News

posted on 08 May 2008 13:41

Isilion's Q1fy08 results are gory but there are encouraging signs there as CEO Sujal Patel starts re-building the business.

Net revenue in the quarter was $24.1 million, 35 percent up on the year-ago quarter's $17.8 million; it's going in the right direction. However net income (loss) isn't - yet - being -$10.1 million ($0.16/share) versus Q1fy07's $6.9 million ($0.14/share) loss, a nearly 50 percent increase.

The gross margin rose from 48.1 percent in Q4fy07 to 53.5 percent in Q1fy08 which is good. The latest quarter's results were adversely affected by a $2.8 million cost for the Audit Committee report expenses. But it was money well spent as the company is now back in Nasdaq.

The company has the financial headroom to re-build itself as, at March 31, 2008, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $78.6 million, and the company had no outstanding debt.

There's a lot of mess for the new executive brooms to sweep up before they can deliver more positive results. But Patel is optimistic, saying: "I am encouraged by these results as we emerge from the challenges of the past few quarters. Despite recent business headwinds and a seasonally slower first quarter, we witnessed record levels of repeat purchases from existing customers, reflecting Isilon's strong value proposition and the modular, 'pay as you grow,' architecture of our clustered storage systems."

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}