CommScope Holding Company Inc (COMM) 2016 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, my name is Regina and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the CommScope first quarter 2016 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions). I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Jennifer Crawford, Director of Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.

Thank you, Regina. Good morning and thank you for joining us today to discuss CommScope's first quarter 2016 results. With me on the call are Eddie Edwards, CommScope's President and CEO, Mark Olson, CommScope's Executive Vice President and CFO and Phil Armstrong, CommScope's Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance. You can find the slides that accompany this review on our Investor Relations website.

Before I cover a few housekeeping items I would like to remind you that we will host our CommScope investor day at the NASDAQ Market site in New York on Monday, May 16th, 2016, beginning at 8.30 AM Eastern. Please see the Investor Relations events and presentations page of our website for registration details and additional information.

Now for our housekeeping items. On slide 2 you will find our customary language related to forward-looking statements. During this conference call we will make forward-looking statements regarding our financial position, plans, and outlook that are based on information currently available to management, management's beliefs, and a number of assumptions concerning future events. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results to differ materially from those currently expected.

For a more detailed description of factors that could cause such a difference, please see our first quarter 10-Q filed earlier this morning and other SEC filings. In providing forward-looking statements, the Company is not undertaking any duty or obligation to update these statements as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Please note that all dollar figures and percentages are approximations.

In addition to GAAP information, we will provide certain non-GAAP measures. We believe that presenting these non-GAAP or adjusted measures provides additional meaningful information to investors. Detailed reconciliation of GAAP to adjusted measures can be found in the appendix to our slide presentation.

In addition, we will be discussing historical pro forma BNS results for first quarter of 2015 as though the BNS acquisition had been completed on January 1, 2015. This pro forma information has not been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Accordingly, the pro forma financial information may not be indicative of the results that would have been realized.

Slide 3 is our agenda for this morning. Mark will review the quarter results, highlight our two segments' performance, discuss cash flow, liquidity and capital structure, and then provide our outlook for the second quarter in calendar year 2016. Finally, Eddie will make closing comments before we open the line for Q&A. To make sure everyone has the opportunity to ask a question on today's call, we request you ask one question and return to the queue for any additional questions. I will now turn it over to Mark. Mark?

Thanks, Jennifer, and good morning, all before I discuss our results I'd like to review our new management and reporting structure which was reorganized as part of the integration of the BNS acquisition. We're now reporting our financial performance based on two operating segments, CommScope Connectivity Solutions and CommScope Mobility Solutions.

In our Connectivity Solutions segment we provide connectivity and network intelligence for indoor and outdoor network applications. Indoor network solutions are found in commercial buildings and in the network core which includes data centers, central offices and cable television head ends.

Our outdoor network solutions are found in access networks. It includes coaxial cabling and fiber optic connectivity solutions which include a robust portfolio of fiber optic connectors and fiber management systems. Our mobility segment provides merchant RF wireless network solutions as well as metro cell, DAS and small cell solutions.

Our macro cell site solutions can be found at wireless tower sites and on rooftops. Our metro cell solutions can be found on street poles and on other urban structures. Our DAS and small cell solutions allow wireless operators to increase spectral efficiency and thereby extend and enhance cellular coverage and capacity in challenging network conditions, such as commercial buildings, urban areas, stadiums and transportation systems.

Now let's turn to slide 4 for a summary of our first quarter results. We are pleased to report first quarter sales of $1.14 billion, which was consistent with our guidance and an increase of 39% year-over-year. Excluding BNS and the negative impact of foreign exchange rate changes, legacy CommScope revenue is down 6% year-over-year. On a pro forma basis, revenue declined 9% year-over-year, driven primarily by lower mobility segment sales. Foreign exchange rate changes negatively impacted revenue by 2% year-over-year.

Orders were a strong $1.34 billion during the first quarter. The order strength was driven by both segments. Each with a book to bill ratio of 1.17 times. Gross margin for the first quarter of 39% was an increase of approximately 350 basis points year-over-year. The increase was driven by the addition of higher margin BNS products, favorable changes in geographic and product mix and an ongoing focus on cost management.

