The reasons for the woes of Spirent Communications over the past year or so have never been that easy to comprehend. The company provides testing equipment to handset producers and other makers of electronic devices.
This ought to be a strong market as telecoms providers gear up for the next generation of smartphones and networks. Its only obvious peer, Anite, had a difficult 2013 but not as tough as Spirent’s, which issued several warnings that revenues were lagging well behind expectations.
Yesterday the company admitted that those revenues would come in at $413 million (£250 million), well down on the $472 million reported in 2012 and at the bottom end of the previously indicated range, after the fourth-quarter out-turn of $115 million. Order books are