Ribbon Communications Inc (RBBN) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the Ribbon Communications Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Results Conference Call.

問候並歡迎參加 Ribbon Communications 2024 年第四季和全年財務業績電話會議。

[Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Joni Roberts, Chief Marketing Officer. Thank you. You may begin.

[操作員指示] 提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。現在我很高興介紹您的主持人，首席行銷長喬尼·羅伯茨（Joni Roberts）。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon and welcome to Ribbon's Fourth Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. I'm Joni Roberts, Chief Marketing Officer at Ribbon Communications. Also, on the call today, Bruce McClelland, Ribbon's Chief Executive Officer, and John Townsend, Ribbon's Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being webcast live and will be archived on the investor relations section of our website at www.rbbn.com, where both our press release and supplemental slides are currently available.

下午好，歡迎參加 Ribbon 2024 年第四季財務業績電話會議。我是 Ribbon Communications 的首席行銷長 Joni Roberts。此外，今天參加電話會議的還有 Ribbon 的執行長 Bruce McClelland 和 Ribbon 的財務長 John Townsend。今天的電話會議將進行網路直播，並將存檔在我們網站 www.rbbn.com 的投資者關係部分，我們的新聞稿和補充幻燈片目前均可在該部分查閱。

Certain matters we'll be discussing today, including the business outlook and financial projections for the first quarter of 2025 and beyond, are forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements.

我們今天討論的某些事項，包括 2025 年第一季及以後的業務前景和財務預測，都是前瞻性陳述。此類聲明受風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性聲明中的結果有重大差異。

These risks and uncertainties are discussed in our documents filed with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. I refer you to our safe harbor statement included in the supplemental financial information posted on our website.

我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中討論了這些風險和不確定性，包括我們最新的 10-K 表和 10-Q 表。請您參閱我們網站上發布的補充財務資訊中所包含的安全港聲明。

In addition, we'll present non-GAAP financial information on this call. Reconciliations to the applicable GAAP measure are included in the earnings press release we issued earlier today, as well as the supplemental financial information we prepared for this conference call. This again can be found both available on our investor relations section of our website. And now I'd like to turn it over to Bruce.

此外，我們將在本次電話會議上提供非公認會計準則財務資訊。我們今天稍早發布的收益新聞稿以及為本次電話會議準備的補充財務資訊中包含了與適用的 GAAP 指標的對帳。這些資訊都可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到。現在我想把發言權交給布魯斯。

Great. Thanks, Joni. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today to discuss our fourth quarter results. I'm very pleased to report strong performance across all key financial metrics, including the highest levels of revenue and earnings in the history of the company.

偉大的。謝謝，喬尼。大家下午好，感謝您今天加入我們討論我們的第四季業績。我很高興地報告，公司所有關鍵財務指標都表現強勁，包括公司歷史上最高的收入和收益水平。

This is clear validation of our strategy to expand our presence in markets such as enterprise and federal and defense, while also successfully positioning the company in areas where increased capital is being invested by our service provider customers.

這清楚地驗證了我們擴大在企業、聯邦和國防等市場影響力的策略，同時也成功地將公司定位在服務提供者客戶正在增加資本投資的領域。

Business was robust across practically all regions and segments, but the primary driver behind the excellent performance in the quarter was sales of our Cloud & Edge portfolio. US Tier One service provider Cloud & Edge sales doubled year over year, and sales to global enterprises, including US federal agencies, increased more than 60%.

幾乎所有地區和部門的業務都表現強勁，但本季出色表現的主要驅動力是我們的雲端和邊緣產品組合的銷售。美國一級服務供應商Cloud＆Edge銷售額年增一倍，對包括美國聯邦機構在內的全球企業的銷售額成長了60％以上。

We also have a solid quarter in our IP Optical Network segment with continued growth in Europe, India, and Asia Pacific. The strong mix of IP routers and management software resulted in good margins for the segment as well.

我們的 IP 光纖網路部門本季表現穩健，歐洲、印度和亞太地區持續成長。IP路由器和管理軟體的強大組合也為該部門帶來了良好的利潤率。

A higher mix of Cloud & Edge sales in the quarter resulted in gross margins well above our expectations at 58%. As a result, overall profitability in the fourth quarter increased by 30% year over year. In the full year, we achieved adjusted EBITA of $119 million at the very high end of the original range we established at the beginning of the year.

本季雲端運算和邊緣運算銷售組合較高，導致毛利率遠高於我們的預期，達到 58%。因此，第四季整體獲利能力較去年同期成長了30%。全年，我們實現了 1.19 億美元的調整後 EBITA，處於年初設定的原始範圍的最高端。

Our cash generation in the quarter was very good with year-end cash of $90 million., and bookings were also very good at 1.1 times sales and above 1.0 times for both segments. This creates a strong foundation for continued profitable growth in 2025, as the focus on network modernization and the investment in fiber networks drives an improving investment cycle. Just an excellent result and a big thank you to the Ribbon team, our customers and partners.

我們本季的現金創造能力非常好，年底現金為 9,000 萬美元，而且預訂量也非常好，分別為銷售額的 1.1 倍和兩個部門的 1.0 倍以上。這為 2025 年持續獲利成長奠定了堅實的基礎，因為對網路現代化和光纖網路投資的關注推動了投資週期的改善。這真是一個出色的結果，非常感謝 Ribbon 團隊、我們的客戶和合作夥伴。

Now a few more highlights on each of our operating segments. This was obviously an excellent quarter for our Cloud & Edge business with all aspects of the operation performing well.

現在讓我們來看看我們各個營運部門的更多亮點。對於我們的雲端和邊緣業務來說，這顯然是一個出色的季度，各個營運方面都表現良好。

The business is solidly diversified with approximately two-thirds of our sales to service providers and one-third sales to enterprise and federal and defense customers. Sales in the quarter grew 35% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA grew 75% year over year. For the full year, sales grew 6% and IEBITDA grew by 16%, just a great year.

業務多元化，約三分之二的銷售額來自服務供應商，三分之一的銷售額來自企業、聯邦和國防客戶。本季銷售額年增 35%，調整後 EBITDA 年成長 75%。全年銷售額成長 6%，IEBITDA 成長 16%，可謂是碩果累累的一年。

The momentum and recovery we saw developing earlier in the year with our US service provider customers translated into solid revenue growth in the second half. And we have a number of incremental projects in both the US and Europe that we expect will maintain a solid growth trajectory in 2025.

我們在今年稍早看到的美國服務供應商客戶的發展勢頭和復甦轉化為下半年穩健的收入成長。我們在美國和歐洲都有一些增量項目，預計到 2025 年這些項目將保持穩健的成長軌跡。

The Verizon Voice Network modernization project is a significant part of this major recovery. Sales to this key customer accounted for 17% of overall company revenue in the fourth quarter and grew 80% in the second half of the year.

Verizon 語音網路現代化計畫是這次大規模復甦的重要組成部分。對這關鍵客戶的銷售額佔第四季公司整體營收的17%，並在下半年成長了80%。

The initial phase of the program continues to ramp, and we're currently migrating approximately one voice switch every week and expect to scale further as the year progresses. In addition to the strong quarter with Verizon, network modernization sales to other US service providers were up as well, growing 21% quarter over quarter. This included a new IMS Mobile Core win, which is an exciting new area of growth for us.

該計劃的初始​​階段正在繼續推進，目前我們每周大約遷移一次語音切換，並期望隨著時間的推移進一步擴大規模。除了 Verizon 本季表現強勁之外，針對其他美國服務供應商的網路現代化銷售額也出現成長，季增 21%。其中包括新的IMS Mobile Core的勝利，這對我們來說是一個令人興奮的新成長領域。

And we were awarded a significant cloud migration project with the European Tier One service provider that highlights the technology leadership we have in leveraging a cloud native operational and software delivery model.

我們還與歐洲一級服務供應商簽訂了一個重要的雲端遷移項目，這突顯了我們在利用雲端原生營運和軟體交付模型方面的技術領導地位。

We had an outstanding quarter in our Enterprise segment led by large financial services companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, and others.

