Saturday, May 1, 2010

Equinix 1Q results and DoJ green light for the Switch and Data acquisition

Equinix (EQIX) reported 1Q 2010 results on April 21 (see Company's P/R and Seeking Alpha conference call transcripts).

A few days later, Switch and Data (SDXC) announced that the United States Department of Justice had notified Equinix the closing of its investigation with respect to the proposed acquisition of Switch and Data and also that the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Radino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 had been terminated.

The green light from the DoJ allowed the merger to officially close on April 30, 2010.

Further to this news, Switch and Data decided to withhold its 1Q 2010 conference call (results were still filed in a 10-Q form that we'll examine later on in this article).

A quick look at some Equinix metrics disclosed for the 1Q 2010, before we dig deeper into the potential of the two combined Companies (as a reminder, some interesting Equinix non financial metrics are available on the I/R section at this link):

  • Revenues of $248.6 million, a 3% increase over the previous quarter and a 25% increase over the same quarter last year
  • Adjusted EBITDA of $117.3 million, a 5% increase over the previous quarter and a 28% increase over the same quarter last year – as a reminder cash generated from operations represents about 85% of adjusted EBITDA, and came at about $ 100 million in the quarter
  • Increased 2010 annual revenue guidance to $1,065.0 million to $1,080.0 million
  • Increased 2010 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $470.0 million to $480.0 million
  • Basic net income per share was $ 0.36, in spite of acquisition costs of $ 5 million (or almost $ 0.13 per share)
  • Cash gross margins came at 66% (70% in the US), with adjusted EBITDA margins of 47%, and an EBITDA flow through rate of 92%
  • 77 new customer adds, the best result since 3Q 2008
  • Almost half of the remaining available cabinets in the US already pre-assigned
  • a red flag: while the Company added about 500 cabinet equivalents in the quarter, Asia was the main contributor to this result (with about 300 new cabinets), while the U.S. only added about 100 cabinets, ending the quarter with a weighted average cabinet equivalent billing of 23,600 units.

Let's go through some comments made on this specific metric during the conference call:

Keith Taylor - CFO

Despite our revenue growth and strong booking trends across all three regions, the U.S. experience a poor incremental net cabinet billings metric in the quarter both on the quarter end on our weighted average basis against these expectation. This result was created by higher churn occurring at the end of both Q3 and Q4 of 2009 and with the majority of the U.S. regions Q1 bookings occurring in the last month of the quarter.

It muted the underlined performance of this metric. Said differently, we have a healthy backlog of bookings that will turn into billing cabinets into revenues in Q2 and the rest of the year. This result is partially affected by our lack or limited inventory in some of the key markets, including New York thereby our booked incremental sales have yet convert into billing cabinets as would not yet opened in New York-4 Phase III expansion.

This passage from the conference call sounds like saying that the Company is partially suffering from its own success (limited inventory in some key markets), a problem that will be addressed by new openings later in the year and partially also by the addition of inventory available in the SDXC data centers (as Switch and Data had a much lower occupancy rate, in general, see their latest disclosure later on).

More color from Steve Smith, CEO:

we could face some temporary capacity constraints in the middle of the year in three of our six markets, which highlight the importance of bringing on the new capacity in this region as I discussed earlier.


Above all, we would describe this quarter as another very solid one, driven by firm pricing in all markets and good operating leverage. The “weak” (to the Equinix standards) cabinet additions in the USA forced a few analysts, like Oppenheimer's Srinivas Anantha, to talk about “mixed operating metrics”. We see this more like a seasonal/timing issue and remain confident about the Company's potential. Colocation recurring revenues still grew 2,8% Q/Q and 21,5% Y/Y in the US, even in spite of this relatively disappointing number.

Equinix also announced a good sized two phase expansion in Dallas (in spite of Switch and Data's presence in the market already with three sites providing an aggregate of over 70,000 gross square feet of space, with connectivity to 120 networks), and a few other recent openings like the second IBX in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and the third data center in Paris, France.

An update of future IBX openings is available at this link.

