AWS Revenue Soars 55% YoY in Q3 to Reach

Revenues for Amazon Web Services reached $3.231 billion in Q3 2016, up 55% year over year. Operating income at AWS reached $861 million, up 101% year over year. Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) sales reached $11.1 billion. North America represented 58% of the sales mix. The operating margin for the quarter was 31.6%.

Some AWS highlights for the quarter from the Amazon.com quarterly financial report:

• 
  
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the availability of the U.S. East (Ohio) Region. AWS now operates 38 Availability Zones across 14 technology infrastructure Regions globally, and plans to open an additional nine Availability Zones in four regions (Canada, the U.K., France, and a second region in China) in the coming months.
• VMware and AWS announced a new hybrid cloud service, “VMware Cloud on AWS,” that enables customers to use their existing VMware software and tools to leverage AWS’s global footprint and breadth of services, including storage, databases, analytics, and more. This offering will be the primary public cloud service sold and supported by VMware, and AWS will be VMware’s primary public cloud partner.
• AWS announced the availability of P2 instances, a new GPU instance type for Amazon EC2. The most powerful GPU virtual machine in the cloud with up to 16 NVIDIA Tesla® K80 GPUs, P2 instances are designed for compute-intensive applications such as artificial intelligence, deep learning, computational fluid dynamics, computational finance, seismic analysis, molecular modeling, genomics, and rendering workloads.
• AWS announced the option for customers to bring their own encryption keys with AWS Key Management Service. This new feature allows customers to import keys from any key management and Hardware Security Module solution and use them with AWS services and their own applications.
• AWS launched new capabilities for AWS Educate, a global program that provides students and educators with resources to accelerate cloud-related learning. The program now includes access to courses designed to teach cloud skills, paired with the AWS Educate Job Board, featuring cloud-related internships and jobs from top employers around the world.
• AWS announced a new Application Load Balancer option for content-based routing that enables customers to route a request to an AWS service based on the content of the request and supports applications that run in containers. Web sites and mobile applications, running in containers or on Amazon EC2 instances, will benefit from the use of Application Load Balancers.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2216758

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Qualcomm to Acquire NXP -- Engines for the Connected World

Qualcomm agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of NXP for $110.00 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $47 billion. The deal will be financed through cash on hand and $11 billion in new debt. The companies expect total annualized synergies of $500 million within two years of close.

NXP Semiconductors N.V., which headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands, employs approximately 45,000 people in more than 35 countries and is known for its mixed-signal semiconductor electronics. The company was known as Philips Semiconductor prior to 2006.

Key markets include automotive, broad-based microcontrollers, secure identification, network processing and RF power. NXP has a broad customer base, serving more than 25,000 customers through its direct sales channel and global network of distribution channel partners.

For Q3 2016, NXP reported revenue of $2.469 billion, up 4.4% over a year ago, and GAAP gross profit of $1.184 billion, up 7.7% over a year ago.

The combined company is expected to have annual revenues of more than $30 billion, serviceable addressable markets of $138 billion in 2020 and leadership positions across mobile, automotive, IoT, security, RF and networking.

"With innovation and invention at our core, Qualcomm has played a critical role in driving the evolution of the mobile industry. The NXP acquisition accelerates our strategy to extend our leading mobile technology into robust new opportunities, where we will be well positioned to lead by delivering integrated semiconductor solutions at scale," said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. "By joining Qualcomm's leading SoC capabilities and technology roadmap with NXP's leading industry sales channels and positions in automotive, security and IoT, we will be even better positioned to empower customers and consumers to realize all the benefits of the intelligently connected world."

Qualcomm also noted that the acquisition is a tax efficient use of its offshore cash.

http://investors.nxp.com/
http://www.qualcomm

NXP to Acquire Freescale for $11.8 Billion

Monday, March 02, 2015  Freescale, Mergers And Acquisitions, NXP  No Comments

NXP Semiconductor agreed to acquire Freescale for $6.25 per share in cash and 0.3521 of an NXP ordinary share for each Freescale common share, implying a total equity value for Freescale of approximately $11.8 billion (based on NXP's closing stock price as of February 27, 2015) and a total enterprise value of approximately $16.7 billion including Freescale's net debt.

The deal creates the largest supplier of semiconductors for the automotive industry and the No.1 supplier of general microcontrollers (MCUs).

The combined company will capitalize on the growing opportunities created by the accelerating demand for security, connectivity and processing. NXP estimates annual cost synergies of $500 million.