在摩根大通、美國銀行、花旗銀行等大型金融服務公司的帶領下，我們的企業部門本季表現優異。

We continue to transition customers to a flexible enterprise license agreement framework that simplifies how they consume our software products and technical support services and provides better revenue predictability.

我們繼續幫助客戶轉向靈活的企業授權協議框架，以簡化他們使用我們的軟體產品和技術支援服務的方式，並提供更好的收入可預測性。

We expect the fourth quarter will continue to be the strongest in the year as we renew these enterprise term license agreements and recognize a significant amount of revenue.

我們預計第四季度將繼續成為年內最強勁的季度，因為我們續簽了這些企業定期許可協議並確認了大量收入。

As anticipated, we had a very strong quarter with several new US Defense Agency awards.

正如預期的那樣，我們本季表現非常強勁，榮獲多項美國國防部頒發的新獎項。

In addition to expansion orders on a large voice network modernization project, we had a significant win with a new portable network in a box communication platform that can be quickly deployed in a forward command and control environment.

除了大型語音網路現代化專案的擴展訂單外，我們還在盒式通訊平台中獲得了一項重大勝利，該平台可以在前方指揮和控制環境中快速部署。

For the full year, our business with US federal agencies increased almost 150% year over year.

全年我們與美國聯邦機構的業務年增近150％。

Finally, we're intensely focused on a pipeline of over 200 potential meta-switch replacement opportunities and had several additional smaller wins in the fourth quarter.

最後，我們高度關注超過 200 個潛在的元交換機替換機會，並在第四季度取得了一些額外的小勝利。

Microsoft's decision to sell that business to a small cloud platform provider does not give service providers much comfort that the future of their regulated on-premise lifeline voice platform is secure, and this is really our sweet spot.

微軟決定將該業務出售給一家小型雲端平台供應商，這並不能讓服務供應商放心，因為他們受監管的內部部署生命線語音平台的未來是安全的，而這確實是我們的最佳選擇。

In our IP Optical segment, we had a solid quarter, although the year over year comparison is tough, given the strong finish in 2023 that included a surge of spending from the Israeli Defense Force at the beginning of the war in the region, as well as sales into Eastern Europe. Excluding those two regions, sales grew 9% year over year across other markets and regions.

在我們的 IP 光學領域，我們度過了一個穩健的季度，儘管與去年同期相比有些困難，但考慮到 2023 年的強勁收官，包括該地區戰爭開始時以色列國防軍的支出激增，以及對東歐的銷售。除這兩個地區外，其他市場和地區的銷售額年增 9%。

The highlight of the quarter was the continued improvement in India, with sales increasing 30% quarter over quarter and 10% over year over year on the strength of continued business with Bharti and the renewed network investment by Vodafone Idea.

本季的亮點是印度市場的持續改善，得益於與 Bharti 的持續業務往來以及 Vodafone Idea 的新網路投資，銷售額環比增長 30%，同比增長 10%。

Our sales in India increased by more than 40% in the second half as compared to the first half of the year, contributing to our strong growth later in the year.

與上半年相比，我們下半年在印度的銷售額成長了40%以上，為我們下半年的強勁成長做出了貢獻。

We also had a strong quarter in the Asia Pacific region with sales growing 30% quarter over quarter and 60% year over year.

我們在亞太地區的季度表現也十分強勁，銷售額較上季成長 30%，較去年同期成長 60%。

In addition, we had several large bookings from this region right at the end of the year that helped drive overall IP Optical book to bill above 1.1 times in the quarter.

此外，我們在年底時從該地區獲得了幾筆大筆訂單，這有助於推動本季 IP 光學整體訂單出貨量增加 1.1 倍以上。

The project leverages our new 5 nanometer optical transponders that support up to 1.2 gigabit per second wavelengths. These were hard fought wins against both Western and Chinese suppliers. In the US, sales increased approximately 5% year over year with continued momentum in the rural broadband fiber to the home space. We're increasing our focus and investment in this area, adding additional resources to the sales organization and pre-sales specialists.

該專案利用我們的新型 5 奈米光學轉發器，支援高達每秒 1.2 千兆位元的波長。這些都是在與西方和中國供應商的艱苦努力下取得的勝利。在美國，隨著農村寬頻光纖到府領域的持續發展，銷售額年增約 5%。我們正在加大對這一領域的關注和投入，為銷售組織和售前專家增加更多資源。

It's also critical to establish strong relationships with the engineering firms that specialize in this area, and we've continued to expand our efforts here as well. We have over 30 active projects currently in deployment with more than 30 additional opportunities at different stages here in the first quarter.

與專門從事該領域的工程公司建立牢固的關係也至關重要，我們也一直在繼續擴大我們的努力。目前，我們正在部署 30 多個活躍項目，第一季還有 30 多個處於不同階段的額外機會。

From a product mix perspective, we had our strongest quarter to date of sales of our Neptune IP routing platform growing 29% year over year as we continue to expand the number of customers and use cases for the strategic product line.

從產品組合的角度來看，隨著我們持續擴大策略性產品線的客戶數量和用例，我們本季的 Neptune IP 路由平台銷售表現最為強勁，年成長 29%。

Overall margins came in a little better than we expected in the IP Optical segment at 40%, benefiting from a sizable sale of our Muse management software, which is a major differentiator for us.

IP 光纖部門的整體利潤率略高於我們的預期，為 40%，這得益於我們的 Muse 管理軟體的大量銷售，這是我們的主要差異化因素。

Overall, this resulted in a small loss in the quarter of $4 million of adjusted EBITDA.

總體而言，這導致本季調整後 EBITDA 小幅虧損 400 萬美元。

For the full year, gross margin improved by 300 basis points and EBITDA improved by $9 million for the IP Optical segment, progressing towards our goal of profitability despite the suspension of shipments to Eastern Europe.

全年來看，IP 光纖部門的毛利率提高了 300 個基點，EBITDA 提高了 900 萬美元，儘管暫停了對東歐的發貨，但仍朝著盈利目標邁進。

With that, I'll turn it over to John to provide additional financial details on our fourth quarter and full year results and then come back on to discuss outlook for 2025 in the first quarter. John.

接下來，我將把時間交給約翰，讓他提供有關我們第四季度和全年業績的更多財務細節，然後再在第一季度討論 2025 年的展望。約翰。

Thanks, Bruce, and good afternoon, everyone. We were exceptionally pleased with our financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2024 with revenue towards the high end of guidance. Adjusted Ed was not only above guidance, but also a new record high for the business driven by the strong revenue performance and continued very healthy product margins. This helped to produce robust cash flow with a closing cash balance of $90 million.

謝謝，布魯斯，大家下午好。我們對 2024 年第四季的財務業績感到非常滿意，收入達到預期的高點。調整後的 Ed 不僅高於預期，而且在強勁的收入表現和持續健康的產品利潤率的推動下，創下了業務的新高。這有助於產生強勁的現金流，期末現金餘額為 9,000 萬美元。

For the full year, our consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $119 million at the high end of the original guidance provided in the beginning of 2024. As a reminder, please refer to our investor relations page on the Ribbon website for supplemental financial information.

就全年而言，我們的綜合調整後 EBITDA 為 1.19 億美元，達到 2024 年初提供的原始指引的高點。提醒一下，請參閱 Ribbon 網站上的投資者關係頁面以獲取補充財務資訊。

Let's begin with financial results at the consolidated level. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Ribbon generated revenues of $251 million an increase of 11% in the prior year quarter. For the full year revenues were $834 million an increase of 1% or $8 million year to year.

讓我們先從合併層面的財務結果開始。2024 年第四季，Ribbon 的營收為 2.51 億美元，較去年同期成長 11%。全年營收為 8.34 億美元，年增 1%，即 800 萬美元。

Fourth quarter non-GAAP gross margin was 58.1%, up 130 basis points from the prior year quarter. For the full year, non-GAAP gross margin was 55.9%, up 280 basis points from the prior year, driven by improvements in both business segments and segment mix. For the fourth quarter, non-GAAP operating expenses were $94 million an increase of $4 million a year over year related to additional employee expenses partially due to the improved sales and earnings performance.

