Harris Says Broadcast Revenue Up Again, After Period of Decline

Harris Corp. said it had a strong first quarter in its fiscal 2005, with its four businesses enjoying revenue and income growth.
In broadcast, CEO Howard Lance said, revenue increased thanks to strength in the networking and radio systems product lines. Broadcast revenue was up 15 percent compared to the previous quarter, to $67.4 million. Harris had also reported broadcast growth in the previous quarter, after a year and a half of negative quarters.
“Drivers included sales of studio equipment, transmitters and networking equipment to the Iraqi Media Network, and the sale of HD Radio transmitters in the U.S.,” Lance said in the company’s statement last week. “The restructuring in Europe and reorganization in North America (are) behind us.”
He said the company’s broadcast and microwave businesses are “moving in a positive direction.”
Earlier this year Lance had described broadcast profits as small and microwave as losing money. “We need to have those two segments contributing in a material way to our earnings,” he said then. In June, the company cut its U.S. broadcast workforce by 5% to help contain expenses. The company also realigned the broadcast organization into five business units.
In the latest announcement, Lance also pointed to expected benefits of acquiring Encoda Systems, a deal expected to close next month. “The Encoda acquisition adds important breadth and scale to our broadcast software offerings and to our customer base.”
Overall at Harris, revenue in the first quarter increased 22 percent to $669 million.