"Today's announcement is a transformative step in our objective to become the industry leader in high performance mixed signal solutions. The combination of NXP and Freescale creates an industry powerhouse focused on the high growth opportunities in the Smarter World. We fully expect to continue to significantly out-grow the overall market, drive world-class profitability and generate even more cash, which taken together will maximize value for both Freescale and NXP shareholders," said Richard Clemmer, NXP Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Clemmer will continue to be the President and Chief Executive Officer of the merged company.

http://ir.freescale.com/investor-relations.aspx
http://www.nxp.com

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CoreSite's Revenue Grows 17% YoY to $101 Million

CoreSite Realty Corporation reported third-quarter total operating revenues of $101.3 million, representing a 17.2% increase year over year. Reported third-quarter net income per diluted share were $0.36, representing 38.5% growth year over year.

"We delivered another quarter of solid financial and operational performance in the third quarter, highlighted by strong earnings growth and leasing momentum. Our third quarter volume of new and expansion leasing for deployments of 5,000 net rentable square feet or less set a company record, as the demand for performance-sensitive retail colocation solutions remains robust," stated Paul Szurek, CoreSite’s Chief Executive Officer.

“Subsequent to the end of the third quarter, we opened SV7, our 230,000 net rentable square foot turn-key data center building in Santa Clara, which was 62% leased upon opening of the facility, another record for CoreSite. ”

Some highlights for the quarter on CoreSite's data center business:

• CoreSite executed 162 new and expansion data center leases representing $11.2 million of annualized GAAP rent during the third quarter, comprised of 59,991 NRSF at a weighted-average GAAP rental rate of $187 per NRSF.
• CoreSite’s third-quarter data center lease commencements totaled 50,455 NRSF at a weighted average GAAP rental rate of $148 per NRSF, which represents $7.5 million of annualized GAAP rent.
• CoreSite’s renewal leases signed in the third quarter totaled $10.9 million in annualized GAAP rent, comprised of 76,735 NRSF at a weighted-average GAAP rental rate of $142 per NRSF, reflecting a 4.0% increase in rent on a cash basis and a 6.8% increase on a GAAP basis. The third-quarter rental churn rate was 2.2%, which included 160 basis points of churn related to a customer move-out at CoreSite’s VA1 data center.

http://www.coresite.com

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Nokia Sees Softening Market Conditions, Especially Mobile Infrastructure

Nokia posted net sales (non-IFRS) in Q3 2016 of EUR 6.0 billion, down from EUR 6.4 billion on a comparable combined company basis for the same period a year ago.

"Nokia delivered solid third quarter results. Nokia Technologies led the way, with a sharp year-on-year increase in net sales, largely driven by revenues related to the Samsung licensing agreement that was announced in Q3. The results also reflect another excellent quarter from Fixed Networks, which improved both net sales and profitability from one year ago," stated Rajeev Suri, Nokia's President and CEO. "We were able to deliver these solid results despite market conditions that are softer than expected, particularly in mobile infrastructure. As we look forward, we expect those conditions to stabilize somewhat in 2017, with the primary addressable market in which Nokia competes likely to decline in the low single digits for that year."

Some highlights:

• 
  
• Nokia's Networks reported a 12% year-on-year net sales decrease. Net sales were weak in Mobile Networks within Ultra Broadband Networks, and accounted for approximately 80% of the overall decrease in Nokia's Networks business. IP Networks and Applications also contributed to the decrease, partially offset by growth in Fixed Networks within Ultra Broadband Networks.
• Nokia Technologies reported a 109% year-on-year net sales increase and 168% operating profit increase in Q3 2016. Excluding the impact of non-recurring licensing income, Nokia Technologies net sales and operating profit both would have grown by approximately 50% year-on-year, primarily due to higher intellectual property licensing income and, to a lesser extent, increased net sales resulting from the acquisition of Withings.
• Nokia and China Huaxin are continuing their discussions under the memorandum of understanding, as originally announced on August 28, 2015, to combine Nokia's telecommunications infrastructure businesses in China and Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell into a new joint venture. A deal has not yet been reached.

http://www.nokia.com

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A10 Networks' Q3 Sales Hit $55 Million, up 8% but Missing Guidance

A10 Networks' Q3 2016 revenue grew to $55.1 million, up 8 percent when compared with $50.8 million in the third quarter of 2015. On a GAAP basis, A10 Networks reported a net loss for the third quarter 2016 of $4.7 million, or $0.07 per share, compared with a net loss of $9.0 million, or $0.14 per share, in the third quarter of 2015.

“We reported third quarter revenue of $55.1 million, which was below our guidance and reflects a shortfall in North America where we received a couple orders too late in the quarter to ship and some deals slipped into future quarters,” said Lee Chen, president and chief executive officer of A10 Networks. “While we are disappointed with our topline performance, we continued to drive leverage in our operating model, significantly improve our bottom-line results and invest in key areas of our business to foster long-term growth. The share repurchase authorization announced today reflects our confidence in our market opportunities and ability to meet our financial objectives.”

http://www.a10networks.com

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American Tower Looks to Europe for Opportunities

American Tower, a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 144,000 tower sites, will form a joint venture with Dutch pension fund manager PGGM to develop telecommunications real estate investment opportunities in select European countries. The new company will be called ATC Europe.  American Tower will contribute its German assets into ATC Europe and PGGM will acquire a 49% interest in ATC Europe. American Tower will retain operational control and day-to-day oversight of ATC Europe.

