Channel Daily News

Aruba Networks loss widens

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Aruba Networks Inc. said it pulled in US$34.7 million in its fiscal third quarter ending April 30, an increase over the US$21 million it earned for the same period a year ago.

However, the net loss in the quarter of the four-year old wireless networking company, which this week embarked on a search for channel partners after signing a channel distribution agreement with Westcon Group, hit $US 9.3 million, an increase from the loss of $1.5 million for the same period in 2007.

It was the first public earnings release since Aruba went public on the Nasdaq in March.

“Our momentum in the marketplace is reflected in our revenue growth, which increased during the quarter on both a sequential and year-over-year basis,” said Dominic Orr, Aruba’s president and chief executive officer.

“During the third quarter, we continued to add new customers at a rapid rate and now have over 2,400 customers with key Q3 additions including Fortune 100 companies, government agencies and leading universities,” he said. “Our strong revenue growth was driven by new customer additions and increased orders from our existing customer base as they steadily expanded the roll-out of Aruba technology throughout their network.”

In addition to announcing the Westcon deal, this month the company also introduced its Secure Enterprise Mesh technology, designed to enable a converged data, voice, and video network to be deployed or expanded without installing any new data wiring. Typical uses include campus video surveillance, remote building interconnections, and disaster recovery operations.

The technology won the best of show award in the wireless category at this week’s Interop Las Vegas.