第四季非公認會計準則毛利率為58.1%，較去年同期上升130個基點。全年非公認會計準則毛利率為 55.9%，較上年上升 280 個基點，得益於業務部門和部門組合的改善。第四季度，非公認會計準則營業費用為 9,400 萬美元，比去年同期增加 400 萬美元，部分原因是由於銷售和盈利業績改善導致的額外員工費用。

For the year, operating expenses were $361 million a net reduction of $2 million from the prior year.

全年營業費用為 3.61 億美元，較上年淨減少 200 萬美元。

Quarterly non-GAAP net income was $28 million a $7 million dollar improvement year over year. This generated non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.16, which was an increase of $0.04 versus the prior year. Full year 2024 non-GAAP net income was $44 million up 22% or $8 million from the prior year. Diluted earnings per share for 2024 was $0.25, up $0.04 from 2023.

季度非 GAAP 淨收入為 2,800 萬美元，較上年同期增加 700 萬美元。這產生了 0.16 美元的非 GAAP 稀釋每股收益，比前一年增加了 0.04 美元。2024 年全年非 GAAP 淨收入為 4,400 萬美元，較上年增長 22% 或 800 萬美元。2024 年每股攤薄收益為 0.25 美元，比 2023 年增加 0.04 美元。

Our normalized non-GAAP tax rate for the quarter was 40%. However, we benefited from a one-time reassessment of tax reserves at year end, resulting in net tax rates of 21% and 29% for the quarter and full year respectively.

我們本季的標準化非 GAAP 稅率為 40%。然而，我們受益於年末一次性的稅收儲備重新評估，導致本季和全年的淨稅率分別為 21% 和 29%。

Our interest expense for the quarter was $12 million and $0.34 million dollars for the full year. The record breaking fourth quarter adjusted EIA was $55 million above the upper end of our guidance. This is an improvement of 30% or $13 million year over year.

我們本季的利息支出為 1,200 萬美元，全年利息支出為 34 萬美元。第四季調整後的 EIA 創下了紀錄，比我們的預期上限高出 5500 萬美元。與去年同期相比，這一數字提高了 30%，即 1,300 萬美元。

For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $119 million which was a $28 million dollar increase over the prior year. This is the second straight year with an EBITDA improvement over 30%.

全年調整後的 EBITDA 為 1.19 億美元，較上年增加 2,800 萬美元。這是 EBITDA 連續第二年成長超過 30%。

Our basic share count was 175 million shares, and our fully diluted share count was 179 million shares for the quarter.

本季，我們的基本股數為 1.75 億股，全面稀釋股數為 1.79 億股。

Now let's look at the results of our two business segments. Our Cloud & Edge business produced exceptional results with fourth quarter revenues of $165 million an increase of 35% year over year, driven by network transformation engagements with Verizon, as well as with defense and enterprise customs.

現在讓我們來看看我們兩個業務部門的業績。我們的雲端和邊緣業務取得了出色的成績，第四季度營收為 1.65 億美元，年增 35%，這得益於與 Verizon 以及國防和企業海關的網路轉型合作。

Full year revenues were $505 million which reflect a $28 million or 6% increase from 2023. Our services and support business increased 5% to $294 million or 58% of revenues.

全年營收為 5.05 億美元，比 2023 年增加 2,800 萬美元，即 6%。我們的服務和支援業務成長了 5%，達到 2.94 億美元，佔營收的 58%。

Fourth quarter, non-GAAP gross margins remain strong at 67.6%, and for the full year gross margin was 66.9%, up 100 basis points from the prior year. Cloud & Edge continued its strong cash and profit contribution with an all-time high adjusted EBITA of $60 million or 36% of revenues in the fourth quarter.

第四季度，非公認會計準則毛利率維持強勁，為 67.6%，全年毛利率為 66.9%，較前一年上升 100 個基點。Cloud & Edge 持續保持強勁的現金和利潤貢獻，第四季度調整後 EBITA 達到歷史最高水平，達到 6,000 萬美元，佔營收的 36%。

For the full year, adjusted EBITDA increased 16% versus the prior year, ending at $141 million or 28% of revenues.

全年調整後的 EBITDA 較上年成長 16%，達到 1.41 億美元，佔營收的 28%。

Now on to our IP Optical networks business results. We recorded fourth quarter revenue of $87 million a 17% decrease versus the prior year.

現在來談談我們的IP光網路業務成果。我們第四季的營收為 8,700 萬美元，較上年下降 17%。

Revenues for the full year were $329 million down 6% from 2023 due to the impact of suspending shipments to Eastern Europe.

由於暫停向東歐發貨的影響，全年收入為 3.29 億美元，較 2023 年下降 6%。

Fourth quarter non-GAAP gross margin for IP Optical was 40%, which was at the high end of our target range, but it was down 400 basis points from the prior year, primarily due to lower volumes.

IP Optical 第四季非 GAAP 毛利率為 40%，處於我們目標範圍的高端，但較去年同期下降了 400 個基點，主要原因是銷量下降。

For the full year, gross margin was 39%, up 300 basis points from the previous year, reflecting the actions we have taken to improve profitability.

全年毛利率為39%，較前一年上升300個基點，反映了我們為提高獲利能力所採取的措施。

Before year 2025, we believe that we can continue to target gross margins in the high 30s or better.

我們相信，在2025年之前，我們的毛利率可以繼續達到30%以上甚至更高。

IP Optical networks adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $4 million 130 million dollars less year over year. For the full year, we improved adjusted EBITDA loss by $9 million to a loss of $22 million.

IP光網路本季調整後的EBITDA虧損400萬美元，較去年同期減少1.3億美元。就全年而言，我們的調整後 EBITDA 虧損改善了 900 萬美元，至 2,200 萬美元。

Touching on the cash flows for the company, the strong business performance and collections in the fourth quarter drove free cash flow of $54 million and resulted in a closing cash balance of $90 million and the net debt leverage ratio of 2.2 times.

談到公司的現金流，第四季度強勁的業務表現和收款推動了 5,400 萬美元的自由現金流，並導致期末現金餘額為 9,000 萬美元，淨債務槓桿率為 2.2 倍。

Free cash flow for the full year is $28 million.

全年自由現金流為2800萬美元。

So for my first full quarter in the CFO seat, it has been extremely encouraging to see the team at Ribbon execute on our strategy and it be embraced by carrier, enterprise, and federal customers alike, especially our network transformation services. Our day to day execution focus is clearly paying off in the results that we post today.

因此，在我擔任 CFO 的第一個完整季度中，看到 Ribbon 團隊執行我們的策略，並受到營運商、企業和聯邦客戶的歡迎，尤其是我們的網路轉型服務，我感到非常鼓舞。我們每天的執行重點顯然在我們今天發布的結果中得到了回報。

Now, I'll turn the call back to Bruce.

現在，我將把電話轉回給布魯斯。

Great, thanks, John.

太好了，謝謝，約翰。

As we enter the new year, Ribbon is in the strongest position we've been in over the last 5 years.

進入新的一年，Ribbon 處於過去 5 年來最強勁的地位。

Our customer base has expanded and diversified. We have deepened our relationship with current customers, and we've improved visibility on the year ahead.

我們的客戶群不斷擴大且多樣化。我們加深了與現有客戶的關係，並提高了對未來一年的預見性。

We have strengthened our balance sheet and finished 2024 with strong momentum across almost all parts of our business, and we expect this to continue into 2025.

我們已加強資產負債表，並在 2024 年結束時在幾乎所有業務領域都保持了強勁勢頭，我們預計這種勢頭將持續到 2025 年。

We have several important elements to our strategy that leverage our broad portfolio and global presence.

我們的策略有幾個重要要素，可以充分利用我們廣泛的產品組合和全球影響力。

First, we remain very focused on cross selling our solutions and leveraging the presence we have with so many customers. This is increasing our relevance and better aligning our future with the areas that are most important to our customers. This includes an extra level of intensity to grow our business with the largest tier one service providers who control the majority of industry CapEx.

首先，我們仍然非常注重交叉銷售我們的解決方案並利用我們與眾多客戶的合作關係。這增強了我們的相關性，並且使我們的未來與對客戶最重要的領域更好地保持一致。這包括進一步加強與控制大部分行業資本支出的最大一級服務提供者的業務合作。

Second, we remain committed to improving and growing our IP routing and optical transport business in North America. We have a great IP routing solution that's very complementary to our voice infrastructure business in support of eliminating TDM and copper networks and have deployments with a growing number of service providers.