For the quarter, we reported GAAP operating income of $91 million. Excluding special items, non-GAAP adjusted operating income increased 35% year-over-year to $211 million or 18% of sales. This increase was also driven by the addition of BNS, favorable mix and cost reductions. Excluding BNS and Airvana adjusted operating income was stable year-over-year while adjusted operating income margin increased over 160 basis points.

For the quarter, the Company reported net income of $13 million, which reflects intangible amortization, a goodwill impairment charge related to the change in operating segments, restructuring costs and other special items. Excluding these special items, non-GAAP adjusted net income increased to $94 million or $0.48 per diluted share, up 14% year-over-year.

I will now discuss our first quarter performance in both of our segments, starting with the connectivity solutions segment on slide 5. Connectivity segment sales more than doubled year-over-year, due primarily to the BNS acquisition. Connectivity sales increased 2% sequentially to $687 million, driven by strength in outdoor network fiber sales in North America.

On a pro forma basis, connectivity segment sales declined 4% year-over-year. Approximately half of that decline was due to negative foreign exchange rate changes. The remainder of the decline was due to constrained spending in the indoor network solutions enterprise market. This decline was partially offset by higher outdoor network fiber sales in North America.

In the quarter, connectivity adjusted operating income more than doubled year-over-year, and increased 15% sequentially to $135 million or 20% of connectivity sales. The more than 200 basis points sequential increase in adjusted operating income margin was due primarily to cost synergy realization and favorable geographic and product mix.

We expect strong demand for outdoor network fiber solutions in North America to continue throughout 2016, driven by new services and competition in the access market. We also expect improved performance in indoor networks, driven by growth in data centers.

Let's turn to slide six to discuss mobility solutions segment performance. Mobility segment sales declined 8% year-over-year to $457 million. The year-over-year decline was due to lower spending by wireless operators in all major geographic regions, except the U.S., which benefited from an increase in spending by several domestic operators. Additionally, mobility benefited from $13 million of incremental sales from the BNS acquisition.

Foreign exchange rate changes had a negative impact of approximately 2% on legacy CommScope mobility segment sales in the first quarter compared to the prior-year period. While the mobility segment adjusted operating income remained relatively stable sequentially, it declined 22% year-over-year to $77 million or 17% of sales. The decline in adjusted operating income compared to the prior year was primarily due to lower sales volumes, higher costs associated with the solutions acquired with the BNS acquisition, and continued significant R&D investment in Airvana small cell solutions. Excluding BNS and Airvana, legacy CommScope mobility segment adjusted operating income margin increased approximately 100 basis points, primarily due to favorable geographic and product mix as well as ongoing cost management efforts.

We expect to continue to see year-over-year improvement in the North American market throughout 2016. We expect some improvement in the international markets in the second half of the year but we remain cautious given global economic uncertainties. Overall, we expect to see mid single-digit growth in our mobility solutions segment in the second half of the year compared to the first half. And longer term, we expect demand for our mobility solutions to be positively affected by wireless coverage and capacity expansion in emerging markets and the increasing demand for mobile broadband in developed markets.

Next I'll discuss cash flow and liquidity on slide 7. During the first quarter CommScope generated $118 million of cash from operations, invested $14 million in capital expenditures, net of spending related to the BNS integration, and paid $16 million in integration and transaction costs, primarily related to the BNS acquisition. Adjusted free cash flow for the quarter was $120 million, a significant increase from prior year. The improvement was driven by the BNS acquisition and lower cash incentive payments compared to last year.

Adjusted free cash flow for the 12 months ended March of 2016 was $475 million, up 22% year-over-year. We ended the quarter with $1 billion of total liquidity comprised of $688 million of cash and cash equivalents and availability under our credit facility of $322 million.

Turning to Slide 8, I'll discuss our capital structure. The left side of the chart shows our capital structure and net leverage ratio of 4.8 times at the end of March, down from five times at the end of last quarter. The right side of the slide shows major debt maturities for the next 10 years. As you can see, we have limited mandatory repayments in the next few years.

