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For its fiscal second-quarter 2008 (ended 2 February), optical subsystem maker Optium Corp of Horsham, PA, USA has reported record revenue of $40.3m, up on December’s guidance of $38-39m. This is also up 11.6% on $36.1m the prior quarter and up 18% on $34.1m a year ago, driven by sequential growth in reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), analog and cable TV and 40Gb/s products.

In particular, revenue from 40Gb/s products more than doubled and revenue from ROADM products grew by 90% on the prior quarter, as Optium continues to ramp production capacity for them aggressively. About 18% of revenues were generated from these new product areas, compared to less than 1% a year ago.

“We are continuing to manage through volatility in demand for 10Gb/s products from one of our larger customers by making great progress in growing revenues through each of our targeted growth platforms,” says chairman and CEO Eitan Gertel. “We introduced new high-performance product technologies, expanded capacity for our new product lines and continued to develop relationships with new customers worldwide, particularly in Asia,” he adds.

Compared with net income a year ago of $3.9m, net loss was $0.8m for the latest quarter, due mainly to operational expenditure made to diversify the product portfolio (ramping capacity for the 40Gb/s and ROADM product lines in fiscal 2008), as well as litigation expenses (from defending patent infringement lawsuits related to cable TV products). However, this is an improvement from a net loss of $1.1m the prior quarter.

Cash reserves have almost doubled from $25.4m to $47.8m over the last two quarters.

“Our execution in the first half of the fiscal year gives us added confidence that we will meet our objective for annual growth of at least 30% for fiscal 2008,” says Gertel.

For fiscal third-quarter 2008, Optium expects revenue to grow to $42-44m.

“We are growing our company by expanding our product portfolio and production capacity to address high-growth segments of the optical communications market while building a stronger presence with new customers around the world,” Gertel says. “Continued momentum in each of these product areas [40Gb/s and ROADMs] is expected to result in growing operating leverage over time. In the near term, we are focused on satisfying the strong customer acceptance of our new product introductions, which has required additional operational investments,” concludes Gertel.

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