u-blox Declares Stable Business in Fiscal Year 2009

March 19, 2010

u-blox Holding AG (Thalwil, Switzerland) is reporting its financial highlights for 2009, saying that although revenue was flat, u-blox remained profitable.

Highlights inlcude consolidated revenue of CHF 73.5 million, a slight decline of 1.3% compared to 2008. Profit from operations (EBIT) declined from CHF 8.4 million to CHF 5.2 million due to higher expenses after two acquisitions (Neonseven S.p.A. and Geotate B.V), and u-blox experienced a net profit decreased by 62% from CHF 8.8 million to CHF 3.3 million, representing a 4.5% net profit margin for 2009.

Although there were weaknesses in EMEA and the Americas with decline in demand, u-blox expanded its market position in Asia, and experienced a clear global turnaround in revenue around the last quarter resulting in growth of 15% over the first half year, the company said. The chip and module businesses generated positive income from operations during 2009. Consolidated revenue was down by CHF 1 million to CHF 73.5 million with increased volumes, while the EBIT decrease from CHF 8.4 million to CHF 5.2 million is a 38% decrease over the prior year. Also, there was a significant gross profit margin improvement from 42.7% in 2008 to 52.9% in 2009.

Operational highlights include:

u-blox’ core GPS technology platform was successfully upgraded from u-blox 5 to u-blox 6.
u-blox launched its first wireless module, LEON, followed by five major industry and operator certifications.New design wins were rapidly secured for both telematics (GPS+GSM) and telemetry (GSM only) applications. Satel, an established security equipment vendor, was our first customer, using LEON for a mission-critical wireless security application.
Triple-digit sales growth of the smallest-profile products: GPS chips, AMY and NEO GPS module families.
The high-performance of our GPS precision timing module was validated by the design-in by ZTE, a leading provider of 2G / 3G base station equipment to the world’s largest mobile phone market: China.
New customer wins in the newly emerging personal locator market: u-blox GPS receivers were chosen for personal locator products developed by companies including XACT, Location-Based Technologies, SPOT LLC (USA), and McMurdo (UK). Personal locators are a growing market served by early adopters of GPS with wireless communications.
Commercialization of our new Software GPS solution - Geotagging: Capture & Process, a technology acquired from Geotate, was commercially implemented in two geotagging camera accessories from Bilora and Jobo. Millions of photos have already been tagged with geographic coordinates captured at thnne instant each photo was taken.
Compatibility of u-blox GPS receivers with Windows 7: With the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft officially certified u-blox’ Windows 7 compatible driver. This gives software developers a seamless, hassle-free way to develop location-aware applications running on Windows 7 together with any u blox GPS receiver.