Plantronics (News - Alert) has reason to celebrate its 50th birthday. Third-quarter net revenues at Plantronics for the 2011 fiscal year totaled $181.6 million, which is a 9 percent increase compared with net revenues of $165.9 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2010.

Ken Kannappan (News - Alert), the company’s president and CEO, said in a statement, “We continue to see growth in our core office and contact center market in all geographies as a result of improving global economic conditions.”

Looking ahead, Kannappan said the company is “increasingly well-positioned to benefit from expected strong growth in the Unified Communications market over the next several years.”

In addition, Barbara Scherer (News - Alert), who is the company’s senior vice president of finance and administration and CFO, said in the same statement that Plantronics “generated approximately $29 million in cash flow from operations in the current quarter and repurchased over 280,000 shares of our common stock while maintaining a strong cash position with over $414 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.”

The company also had $18.1 million in long-term investments in the quarter, she said.

In its analysis, Reuters (News - Alert) said that Plantronics had higher quarterly profit – due in part – because of sales to enterprise customers. The company predicts that fourth-quarter revenue will come in below estimates because of an expected drop in consumer demand, Reuters reports.

Plantronics predicted fourth-quarter earnings (adjusted) of between 58 and 62 cents a share, based on revenue of between $167 and $172 million, according to Reuters.

However, analysts were predicting 57 cents a share on $178.9 million in revenue, according to Reuters, citing average data compiled by Thomson Reuters (News - Alert).

In other company news, TMCnet recently reported how Plantronics is celebrating its 50th year in business.

Citing a report from The Inquirer, TMCnet says Plantronics is using the anniversary to add to its unified communications products. The Voyager Pro UC Bluetooth headset and Calisto 825 speakerphone are new product offerings. A new UC toolkit is also being offered. The company says the toolkit is “the industry’s first complete set of tools, training and documentation for expanding the growth of unified communications solutions,” according to a press release.

The guest of honor for the birthday celebration was astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who was wearing a Plantronics headset on the Apollo space mission about 42 years ago.

On marking the birthday, Kannappan said in a statement that, “everyone – from consumers to mobile professionals to the business world – should be able to simply communicate regardless of device or location. We want to deliver innovative products with uncompromising quality, an ideal experience and extraordinary service so everyone can simply communicate.”