Switch and Data reported revenues of $ 56,695 million for the 1Q 2010 (+20% Y/Y), with a 63.7 % occupancy rate. Revenues came slightly shy of analysts' consensus of $ 56,9 million.

Cabinet equivalents billed were 8,920 for the 1Q, with 332 net cabinets added in the period (a confirmation that the north American market remains in good health, in our opinion).

As SDXC disclosed in its 10Q filing (pg. 22):

Approximately 43% of new sales in the three months ended March 31, 2010 were in our new or expanded data centers.


Inventory available is key to good results, right now.

A quick look at the Company’s geographic revenue split (click to enlarge):


The performance in Canada (+75% Y/Y) is even more interesting as Switch and Data recently announced new customer wins and added services in its Toronto data center:

IPC to Provide Low-latency Exchange Interconnection Solutions as First GeoReachSM Participant for Switch and Data’s Toronto’s Financial EcoCenterSM

Switch and Data Announces Opening of its Newest PAIX® Internet Exchange in Toronto to Satisfy Growing Internet Peering Demand in this Key Canadian Market

With combined revenues of over $ 300 million in the 1Q, the “new” Equinix will be facing integration challenges in the close future but also enjoy a strengthened leadership position in the North American market, with potential synergies that will eventually unlock further operational leverage.

In a recent article about the Equinix and Switch and Data combination, TeleGeography described the merger using these words (emphasis added):



Equinix’s acquisition of Switch and Data, which is expected to close on Friday 30 April, will create a colocation services giant that dwarfs its competitors, both in the US and globally. Equinix’s gross floor space will increase from five million to more than six million square feet — approximately three times more than its largest competitor, Telehouse. While Equinix has emerged as by far the largest provider of colocation services, the sector remains highly competitive. In the New York metro area alone, Equinix contends with over 50 competitors.


The main reasons why we remain very positive on the potential future developments for Equinix have already been expressed in several of our recent articles, and may be resumed in the unbalance existing between offer and demand for colocation services (solid momentum), and the fact that the Company has the best management in the industry, with a history of consistent execution, successful integration of acquired Companies, and great insight into customers' needs (80% of new bookings come from the installed base).

As further support of our opinion, we'd like to quote a recent presentation highlighting the main trends in the Internet space.

Arbor Networks, the University of Michigan and Merit Network presented this Two-Year Study of Global Internet Traffic At NANOG47 – here is an interesting chart:

ATLAS Internet Observatory - 2009 Annual Report



As you may understand, a Company like Equinix, with a leadership already established in the sector, and that has been capable of growing its inventory even during the credit crunch, sounds like the player who should benefit the most form this trend.

For a different opinion about the colo market, however, it may be worth quoting Gartner's Lydia Leong and her recent blog post:

Getting real on colocation

Of late, I’ve had a lot of people ask me why my near-term forecast for the colocation market in the United States is so much lower (in many cases, half the growth rate) when compared with those produced by competing analyst firms, Wall Street, and so forth.

Without giving too much information (as you’ll recall, Gartner likes its bloggers to preserve client value by not delving too far into details for things like this), the answer to that comes down to:

  1. Gartner’s integrated forecasting approach

  2. Direct insight into end-user buying behavior

  3. Tracking the entire market, not just the traditional “hot” colo markets

While a more conservative approach to the sector's potential may be justified, Equinix's proven capacity to grow beyond market average must not be forgotten, and the Company's presence in the most important markets (where it represents the hub of the largest networks and ISPs), and its capacity to build specific eco-systems (think about the financial sector, where being in close proximity to the exchanges is a must for customers) represent a strong differentiator for Equinix, in our opinion, giving the Company a premium to its competitors, and allowing ambitious growth targets.

Mondo Visione Exchange Forum

Scalable and reliable network infrastructure is required to support complex, real-time transaction processing and data analyses common in the financial industry.

Come chat with the Equinix team about how you can optimize your trading operations.

The Mondo Visione Exchange Forum is billed as one of the most important events when it comes to global exchange industry conferences. Two hundred of the most powerful and influential people in the exchanges and trading world are expected to be there.

