Megabuyte - Technology sector intelligence

Virgin Media have announced strong Q2 results, with revenues up in every segment, and good growth in EBITDA and FCF. Indeed, revenue growth, at 7%, was the strongest since the NTL merger with Virgin Mobile four years ago.  Superfast broadband (20/50Mbps) penetration grew 1.9pp in the quarter to reach 17.4% of the base. Even the previously unimpressive business telecoms managed good growth, driven by data products. Read more in Newswire Plus.

Global Crossing UK see no slowdown in public sector revenues

NASDAQ-quoted Global Crossing’s Q2 results show the UK business continuing to struggle, with flat revenues and pressure on margins. However, in contrast to peer CWW (Premium Plus readers see here), GCUK sees no revenue impact from UK public sector spending cuts in 2010, despite these accounting for 50% of revenues. The company is targeting strong growth in 2011, driven by current investment in UK sales resource and customer service. Newswire Plus has more on the results.

Bray appointed as CFO at Sophos

We were interested to see that former Micro Focus CFO Nick Bray was appointed yesterday as CFO of UK based security software vendor Sophos. Bray announced his departure from Micro Focus in June precipitating a significant slide in the share price as investors got the jitters as Bray’s departure came only a few months after CEO Stephen Kelly abruptly left the company. Sophos, which has been without a CFO for about a year since Paul Smolinski (now CFO at Nui Solutions (formerly Telinet)) left the company, recently announced that Apax has taken a significant stake going against expectations that it would list on NASDAQ this year. Premium Plus subscribers can read our extensive coverage of Sophos including our thoughts on the Apax deal in the Sophos profile on the Megabuyte database here. Read more in Newswire Plus.

Some signs of life in poor H1 performance from Atos Origin

French IT services player Atos Origin has issued its first half result this morning which continue to show a significant revenue decline, albeit slightly lower than in Q1. Revenue for the six months to June fell by 4.6% to €2.5bn although margins did improve 150 basis points resulting in a 26% increase in operating profits to €151m. Revenues were flat in France (helped by an improving trend in Systems Integration) but the decline in UK revenues of 3.6% in H1 was actually higher than the Q1 figure of 2.4% suggesting a weaker Q2 performance. One brighter note from the results was a positive book to bill ratio, although here too the news is not all good as the book to bill ratio figure is lower than in Q1. See Newswire Plus for more.

Fiserv navigating out of recession

Financial IT solutions provider, Fiserv reported its second quarter results overnight that witnessed improved underlying net profits with revenues up slightly to $1.0bn. Growth was generated from processing and services where revenues increased 3.4% to $856m but product revenue declined to $166m from $172m in Q2 2009. Despite a 2% rise in revenue, reported net income declined 9.3% to $127m. However, after adjusting for discontinued operations net income was up 13% to $130m. The company reported some key wins in the period such as Albemarle Bank & Trust, BankUnited, First Federal Savings Bank, OneWest Bank, SunTrust Bank and Westpac Group. Premium Plus readers can see the rest of the article here.

Improving growth trends for Sage

Business management software vendor Sage has issued its Q3 IMS this morning which indicates that the improving revenue trends seen in Q2 have continued into Q3. However, outgoing CEO Paul Walker stresses that market conditions remain tough. Overall, Sage is said to be on track to meet market expectations for the year to September. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Sage with the appointment of a new CEO in the form of Guy Berruyer and the impending bid for Italian ERP vendor TeamSystem. Premium Plus subscribers can read our coverage of these events on the Megabuyte database profile for Sage here.