#1 in Europe, #3 here

Article Excerpt

MITEL NETWORKS $12.03 (Toronto symbol MNW; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (613-592-2122; www.mitel.ca; Shares outstanding: 99.9 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; No dividends paid) is now #1 in business communications products in Europe, and #3 in North American behind Avaya and Cisco, after its January 31, 2014 friendly takeover of Aastra Technologies. Aastra, a Stock Pickers Digest recommendation, mostly makes business telephone equipment. Mitel operates in the same market as Aastra, but is focused more on software, including call centre and video-conferencing products. It is increasingly moving from selling programs that are installed at its customers’ offices to a cloud model, where it keeps its software on its own servers and sells it by subscription. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Mitel’s revenue rose 68.8%, to $241.5 million from $143.1 million a year ago (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). Most of the increase came from Aastra. Earnings rose 62.6%, to $19.8 million from $12.1 million. However, earnings per share…