shareholders. Specifically, Love says that Oracle’s bid comes at an “opportune time,” with Acme’s otherwise well-positioned business weakened by spending cuts among the carriers that are its primary customers.

Is that a fair assessment? Is Oracle getting Acme Packet on the cheap, or taking a risk buying a business that has yet to demonstrate a sustainable edge? Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova addresses these questions and more in the video below. Please watch, and then be sure to leave a comment to let us know what you think.

Troubled by these stocks? There are plenty more opportunities out there. In fact, The Motley Fool‘s chief investment officer recently selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Get all the details in our brand-new free report: “The Motley Fool’s Top Stock for 2013.” Your copy is free for a limited time. Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

The article Should Oracle Be Forced to Pay More for Acme Packet? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the 
Motley Fool Rule Breakers
stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He didn’t own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article at the time of publication. Check out Tim’s web home and portfolio holdings or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool owns shares of Oracle. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Acme Packet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

(function(c,a){window.mixpanel=a;var b,d,h,e;b=c.createElement(“script”);
b.type=”text/javascript”;b.async=!0;b.src=(“https:”===c.location.protocol?”https:”:”http:”)+
‘//cdn.mxpnl.com/libs/mixpanel-2.2.min.js’;d=c.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0];
d.parentNode.insertBefore(b,d);a._i=[];a.init=function(b,c,f){function d(a,b){
var c=b.split(“.”);2==c.length&&(a=a[c[0]],b=c[1]);a[b]=function(){a.push([b].concat(
Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}var g=a;”undefined”!==typeof f?g=a[f]=[]:
f=”mixpanel”;g.people=g.people||[];h=[‘disable’,’track’,’track_pageview’,’track_links’,
‘track_forms’,’register’,’register_once’,’unregister’,’identify’,’alias’,’name_tag’,
‘set_config’,’people.set’,’people.increment’];for(e=0;e<h.length;e++)d(g,h[e]);
a._i.push([b,c,f])};a.__SV=1.2;})(document,window.mixpanel||[]);
mixpanel.init("9659875b92ba8fa639ba476aedbb73b9");

function addEvent(obj, evType, fn, useCapture){
if (obj.addEventListener){
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Adtran's Looking Like a Bargain

Leave a comment

By Richard Saintvilus, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

“How much worse can things get?” is never a glowing endorsement. But in the case of Adtran , it’s hard to not like the company’s prospects after it lost 34% of its value in 2012. But Adtran was not alone. It was one of several names (including Alcatel-Lucent) that suffered in the poor carrier-spending environment. But these shares look interesting. And with continued improvement in its business and consumer demand, Adtran could be one of the best bargains in the sector.

In-line quarter was as good as a beat
When Oracle picked-off Acme Packet , I started canvassing the sector to figure out who was next. I thought it signaled consolidation. And considering Acme Packet‘s tough time — posting soft revenue due to its heavy reliance on carriers — Adtran was as good a candidate as any. Adtran’s fourth-quarter results weren’t great, either, but were in line with expectations. Revenue dropped 20% year over year and 13.7% sequentially.

As has been the case with larger players like Cisco , Adtran’s enterprise hardware was heavily affected, down 6% year over year. But the company was able to offset the slowdown with growth from dealer channels. And I think this area will be key this year — and as Adtran is assessed in the future. Likewise, the company is making strides with value-added resale channels, which increased 12%, helped by growing demand of the Bluesocket wireless LAN product.

Adtran continues to be underestimated for its technology. While this company is not flashy and doesn’t generate headlines, it does not mean it lacks in innovation or demand. Both broadband access and Internetworking haven’t performed as well lately. But these are good businesses that should see a revival going forward. However, the weak spending environment really took a toll on a sequential basis. Even so, broadband surged 100% year over year. Surprisingly, though, amid tough fiscal concerns overseas, Adtran posted 9% growth in international revenue.

This quarter was far from robust. But it was consistent with what the Street has been seeing from the likes of F5 Networks and the aforementioned Acme Packet. In-line results in this environment are wins, as far as I’m concerned. And it seems investors seem to agree. The stock has been up as much as 14% since the announcement.

