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 Net2Phone Reports Record Second Quarter Results
Company records $34.7 million in quarterly revenues and EPS
of ($0.27), excluding gains, charges, and free minutes
Company accelerates expectations for profitability. Restructures
agreements with key partners to reduce costs and improve profitability
NEWARK, NJ - March 19, 2001 - Net2Phone Inc. (NASDAQ: NTOP), the
leading provider of voice and enhanced services on IP networks,
today reported revenues totaling $34.7 million for the second quarter
fiscal year 2001 ended January 31, 2001, a 124% increase over revenues
of $15.5 million for the second quarter FY2000 and a 12% increase
over the prior quarter revenues of $30.8 million.
Net loss excluding charges and free minutes for the second quarter
of FY2001 was ($15.9) million or ($0.27) per share. Net loss before
charges for the quarter including free minutes was ($23.9) million
or ($0.41) per share, as compared to a net loss of ($8.7) million
or ($0.17) per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2000 and ($14.7)
million or ($0.25) per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2001.
Net loss for the quarter including gains, charges and free minutes
was ($176.2) million or ($2.99) per share, primarily attributed
to a write-down in the value of its Yahoo! shares, which were received
in exchange for Net2Phone shares last March.
"Strategically, the second quarter was an important milestone
on our path to profitability and sustained strong growth," said
Howie Balter, CEO of Net2Phone. "We began to see substantial
diversification and expansion of our revenue stream from consumer,
enterprise and carrier services. This trend, we believe, will continue
and be strengthened by the upcoming introduction of our voice-enabled
high-margin services. Further, we took a significant step to reduce
our costs by successfully renegotiating and restructuring agreements
with key business partners in order to reduce our cost of subsidizing
traffic to our partners. This, we expect, will result in higher
gross margins and lower direct costs for Net2Phone over time. We
will continue to evaluate all partner relationships, maintaining
only those with positive financial returns."
"As we move ahead, the focus of our strategy is to emphasize
a diverse revenue base, high margins services and a streamlined
cost structure. Given our substantial progress in this quarter,
we continue to project strong revenue growth, reduced expenditures
and improved margins. As a result, we have accelerated by two quarters
our forecast of when we will achieve profitability and now believe
Net2Phone will reach that goal at the end of July next year,"
Mr. Balter added.
Gross margins in the quarter were 47%, excluding free minutes.
Including free minutes (primarily though relationships with strategic
partners), gross margins for the quarter were 25%, as compared to
39% in the prior quarter and 46% in the same quarter year-ago. Depreciation
and amortization for the second quarter was $6.6 million as a result
of the company's commitment to global IP network expansion. Depreciation
was $5.7 million in the prior quarter, and $1.1 million for the
same quarter year-ago.
Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of January
31, 2001 were approximately $353.5 million. In the last quarter,
approximately $35.8 million was used for the company's stock buyback
plan, approximately $27.6 million for capital expenditures, and
additional adjustments were made due to fluctuations in investments
and public securities such as Yahoo!. Last March, Net2Phone and
Yahoo! exchanged equivalent values of stock, with Net2Phone receiving
approximately 800,000 shares of Yahoo! stock in exchange for approximately
2.8 million of restricted Net2Phone public shares.
DIVERSIFIED SOURCES OF REVENUE GROWTH
Total Net2Phone paid minutes of use grew to 296 million minutes
for the quarter, a 187% increase over 103 million minutes for the
same quarter year-ago and a 38% increase over the prior quarter's
214 million minutes. Net2Phone's PC-based services are now integrated
into the top four Instant Messaging clients, proving Net2Phone's
ability to scale to demand.
Consumer: Demand for Net2Phone's consumer services continued
to grow. As of January 31, 2001, Net2Phone had over 2.8 million
active users (not including customers using Net2Phone via MSN Messenger
or Yahoo! Messenger services) who had used Net2Phone's services
during the past three months, a 387% increase over 575,000 customers
in the same quarter year-ago and a 56% increase over the prior quarter's
1.8 million.
Enterprise: Net2Phone's corporate account list continues
to grow as well. More businesses are plugging Net2Phone gateways
into their corporate environments allowing for direct dial Voice
over IP calling from a PBX, making the calls seamless to the end
user. Net2Phone's enterprise solution offers a compelling value
proposition, both reducing per minute costs as well as offering
enhanced functionality.
Broadband: This quarter, the company made strides in the
broadband field, signing integration deals with Motorola, Broadcom,
and Linksys, creating a new category of paying Voice over IP customers.
Under these agreements, Net2Phone's protocols will be embedded into
broadband devices such as home networking routers and cable modems,
enabling instant IP dialtone over a broadband connection. Linksys
started shipping their new Etherfast Cable/DSL Router Powered by
Net2Phone this month.
Net2Phone plans to launch a new service plan that includes both
inbound calling and monthly subscription billing. Net2Phone will
assign phone number to users so that users can receive inbound calls
as well as make phone calls using their existing broadband connection.
The company expects to launch this service in beta form in the coming
months.
Enhanced Voice-Enabled IP Services: Net2Phone is leveraging
its existing technology, network and customers to bring enhanced
services such as speech recognition and voice hosting to the marketplace.
Using its consumer base as a showcase, the company plans to unveil
new services such as a personalized voice dialer and a voice portal
over the next two fiscal quarters. The company plans to offer such
services to enterprises, call centers, and commerce companies as
a method to reduce infrastructure, labor, and transit costs by approximately
40%.