其次，我們仍然致力於改善和發展我們在北美的IP路由和光傳輸業務。我們擁有出色的 IP 路由解決方案，它與我們的語音基礎設施業務非常互補，支援消除 TDM 和銅網絡，並且與越來越多的服務提供者一起部署。

In addition, the industry-wide investment being made to expand world broadband across the US is a perfect fit for our portfolio and a growing part of our business.

此外，為擴大美國全球寬頻而進行的全產業投資非常契合我們的投資組合，也是我們業務不斷成長的一部分。

Third, the continued exponential growth in mobile and fixed data traffic requires providers to constantly add more capacity to their network, and we continue to win new customers and grows share in the fiber transport market. Advancements in AI are already driving massive new investments in data center connectivity and are expected to move closer to the edge as AI applications begin to advance, exactly the area we're focused on.

第三，行動和固定數據流量的持續指數級增長要求提供者不斷為其網路增加更多容量，我們不斷贏得新客戶並在光纖傳輸市場中不斷擴大份額。人工智慧的進步已經推動了對資料中心連接的大量新投資，並且隨著人工智慧應用開始發展，預計它將更接近邊緣，這正是我們關注的領域。

Fourth, our decision several years ago to increase go to market investment in enterprise and government is clearly paying off and will remain a key part of our strategy. In particular, we have a very strong presence in mission critical networks with a differentiated solution portfolio and expertise.

第四，幾年前我們決定增加對企業和政府的市場投資，這項決定顯然取得了成效，並將繼續成為我們策略的關鍵部分。特別是，我們在關鍵任務網絡中擁有非常強大的影響力，並擁有差異化的解決方案組合和專業知識。

Fifth, we continue to believe that the efficiency and scalability of cloud technologies such as containers and Kubernetes will become mainstream technologies for telecom network loads, including voice services, and we continue to invest in these areas to ensure we are industry leaders, not followers.

第五，我們繼續相信容器、Kubernetes等雲端技術的高效性和可擴展性將成為包括語音業務在內的電信網路負載的主流技術，我們將繼續在這些領域投入，確保我們是行業的領導者，而不是追隨者。

This was a key element of the recent European Tier One win I mentioned earlier.

這就是我之前提到的最近歐洲一級聯賽獲勝的一個關鍵因素。

All of these strategic initiatives are supported by the focused effort to integrate key areas in order to simplify and streamline the operation of the company.

所有這些策略舉措都得到了重點努力的支持，旨在整合關鍵領域，簡化和優化公司的營運。

Of course, it's crucial that we continue to innovate and differentiate, and we have a robust roadmap for 2025, including advances in IP routing, network automation, information security, and cloud automation.

當然，我們必須繼續創新和差異化，我們有一個針對 2025 年的強大路線圖，包括 IP 路由、網路自動化、資訊安全和雲端自動化方面的進步。

We will also invest more in our professional services capabilities and practices, where we have a unique employee talent pool that has knowledge across multiple generations of voice and data networking that's in very high demand and an important differentiator for us.

我們還將增加對專業服務能力和實踐的投入，我們擁有獨特的員工人才庫，他們擁有跨多代語音和數據網絡的知識，這對我們而言非常搶手，也是一個重要的區別因素。

Focusing specifically on our outlook for 2025, there are several key areas that we expect will drive profitable growth this year.

具體來說，著眼於2025年的展望，我們預計有幾個關鍵領域將推動今年的獲利成長。

The largest area of opportunity is clearly the investment being made by service providers, governments, and enterprises to modernize their communication infrastructure.

最大的機會領域顯然是服務提供者、政府和企業為實現其通訊基礎設施現代化而進行的投資。

We've been successful in securing several longer term contracts that provide improved visibility and a very solid foundation of business over the next 2 to 3 years with high probability of further contract extensions.

我們已成功獲得幾份長期合同，這些合約將在未來 2 至 3 年內提高知名度並為業務奠定堅實的基礎，並且進一步延長合約的可能性很高。

Increasingly we're not just selling products but complete solutions, including extensive planning and deployment services that provide significant differentiation and a competitive advantage.

我們不只是銷售產品，還銷售完整的解決方案，包括提供顯著差異化和競爭優勢的廣泛規劃和部署服務。

This covers a broad set of use cases from traditional fixed line voice services to unified cloud communications from enterprise desktop through to contact center applications.

這涵蓋了從傳統固定線路語音服務到從企業桌面到聯絡中心應用程式的統一雲端通訊的廣泛用例。

Within the government sector, we built a strong base of customers in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, but there's significant room to expand into other countries and regions.

在政府部門，我們在美國、歐洲和中東建立了強大的客戶群，但在其他國家和地區仍有很大的擴展空間。

We're leveraging our entire portfolio of voice and data products to address these mission critical secure communication opportunities.

我們正在利用我們的整個語音和數據產品組合來解決這些關鍵任務的安全通訊機會。

Overall, we estimate that the addressable market opportunity for the Cloud & Edge secure voice communication segment to be at least $7.4 billion over the next four years.

總體而言，我們估計未來四年雲端和邊緣安全語音通訊領域的潛在市場機會至少為 74 億美元。

The second most important area for our business this year is to capture a larger share of the investment in fiber networks.

我們今年業務的第二個最重要的領域是佔據光纖網路投資的更大份額。

In addition to our traditional customer base supporting mobile data traffic growth and fiber broadband internet expansion, our new optical portfolio is a great fit for data centerer interconnect, and we're increasing our go to market investment in this area.

除了支援行動數據流量成長和光纖寬頻網路擴展的傳統客戶群之外，我們的新光學產品組合非常適合資料中心互連，我們正在加大對該領域的市場投資。

AI is expected to drive billions of dollars of opportunity for telecom providers over the next 5 years, growing at a 40% plus CAGR, and we're targeting a larger presence here.

預計未來 5 年，人工智慧將為電信供應商帶來價值數十億美元的商機，複合年增長率超過 40%，而我們的目標是在此領域佔據更大的份額。

We're also applying AI to various aspects of our portfolio such as our network planner to reduce cycle times and network implementation costs for our customers.

我們也將人工智慧應用到我們產品組合的各個方面，例如我們的網路規劃器，以減少客戶的週期時間和網路實施成本。

And our service assurance analytics solution will be significantly enhanced to provide improved automation and trouble resolution.

我們的服務保證分析解決方案將會顯著增強，以提供更好的自動化和故障解決能力。

From a competitive perspective, I think we're going stronger and look to take advantage of weaknesses in the market, as well as competitors who are distracted by consolidation activities.

從競爭的角度來看，我認為我們會變得更強大，並尋求利用市場中的弱點以及因整合活動而分散注意力的競爭對手。

There also continues to be a long tail of opportunity related to replacement of Chinese suppliers that we continue to pursue.

我們將繼續尋求與替代中國供應商相關的長期機會。

From a macro perspective, there's more optimism across the industry as supply chain and inventory challenges abate, inflation slowly reverses, and interest rates normalize over time. There's also the promise of resolution of global conflicts in regions such as Israel and the Ukraine that would be a significant tailwind for our business.

從宏觀角度來看，隨著供應鏈和庫存挑戰減弱、通膨緩慢逆轉以及利率逐漸正常化，整個產業的樂觀情緒日益增強。我們也有望解決以色列和烏克蘭等地區的全球衝突，這將對我們的業務產生重大推動作用。

Finally, I'll note that we're in a substantially stronger position as a company with the ability to look more seriously at options to accelerate shareholder value through M&A.

最後，我要指出的是，作為一家公司，我們處於更有利的地位，有能力更認真地考慮透過併購來加速股東價值的選擇。

While we have a pretty tight criterion on what would make sense, it's certainly possible we'll find options that strengthen our portfolio and differentiation and add more scale to the business.

雖然我們對於什麼是合理的標準非常嚴格，但我們當然有可能找到能夠增強我們的產品組合和差異化並擴大業務規模的選擇。

Now on the guidance for 2025.

