(The following is taken from Rich Tehrani’s (News - Alert) VoIP blog:)

What can you say about Cbeyond? Like HP they hit the cover off the ball with their earnings. The company which provides voice, broadband and mobile service to the SMB space had strong fourth quarter growth with revenues of $76.9 million, up 30.6% over the fourth quarter of 2006.

Here are some of the other details:

--Net income of $12.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared with $4.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, reflecting a benefit of $9.6 million in 2007 arising from the expected future realization of operating loss carryforwards;

--Total adjusted EBITDA of $14.0 million during the fourth quarter of 2007, an increase of 13.2% from the fourth quarter of 2006 (see Schedule 1 for reconciliation to net income);

--Total customers in Cbeyond's (News - Alert) nine operating markets of 35,041, reflecting net customer additions of 1,754 in the quarter;

--Average monthly revenue per customer location (ARPU) of $750 during the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to $749 in the third quarter of 2007 and $742 in the fourth quarter of 2006; and

--Increase in the number of applications used per customer to 6.3 in the fourth quarter of 2007 as compared to 6.1 at the end of the third quarter of 2007 and 5.6 in the fourth quarter of 2006, with mobile penetration at 24% of the customer base.

In what many say is a slowing domestic market, Cbeyond has done a wonderful job of growing in the U.S. … something many people said couldn't be done.

Cbeyond is on record as saying their growth will likely slow as a result of a slowing economy but we should all look to this company as one of the shining stars in IP communications.

I am not a financial analyst mind you and I am not telling you to run out and buy this company's stock. What I am saying however is that this company has done what many others have not been able to do … make a good amount of profit selling IP communications services.

I should mention that there are other private and public companies also doing well selling to the SMB market. As the economy slows it is worth pointing out that switching to IP communications will save companies money.

Most SMBs are lean already and they have nowhere to cut but on their telecom expenses. In the process, when they switch to IP they get increased productivity and customer satisfaction/sales. What could be better than that?

More

See Also:

Cbeyond Focuses on Extreme Simplicity
Microsoft and Cbeyond Launch New E-Mail Service for Small and ...

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Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC (News - Alert). In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended VoIP event, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.

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