"We are pleased to be able to enter into this partnership with PGGM,” said James D. Taiclet, Jr., American Tower’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe that the combination of PGGM’s long-term investment philosophy and extensive knowledge of the European landscape with American Tower’s proven track record of investing in and operating telecommunications real estate assets will establish a compelling platform for future investment opportunities."

http://www.americantower.com/

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Mellanox Posts Sales of $224 Million, up 4.4%

Mellanox Technologies reported Q3 2016 revenues of $224.2 million, up 4.4 percent compared to $214.8 million in the second quarter of 2016. GAAP net income was $12.0 million, compared to $4.7 million in the second quarter of 2016.

“We are pleased to report the sixth consecutive quarter of record revenue. We see strong customer adoption of our 25/50/100 Gigabit Ethernet solutions. We believe the transition to 25/50/100 Gigabit Ethernet provides Mellanox significant growth opportunities due to our first mover advantage. We saw strong sequential growth in our InfiniBand business, driven by continued adoption of our 100 Gigabit EDR solutions,” said Eyal Waldman, president and CEO of Mellanox Technologies. “Our third quarter results show continued leadership in both Ethernet and InfiniBand, and we expect growth to continue, driven by our interconnect and processor technologies.”

http://ir.mellanox.com

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GSMA Elects Sunil Bharti Mittal as Chair

The GSMA elected new members of the GSMA Board for the two-year period from January 2017 through December 2018. The GSMA Board has also elected Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises as Chair, and re-elected Mari-Noëlle Jego-Laveissiere, Executive Vice President, Innovation, Orange Group as Deputy Chair.

“I am delighted to be elected as Chairman of the GSMA, and look forward to working closely with the rest of the Board, the GSMA leadership team and our entire membership to address the critical issues facing our industry and our customers,” said Mittal. “In a relatively brief period of time, mobile has had a transformational impact on individuals, businesses, industries and societies, contributing significantly to local economies and improving the lives of billions around the world.”

The GSMA’s Director General Mats Granryd also serves on the GSMA Board. The GSMA Board for the 2017-2018 term comprises:

• Juan Carlos Archila, Executive Vice President, International Relationships, América Móvil
• Bill Hague, Executive Vice President-Global Connection Management, AT&T Mobility
• Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises
• Sha Yuejia, Executive Director and Vice President, China Mobile
• Sun Kangmin, Executive Director and Executive Vice President, China Telecom
• Lu Yimin, President and Vice Chairman, China Unicom
• Wolfgang Kopf, Senior Vice President, Public and Regulatory Affairs, Deutsche Telekom
• Hatem Dowidar, CEO International, Etisalat
• Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA
• Christian Salbaing, Deputy Chairman, Europe, Hutchison
• Takashi Tanaka, President, KDDI
• Eelco Blok, CEO, KPN
• Chang-Gyu Hwang, Chairman and CEO, KT Corporation
• Mauricio Ramos, CEO, Millicom
• Phuthuma Nhleko, Chairman and Acting CEO, MTN Group
• Andrei Dubovskov, President, MTS
• Kazuhiro Yoshizawa, President and CEO, NTT DOCOMO
• Mari-Noëlle Jego-Laveissiere, Executive Vice President, Innovation, Orange Group
• Dong-Hyun Jang, President and CEO, SK Telecom
• Julio Linares López, Vice President of the Board, Telefoìnica
• Sigve Brekke, President and CEO, Telenor Group
• Johan Dennelind, President and CEO, Telia Company
• Kaan Terzioğlu, CEO, Turkcell
• Roy Chestnutt, Chief Strategy Officer, Verizon
• Serpil Timuray, Group Chief Commercial Operations and Strategy Officer, Vodafone
• Scott Gegenheimer, CEO, Zain Group

GSMA Chair Jon Fredrik Baksaas will step down from the Board at the end of 2016, after holding this position for the past three years. Baksaas was elected as a member of the GSMA Board in 2008.

http://www.gsma.com

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WSJ: CenturyLink and Level3 in Merger Talks

The Wall Street Journal reported that CenturyLink and Level 3 Communications are in advanced talks to merge.  Neither company confirmed the report.

Both companies operate very significant fiber backbone networks.

Over the past few years, CenturyLink has acquired Qwest Communications, Savvis and Embarq (formerly Sprint's Local Telecommunications Division).

In 2014, Level 3 acquired TW Telecom. In 2011, it acquired Global Crossing.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/centurylink-in-advanced-talks-to-merge-with-level-3-communications-1477589011

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