現在討論 2025 年的指導。

For the full year we're projecting revenue in a range of $870 million to $890 million.

我們預計全年收入將在 8.7 億美元至 8.9 億美元之間。

This implies a consolidated year over year growth rate of approximately 5% at the midpoint of guidance, but is actually significantly higher after excluding low growth maintenance revenue and other regional adjustments.

這意味著綜合同比成長率在指導中位數約為 5%，但在排除低成長維護收入和其他區域調整後，實際成長率要高得多。

For the Cloud & Edge segment, we're projecting approximately 10% growth of product and professional services revenue. With maintenance revenue essentially flat year over year.

對於雲端運算和邊緣運算領域，我們預計產品和專業服務收入將成長約 10%。維護收入與去年同期基本持平。

For the IP Optical segment, the year over year comparison is impacted by the suspension of shipments to Eastern Europe partway through 2024.

對於 IP 光纖部門而言，同比對比受到 2024 年中期暫停向東歐發貨的影響。

We're projecting a net year over year growth rate of approximately 5%, but this implies a growth rate of greater than 10% for IP Optical after adjusting for Eastern Europe.

我們預計年比淨成長率約為 5%，但這意味著調整東歐後 IP 光纖的成長率將超過 10%。

We're currently projecting gross margin for the year to be approximately 100 basis points lower than full year 24, primarily due to the increased revenue from professional services.

我們目前預計今年的毛利率將比24年全年低約100個基點，這主要是由於專業服務收入的增加。

While lower margin than high margin software, our services are a real strategic advantage and create strong brand loyalty and product pull through.

雖然利潤率低於高利潤率的軟體，但我們的服務具有真正的策略優勢，並能創造強大的品牌忠誠度和產品拉力。

We're projecting OpEx essentially flat year over year as we continue to manage expenses carefully and absorb normal inflationary increases.

由於我們繼續謹慎管理費用並吸收正常的通膨增長，我們預計營運支出將與去年同期基本持平。

As a result, adjusted EBITDA for the year is projected in a range of $130 to $140 million which would be approximately 13% higher than 2024 at the midpoint.

因此，今年調整後的 EBITDA 預計 在 1.3 億至 1.4 億美元之間，比 2024 年的中位數高出約 13%。

For the first quarter, we're projecting revenue in a range of $185 million to $195 million a year over year increase of approximately 5% at the midpoint. Once again, the year over year comparison is affected by the substantial shipments to Eastern Europe we had in the first quarter of 2024.

我們預計第一季的營收將在 1.85 億美元至 1.95 億美元之間，比去年同期成長約 5%。再次，年比對比受到 2024 年第一季我們對東歐大量出貨的影響。

Excluding those sales, the implied year over year growth rate is greater than 15%, a pretty strong start for the year.

除這些銷售額外，隱含的年成長率超過 15%，這對今年來說是一個相當強勁的開端。

EBITDA is projected in a range of $12 to $18 million a year over year increase of approximately 28% at the midpoint.

EBITDA 預計在 1,200 萬至 1,800 萬美元之間，較上年同期增加約 28%。

We expect Cloud & Edge margin consistent with recent trends but with lower IP Optical gross margin due to mix and lower volume in the quarter. In conclusion, we have an exciting year ahead and as our Q4 performance shows, our strategy is really working and we're gaining momentum.

我們預期雲端運算和邊緣運算的利潤率與近期趨勢一致，但由於產品組合和本季銷量較低，IP 光學毛利率將下降。總而言之，我們迎來了令人興奮的一年，正如我們第四季度的業績顯示，我們的策略確實有效，而且我們正在獲得發展動力。

Operator, that concludes our prepared remarks, and we can now take a few questions.

接線員，我們的準備好的發言到此結束，現在我們可以回答幾個問題。

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]

謝謝。我們現在將進行問答環節。[操作說明]

Michael Genovese, Rosenblatt Securities.

羅森布拉特證券公司的麥可‧吉諾維斯 (Michael Genovese)。

Improving, outlook for the company in general, so that's nice to see, I guess I just want to start on the quarterly guide. I heard what you just said about, Eastern European comparison being harder in the first quarter. Is there anything else that we should take away from the guide about the seasonality and that that you expect in the first quarter? Like, is it more seasonal than normal and then the year gets better as we move throughout the year or is that reading too much into it?

總體而言，公司前景有所改善，很高興看到這一點，我想我只是想開始了解季度指南。我聽到了您剛才說的，第一季與東歐國家的比較更加困難。關於季節性以及您對第一季的預期，我們還應該從指南中獲得什麼嗎？例如，它是否比正常情況更具季節性，然後隨著我們全年的推移，情況會變得更好，還是說這是過度解讀了？

Hey Mike, no, I think the biggest delta is the Eastern European piece, and as I said, we're up, double digits, kind of backing that out. So in general, I think we're kind of ahead of the. It's just a tough compare in Q1, and, that will be the toughest compare of the year, so it'll get easier as the quarters go forward here.

嘿，麥克，不，我認為最大的增量是東歐部分，正如我所說的，我們的成長是兩位數，有點支持這種說法。所以總的來說，我認為我們有點領先。這只是第一季的一個艱難的比較，而且這將是今年最艱難的比較，因此隨著各個季度的推進，比較會變得更容易。

Okay, great. And then on Eastern Europe, I mean, particularly if there were to be a breakthrough in Ukraine and hostilities there would be to get better, could you start that business back up? Is that something that you're thinking about? Are your assets in place to be able to do that quickly or should we not be thinking about, that possibility?

好的，太好了。然後關於東歐，我的意思是，特別是如果烏克蘭問題取得突破並且那裡的敵對狀態得到改善，你能重新啟動這項業務嗎？這是你正在考慮的事情嗎？您的資產是否已經到位，能夠迅速做到這一點，或者我們不應該考慮這種可能性？

Yeah, it's definitely a possibility. Of course we don't know how fast a resolution happens and how fast the restrictions get lifted, but the restrictions right now prevent us from shipping new hardware into the region, but we continue to work with customers and support them. So we're prepared to, start that business up again if we're in a position where we're allowed to do that. So, and that can happen fairly quickly. So, it's definitely a possibility as the year goes here.

是的，這絕對有可能。當然，我們不知道解決問題的速度有多快，也不知道解除限制的速度有多快，但目前的限制使我們無法將新硬體運送到該地區，但我們會繼續與客戶合作並為他們提供支援。因此，如果我們被允許這樣做的話，我們準備重新啟動該業務。所以，這可能很快就會發生。所以，隨著時間的推移，這絕對是有可能的。

Okay, great. And then I guess we'll just finish with, but if you could make a comment on both segments of the business, starting with IP, edge, sorry, Cloud & Edge, starting with Cloud & Edge, like is the most important thing going forward here from here with all this momentum is it winning new contracts or should we be looking for something else and then just similarly on Optical IP like. What is the most important driver for the business for the next year? Thank you, and then I'll pass it on.

好的，太好了。然後我想我們就結束了，但是如果你可以對業務的兩個部分發表評論，從 IP 開始，邊緣，對不起，雲和邊緣，從雲和邊緣開始，比如從這裡開始最重要的事情是，在所有這些勢頭下，是贏得新合同還是我們應該尋找其他東西，然後類似地在光學 IP 上。明年，業務發展最重要的驅動力是什麼？謝謝，那我就轉告你了。

Yeah, thanks, Mike. I appreciate the question. So, in the Cloud & Edge business, obviously the new contract that we have in place, it put us in a different position. We have a lot better visibility this year, stronger backlog entering the year. So there's a lot of focus on good execution. These are kind of large programs with a lot of resources. We're taking more of the services, more of the actual deployment work, and so there's a real focus on good execution as kind of the top priority.

是的，謝謝，麥克。我很感謝你提出這個問題。因此，在雲端運算和邊緣業務中，顯然我們簽訂的新合約使我們處於不同的地位。今年我們的能見度更高，年初的積壓訂單也更多。因此，我們非常重視良好的執行。這些都是擁有大量資源的大型專案。我們提供更多的服務，更多的實際部署工作，因此，良好的執行是我們最優先考慮的事情。

And we've got a pretty diversified business here now with both service providers, as well as enterprise and federal customers, and it just gives us a really strong platform going into this year. Not that we don't still need to win business. Clearly we do quarter to quarter, but we're just in a much stronger position and good backlog for the year.

