Acquisitions help Aastra and RuggedCom

Article Excerpt

AASTRA TECHNOLOGIES $33.27 (Toronto symbol AAH; SI Rating: Speculative) (905-760-4200; www.aastra.com; Shares outstanding: 13.9 million; Market cap: $462.5 million; Dividend yield: 2.4%) develops and markets products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. In the three months ended December 31, 2009, Aastra’s earnings per share jumped to $1.11. A year earlier, the company earned $0.10 a share. Despite the higher earnings, revenue fell 16.8%, to $217.8 million from $261.8 million a year earlier, mainly because of the weak economy. However, revenue was up 9.6% from the previous quarter. In April 2008, the company bought the business-communications division of Swedish telecom giant Ericsson. Aastra has now finished integrating this purchase. That has eliminated overlapping costs and pushed up the company’s profits. Aastra continues to buy money-losing product lines. In many cases, distressed sellers have spent large amounts of money developing these products. These purchases add risk, but, as the Ericsson example shows, Aastra has a long track record of successfully integrating…