For more information, please visit: www.mvexchangeforum.com
martedì 1 giugno 2010 alle ore 8.00
Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden, London

An operating procedure

an interview with Euan S. Thomson, Accuray's CEO:

>>Euan S. Thomson understands the opportunities that growth brings and, well, the challenges.

In eight years, the president and CEO grew Accuray Inc.’s employee base from 50 to 450 and the number of customers from five in the U.S. to 200 in 20 countries.

“As you grow, and as you grow that fast, it’s inevitable that you get cultural challenges,” Thomson says. “Managing a culture change as well as managing a company at each level that it happens to be at, I think, is probably the biggest challenge.”

Friday, April 30, 2010

Prostate- Accuray's CyberKnife Patient Education Video

IDC predicts that mobile phone shipments will grow by 11% overall in 2010

from computerworld.com:

>>Nokia continued to lead the worldwide market, shipping 108 million phones in the quarter. Samsung was in second place with 64 million mobile phones shipped, followed by LG Electronics, which shipped 27 million, RIM and Sony Ericsson which shipped 10.6 million and 10.5 million respectively.

IDC said RIM entered into the top five for the first time, replacing Motorola Inc., which shipped 8.5 million units.

Smart Phone Sales Jump 50% In Q1; NOK #1

from Barron's:

Worldwide smart phone unit sales were up 50% in Q1 from a year ago, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. The firm says the industry sold 54 million units in the quarter, accounting for 18% of overall handset volumes.

The top three players look like this:

  • Nokia (NOK): 21.5 million units, for 40% share; that’s up from 13.7 million and 38.2% a year ago.
  • Research In Motion (RIMM): 10.6 million units, for 19.7% share, vs. 7.3 million and 20.3% a year ago.
  • Apple (AAPL): 8.8 million units, for 16.4% share, vs. 3.8 million and 10.6% a year ago.

BOX Launches High-Capacity Operations Platform - 3x Faster Than Current Architecture

BOX Launches High-Capacity Operations Platform - 3x Faster Than Current Architecture

29/04/10

The Boston Options Exchange Group, LLC (BOX) announced today at the Options Industry Conference it will launch a new operations platform on Monday, May 10. BOX has partnered with Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, to create an ultra-fast matching engine within the Equinix NY4 International Business Exchange (IBX®) data center.

“BOX’s new operations platform demonstrates our ongoing commitment to reinvestment in our infrastructure with the addition of a high performance trading environment that is value-driven for our clients,” said Tony McCormick, BOX CEO. “BOX participants will see consistent response times and message allocation that will meet or exceed market demand at a speed 3x faster than our current architecture.”

With the new operations platform, BOX participants can expect to benefit from:
  • Response times of less than one millisecond
  • Speed of a million quotes per second
  • Capacity of a 100,000 orders per second
  • Allocation of 5,000 messages for every logical connection

BOX’s ultra-low latency matching engine can be accessed from hubs in Chicago and New York. Participants wishing to connect at NY4 can arrange space directly through Equinix.

"TMX Group is both the majority shareholder as well as the technology provider to BOX. With today's announcement we are demonstrating our continued commitment to efficient innovations and improvements that drive value for BOX and their customers," said Alain Miquelon, TMX Group Head of Derivatives. "As we work with BOX management to identify and capitalize on new growth opportunities, these platform improvements serve to further strengthen our competitive advantage in the market."

BOX order matching is executed on price-time priority with no order cancellation fees. BOX’s key feature is its Price Improvement Period (PIP) auction, which has returned over $270 million in savings to customers since BOX’s launch. BOX offers multiple competing market makers and has no seats to buy or lease. BOX has very simple fee structures.

Data Centers Not Owned by Exchanges Can ‘Tilt’ Field, NYSE Says

from Bloomberg Businessweek:

>>Data Centers Not Owned by Exchanges Can ‘Tilt’ Field, NYSE Says

NYSE Euronext, the largest stock- market operator, said U.S. regulators should boost oversight of the data centers providing services to brokers and high- frequency traders to ensure that the companies operate fairly.

NYSE, which is building two data centers outside New York and London, said in a letter published on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website yesterday that rival offerings from Savvis Inc., Equinix Inc. and Telx Group Inc. should be forced to operate as facilities of regulated exchanges to prevent a “tilted playing field.” The access they provide to the main computers of exchanges, called co-location, allows firms to transact orders faster.