現在，我們的業務相當多元化，既有服務提供者，也有企業和聯邦客戶，這為我們今年的發展提供了一個非常強大的平台。這並不意味著我們不再需要贏得業務。顯然，我們每季都在做這件事，但我們今年的地位更加穩固，而且積壓訂單也比較多。

In the IP Optical business, I think there are kind of two or three threads here.

在 IP 光纖業務中，我認為這裡有兩三種線索。

One is obviously here in the US and growing our business in North America. We've made good progress on that in the second half of the year of 2024. A lot of investment going into expanding broadband, and it really fits our our portfolio really well around world broadband. So that's probably a big area to focus.

顯然，我們在美國，並在北美拓展業務。我們在 2024 年下半年在這方面取得了良好進展。大量投資投入擴展寬頻領域，這確實非常適合我們在全球寬頻領域的投資組合。因此這可能是需要重點關注的一個領域。

We have a second, obviously important region in India where the businesses continue to improve throughout 2024. We expect to have another, good year in that region where we're expanding our presence and one of our larger customers, Vodafone Idea, is obviously investing in their network again pretty aggressively. So, that's an important region for us.

我們還有第二個顯然重要的地區，那就是印度，該地區的業務將在 2024 年繼續改善。我們期望在該地區再創豐收年，我們正在擴大我們的業務，我們的大客戶之一 Vodafone Idea 顯然正在再次積極投資其網路。所以，這對我們來說是一個重要的地區。

And then thirdly, Europe is really strategic. We've got a very good presence with critical infrastructure customers, and we want to grow into a larger presence in service providers. So I think those are the three kind of big themes around that portfolio. So Mike, I appreciate the questions.

第三，歐洲確實具有戰略意義。我們在關鍵基礎設施客戶中擁有非常好的市場份額，並且我們希望在服務提供者中擁有更大的市場份額。所以我認為這就是該投資組合的三大主題。所以麥克，我很感謝你的提問。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Tim Savageaux, Northland Capital Markets.

北國資本市場 (Northland Capital Markets) 的 Tim Savageaux 。

Okay, good afternoon and congrats on a great quarter and a really good outlook. I want to dig a little deeper and perhaps test my math skills here on the Eastern Europe front, given what you said about Q1 guide, looks like that was about 15 million last year, just in the quarter.

好的，下午好，祝賀您取得了出色的季度業績並擁有良好的前景。我想深入挖掘一下，也許可以在東歐方面測試我的數學技能，根據您所說的第一季指南，看起來去年第一季的銷售額約為 1500 萬。

I mean, should we see some positive developments in the relatively near term, is that a quarterly run rate you can get back to? Is that something that was, any one timer in that or these things we should know or what kind of addition to the business could we see in that scenario?

我的意思是，如果我們在相對較短的時間內看到一些積極的發展，那麼您可以恢復到這個季度的運行率嗎？這是不是某些時候的事情，或者我們應該知道這些事情，或者在這種情況下我們可以看到什麼樣的業務增加？

Yeah, hey, Tim, well, your math is always good. So, in Q1, it was actually a little north of the 15 million number, but you're backed into the right number, based on the percentages, a little bit more than that. And I know we've always talked about Eastern Europe is about 5% of overall sales for the company.

是的，嘿，提姆，你的數學一直都很好。因此，在第一季度，這個數字實際上略高於 1500 萬，但根據百分比，你可以得到正確的數字，比這個數字略高一點。我知道我們一直在談論東歐市場約占公司整體銷售額的 5%。

It was probably a little bit more than that on the run rate going in last year, so. On a normalized basis, we're looking at 10 to 15 million a quarter, so $40 million to $50 million a year in that ballpark and maybe more. So, I think there's more opportunity there for us if we're able to restore the business.

去年的運行率可能比這個高一點，所以。以正常水準計算，我們預計每季的收入為 1,000 萬到 1,500 萬美元，所以每年的收入大概為 4,000 萬到 5,000 萬美元，甚至更多。因此，我認為如果我們能夠恢復業務，我們將有更多機會。

Okay, very good, thank you. I wanted to follow up, Bruce on a comment that you made, in the script there and I think it was about carriers illuminating, TDM and or copper networks In driving potential opportunities on the cloud edge side of the business and you know given that AT&T use those almost those exact same words in their recent analyst day in terms of their plans to, simplify and modernize, change their networks, I wonder if you see any opportunity.

好的，非常好，謝謝。布魯斯，我想跟進一下您在腳本中所做的評論，我認為這是關於運營商闡明 TDM 和/或銅網絡在推動業務雲端邊緣方面的潛在機會，並且您知道，鑑於 AT&T 在最近的分析師日中使用了幾乎完全相同的詞語，談到他們的計劃，簡化和現代化，改變他們的網絡，我想知道您是否看到任何機會。

I know they're a current customer. Probably not 10%, but if you did have any other 10% customers just in Q4 I'd be interested. But what kind of potential do you see there, I guess.

我知道他們是現有顧客。可能不是 10%，但如果您在第四季度確實有其他 10% 的客戶，我會感興趣。但我想，您在那裡看到了什麼樣的潛力。

Yeah, good question, Tim. So, we had one 10% customer of Verizon in the in the fourth quarter.

是的，提姆，你問得好。因此，我們在第四季擁有 10% 的 Verizon 客戶。

In general, we're seeing kind of two techniques to modernizing the traditional phone network. One is completely eliminating copper, and as you mentioned, AT&T mentioned that, it's kind of their primary focus. And there's a couple of different ways of doing that. You can substitute a voice line for a wireless line, or you can move a voice line onto a voice over IP line on broadband, or you can, emulate the copper infrastructure over IP and they talked about, being able to do circuit emulation effectively.

總的來說，我們看到了兩種使傳統電話網路現代化的技術。一是徹底消除銅線，正如你所提到的，AT＆T 也提到了這一點，這是他們的主要關注點。有幾種不同的方法可以實現這一點。您可以用語音線路替代無線線路，或者您可以將語音線路移到寬頻上的 IP 語音線路上，或者您可以透過 IP 模擬銅線基礎設施，並且他們討論了能夠有效地進行電路模擬。

You know what that allows them to do is preserve the pots interface, the phone interface on the enterprise that's typically used for our enterprises, so you don't force the customer to churn. They can continue to operate their traditional infrastructure, but you basically eliminate the copper or the sonnet infrastructure by emulating it all over IP. And so that's a great technique, we've got a platform that's fantastic for that, that's getting used by a variety of customers here now across the US for doing circuit emulation and complete copper elimination, if you will.

您知道這可以讓他們保留 Pots 介面，即通常用於我們企業的電話介面，這樣您就不會迫使客戶流失。他們可以繼續運作其傳統基礎設施，但透過 IP 上的模擬，基本上可以消除銅線或十四行基礎設施。這是一項很棒的技術，我們有一個非常棒的平台，現在美國各地的許多客戶都在使用它來進行電路模擬和完全的銅線消除。

The other methodology, we're seeing very popular is really, keeping the copper in place, but modernizing the switching infrastructure to move to a much more software, centric architecture and reduce the amount of power consumption dramatically, that the switches are taking up today. And that's really the approach Verizon's taking.

我們看到另一種非常流行的方法是保留銅線，但對交換基礎設施進行現代化改造，轉向更加以軟體為中心的架構，並大幅減少交換器目前佔用的電量。這也正是 Verizon 所採取的方法。

In AT&T's conference they had back a few months ago, they talked about different regions and what their approach is in California in particular, more challenging environment from a regulatory perspective and obviously the most expensive, power, cost in the US. So there's a couple of different techniques there and, we've got a great portfolio to enable customers to do that.

在幾個月前舉行的 AT&T 會議上，他們討論了不同的地區以及他們在加州的具體做法，從監管角度來看，加州的環境更具挑戰性，而且顯然美國的電力成本最高。因此，那裡有幾種不同的技術，我們擁有出色的產品組合來幫助客戶做到這一點。

Okay, great. And just one more for me I was interested in your comments about investing more.

