- $177.3 Million Annual Revenue
- First year as a NYSE American publicly traded company
- Continued industry leadership through innovative R&D team led to two industry innovation awards, including for the Airspan 5G Network-in-a-Box
- Strengthened management bench with several key hires to execute global growth strategy, including new President and COO Glenn Laxdal
- Airspan CEO Eric Stonestrom appointed chairman of the Company’s board of directors. Replaces Tom Huseby, who continues to serve on the board
- Continued ramp up of private networks capabilities and portfolio, with several key partnerships with some of tech’s most admired companies including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Dell, HPE and Qualcomm
- Named lead RAN vendor for growing Midwestern broadband provider expanding rural wireless broadband network access using Airspan CBRS and FWA solutions
Airspan Networks Holdings Inc. (NYSE American: MIMO), which provides ground-breaking, disruptive software and hardware for 5G networks, and a pioneer in end-to-end Open RAN solutions, today announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2021.
Key Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights
- Revenue of $50.4 million, up 29% sequentially from third quarter 2021, down 38% year-over-year compared to exceptional performance in fourth quarter 2020, following COVID lockdowns
- Gross margin of 41.1% compared to 44.0% in third quarter 2021, and 45.8% in fourth quarter 2020, with the majority of the variance due to supply chain pressures.
- Net loss of $19.6 million, compared to a net loss of $27.0 million in third quarter 2021, and net income of $8.3 million for fourth quarter 2020
- Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP measure) was a loss of $8.0 million compared to a loss of $10.4 million in third quarter 2021 and income of $12.7 million in fourth quarter 2020
- Loss per share was 27 cents, compared to income per share of 14 cents in the fourth quarter 2020.
Fourth Quarter Successes and Recognition
- Strengthening strong CBRS market position with the launch of Airspan’s first 5G CBRS product: the Airspan AirStrand 2200 solution was the first CBRS 5G Stand Alone small cell radio approved by the FCC for use on US networks. It follows the successful completion of 5G interoperability tests in the CBRS spectrum band (n48), which lays the groundwork for the launch of next generation CBRS-based devices using Airspan 5G and Open RAN software and hardware for cable operator customers and other vertical markets.
- One of the “Best Pilot Programs” In the US/Fixed Wireless Access Market: Mimosa by Airspan beat out its FWA and Wi-Fi solutions competitors to win the RAN provider business for Amarillo, Texas’ government stimulus-funded Digital Divide program, Amarillo Connected. In addition, Airspan extended its sales resources aggressively to capture business via stimulus revenue, leveraging Airspan’s leading FWA portfolio across a multitude of broadband connectivity programs.
- Leveraging international government stimulus for 5G deployments: In addition to US government stimulus funding broadband deployments, Airspan is a member in a consortium of industry and academic partners that secured funding from the UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Full Year 2021 Financial Highlights
- Began trading as a public company on August 16, 2021 under the ticker symbol, MIMO
- Annual revenue of $177.3 million, up 3% year-over-year compared to 2020
- Product and software license revenue up 13% year-over-year compared to 2020
- Gross margin of 44% compared to 48.6% in 2020
- Net loss of $70.5 million, compared to a net loss of $25.6 million for the full year 2020
- Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP measure) was a loss of $29.1 million, compared to a loss of $9.4 million for the full year 2020
- Loss per share was $1.09, compared to a loss per share of 43 cents for the full year 2020.
Full Year 2021 Successes and Recognition
- Deployed 80+ private networks worldwide, and initiated deployment of a National Air-to-Ground Network: Airspan’s 5G Massive MIMO Antennas & Open RAN Software help Gogo Achieve Major 5G Air-to-Ground Milestones
- Launched new CBRS5G indoor and outdoor solutions, including our first 5G CBRS products
- Customer Base Diversification: Two domestic cable operators placed their first purchase orders with Airspan during 2021. Airspan’s AirStrand 2200 is the first solution to receive FCC approval to serve these customers. Airspan initiated deployment in 2021.
- Mimosa/Fixed Wireless Access Solutions:
- Announced the launch of the new A6/C6 series, a new FWA gigabit solution, featuring multi-gigabit speeds to expand stimulus use cases originally targeted at fiber architectures only.
- Awards/External Recognition:
- Airspan was named the winner of two 2021 Fierce Telecom Innovation Awards in December 2021 including its innovative 5G Starter Kit – A Network in a Box solution that is powering Private Network deployments around the world, and its innovative Digital Divide solution providing connectivity to the under-served.
- Airspan’s 5G OpenRANGE mmWave outdoor small cell solution won the 2021 Small Cell Forum Award for excellence in commercial deployment with Rakuten for the fourth consecutive year.
- Talent Acquisition: Airspan continued to hire engineers and sales professionals to accelerate growth, namely from the 5G product portfolio, including innovative software and hardware.
Stonestrom Appointed Chairman
Airspan’s CEO Eric Stonestrom has been appointed chairman of the Company’s board of directors. He replaces Tom Huseby, who continues to serve on the board.
Supply Chain Update
Demand for our products is strong, though supply chain challenges are still leading to increasingly long lead times. We continue to work hard in a number of ways to mitigate these challenges, finding alternative components, instituting multiple technological design changes and working closely with our partners. In this environment supply chain pressures center primarily around component availability, higher spot purchase prices for hardware components and increased shipping costs. While we have begun to pass some of these expenses on to customers through price increases, we expect the increased cost impact of components and freight to continue. We anticipate such supply chain challenges to extend through 2022.
Relationships with Some of the Tech World’s Most Admired Companies: AWS, Cisco, Dell, HPE and Qualcomm
“We are seeing an explosion of interest in enterprise 5G private network solutions,” said Airspan Chairman and CEO Eric Stonestrom. “In conjunction, we recently announced several key partnerships and working relationships with some of tech’s most admired companies, while at Mobile World Congress. These partnerships include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Dell, HPE and Qualcomm, as we ramp up our private networks capabilities and portfolio.”
New President/COO Named to Execute Growth Strategy
Airspan recently named Glenn Laxdal as its new President and COO, to execute the growth strategy and scale the business, overseeing operations, customer service and product management divisions, along with the Broadband Airspan by Mimosa organization. Laxdal is a senior technology executive with over 25 years of global experience in the wireless, software and computing industries.
“Bringing on the right leaders with the ability and experience to execute on our aggressive plans is a critical component of our strategy for long-term, sustainable growth,” said Stonestrom. “Glenn is focused on accelerating our plans to grow revenue and market share to take advantage of the tremendous market opportunities for 5G, Open RAN, Private Networks and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) solutions.”
Business Outlook
We anticipate first quarter 2022 revenue of approximately $38 million with gross margin of approximately 32%. Both figures were impacted by significant supply chain costs and challenges from COVID-19 restrictions in Asia.
The information with respect to first quarter 2022 above is preliminary, based upon Airspan’s estimated and currently available information and is subject to revision based upon, among other things, Airspan’s financial closing procedures. The Company’s actual results may differ from these estimates due to the completion of its financial closing procedures and final adjustments and other developments that may arise between the date of this news release and the time the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements for the first quarter 2022 are completed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these estimates.
Earnings Conference Call
A conference call with Airspan executives will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, April 12 at 8:30 am ET. It can be accessed through a toll-free dial-in, 1-877-589-7296, or 1-215-268-9906 (local), by requesting the Airspan call, as well as on the Airspan investor relations website, ir.airspan.com/. An audio replay will be available on the Airspan investor relations site following the call.
For more such updates and perspectives around Digital Innovation, IoT, Data Infrastructure, AI & Cybersecurity, go to AI-Techpark.com.
