Business Services Industry

Teletouch Reports 2nd Quarter 2009 Fiscal Year Results on Form 10-Q

Business Wire, June 15, 2009

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Teletouch Communications, Inc. (OTC: TLLE), a leading U.S. provider of AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) cellular services, two-way radio, mobile electronics and related products and services, today reported its consolidated results for the 2nd Quarter 2009 fiscal year on Form 10-Q, for the period ended November 30, 2008.

“Comparing this year’s second quarter operating results to that of the prior year shows a stark contrast and real improvement in the Company’s operating performance,” stated T. A. “Kip” Hyde, Jr., President, COO and Director of Teletouch. “Operating income for the second quarter 2009 was approximately $305,000 vs. an operating loss of approximately $61,000 in the same prior year period. EBITDA (a non-GAAP measure more fully described below) for the period more than doubled to approximately $660,000 from $326,000 in the comparative prior year period.”

Hyde continued, “However, during this period and as expected given the ongoing difficulties in the U.S. macro-economic climate, we began to see significant top-line degradation in our auto-related wholesale business units, as well as a more modest decline in our cellular service revenues. The lower contribution margins from the automotive segments had little impact on our overall operating income, as the gross profit percentage of sales generated from these wholesale business units is relatively low. But, given the challenges posed by continued cellular customer migration to the iPhone, we also saw a decline in our AT&T-related cellular service billing revenues, as the impact of losses in our subscriber base year-over-year became more apparent. While related cost reductions were such that the overall impact to operating earnings was substantially mitigated, the trends going into the holiday season were not favorable.”

As disclosed previously, since the launch of the iPhone in the summer of 2007, the Company has experienced higher subscriber attrition rates due to customers wanting to acquire the iPhone. The Company has been prohibited from selling the iPhone or servicing its own subscribers desiring an iPhone by AT&T, which has required any of the Company’s customers desiring an iPhone to move their Company-provided billing services to AT&T’s own billing platform. The Company believes that these restrictions on the Company and their further requirement to make the Company’s customers change their billing services to AT&T may be in violation of its agreements with AT&T, including specifically the bilateral non-solicitation provision contained in such agreements that provides for a $1,000 per Subscriber (cellular number) penalty for these actions. The Company is currently in discussions with AT&T on a resolution to this issue, including appropriate compensation for such AT&T generated customer attrition.

The Company is party to six (6) distribution agreements with AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T), its successors and assigns, which provide for the Company to distribute AT&T wireless services, on an exclusive basis, in major markets in Texas and Arkansas. The AT&T distribution agreements authorize the Company to exclusively offer AT&T cellular phone service and provide billing customer services to its customers on behalf of AT&T, with identical pricing characteristics in exchange for certain compensation and fees, that are primarily in the form of revenue sharing for the core wireless services that the Company bills on behalf of AT&T, and whereby the Company retains all of the revenue and income from products and services it sells on its own behalf. The Company is responsible for all of the billing and collection of cellular charges from its customers, and remains liable to AT&T for a set percentage of all AT&T-related cellular service customer billings. These distribution agreements with AT&T have varying expiration dates from August 31, 2009 through October 31, 2012.

The Company believes that because of the volume of business transacted with AT&T, as well as the revenue generated from AT&T, there is a significant concentration of credit and business risk involved with having AT&T as a primary vendor. The Company’s largest distribution agreement with AT&T, for the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas MSA was amended effective September 1, 1999 with an initial term of 10 years (the “DFW Agreement”). The DFW Agreement provides for two 5 year extensions unless either party provides written notice to the other party at least 6 months prior to the expiration of the initial term or the additional renewal term, although certain billing services and other obligations continue for many years after the initial term expires, in some cases in perpetuity.

 

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Please add your comment:

  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  2.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)

advertisement
advertisement
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
advertisement
Click Here

Content provided in partnership with Business Wire