Over the past year, shares of Wind River Systems
Wind River develops device software optimization (DSO) technologies for cell phones, set-top boxes, and other mobile systems. The company's diverse customer base includes organizations like NASA, Cisco
Late last week, Wind River announced its Q1 results. Revenues spiked 20% to $78 million, and there was a loss of $4.6 million, or $0.05 per share. In the same period a year ago, the company posted a net loss of $2.1 million, or $0.02 per share.
A perennial issue for Wind River is convincing potential customers of the value of its products. It's often the case that companies have their own home-grown DSO systems. To deal with this, management has put lots of resources into bulking up the sales force, as well as forming strategic alliances. Key partners include Intel
Wind River has also been transitioning its revenue model from upfront licensing fees to subscription licenses. This should also make it easier to get more customers. Another way for Wind River to enhance its customer footprint is acquisitions. Take a look at February's deal for FSMLabs. The firm brings along critical technologies to tap into the fast-growing Linux marketplace.
Wind River sells at a reasonable 2.5 times enterprise value. The company also plans to launch key products over the next quarter, and that should boost growth. So while the stock has been meandering for a long time, things may be poised for a turnaround.
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Fool contributor Tom Taulli, author of The Complete M&A Handbook, does not own shares mentioned in this article. He is ranked 1,161 out of 29,574 rated investors in Motley Fool CAPS.