We're pleased to announce today that we will redeem $300 million of the 6 5/8% PIK Notes on June 1. This early and voluntary redemption will save us approximately $20 million in annual interest costs. We will continue to focus on this tranche of debt for repayment throughout the balance of the year and at the end of 2016 we expect our net leverage to be in the low four times range.

Finally, I will cover our outlook on slide 9. Our guidance excludes amortization of purchased intangibles, restructuring costs and other special items. For the second quarter we expect revenue of a $1.275 billion to $1.325 billion, adjusted operating income of $270 million to $290 million, adjusted earnings of $0.67 to $0.72 per diluted share, up 42% year-over-year at the midpoint, and an adjusted effective tax rate of 34% to 35%.

For the full year we now expect revenue of $4.95 billion to $5.05 billion. Adjusted operating income of $990 million to $1.35 billion. Adjusted earnings per diluted share of $2.40 to $2.50 based on 196 million weighted average diluted shares, up 35% year-over-year at the midpoint. An adjusted effective tax rate of 34% to 35% and adjusted free cash flow of more than $425 million.

The Company's updated full year guidance reflects expectations for mid single digit growth in the second half of the year compared to the first half. With that I will turn the call over to Eddie to discuss his thoughts on the quarter before the operator opens the call for Q&A. Eddie?

Thank you Mark. We are pleased to deliver strong first quarter results that exceeded our expectations while continuing to make excellent progress with our BNS integration plan. We are particularly proud of our record first quarter gross margin which reflects the impact of higher gross margin BNS solutions, cost synergy realization and ongoing efforts to create profitable growth.

This stronger than expected start of the year give us confidence to increase our full year outlook despite facing continued global economic uncertainty and foreign exchange rate headwinds, which are both pressuring performance internationally strengthen the Fiber-To-The-x solutions and the mobility solutions in North America are expected to drive solid results. Our confidence in the future in strong cash flow positions us to announce early and voluntary redemption of $300 million of our highest cost debt.

Additionally, we are focused on integrating the BNS acquisition quickly and effectively and are very pleased with our progress. We recently made another step in the transition by establishing a new management reporting structure. The structure positions us to serve customers better and enhances our ability to create technologically advanced solutions.

We achieved meaningful cost synergies during the quarter and continue to ramp cost synergy realization. We're well on track to achieve or exceed our stated plan. Finally, I would like to thank the global CommScope team for all their hard work and integration efforts. I'm very proud of our employees, working tirelessly to deliver strong results like we saw in the first quarter, all while continuing to focus on the integration efforts.

Overall, we remain focused on positioning the Company for long-term success by delivering profitable growth while managing cost effectively. We are well positioned to help customers transition to the networks of the future with our robust fiber portfolio and technology-leading wireless solutions. Now we'll be happy to answer your questions, and Regina, I'll turn it back to you for the first question.

(Operator Instructions). Your first question will come from the line of Rod Hall with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning, guys. Thanks for the question. I guess I have a couple. The first thing is, your results are surprisingly good considering we've seen CapEx coming under what we expected for Q1 for a couple of the big Tier 1s in the U.S., and I think I heard you guys comment that U.S. wireless was solid. So I just wanted to see if I could get you to give us a little more color on, you know, what you saw in the market in the first quarter and help us to juxtapose that CapEx picture we saw with these good results from you guys and then I've got a follow-up to that.

I think we saw growth, you know, what we deal with is a very diverse geography of mobility customers. In the U.S. we saw growth among our four carriers. It wasn't just one, but it's all in different paces. So we are well positioned here in North America so that geographic -- geographically helped from a margin and revenue standpoint.

We saw softness in Europe, I think as other people probably have commented, but parts of the rest of the world, south Asia continued to be strong, I think India, we're starting to see some revival there. So, you know, we're happy because of that diversity that we have. We think it brings strength to what CommScope is from the standpoint of a mobility customer, and we look forward to that in the future.

