Ambient Corporation Reports 2009 Year-End Results

BOSTON, April 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ambient Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: ABTG) a smart grid communications technology company, announced today the filing of its 10-K report for the year ending December 31, 2009, reporting annual revenues of approximately $2.2 million.  

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Revenues in 2009 resulted from the continuing success and delivery of smart grid communications technologies to one of the largest electric utilities in the United States.

"While 2009 did not have the growth anticipated, the Company made significant progress with our technology and signed key contracts positioning us for a strong 2010 and beyond," stated John J. Joyce, President and CEO of Ambient Corporation.

2009 brought about much technological and business advancement for the Company:

• Ambient signed a joint marketing agreement with Verizon Wireless, and two different generations of its smart grid node were certified for deployment on the Verizon network.

• Ambient entered into an alliance with Bel Fuse, Inc. to enable the development and production of products that will help accelerate Ambient smart grid deployments.

• Ambient entered into a partnership with Itron, Inc., increasing the smart grid functionality for both companies.  Jointly, the companies developed the Ambient EDC module, providing utilities a migration path from legacy systems to newer smarter metering initiatives eliminating the prospect of stranding existing assets deployed today.

• Mr. Thomas Dunleavy, a former Commissioner for the state of New York's Public Service Commission, joined the Company as an advisor and consultant.

• Ambient moved its headquarters to a 20,000 sq ft facility to accommodate the Company's growth, and research and development.  

• The Company entered into a long-term agreement and was selected to provide its communications technologies for its marquee customer's next phase of its smart grid deployment. The contract continues a strong collaboration with the utility from early smart grid development projects begun in 2005.

The first quarter of 2010 has also seen several major accomplishments including a new collaboration with Verizon Wireless, and the launching of Ambient's newest smart grid node, the X-3100, the third of its nodes to be certified for use on the Verizon Wireless network.  The Company improved its liquidity and balance sheet by extinguishing its long-term debt and successfully negotiating from its largest shareholder an equity-based financing arrangement, which it accesses as needed.

Operations Highlights – Year End

REVENUES: Revenues for the 2009 Period were $2,193,338, compared to  $12,622,353, for the 2008 Period. Revenues for the 2009 Period were attributable to the sales of equipment, software and services to its marquee customer. Revenues for the 2008 period were attributable to the sales of equipment and software to its marquee customer. Revenues for the 2009 and 2008 Periods related to the sales of equipment totaled $2,127,977 and $12,136,283, respectively. Revenues from the sale of software and services for the 2009 Period and the 2008 Period totaled $65,361 and $486,070, respectively. During the fourth quarter of 2009 and first quarter of 2010, we received new purchase orders for approximately $10 million for our third generation X-node product base. These purchase orders resulted in recorded hardware revenues of approximately $1.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2009. We intend to fulfill the remainder of the purchase orders by third quarter of 2010. The decline in firm purchase orders received from our customer accounted for the decline in revenues during the 2009 Period as compared to the 2008 Period. Numerous factors contributed to the decline, including the uncertainty of the amount and timing of any federal grant funding by our major customer and uncertainty and delay of state regulatory approvals related to smart grid deployments. We are positioned to fulfill the purchase orders received to date.

COST OF GOODS SOLD: Cost of goods sold for the 2009 Period was $1,836,546 compared to $9,942,009 for the 2008 Period. Cost of goods sold included all costs related to manufacturing and selling products and services and consisted primarily of direct material costs. Cost of goods sold also included expenses related to the write down of inventory to the lower of cost or market. For the 2009 and 2008 Periods, cost of goods sold included an inventory write-off of $151,689 and $481,860 respectively for excess, obsolete, and surplus inventory resulting from the transition from second to third generation technology. The decrease in cost of goods sold during the 2009 Period was due to the decrease in sales as discussed above in REVENUES.

GROSS PROFIT. Gross profits for the 2009 Period was $356,792 compared to $2,680,344 for the 2008 Period. The gross profit on hardware sales amounted to $291,431 during the 2009 Period compared to $2,194,274 in the 2008 Period. Our overall gross margins also decreased from 21% in 2008 compared to 16% in 2009. The decrease in gross margin percentage in the 2009 Period as compared to the 2008 Period was primarily due to changes to our products, associated cost of our older generation nodes, and inventory markdown having a greater impact in the 2009 Period than in the 2008 Period.

A more detailed description of Ambient's business, our results of operations and financial statements are contained in the Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 31, 2010.

About Ambient Corporation

Ambient designs, develops and markets Ambient Smart Grid® communications technologies and equipment. Using open standards-based technologies along with in-depth industry experience, Ambient provides utilities with solutions for creating smart grid communication platforms and technologies. Headquartered in Newton, MA, Ambient is a publicly traded company (OTC Bulletin Board: ABTG). More information on Ambient is available at www.ambientcorp.com .

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial uncertainties and risks. These forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations, estimates and projections about our business and our industry, and that reflect our beliefs and assumptions based upon information available to us at the date of this release. We caution readers that forward-looking statements are predictions based on our current expectations about future events. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including but not limited to, our dependence on one key customer, our ability to raise additional capital when needed, the sufficiency of working capital,  the risk of market acceptance of new products and underlying technologies, the competitive market generally and in the smart grid market specifically, the success of our collaborative arrangements, changes in economic conditions generally and the smart grid market specifically, changes in technology, legislative or regulatory changes that affect us, and the risks and uncertainties discussed under the heading "RISK FACTORS" in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009, and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason.

Ambient, Ambient Smart Grid, Communications for a Smarter Grid and AmbientNMS are registered trademarks of Ambient Corporation with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

SOURCE Ambient Corporation