...

Lowering Costs for Customers

Equinix, a provider of co-location and connection services between 18 markets in the U.S., Europe and Asia, also told the SEC that data centers shouldn’t be controlled by exchanges. Independent data centers lower costs for customers by enabling them to connect through multiple network providers and choosing which products they want, the Foster City, California-based firm said in an April 20 letter to the commission.

“It is not appropriate to consider Equinix data centers as ‘facilities’ of an exchange or trading center, even if exchanges have good reason to consider them as a potential new profit center,” the company said. It said that exchanges moving into this business could force customers to “purchase additional services in order to gain the benefits inherent in data center co-location and interconnectivity.”

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Immersion sees wave of touch-feedback smartphones coming

from VentureBeat.com - HT to cellodude on the IV MB:

>>Immersion sees wave of touch-feedback smartphones coming

When Nokia announced its new N8 smartphone this week, it was another step forward for touch feedback. Immersion confirmed that it has provided “haptics” technology that is more accurate than other touch-sensation technologies used in the past.

The N8 uses the touch sensors not only for number dialing, but as a feedback system within the user interface itself that tells you when you have scrolled to the right point on the screen or accomplished similar tasks. As such, it’s one of the first to have more extensive integration of touch technology. The new Nokia phone, which debuts in the third quarter, is one of a number of new models using a brand new “high definition” touch sensor and vibration technology from Immersion, which designs the component technology and licenses it for others to manufacture and put into products.

a colocation services giant that dwarfs its competitors

Interesting read from Telegeography.com:

Equinix acquires Switch and Data

CommsUpdate Image

Equinix’s acquisition of Switch and Data, which is expected to close on Friday 30 April, will create a colocation services giant that dwarfs its competitors, both in the US and globally. Equinix’s gross floor space will increase from five million to more than six million square feet — approximately three times more than its largest competitor, Telehouse. While Equinix has emerged as by far the largest provider of colocation services, the sector remains highly competitive. In the New York metro area alone, Equinix contends with over 50 competitors.

2EZAsia

(SkyNewswire.com)--- Business owners settled in Singapore and looking for quality Singapore web hosting and web ecommerce solutions can get in touch with 2EZAsia. We have been offering the best of web design and marketing solutions to our clients. We are known as one of the most effective and reliable Singapore web hosting service provider in the area. We not only offer efficient web solutions to clients in Singapore but throughout the world. Our team designs web service s to cater different requirements and budgets. Our web hosting professional’s offer dedicated servers to the clients. At our company, we make use of the Equinix data server to meet the demanding businesses throughout the world. We help in safeguarding the businesses of our clients within our IBX data centers. Our experienced and skilled professionals have configured data centre installations for some of the leading businesses of the world. So you do not need to worry about the quality of our services. You can choose from a plethora of dedicated server plans on our website.

Apart from effective dedicated server plans, we also provide preferred domain name for your online business. Check out our website and find popular domain extension, just a few mouse clicks away. You will find the leading domains including .com, .org, .info, .name, and the ones with country code extensions too. We regularly add domain name extensions on our website so that you are spoilt for choices. Our professional developers are capable of helping you to obtain affordable yet experienced Magento developer for creating ecommerce store. We also help in Magento hosting and ecommerce development and Iphone integration with the Magento platform within the deadlines. We offer complete magento developer services without exceeding your budget. Our company has been successfully providing advertising agencies, e-business owners and web design companies with magento hosting, development and design services.

Amazon goes live with Asia Pacific web services

from ITnews.com.au:

>>Amazon goes live with Asia Pacific web services

Launches server and storage on demand from Singapore data centres.

Amazon.com has launched its cloud computing services in the Asia Pacific region with services being available from undisclosed data centres in Singapore as of today.

Amazon.com told iTnews the Singapore-based versions of Amazon Web Services (Enterprise Cloud Compute and Simple Storage Service) will provide Australian customers with lower latency times (ie better response times) than connecting to the AWS cloud compute in the United States.

Amazon.com senior vice president of web services Andy Jassy told iTnews that the Singapore facilities are a beachhead on a wider expansion plan (read the full interview with Jassy here).

The company has hopes of launching its own presence in Australia in the near future.

--

from peeringdb.com:

The following locations and associated IX's are part of Amazon's Asia-Pac Core Network, carrying routes/traffic for other AWS services (e.g. EC2, S3), as well as local CloudFront caching. For each of these locations, Amazon will provide routes/traffic for all services within the Asia-Pac region.
- Singapore

Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name ASN IP Address Mbit/sec
Equinix Ashburn 16509 206.223.115.35 10000
Equinix Ashburn 16509 206.223.115.68 10000
Equinix Chicago 16509 EQX CH (Apr/May) coming soon... 10000
Equinix Dallas 16509 EQX DFW (Apr/May) coming soon... 10000
Equinix Los Angeles 16509 EQX LA (Apr/May) coming soon... 10000
Equinix Singapore 38895 EQX SG (Apr) coming soon... 10000
Equinix Tokyo 16509 EQX TY (Apr) coming soon... 10000

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Cineteck France Selects Equinix to Deliver Premium Hosting Services to Its Customers

Cineteck France Selects Equinix to Deliver Premium Hosting Services to Its Customers

Resilient operations and access to Tier-1 service providers are key factors in Cineteck’s choice

Paris, France, April 28, 2010 - Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data center services, has today announced that Cineteck France, a specialist in website hosting for enterprises and individuals, has chosen to host its Web and application servers in a private cage at Equinix’s International Business Exchange (IBX®) data center (PA2) located in Saint-Denis, in the suburbs of Paris, France. By locating business-critical infrastructure at the PA2 data center, Cineteck France can now directly interconnect with many of France’s leading telecom and service providers, enabling the hosting specialist to sign Internet access and private network contracts at highly competitive rates. Cineteck France has also chosen Equinix due to its aggressive expansion program, which means it is ideally placed to match Cineteck France’s 2010 plans to grow its own hosting operations.

Based in Rodez, France, Cineteck France delivers dedicated and shared hosting solutions to SMEs, Web agencies and individuals. The company also offers platforms to host collaborative applications such as ERP, groupware and CRM solutions. In order to safeguard its equipment as well as provide high quality and highly available services to its customers, Cineteck France decided to entrust its infrastructure to Equinix, benefiting from remote monitoring and administration, and, at the same time, capitalizing on Equinix’s established community of network providers.

“At Cineteck France, we are focused on ensuring that our customers are satisfied and our commitments honoured,” explains Jean-Luc Montjaux, general manager, Cineteck France. “We selected Equinix for its top-quality operations in terms of design, energy savings, redundant architecture, and the presence of all the major service providers as customers. The grouping of Tier-1 carriers in a single data center is a definite advantage. This helped us negotiate optimum rates for our Internet access and private network by benchmarking suppliers, and allowed us to choose the connectivity solution that best met our requirements, in this case, fiber optic. Our collaboration with Equinix has proven very satisfactory to date.”

Equinix’s IBX data centers offer premier levels of physical security, power availability and savings, as well as infrastructure flexibility. All centers are 9001/2008 certified, a quality standard known globally and supported by the International Standards Organization.

Equinix’s interconnection solutions take advantage of the presence of all major global IT networks within their IBX® data centers. These solutions enable more efficient and reliable data exchange between companies and their customers, and facilitate network scalability to seamlessly meet enterprises growing needs.

“We are very happy to be a trusted partner for Cineteck France,” says Michel Brignano, General Manager, Equinix in France. “Organizations, regardless of their size or growth requirements, can depend on our services as they are designed with excellence, choice, flexibility, scalability and affordability in mind.”

India's 3rd CK will be installed at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi

from the IV MB, by yyy60:

>>India's 3rd CK will be installed at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi

http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Apollo-Hospital-to-commission-additional-150-beds-in-August/4825799594


India Infoline News Service / 09:35 , Apr 28, 2010

Apollo’s four pillars of strength are best doctors, best technology, unmatched care and best value


Indraprastha Apollo Hospital’s ambitious expansion plans indicate an impressive upward trajectory. Honoring its commitment to cater to the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, the hospital will commission an additional 150 beds in August 2010. Apollo’s four pillars of strength are best doctors, best technology, unmatched care and best value.