Okay. Great. And then I just wanted to -- I guess I just wanted to follow up with a question on front hall solutions. We've heard that, you know, there are a lot of field trials going on with regards to front hall now and I just wonder, Eddie, maybe if you could comment on what you guys seeing in respect of that and what CommScope's participation in it might be, just kind of how -- you know, how optimistic you are and then maybe also a little comment on visibility, too, since you guys are raising the full year guidance, could you just comment on what gives you the confidence there on the visibility point of view, give us a little bit more detailed color on that.

I guess simplistically we have a book-to-bill greater than one and the highest we've had for a long time, and we're seeing, you know, order rates better than we've seen for many of the last few quarters. I think in the front hall part, we now have a fiber capability different than we've had in the past, and we're seeing that strength across many of our former broadband and wireless customers. So it's something that the product portfolio that we have today is different than we had, and, you know, we have very good relationships with the people that are doing this, whether it be the traditional carriers or the nontraditional, and so I think our position in the market, FTTx market and the market to the towers, is very good.

Great. Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Amir Rozwadowski with Barclay. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, and good morning, folks.

Good morning, Amir.

I was wondering if we could actually dovetail on the prior question on fiber. It seems as though some of your peers and carriers such as AT&T and Verizon as well as the hyper scaled data solutions and even the deployment of small cells, all seem to be taking up, you know, sort of fiber demand here. I was wondering if you could discuss where you think we are in the fiber demand environment in terms of the legs left for demand? I mean, are we still at an early stage in terms of demand but would love any color there and then I've got a quick follow-up post that.

Well, without being extremely specific, across all the customer base that we have, we're seeing very strong demand, and I think with lots of legs and in many cases in the very early stages of their buildouts. What we see in the people that do the deployment for this is multiyear backlogs, so that gives us some expectation of continued growth in that market. You know, we are cautious, as we look to people becoming exuberant there, but based upon what we see, we see really no near term end to this demand.

That's very helpful. And then, you know, if we think about your EPS guidance, you know, if we look at it from a quarterly progression basis, relative to what you put out for the second quarter, it seems to suggest a tempering of EPS power for the Company. How should we think about this in the context that, if I'm not mistaken, synergies with BNS are expected to pick up in the back half of the year? Should we imply that you expect a tempering of demand in the back half of the year or are you looking to be somewhat conservative at this juncture? Thanks very much.

Thanks for the question, Amir, and we are being a little bit cautious. We do expect that international demand will increase a bit as we move into the second half of the year, although we expect to continue to see strong performance in the U.S. We think that the mix of international/U. S. could move back to a little bit more of a traditional mix in the second half.

And so we are benefiting in terms of earnings in both the first and expected second quarters, but we are -- you know, we have a more balanced year here than what we had anticipated when we came into the year, albeit still with second half growth. So at this point we're being a little bit cautious, but we are enthused by the fact that our synergy realization has continued to be a nice positive for us, and we see that continuing to ramp.

Perfect. Thanks very much for the incremental color.

Your next question comes from the line of Vijay Bhagavath with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, hi, Eddie, Mark.

Good morning, Vijay.

I must say solid results here. This has been tough -- for many of your peers, so truly congratulations to your team. A question and a follow-up if I may. The question is around, would it be fair to say that Q3 and Q4 of last year was a trough in your wireless business and we could see sequential improvement in the wireless segment and mainly driven by macro cell densification? Is that the correct way of thinking about it?

Well, you know, from my perspective, the year started soft in both our businesses, both segments. It did finish strong. I think we see certainly better visibility here in North America than we saw last year, and it's welcome to see.

And so whether that was a trough or not, you know, that business is cyclical, volatile, lumpy, whichever word you want to use, and we've been very clear about that over a long, long period of time. And we don't expect any sort of linear growth there. But based upon what we see and the book-to-bill that we have and the demand that we see overall, not just here but in other parts of the world, we're optimistic about where the business is going.