好的，太好了。對我來說還有一件事，我對您關於增加投資的評論很感興趣。

In data center interconnect. And I imagine that's focused on, Telecom service providers that are, maybe working with. Big cloud players or maybe you're going right for the cloud guys. But I'd love any more specifics on what investments you are making and what actions you are taking in that area.

在資料中心互連。我想重點是，可能正在合作的電信服務供應商。大型雲端運算公司，或者也許你正準備加入雲端運算產業。但我希望了解您在該領域進行的投資和採取的行動的更多細節。

Yeah, it's generally speaking, it's more the former than the latter. We're working through our telecom customers and in many cases the product's being deployed in the data center or at the data center edge. Some of the deals in Asia Pacific I mentioned right at the very end of the year using our new Apollo platform 1.2 terabit interconnect capabilities. Are exactly that. And so, we're kind of getting at that data center application but through, telecom, providers as opposed to selling directly to, large cloud providers.

是的，一般來說，前者比後者多。我們正在與電信客戶合作，在許多情況下，產品部署在資料中心或資料中心邊緣。我在今年年底提到的亞太地區一些交易採用了我們新的 Apollo 平台 1.2 太比特互連功能。正是如此。所以，我們是透過電信供應商來獲得資料中心應用程式的，而不是直接賣給大型雲端供應商。

It's not the biggest part of our, revenue stream yet today, but the new products that we launched last year, that support, very high speed and very, extensive aggregation of client-side interfaces, 400 gig, client-side interfaces, is very efficient and so we're seeing a lot of interest around that type of application.

目前它還不是我們收入來源的最大部分，但是我們去年推出的新產品支援非常高速度和非常廣泛的客戶端介面聚合，400千兆的客戶端介面非常高效，因此我們看到人們對此類應用非常感興趣。

Thanks very much, Tim.

非常感謝，提姆。

Sure.

當然。

Christian Schwab, Craig-Hallam Capital Group.

克雷格-哈勒姆資本集團 (Craig-Hallam Capital Group) 的克里斯蒂安·施瓦布 (Christian Schwab)。

Great, just to follow up on the last line of question, AT&T is attempting to get rid of supporting all copper by the end of 2028 regardless of which technology solution or mix of technology solutions they use to satisfy that, could you quantify how big of an opportunity that could be potentially for your company?

太好了，只是為了跟進最後一個問題，AT＆T 試圖在 2028 年底之前擺脫對所有銅線的支持，無論他們使用哪種技術解決方案或技術解決方案組合來實現這一目標，您能否量化這對貴公司來說可能有多大的機會？

Yeah, I hesitate to give any more color at this point, Christian. I just don't want to get ahead of our customers on on their messaging and their strategy, specifically with AT&T. As I mentioned, our, the rest of our service provider segment in the fourth quarter was up over 20% quarter over quarter. So we're we're seeing good traction across the customer base with the tier ones as well as with the next level of operators across the region. And, hopefully we'll have more specificity as the year goes on here, but it's about as detailed as I can get on their strategy at this point.

是的，克里斯蒂安，我現在不願意再給任何細節。我只是不想在訊息傳遞和策略上超越我們的客戶，特別是 AT&T。正如我所提到的，我們第四季度其餘服務提供者部門的銷售額環比增長了 20% 以上。因此，我們看到整個地區的一級運營商和下一級運營商的客戶群都表現出良好的吸引力。希望隨著時間的推移，我們能夠獲得更具體的信息，但目前這已經是我所能獲得的有關他們戰略的最詳細的信息了。

Right, could you give us an idea of of of the range of revenue you anticipate shipping to Verizon this year for their modernization program?

好的，您能否告訴我們，您預計今年 Verizon 的現代化計劃將帶來多少收入？

So I know, it's kind of referencing back to the comments I had at the end of the year in our last earnings call, we're on a greater than $100 million per annum run rate with Verizon.

所以我知道，這有點像是在回顧我在上次財報電話會議中年末所發表的評論，我們與 Verizon 的年營運率超過 1 億美元。

Obviously had a very strong fourth quarter and we continue to ramp the program here with resources and good execution.

顯然，第四季表現非常強勁，我們將繼續利用資源和良好的執行力來推動該計劃。

As the year's progressing, so we expect to grow from that level and, a fairly sizable amount of the growth we're projecting for the year is directly related to that program. So hopefully that gives you at least directionally, what we're thinking for the year there.

隨著時間的推移，我們預計將從該水平開始增長，並且我們預計今年的相當大一部分增長與該計劃直接相關。所以希望這至少能給你方向，讓你了解我們對今年的想法。

Great, thank you. And then my last question has to do with MetaSwitch. If you did kind of a rip and replace on that, I assume the transaction size could be anywhere from, high hundreds of thousands of dollars to a little bit north of a million, maybe a. Approaching $2 million so is is that the right number, meaning that if you have 200 different customers that that you're talking to, if we just use round numbers and say a million, is that like the $200 million dollar opportunity? Am I thinking about that math right?

太好了，謝謝。我的最後一個問題與 MetaSwitch 有關。如果您確實對其進行了拆除和替換，我認為交易規模可能會在數十萬美元到一百萬美元之間，甚至更多。接近 200 萬美元，那麼這是正確的數字嗎？我對那道數學題的思考正確嗎？

I think the range you just mentioned is exactly the way to think of it. Some of them are smaller. There's quite a broad breadth of smaller operators, that are hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then there's certainly larger operators that are millions of dollars, that take long to develop and would be not in maybe in one year, might be over a couple of different years. So, I think the, maybe the total opportunity, not annualized necessarily, but total opportunity is in the ballpark that you that you estimated, Christian.

我認為您剛才提到的範圍正是思考它的方式。有些比較小。有許多小型營運商，其投資額為數十萬美元，當然也有一些大型營運商，其投資額為數百萬美元，這些營運商的開發時間很長，可能不是一年就能完成的，可能需要幾年的時間。所以，我認為，也許總體機會不一定是年化機會，但總體機會大致與您估計的一樣，克里斯蒂安。

Great, no other questions, thanks guys. Good quarter.

太好了，沒有其他問題了，謝謝大家。好季度。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Ryan Koontz, Needham and Company.

瑞安·孔茨 (Ryan Koontz)，尼德漢姆公司。

Yeah thanks. I'm going to pile on Cloud & Edge here. Sounds like a great opportunity. And obviously a real strong international quarter it looked like in Q4 as well.

是的，謝謝。我要在這裡堆砌雲和邊緣。聽起來是個好機會。顯然，第四季的國際業務也表現強勁。

Can you expand on the opportunity internationally, a lot of focus in your discussion on big domestic SPs, but how should we think about the international opportunities there? And then is it a different set of competitors you'd face in the international domain for voice modernization? Thanks.

您能否詳細闡述國際上的機遇，您在討論中重點關注了國內大型 SP，但我們應該如何看待那裡的國際機會？那麼，在語音現代化的國際領域中，您會面臨不同的競爭對手嗎？謝謝。

Yeah, hey, Ryan, thank you for the question. Yeah, traditionally our business has been stronger in North America, and it goes back historically to how the telecom networks have evolved and some of our heritage and the position we have in the networks. But we are seeing good traction internationally. It's not as large today as what we see in North America. I mentioned, one nice win with the European Tier One.

是的，嘿，瑞安，謝謝你的提問。是的，傳統上我們的業務在北美更為強勁，這可以追溯到電信網路的發展歷史以及我們的一些傳統和在網路中的地位。但我們在國際上看到了良好的發展動能。它並不像我們今天在北美看到的那麼大。我提到過，在歐洲一級聯賽中取得了一次漂亮的勝利。

Their network architectures tend to be a little different, so we're selling a little different version of our products into those markets. The same challenges exist, everybody wants to eliminate copper and save power. Everyone wants to move from bespoke hardware solutions that take up real estate and use a lot of power and move to a software arch.

