Tandberg Targets Mid-sized Business, Sees Stronger Quarter

Cisco's acquisition target, video conferencing vendor Tandberg, will this week release a new set of HD video conferencing solutions designed to meet the form factor and price needs of mid-sized business. Separately, Tandberg announced higher revenue and operating profit for its third quarter, and higher endpoint sales.

Looking to make more serious inroads into the mid-sized business market, Tandberg (OSL: TAA) has released a smaller-footprint, lower-priced HD telepresence system.

The product release of Tandberg Telepresence T1 comes on the heels of Cisco’s (NASDAQ: CSCO) announcement that it plans to acquire its video conferencing rival earlier this month – a move viewed as an effort by the networking giant to grab more video conferencing market share and to make a play for the midmarket.

Tandberg says this announcement brings its Total Telepresence solution to a wider user base, by offering the smaller footprint and lower pricing – part of what Cisco was after.  And the benefits of video conferencing and telepresence are resonating with more end customers, he says.

“An executive system costs what two international flights would cost,” says Peter Nutley, director of product marketing at Tandberg. “And it doesn’t just save on the travel budget. It makes people more productive.”

The pricing for the telepresence T1 is $139,000 for the base model which includes the camera, screen, table, and touch screen interface. The full room including acoustical wall treatments and nordic blue background, leather chairs and a ceiling mounted document camera is offered for $197,000.

“With the ability to get all the way up to 1080p video, that really does enhance the experience,” he says.

Separately last week Tandberg announced its third quarter earnings. The Oslo, Norway-based company reported higher revenues year over year of $234.7 million compared with $210.3 million for the same period a year ago. Operating profit came in at $50 million compared to $45.3 million for the same period last year.

Tandberg said in a statement that it sold 18,260 endpoints in Q3 compared with 17,487 endpoints for the same quarter a year ago, a 4 percent increase. In addition, Tandberg noted that revenue from network products grew 34 percent and services revenues grew 18 percent year over year.

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Author: Jessica Davis, 20/10/2009