And I think you'll recall, Vijay, that we had a fairly strong first half last year in Europe with wireless and that tapered a bit in the second half, as did U.S. demand, and so only time will tell if that was a true multiyear trough, but we do see pickups here certainly in the book-to-bill being a good reflection of that.

That's helpful. And then a quick follow-up is on small cells. We have been picking up anecdotal data on several of the tower operators selling small cells market is starting to pick up. Are you seeing strength in your small cells business? Is it primarily in building small cells or also in the outdoor small cell opportunities? Thanks.

We have a strong position in the outdoor with the tower people you've probably talked to and we have several deployments going on. I think you know that we invested in a -- a small cell, indoor small cell business in October. We're excited about what that's bringing us, and I think we'll see near term revenue from that in their current products as well as expected commercialization of the OneCell product that is their new derivative by the end of the year, or sometimes in the fourth quarter. So we think that is going to be a high growth area in unit volume, and certainly in the densification and the in building part of the market, we think we'll be well positioned.

Excellent. Yes. Solid results once again. Thank you.

Thanks, Vijay.

Your next line comes from the line of Jess Lubert with Wells Fargo Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I also have two. First for Eddie and the wireless business, I was hoping to understand where you are from a supply perspective and to what extent there was and/or still is some backed up demand from the constraints you noted last quarter, how you're feeling about the ability to meet that.

And then for Mark, I was hoping to dig into your gross margin and specifically understand some of the mix benefits you're seeing, to what extent the inventory markups from BNS are now behind you and is 39% the right level to be thinking about for gross margin going forward or are there some other puts and takes that maybe push that down back towards the mid 30s over time? Thanks.

Okay. We'll call this business the mobility business from now on. So we need to change our words a little bit. You know, we're seeing good demand, certainly here in North America, from the tower top side of the business. It picked up pace faster than the DAS side of the business. So we're excited about that.

You know, as I said earlier, Mark did as well, the year started slower than anticipated but has really picked up pace, and we've added several thousand people in our workforce to take care of demand from not just mobility but also on the connectivity side. So we're seeing an acceleration during the course of this quarter, and I think anticipate that we'll have a good year, as Mark has indicated.

So adding no capacity constraints at this point in time?

Well, as I said on the last call, we did have capacity constraints, not just in mobility but also connectivity. We've made a lot of progress in both of those areas. I think we're meeting demand generally in the mobility side. We still have some work to do on the connectivity side, but we are making progress.

You know, we're spending capital necessary to meet the demand where required, and as I said earlier, we're adding human resources to meet the demand where it's not a capital constraint. So that takes -- that takes some time to get perfectly balanced, which I guess never happens, really, but it does take time to get better balance than where we were at the start of the year. I think we have progressed. All the while doing a very sizable integration. So it's a lot going on with our ops team as well as our back office people.

And, Jess, on your gross margin question, first, we had effectively no impact of purchase accounting in the first quarter. That's all behind us. But you did see us now on two consecutive quarters achieve 39 points of gross margin, and you'll recall that the first and the fourth quarters are our seasonally low quarters, higher in the second and third.

You know, we point to a few factors that drive that gross margin volume of course being at the top of the list. Geographic mix can also influence it, and then cost reductions or in our case some of the synergy realization is also reflected in there. So we -- we're very pleased with gross margin performance, where we're at, and we don't expect to give any of that back.

Thank you, Jess.

Thanks, guys.

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning and thanks very much for taking the question. I had a follow-up question on the capacity constraints. In the 2014 time frame when leadtimes extended for the broader supply chain that resulted in double ordering and inventory being built. I was just hoping you could help us understand when you talk to your customers, are they worried that same dynamic may be occurring this year and how are you thinking they're trying to manage through some of those issues?

Not at all. I think that we have very close contact with some of the issues that we saw in 2014. We understand where people are in their expectation for demand. We understand where they are in what we've shipped to date. And we have a very good balance as to where that is.