Where’s this company going?
I’ve always liked Adtran. But its lack of aggressiveness and conservative approach gets lost in sector that is dominated by big egos. The company’s acquisition of the Broadband Access Business — or BBA— from Nokia Siemens, which completed last year, was a welcome signal that perhaps things are beginning to change. I think this company has a chance to become a leader within a recovering industry.

For Adtran, the good news is that it has three prominent carriers in Verizon, Qwest, and AT&T, which account for close to 55% of the company’s revenue. It also signals an overreliance. Oracle didn’t care much, even though 80% of Acme Packet‘s revenue relies on carriers. But trying …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

Cellular carriers seek smooth handoffs from LTE to 3G

Leave a comment

Mobile engineers have successfully demonstrated the handoff of a voice call from LTE to 3G, a capability that may prove critical in carriers’ plans to put voice on their new, fast data networks.

Engineers from Telefonica Deutschland used SRVCC (Single Radio Voice Call Continuity) to move a call without disruption from an LTE to a 3G network. The test took place in a lab and was carried out over equipment from at least six different vendors in an effort to emulate mixed real-world networks, according to Telefonica.

Keeping a subscriber’s call going as they move out of an LTE coverage area will probably be important to the deployment of VoLTE (voice over LTE), a technology that breaks a voice call into packets and transmits it as data traffic. Carriers that can’t fill their whole coverage area with LTE will need a way to make the handoff. SRVCC, part of the 3GPP family of standards that underlies GSM and LTE, has wide support to become that mechanism. Products from Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, Nokia Siemens Networks, Acme Packet, Qualcomm and Sony Mobile were included in Telefonica’s demonstration network.

However, the need for SRVCC is expected to trail demand for VoLTE itself, which is only slowly emerging. Even most carriers that have extensively deployed LTE are still transmitting voice over their older 3G networks, which are expected to remain online for many years.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

News, Politics, Government

Acme Deal Spurs Rally In IP Networking Hardware Stocks

Leave a comment

By Eric Savitz, Forbes Staff This morning’s announcement that Oracle has agreed to acquire Acme Packet appears to be triggering a speculative rally in shares of other companies that make IP networking hardware. I have no idea if any of the other companies getting a boost from the move are necessarily logical acquisition candidates, or if the move will necessarily trigger a round of consolidation in the sector, but the Acme deal sure has the Street’s speculative juice flowing.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Oracle Gets More into Products with Acme Packet Acquisition

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Filed under: ,

Oracle logoOracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) has promised no more large mergers for the near-term, although buying a $1.6 billion company still appears to be fair game for Larry Ellison and his team at the world’s largest CRM player. Acme Packet Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT) is being acquired by Oracle for $29.25 per share in cash. Acme’s Net-Net product family fulfills security, service assurance and regulatory requirements in service provider, enterprise and contact center networks.

This represents close to a 22% profit over the weekend, compared to Acme’s closing bell price of $23.94 on Friday. We will just go ahead and throw out there that law firms probably are already putting up their “notice of investigations,” or perhaps are already preparing formal class action suites, as Acme’s 52-week trading range is $13.26 to $36.27 per share. Oracle said that this represents a fully diluted equity value of $2.1 billion, but net of cash this represents an enterprise value of $1.7 billion. Oracle’s market capitalization rate of $171 billion makes this acquisition hardly even a footnote, and Acme’s expected sales of almost $300 million for 2013 versus the $38 billion or so expected from Oracle makes this deal too small to move the barometer very much.

Here is how the companies describe the combination and the benefits of the deal:

The combination of Oracle and Acme Packet is expected to accelerate the migration to all-IP networks by enabling secure and reliable communications from any device, across any network. Users are increasingly connected and expect to communicate anytime and anywhere using their application, device, and network of choice. Oracle Communications along with Acme Packet can help service providers and enterprises meet these demanding requirements by delivering an end-to-end portfolio of technologies that will support the deployment, innovation and monetization of all-IP networks.

This particular transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2013, but the deal is of course subject to Acme Packet stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Acme’s board of directors already has approved the deal.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mergers and Buy Outs, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: APKT, ORCL

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance