Rackspace earnings: Revenues and customer count rising

Rackspace Hosting today reported first quarter earnings that squeaked past Wall Street's expectations. For the quarter ending March 31, the company reported earnings of 8 cents per share on revenue of $178.8 million. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 7 cents on revenue of $177.7 million. (Statement) Net revenue was up more than 5 percent compared to the previous quarter but up more than 23 percent from the same quarter a year ago. In a statement, president and CEO Lanham Napier said:

We are very pleased with our performance in Q1 as we accelerated revenue growth while improving margin. 2010 will be an exciting year for Rackspace. Our advantages as the leader and specialist in hosted computing, and provider of Fanatical Support, are validated every day by customers who pay us premium rates, stay with us for years, and recommend us to their friends. Our customers are incredibly loyal. We aspire to serve them so well that we will be known as the most trusted company in all of IT. We have earned a strong position in the market, and we will create more and more value for our stakeholders. We see the opportunity, and we intend to grab it.

The company said that customer count increased by nearly 10 percent during the quarter, up from 90,925 to 99,486. Total server count increased from 56,671 servers to 59,876 during the quarter. On the enterprise front, the company said it added 14 new enterprise customers and that it added Oracle’s Enterprise Linux platform to its Cloud offering.