The demand is broader based than it was in the first quarter of 2014, so it's a much easier process to manage. So it's not -- it's not a concern whatsoever. From the standpoint of capacity there in the tower top, we've made a lot of progress, and I think -- I think we're meeting the demand as required. And so we don't think there's any buildup in the channel. And so I think it's a whole different situation than what we saw in the first part of 2014.

That's very helpful. Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Simon Leopold with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you for taking my question. A couple things. I wanted to just get a quick clarification. On your release you give us the operating income by segments. I think the 1Q 2015 is excluding the BNS acquisition? Am I reading that correctly?

That's correct, Simon.

Are you going to be able to give us some pro formas to be able to look at what it would have looked like with BNS throughout the four quarters of 2015 so we can look at the trending and also help us map the old segment disclosures to the new segment disclosures? Is this something you could give us?

Well, we will provide sales or we have in the release, Simon. But we aren't positioned to go back and restate based on the new segment structure back into the prior years.

But what I will point out to you, though, is if you look at the performance in Q1 on a pro forma full year versus last year, you know, we generated about 19% adjusted operating income margin on a consolidated company basis pro forma in the first quarter of 2015 and we're about 18.5% in the first quarter of 2016. So what you did see is about a third of the business, which was BNS, which was a low teens operating income margin business, now transform very quickly to what was the historical upper teens, low 20s adjusted op margin for consolidated CommScope. So very rapid improvement in bringing up the BNS acquired business to the CommScope operating income margins.

Okay. And then one of your competitors, mainly Corning, called out a production problem in its cabling business that I think they estimated at roughly $100 million hit to their business. Wondering, I guess, two parts to this. One is, did you pick up some of that opportunity and then what's the effect going forward if you did?

You know, selectively, we -- we share customers pretty well with those guys, and selectively we may have seen some benefit. You know, our delivery times have moved out, like other people's, and so the magnitude of what we may have seen may be muted by those delivery schedules. I do think longer term is possibly beneficial to us. We would like to hold on to what we do to help people. But, you know, we'll see. It's a highly competitive market. There are a few other people other than just us and them. So it's a very strong competitive market out there.

Great. One last one if I might. It looks like your operating expenses, particularly SG&A, were quite a bit lower than we modeled and certainly helped out in the strong earnings this quarter. To what extent was that an acceleration of your -- of your ability to drive the cost synergies from a BNS acquisition and how should we think about essentially the rest of the quarters in terms of the ability to get more cost savings out? Where are you in terms of your original plan and the timeline? Thank you.

Yeah, sure, thanks for your questions, Simon. Yeah, you saw about a $16 million sequential decline in SG&A. Of course, there's always some timings different one quarter to the next, but a meaningful portion of that decline is directly attributed to synergy realization. And so we're only in the second full quarter after having consummated the acquisition. We have seen synergy realization continue to ramp this quarter. And we are very comfortable with our commitment to exceed -- meet or exceed our $75 million in year synergy realization.

Great. Thank you for taking my questions.

Thanks, Simon.

Your next question comes from the line of George Notter with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks a lot. I guess I just wanted to extend on the last question. I think the larger synergy target is $175 million for the like third year post the close of the BNS deal. I guess I'm just curious about how you feel on that synergy number. And can you kind of talk through, you know, sort of the puts and takes as you're finding the process of integrating BNS, what's surprising you positively or negatively on that integration? Thanks.

I think we're very comfortable with that number. And, you know, so that's where we stand to date and so we have -- we have good comfort that we'll achieve that over that same three-year time frame. You know, we have gotten started quicker and at a faster pace than we originally had thought and a lot of work has gone into that with, you know, by December 15th, we had accomplished all of the sales synergies, 250-plus people impacted across the -- across the country. I mean, across the world.

So what did we see that's good? I think the quality of the people that we -- that we now have as a collective CommScope is a better quality of people that we had as two separate companies. I think the energy that everybody has in making this a great Company, a greater Company, is there, and, you know, it's a high level of support from -- from everyone. So we now have a lot of people for a few boxes, so we're able on an unbiased basis to choose the best of the best that we see, and that's what we've tried to do and will continue to do over time.

So I think, you know, we have found some nuggets that we hadn't anticipated, and so far we've -- we've been successful in not really finding anything that gave us great concern. We still have a lot of work to do. This is not an easy task, doing a carve-out, so it's a lot of work to do. Our employees are working tirelessly to do both their jobs as well as the integration jobs, also, and so we admire the work they're doing and showing to make this Company like we want it to be.

Thank you.

Your next question will come from the line of Tal Liani with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hey, guys, this is Dan Barnes tell us on behalf of Tal thanks for taking my question. Just one on competitive dynamics. When you look out globally, you guys mentioned soft wireless demand. Could you also give any color around the competitive landscape in market share, whether you're just gaining or defending share, given there might be some more competitors especially on the macro cell side? Thanks.

I think we've -- I think we've held our position pretty well. You know, we have -- in what we do in infrastructure, you know, tower tops as well as the DAS side of the business, I think we've held our position pretty well. It's changing dynamics. People come and go.

But, you know, we still have good positions with each of the carriers that we've dealt with for years. I think generally in most cases a larger, if not the largest provider to them on a global basis. We're still doing full of networks in a lot of the places around the world.

So we see long-term positive trends continuing, whether it's 4G transitioning into 5G. I think 3G has now taken a minority position in the business that we have, so it's -- we're trending toward the higher technology businesses, which is good for CommScope.

You know, we do only one thing, and that's enable people to use bandwidth, and so that is what we see today is never ending. I think the densification part of it, we will excel there because of the products and solutions that we have, so we look forward to how this market transitions over time.

Great. Thanks.

Your next question will come from the line of Kulbinder Garcha with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Thanks. I just want to clarify what you guys are saying about the wireless cycle, now. So basically I guess, after a couple years of disappointments are you now saying that you are at the trough and you see a recovery and we can get back to normalized long term revenue growth of that low single digits you spoke about before. Is that the best you're thinking about it or is it still some speed bumps in the horizon you worry about?

You know, Kulbinder, what we have said is that this cycle is not materially different than what we've seen in others. The first part of I guess the decade of the build-out starts slow and peaks and moderates and so we're in that moderating part. As 5G is starting to come along, we're working with the carriers that are at the forefront of it. And as that transitions into the late end of this decade, we'll be a participant in that as they need new products to support that transition.

So then we'll see -- we expect that we'll see that same ebb and flow along the time. So, you know -- we have shown and looked at charts, it's a sawtooth kind of build-out in this business, and that's what it's been over the last four or five decades as wireless has evolved, and we -- really don't anticipate anything much different than that.

And then I would just add, Kulbinder, as you've seen the technologies evolve over time and the solutions being deployed become more complex, really despite whether revenue has been flat or up, you've seen us expand margins within the mobility segment and we're pleased with that and we expect that that will continue as we move closer to 5G technologies.

Thank you.

Your next question will come from the line of Shawn Harrison with Longbow Research. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, everybody, and congrats on the results. I wanted to dig into the -- I guess the inside network portion of the connectivity business. I thought it would have done better considering organics, organic sales up about 5%. It doesn't seem like you've ceded any market share of any significance in that market. And then the upside from Corning. So maybe just kind of detailing the diversions between the growth (inaudible) you are seeing and kind of, I guess the lackluster indoor growth you saw this quarter and how you project the year to improve.

Shawn, I think we -- what we saw was not different than what we've listened to other people talk about. We saw a slow start. I think we were -- we were pleased at what we saw from a copper side, it was very strong. Fiber side was slower. But we think the business is picking up now from what we see. And so we have no concerns as to what we see for the balance of the year.

The U.S. was -- was growing. The international part was soft. And so I think that's consistent with what others have said. But we do think medium to long-term, this market is going to be a very good market for us.

Okay. Helpful. Then just a follow-up, I guess, on the BNS DAS business. If my memory is correct, that was, I thought, a much more sizable business than the $13 million of sales would imply today. So if you could just speak to, is that business atrophying? Is there something I'm missing and is there a possibility to get that business restarted if it did atrophy?

You know, one of the aspects, I think, that Mark mentioned that we do, you know, was going to be a target is product pruning and making sure that the products that we're selling have the margin expectations that drive technology needs. This would be one of the recipients of that work.

And, you know, we announced the closure of the primary location in San Jose, California, very shortly after the acquisition, and so, you know, we are curtailing some of the products sold in that business. That does impact greatly what their revenue stream would be. We think that some of that will be substituted with existing CommScope product.

You know, the -- one of the great things of the wireless mobility business that BNS had was the technology. They have some very strong patents there that we would plan to utilize and exercise. And so we look forward to that. So we think that it strengthens our position. We do think that we will have a drop in revenue because of the actions that we're taking, more positive are generated actions by CommScope rather than the market conditions.

But, Shawn, at best, that was a break-even operating margin business.

Mark, is that now getting close to the mobility corporate average or your legacy DAS average post these actions?

It is very quickly approximating those averages.

Very good. Thanks so much.

Your final question will come from the line of Steven Fox with Cross Research. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. Just one for me. Can you just talk about mix going forward? So you talked about where it helped in the most recent quarter. I'm just curious, to the extent that you can map out along product pruning and expectations for demand from customers, where is mix going to help you on the gross margin line going forward and also maybe where could it hurt you? Thanks.

Well, sure, Steven. We said we started the year a little bit stronger than what we had expected, so now we see a little bit more of a balanced year throughout 2016. We do expect that in the second half of the year we will begin to see some more signs of life in the international markets. And from an earnings standpoint, geographically, that would put a little pressure on us.

But, you know, fundamentally we don't see a change in the longer term outlook here at all, we are pleased with how we started the year both on the mobility side as well as our connectivity side. So outside plant Fiber-To-The-x deployments in the U.S. have been very good. We see those outside the U.S., having some signs of life here as well in certain of the Asian markets.

So as we move through the year, you know, we a much more diversified Company right now than what we were previously. And so that exposure more fully to the international markets as well as to both the wireless and wire line sides that carriers budget is something that I think you see both in our performance here in the quarter and in our outlook here throughout the rest of 2016.

I'm sorry, I'm a little confused by that. So the international business obviously if it picks up would be good for growth but would be a negative on margins, but are you saying that fiber could outgrow sort of core sales growth and be a positive for margins at the same time?

Well, our fiber margins in terms of the connectivity solutions business, that is a good margin business. And, you know, you'll see that for -- reflected for the first quarter under our new segment structure in the results that we've published today. And so those are 20-ish operating income margin segment that we have with connectivity solutions. And so, again, because we're able to sell now more fully a solutions set than what we had previously with more of a coaxial cable offering, you now see coupled with synergy realization, you now see very nice margins in that connectivity solutions business.

I think, Steve, we've seen a huge benefit of the -- some of the relationships that CommScope had with certain segments or certain customer positions that we had that enabled us to take BNS product in. We've seen the alternative on some of the connectivity relationships that existed that we now can take some of the legacy CommScope products into. So it's been a -- it's been a win/win from the standpoint of customer coverage and the ability of us to take former competitive products into places that we didn't have good positions, either of us.

Great. I think I got it now. Thank you.

Thanks, Steven.

I will now turn the conference over to Eddie Edwards for any final comments.

Thanks, Regina. I'd like to thank each of you for taking the time to join us on our earnings call today. We appreciate your continued interest in CommScope. We're extremely pleased with our start for the year.

We've delivered record first quarter gross margins. Robust free cash flow, stronger than expected bottom line results, and we exited the quarter with a healthy book-to-bill, all the while delivering or exceeding our cost synergy plans. We feel confident in our market position. We expect to build on this strong market start for the year. We also look forward to seeing you at our Investor Day on May 16th, those of you that come, and we thank you for your time.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference, thank you all for joining and you may now disconnect.