Comverse Technology announces record second quarter results: Record EPS of 29 cents vs. 19 cents on 60 percent gain in net income; sales increase 39 percent to record level

Business Wire, July 31, 1996

WOODBURY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 1996--Comverse Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: CMVT) announced for the second quarter ended June 30, 1996 record net income after taxes of $6,851,000 (29 cents per share), an increase of 60 percent over the net income of $4,276,000 (19 cents per share) posted for the corresponding period in 1995.

The 1996 second quarter net income includes a one-time $535,000 (approximately 2 cents per share) gain from the issuance of shares in Applied Silicon Inc. Canada (ASIC) to Newbridge Networks (NYSE:NN), which reduced Comverse's equity position in ASIC to 47.6 percent.

The company also posted record sales and total revenues of $46,629,000 and $48,707,000, respectively, for the second quarter of 1996, an increase of 39 percent and 36 percent, respectively, over the second quarter of 1995.

Kobi Alexander, chairman, president and CEO of Comverse, stated, "The increase in second quarter revenues is the result of strong growth in worldwide sales of the company's TRILOGUE(R), AUDIODISK(TM), and ULTRA(TM) product lines. More than 100 wireless and wireline network operators around the world have now selected TRILOGUE to enable the provision of call answering and other revenue-generating enhanced services. In addition, sales of our AUDIODISK multimedia monitoring systems and ULTRA multimedia recording systems continued to benefit from a major global market transition, in which law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as well as call logging users such as call centers, telemarketers, financial institutions, correctional institutions and public safety (e.g. emergency `911') organizations replace outdated analog monitoring and recording systems with digital technology."

The company ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $124,035,000, working capital of $166,130,000, total assets of $242,570,000 and stockholders' equity of $135,456,000. -0-

    Financial highlights at and for the six and three month periods
ended June 30, 1996 and prior year comparisons are as follows: