Brocade reports record earnings with boost from storage area networking

Brocade ended both the fourth quarter and its 2012 fiscal year on high notes.

The networking business reported a net loss of $54 million, or 11 cents a share (statement), for the fourth quarter. Non-GAAP earnings were 17 cents a share on a revenue of $578 million, up four percent on a quarterly basis and up five percent annually.

Wall Street was expecting Brocade to report fourth quarter earnings of approximately 14 cents a share on revenue of $566.58 million.

For fiscal 2012 overall, Brocade reported a "record" annual net income of $195 million at 41 cents per share. On a non-GAAP basis, earnings were 66 cents per share on a net income of $311 million.

CEO Michael Klayko commented glowingly in prepared remarks, describing Q4 as an "excellent quarter" in which the enterprise solutions provider "established a number of company records including revenue, net income, and operating cash flow."

Our product portfolio across all areas of our business is the strongest it has ever been and we are driving industry transformation in emerging areas of growth including virtualized data centers, cloud computing, and software-defined networking. We believe Brocade is well-positioned for continued growth in fiscal 2013.

By the numbers:

• Q4 Storage Area Networking business revenue: $394 million, up nine percent annually and up four percent quarter-over-quarter
• Fiscal 2012 SAN business revenue: $1.578 billion, up seven percent annually
• Q4 IP Networking business revenue: $184 million, down three percent annually and up four percent quarter-over-quarter
• Fiscal 2012 IP Networking business revenue: $659 million, down slightly year-over-year
• Federal and Service Provider revenues were both up sequentially, while Enterprise revenue was lower.