Rising revenue and profit projections shows any recession hasn’t hit Bridgewater Systems Inc.
The company originally expected 2010 profit between $85 to $94 million and net earnings after-tax between $10 and $12 million. Now, it predicts $92-94 million in revenue and profit between $12-$13.5 million.
Bridgewater, a self-proclaimed mobile personalization company located in Ottawa, was founded in 1997 by Doug Somers and Russ Freen.
All indications from vendors in the sector and service provider spending indicate a very healthy market opportunity for Bridgewater well into 2012.
The company offers innovative ways for their subscribers to alleviate 3G-network congestion and offload data traffic.
“What our software does is it helps them (subscribers) more efficiently manage the mobile data traffic in the first place,” says Joanne Steinberg, marketing director for Bridgewater.
“On the security side, it helps them authenticate and authorize subscribers as they go on to the mobile data network and which applications they have access to. On the service side, our policy software helps them develop more innovative mobile data service plans.”
Right now, many data plans are what Steinberg refers to as “all you can eat,” meaning unlimited usage is provided. But telecommunications companies are starting to move toward tiered services rather than all-inclusive packages.
What this means, Steinberg says, is the companies are offering maybe a day pass to mobile services, or one or two gigabytes in downloads. They are offering customers more plan options rather than the prior practice of all or nothing.
Since becoming a publicly traded company in 2007, Bridgewater has annually seen revenue and profit increases as the company continues to grow and establish itself in new markets.
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
During the third quarter of its 2010 fiscal year, which ended on September 30, Bridgewater noted a 52-per-cent increase in revenue to $23.9 million from $15.8 million during the third quarter of last year.
National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson said in a report quoted by Canadian Press that those results exceeded the expected $22.8 million in quarterly revenue.
“All indications from vendors in the sector and service provider spending indicate a very healthy market opportunity for Bridgewater well into 2012,” Thompson wrote.
We’re helping operators offload data traffic to different networks, like WiFi for example.
That is reflected in Bridgewater’s third quarter after-tax earnings, which improved this year to $3.4 million from $1.7 million during the same quarter last year, despite expecting current and future income tax expenses this year.
The revenue and profit increases come from the addition of 32 new clients by the end of the third quarter as well as continued market momentum for mobile control plane solutions that integrate subscriber, service, and policy controls with subscriber data management, says a company press release.
Though Bridgewater noted that some of their customers in emerging markets may face financial challenges over the next 12 to 24 months that could impact its business, the company still expects to earn revenue of $92 to $94 million during 2010. That should translate into net after-tax earnings between $12 to $13.5 million, according to the company press release.
In addition, Bridgewater expanded this year to India with the opening of the India Centre of Excellence. It provides technology development sales, professional services and support services for the Asia-Pacific region.
“A big focus for Bridgewater is to expand globally, so we’ve put a lot of our efforts into growing an international market and winning more business outside of North America,” Steinberg says.
FOUR-WAY GROWTH
Looking to the future, Bridgewater has four major areas it’s looking to continually improve.
“One is helping operators optimize their 3G network,” Steinberg says. “That includes things like our policy software to help better manage mobile data traffic and deliver more precise services.
“We’re helping operators offload data traffic to different networks, like WiFi for example,” she says. “We’re helping them transform to 4G and we’re helping them design new services where they can use data where they have on subscribers to deliver more personalized services.”
“There are a lot of opportunities in those four areas,” Steinberg says.
The company currently has more than 250 employees and supplies its products to 150 service providers, in more than 30 countries.
“Growth is a major focus for us and we’re pursuing opportunities across the whole globe,” Steinberg says.
“Our goal is to just keep on the same track. We feel we are doing a lot of things right. We’re profitable, we’re growing our revenues quickly, we’re expanding globally and were staying on this track,” she says. “It’s a good track to be on.”