ADIR Technologies: The company expects to close its second
round of financing for ADIR, raising approximately $20-30 million,
at twice the valuation of its initial round, completed only a few
months ago. After the round is closed, ADIR will be valued in excess
of Net2Phone's enterprise value. As previously forecasted, ADIR
plans to roll out trial products by the middle of calendar year
2001.
RENEGOTIATIONS OF PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS TO REDUCE COSTS
Net2Phone believes it can significantly reduce costs and stay
focused on its path to profitability, and has been working closely
with its strategic partners to drive profitability through joint
product offerings, and if necessary, restructure some agreements
in order to ensure high returns on investment. The company intends
to continue to evaluate its relationships with all strategic partners
by the end of the fiscal year ending in July, carrying only those
relationships with positive returns into fiscal 2002.
As was forecasted on our last earnings conference call, Net2Phone
has restructured its existing agreement with Yahoo!, as part of
its initiative to expedite its path to profitability.
Under the revised agreement, Yahoo! will purchase IP-based voice
and enhanced services from Net2Phone to be used for multiple product
lines, including its instant messaging service and voice portal
(1-800-MY-YAHOO). The original agreement involved Net2Phone paying
Yahoo! for category exclusivity for PC-to-phone, calling cards and
1-800-MY-YAHOO as well as an extensive marketing and promotional
campaign for Net2Phone's consumer offerings over a three-year period.
As part of the restructuring, Net2Phone has taken a $31 million
one-time non-recurring charge and has eliminated all future payment
obligations to Yahoo!. The charge represents significantly lower
financial and resource costs than would have been required to maintain
the original relationship on a go-forward basis. The new agreement
with Yahoo! calls for Net2Phone to provide these services in addition
to other enhanced telephony services to Yahoo!.
The unexpected huge early success of Microsoft and Yahoo!'s integration
into their Instant Messaging applications has resulted in the subsidization
of approximately $8 million in free calling this quarter. Based
on renegotiations with our strategic partners, we expect to reduce
the offering of free minutes significantly, resulting in higher
gross margins and reduced direct costs. Net2Phone has also restructured
its agreement with Microsoft, whereby Microsoft has imposed a five-minute
limit on domestic PC-to-phone calling.
As part of the company's outlined path to profitability, Net2Phone
has charted the trends of free services in its Statement of Operations
below.
"As we've stated previously, our focus is achieving profitability.
By renegotiating our relationships with Yahoo!, Microsoft and others,
we can get to profitability faster, which is in both the company's
interest as well as the interests of our shareholders," said Ilan
Slasky, Chief Financial Officer of Net2Phone. "We anticipate realizing
significant operating leverage as we continue to scale our business
for the needs of consumers, enterprises and telcos worldwide. We
are outlining the following guidance through fiscal 2002."
ACCELERATED PROFITABILITY: GUIDANCE AND OUTLOOK
The company is providing the following financial guidance:
- The company has accelerated guidance for profitability by two
quarters, with expected profitability at July 31, 2002.
- The company expects annual revenues slightly in excess of $150
million for fiscal year ending July 31 2001, in line with previous
guidance. The company expects to continue to grow revenues by
approximately 50% in fiscal year 2002.
- Gross margins are expected to rebound significantly, trending
towards 30-35% over the next three quarters as the company reduces
and/or eliminates free services. For the remaining three quarters
of fiscal 2002, the company expects gross margins in the range
of 35-38%.
- Sales and marketing expenses are projected to decline 10-15%
each quarter for the next two quarters. For fiscal 2002, the company
expects sales and marketing to decline significantly as a percentage
of revenue.
- G&A is expected to decline approximately 10% each quarter for
the next two quarters. For fiscal 2002, the company expects G&A,
as a percentage of revenue, to decline significantly as the company
expects greater operating leverage.
- Interest income is projected to be approximately $3.5 million,
in the next quarter and is expected to be approximately $7 million
over the next 12 months.
- CapEx is expected to be approximately $25-30 million each quarter
for the next two quarters, depending on the timing of the purchase
of certain network expenditures, after which we expect it to be
approximately $15-20 million per quarter.
UPDATE ON AT&T
Net2Phone and AT&T continue to discuss ways to deepen and strengthen
their relationship, which may include utilizing Net2Phone's proven
infrastructure, platform and ability to route calls over AT&T's
IP network.
ABOUT NET2PHONE
Net2Phone, Inc delivers voice and enhanced services to IP networks
worldwide. Net2Phone enables people to place low-cost high quality
calls from their computer, telephone, or fax machine to any telephone
or fax machine in the world. Net2Phone develops and markets technology
and services for IP voice and e-commerce solutions for the web and
other IP networks. Net2Phone's strategic investors include Softbank,
America Online, GE/NBC, and Yahoo!. Additionally, AT&T has acquired
a 39 percent voting stake in Net2Phone. For more information about
Net2Phone's products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking
statements include, among other things, Net2Phone's expected operating
performance for the three months ending January 31, 2001 and thereafter.
Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking
statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among
others, the inherent uncertainty of financial estimates and projections,
the competitive environment for Internet telephony, changes of rates
of all related telco rates and services, legislation that may affect
the Internet telephony industry, and Net2Phone's ability to operate
the services described on a large scale commercial level.The forward-looking
statements are made as of the date of this press release, and Net2Phone
assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements,
or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those
projected in the forward-looking statements. Investors should consult
all of the information set forth herein and the other information
set forth from time to time in Net2Phone's reports filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to the Securities Act
of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Net2Phone, Inc. Comparative Statement of Operations
For The Three Months Ended October 31, 2000 & 1999, and July 31,
2000
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