AWS continues 42% yoy growth pace

Amazon Web Services continues to grow at a 42% year-over-year pace.

In its Q3 2017 financial report, Amazon disclosed that AWS sales for Q3 2017 amounted to $4.584 billion.

During the quarter, AWS launched per-second billing in all regions for Linux-based EC2 instances, Elastic Graphical Processing Units (GPU), Elastic Block Store (EBS) Volumes, AWS Batch, and Elastic Map Reduce (EMR). Customers using these services will now be billed in one-second (versus one-hour) increments. AWS also introduced a free service that provides a single location for customers to track the status of migrations across their application portfolio. The company also revealed plans for a new infrastructure region in the Middle East in 2019. Currently, AWS provides 44 Availability Zones across 16 infrastructure regions worldwide, with another 14 Availability Zones across five AWS Regions in China, France, Hong Kong, Sweden, and a second GovCloud Region in the U.S. expected to come online by the end of 2018.

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Elliott Management to privatize Gigamon in $1.6 billion deal

Elliott Management, a private investment firm known for shareholder activism, will acquire Gigamon for $38.50 per share in cash, for a total value of approximately $1.6 billion, making Gigamon a privately-held company. Elliott Management and its affiliates currently hold a 7.0% equity voting stake in Gigamon.

Under the deal, Gigamon shareholders will receive $38.50 in cash for each share of Gigamon common stock held.

"We are pleased to announce this transaction, which delivers immediate cash value to our shareholders upon closing at a premium to our unaffected stock price," said Paul Hooper, Chief Executive Officer of Gigamon. "The Gigamon Board, with the assistance of independent financial and legal advisors, conducted a thorough review of options to enhance shareholder value and unanimously concluded that entering into this agreement with Elliott represents the best way to maximize value."

"As the leading provider of visibility solutions that enable enterprises to guard against network and data breaches, Gigamon has a strong track record of innovation and delivering customer value that makes it a compelling investment," said Jesse Cohn, Partner at Elliott. "In partnership with Evergreen Coast Capital, our private equity affiliate, this is a landmark transaction in our long history of investing in leading enterprise technology businesses."


Gigamon's recent revenue trends
         2017                        2016
Q3    $79.2 million          $83.5 million
Q2    $69.1 million          $75.1 million
Q1    $69.6 million          $66.9 million

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Nokia posts Q3 sales of EUR 5.5b, a 7% slide yoy

Driven by strength in its patent licensing business and improve efficiency in its Networks division, but offset by some challenges in its Mobile Networks business, Nokia reported Q3 2017 net sales of EUR 5.5 billion, a 7% year-on-year decrease (4% decrease on a constant currency basis) compared to a year earlier.

Gross margin for Q3 was 42.7% (40.0% in Q3 2016), and non-IFRS operating margin ws 12.1% (9.3% in Q3 2016), driven by Nokia Technologies and resilience in Nokia's Networks business.

Nokia's Networks business

• 9% year-on-year net sales decrease (6% decrease on a constant currency basis) in Q3 2017, primarily due to Ultra Broadband Networks, reflecting challenges related to market conditions and certain projects in Mobile Networks, primarily in North America and Greater China.
• In Q3 2017, on a constant currency basis, the year-on-year net sales performance in IP Networks and Applications and Global Services improved, when compared to the year-on-year performance in Q2 2017. On a constant currency basis, year-on-year net sales grew by 2% in both Global Services and IP Routing.
• Gross margin was 38.6% supported by continued operational discipline. Operating margin of 6.9% reflected weak results in Ultra Broadband Networks, which was partially offset by improved year-on-year performance in Global Services and IP Networks and Applications.

Nokia Technologies

• 37% year-on-year net sales increase and 73% year-on-year operating profit increase in Q3 2017, primarily related to a settled arbitration in the third quarter 2017. 
• Approximately EUR 180 million of the net sales were non-recurring in nature and related to catch-up net sales for prior periods. 
• approximately doubled recurring license revenue from EUR 578 million in 2014.