Keeping with its tradition of best technology, Indraprastha Apollo will introduce Cyberknife, a robotic radiosurgery system that is a non-invasive alternative to surgery, for the treatment of both cancerous and non-cancerous tumors anywhere in the body. With this introduction, Indraprastha Apollo is poised to be the undisputed leader in cancer care. This Cyberknife will be the first to be installed in north India and will also serve the SAARC countries.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

El Camino Hospital Opens Center for Advanced Radiotherapy and CyberKnife Radiosurgery

El Camino Hospital Opens Center for Advanced Radiotherapy and CyberKnife Radiosurgery

- (Business Wire) El Camino Hospital:

WHAT:

El Camino Hospital, the hospital of Silicon Valley, will open its new Center


for Advanced Radiotherapy and CyberKnife® Radiosurgery – a Northern


California hub for tumor treatment – on May 3. No other hospital in the area


offers the same breadth of treatment options and expertise for treating tumors


throughout the body, including prostate, brain, spine, lung and breast.

Internap's IP service adds acceleration option; CDN getting updates

from Tier 1 Research daily newsletter:

Internap Network Services went through a tough 2009 that saw continued pricing pressure in IP services essentially offset the revenue growth the firm saw in its colocation services. The company is starting to come out of its shell and talk up new IP services and plans to continue to rebuild .....

Monday, April 26, 2010

"Fuse" project manager to speak at major conference Thursday

HT to cellodue on the IV MB:

>"Fuse" project manager to speak at major conference Thursday

Nice to have someone respected outside of IMMR advocating for haptics.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Synaptics Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNA), a leading developer of human interface solutions for mobile computing, communications, and entertainment devices, today announced that it will be speaking for the first time at Interop. Andrew Hsu, Synaptics technology strategist and one of the inventors of ClearPad™ touchscreen technology, will be among a select group of wireless and mobile technology experts participating on the "Advanced Technologies: What's Next for Wireless and Mobile?" panel at the Interop 2010 conference and exhibition in Las Vegas. The panel will take place from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. PDT on Thursday, April 29 in Room 12 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Hsu will present on the rapid evolution of user interface technologies from a capacitive touch market leader's point of view. He is the primary technical contact for Synaptics' worldwide customers in the handheld space. He led the marketing efforts for ClearPad that resulted in the first production phone with a capacitive touchscreen, the LG Prada. More recently, he managed the highly successful Fuse mobile concept project with partners, TheAlloy, The Astonishing Tribe (TAT), Immersion, and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI).

"In the past decade, the mobile phone has evolved into a computing platform for the masses and an intuitive user interface serves as a portal into the cloud," said Hsu. "We will explore the growing importance of usage models and wireless computing during the panel. Ultimately, an intuitive user interface leads to innovative software and drives segment adoption, which in turn fosters consumer demand for an even more sophisticated channel to access the cloud."

The panel will be moderated by Tim Scannell, editorial director for TechnologyGuide.com, TechTarget. He will lead the discussion on technological advances in a broad range of markets including user interface, handheld, processor technology and storage. The panelists will examine key wireless technologies and their impending impact, as well as educate industry professionals on emerging venues to maximize benefits while lowering business costs. Panelists joining Hsu include Ronny Haraldsvik, vice president of marketing, SpiderCloud Wireless, Inc. and Tom Medrek, senior vice president and general manager, multiservice access, Mindspeed Technologies.]

Earnings Watch: Immersion is Scheduled to Report its Quarterly Results in 12 days (IMMR)

from mysmartrend:

>>Analysts, on average, expect Immersion (NASDAQ:IMMR) to report a loss of $0.07 on sales of $8 million on May 06, 2010.
For the full year, analysts expect the company to post a break-even quarter. In the year-ago period, the company reported a loss of $0.26 on sales of $7 million.
In the previous quarter, the company reported a loss of $0.15, topping consensus estimates for a loss of $0.16.