Rajeev Suri, Nokia's President and CEO, stated: "Despite the progress we made in the quarter, we experienced some challenges in our Mobile Networks business and see a continued decline in our primary addressable market in 2018. That decline, which we estimate to be in the range of 2% to 5%, is the result of the multiple technology transitions underway; robust competition in China; and near-term headwinds from potential operator consolidation in a handful of countries."

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Intel sees record revenue for data center, IoT and memory

Intel reported Q3 revenue og $16.1 billion and record operating income and record earnings per share (EPS), driven by strong data-centric growth, expanding operating margins and gains on the sale of equity investments. The company cited record revenues for its data center, Internet of Things and memory businesses. Gross margin for Q3 was 62.3%, down from 63.3% a year earlier.

"We executed well in the third quarter with strong results across the business, and we’re on track to a record year,”said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. “I’m excited about our progress and our future. Intel’s product line-up is the strongest it has ever been with more innovation on the way for artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and more.”

For its Data Center Group, sales to Cloud/Communication Service Provides now accounts for 60% of revenue, up from 35% in 2013.

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How will Brexit impact the data center business in Ireland?

Leo Clancy, Head of Technology, Consumer & Business Services at IDA Ireland visits Silicon Valley to talk about data centers, IoT and the impending impact of Brexit on Ireland.

https://youtu.be/ShSwE69Pz3Y

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ADVA's Q3 revenues decline to EUR 111.2 Mill

Citing a drop in revenues from two major customers during the acquisition process of MRV Communications, ADVA Optical Networking reported a drop in revenues in Q3 2017 to EUR 111.2 million, down from EUR 144.2 in Q2 2017, and down 30.3% year-on-year (YoY) (Q3 2016: EUR 159.5 million). The figure was within the adjusted guidance announced on August 28, 2017.

Pro forma operating income in Q3 2017 stood at EUR -0.8 million or -0.7% of revenues, down from EUR 9.2 million or 6.4% of revenues in Q2 2017. This number is also within the adjusted guidance.

ADVA recorded one-time restructuring costs of EUR 8.4 million due to the integration of MRV and the related restructuring measures, as well as the consolidation of the product portfolios.

Regional revenues during Q3
Americas - 60%
EMEA - 33%
Asia-Pacific - 7%

"Q3, 2017 was one of the most challenging quarters in our company's history," commented Brian Protiva, CEO of ADVA Optical Networking. "We had to lower our guidance within a financial quarterly period for the first time since Q2, 2008. Nevertheless, the integration of MRV Communications is progressing very well. We have implemented much of the planned restructuring measures, updated our roadmaps and aligned our product portfolios, development teams and sales focus. All this provides us with a solid basis for a return to growth and profitability in 2018."

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DragonWave acquired by Transform-X

DragonWave, which a global supplier of packet microwave radio systems for mobile and access networks and which is bases in Ottawa, Canada, has been acquired by Transform-X, a private equity firm based in Tucson, Arizona.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

DragonWave’s carrier-grade point-to-point packet microwave systems transmit broadband voice, video and data, enabling service providers, government agencies, enterprises and other organizations to meet their increasing bandwidth requirement. The principal application of DragonWave’s portfolio is wireless network backhaul, including for small cell networks. The new company will operate under the name of DragonWave-X.

In addition, DragonWave announced the appointment of Hans B. Amell as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Amell’s background includes leading major transformations in Global Industry leading companies such as Unisys, Dun and Bradstreet, AlliedSignal/Honeywell and Ericsson. He started his career as a management consultant at McKinsey.

"The DragonWave-X acquisition is a crucial part of Transform-X's strategic goal to acquire and integrate best-in-class 5G+ communications technologies, manufacturers and service companies that will compete and excel in the market for 5G+, small cell densification and RAN solutions to modern data demands." said Dan Hodges, Transform-X CEO.

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