他們的網路架構往往有些不同，所以我們在這些市場銷售的產品版本也有些不同。存在著同樣的挑戰，每個人都想消除銅並節省電力。每個人都希望從佔用空間和消耗大量電力的客製化硬體解決方案轉向軟體架構。

We are seeing maybe a little more interest or, initiative to move to a much, a stronger cloud-centric, implementation, meaning our software might be running on, standard compute within a private data center or might be running in actually in a public cloud type environment. And so, the investment that we've been making to modernize the products to be really cloud native is, has been pretty strategic and allowed us to start to win more share there. I did discuss, a fairly large customer last year, MTN in Africa, where we're doing a new voice interconnect hub. So, there's a number of examples like that, including regions like Japan and India where we have a good presence as well around our voice products.

我們可能看到了更多的興趣或舉措，以轉向更強大的以雲端為中心的實施，這意味著我們的軟體可能在私有資料中心內的標準運算上運行，也可能實際上在公有雲類型的環境中運行。因此，我們為使產品真正實現雲端原生化而進行的投資非常具有戰略意義，並使我們開始在那裡贏得更多的份額。我確實討論過，去年我們有一個相當大的客戶，非洲的MTN，我們正在那裡做一個新的語音互連中心。有很多這樣的例子，包括日本和印度等地區，我們的語音產品在這些地區也有很好的表現。

Great. And just one other one on IP Optical.

偉大的。還有一個關於 IP Optical 的問題。

You've talked about some tough comps, Eastern Europe in Q1. If you were to exclude Eastern Europe, what kind of growth rates would we have seen in 24 and how do we think about that business in 25 excluding your Eastern Europe compare there?

您談到了第一季東歐的一些艱難情況。如果排除東歐，我們在 24 年將會看到什麼樣的成長率，我們如何看待 25 年的業務（不包括東歐）與其相比如何？

Yeah, I have to go back and run the math, which I can do offline, but the revenue in Eastern Europe in 2024 was still fairly sizable in the first part of the year. It was less than 5% of total sales, but it was still fairly significant. So, you would have added that, one way or the other you back it out of the previous year or kind of continue it as a run rate, it probably would have been another 3% to 4% of sales growth for us last year and kind of a similar impact going into this year.

是的，我必須回去進行計算，我可以離線進行，但 2024 年東歐的收入在上半年仍然相當可觀。雖然這還不到總銷售額的 5%，但仍然相當可觀。因此，你會補充說，不管怎樣，你將其從上一年的銷售中撤出，或者將其作為運行率繼續下去，去年我們的銷售額可能還會再增長 3% 到 4%，並且對今年也會產生類似的影響。

Great, that's all I got. Thanks, Bruce.

太好了，這就是我得到的全部。謝謝，布魯斯。

Alright, thanks.

好的，謝謝。

Dave Kang, B Riley Securities.

Dave Kang，B Riley Securities。

Thank you. Good afternoon. First question is regarding, channel inventories. I just wondering what you see from, the channels, channel inventory situations, with your, customers.

謝謝。午安.第一個問題是關於渠道庫存。我只是想知道您從渠道、渠道庫存情況以及客戶那裡看到了什麼。

Yeah, hey Dave, for the most part we didn't see the same sort of inventory build challenge that other had seen, maybe a little bit around our enterprise edge platforms, but that's probably 6 to 12 months ago at this stage. So, and a lot of what we're selling at least on the Cloud & Edge side is software, so there's not really an inventory kind of concept there so. For the most part, we're not dealing with those types of challenges.

是的，嘿，戴夫，在大多數情況下，我們並沒有看到其他人所見過的那種庫存建設挑戰，也許在我們的企業邊緣平台上有一點，但這可能是6到12個月前的事了。所以，至少在雲端和邊緣端，我們銷售的許多產品都是軟體，所以這裡實際上不存在庫存概念。大多數情況下，我們不會遇到這類挑戰。

Got it. And then, regarding Vodafone, idea, I mean, just wanted to clarify, have they started to ramp or are they about to ramp just more color on the timing?

知道了。然後，關於沃達豐的想法，我的意思是，我只是想澄清一下，他們是否已經開始加大力度，或者他們是否即將加大力度，只是在時間上做出更多的說明？

Yeah, so we started to see some incremental business in the 3rd quarter a little bit right after they completed their refinancing and then, a much stronger fourth quarter, as I think I mentioned, our revenue in the fourth quarter was up. I think 10% year over year and 30% quarter over quarter in India as a whole and Vodafone was certainly part of that. So, it was great to see this customer. I mean, they've been a really important part of the business historically, so it's great to see them in a position they can reinvest in the network again and, we're providing both IP routing platforms as well as some optical transport with the customer.

是的，所以我們在他們完成再融資後，第三季度就開始看到一些增量業務，然後第四季度的業務表現更加強勁，正如我提到的，我們第四季度的收入有所上升。我認為印度整體的銷售額同比增長 10%，環比增長 30%，而沃達豐肯定是其中的一部分。所以，見到這位顧客我很高興。我的意思是，從歷史上看，他們一直是業務中非常重要的一部分，所以很高興看到他們可以再次對網路進行再投資，而且我們為客戶提供 IP 路由平台以及一些光傳輸。

Got it, and my last question is regarding gross margins. So, you're starting around 53 [%], 53.5 [%] first quarter, and then for the year you're got to 54 [%], 55 [%], so, clearly in the second half we're talking, 55 [%] or maybe even higher just to finish the year at 54.5 [%], let's say, so what will be the catalyst to drive that, the margin expansion from first half to second half?

明白了，我的最後一個問題是關於毛利率。所以，第一季的利潤率大約是 53 [%]、53.5 [%]，然後全年的利潤率將達到 54 [%]、55 [%]，所以，很明顯，我們談論的是下半年，利潤率將達到 55 [%] 甚至更高，年底的利潤率將達到 54.5 [%]，那麼催化劑，這是什麼從下半年的利潤？

Yeah, so the most part, it's simply mix, how much of, in a particular quarter are we selling of high margin Cloud & Edge versus lower margin IP Optical, and it's amazing how much leverage you get in the model as the revenue line increases. There's not a big shift in the actual margin of each of the segments, other than a little lower here in the first quarter, as I mentioned, just with the lower volume.

是的，所以大多數情況下，它只是簡單的混合，在某個特定季度，我們銷售多少高利潤的雲端運算和邊緣產品，以及多少利潤率較低的 IP 光纖產品，而且隨著收入線的增加，你在模型中獲得的槓桿率令人驚訝。各部門的實際利潤率並沒有發生很大的變化，除了第一季的利潤率略低一些，就像我提到的那樣，只是銷量較低。

On IP Optical. So, the one thing that's changing a little bit, and I think I said it in my guidance remarks that we are seeing about 100 basis points, lower margin year over year in aggregate for the year, primarily because of the higher mix of professional services, the larger portion of the work that we're taking on with our customers. Obviously professional service margin isn't quite at the same level as selling software, which is, very high margin. So, there's a little bit of that shift that we built into the model, but that's probably the biggest thing going on there.

在 IP 光纖上。因此，有一點發生了變化，我想我在我的指導意見中說過，我們看到今年的利潤率同比下降了約 100 個基點，這主要是因為專業服務的組合更高，我們為客戶承擔的工作份額更大。顯然，專業服務的利潤率與銷售軟體的利潤率並不完全相同，後者的利潤率非常高。所以，我們在模型中融入了一點這種轉變，但這可能是正在發生的最大的事情。

Got it thank you.

明白了，謝謝。

Yeah, thanks, Dave.

是的，謝謝，戴夫。

We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session, and I would now like to turn the floor back over to Bruce McClelland for closing comments.

我們的問答環節已經結束，現在我想將發言權交還給布魯斯·麥克萊蘭，請他發表最後評論。

Great. Thank you, Maria. Thanks again for everyone on the call and the interest in ribbon. We look forward to speaking with many of you with our upcoming investor conferences. We also have our largest show of the year coming up, in March in Barcelona, Mobile World Congress, and, another significant show, OFC big optical conference in San Francisco. So, look forward to see you. We're off to a good start and, let's have a great 25. Operator, thank you, and that concludes.

偉大的。謝謝你，瑪麗亞。再次感謝電話中的每個人以及對ribbon的關注。我們期待在即將召開的投資者會議上與大家交談。我們也將於 3 月在巴塞隆納舉辦本年度最大的展會——世界行動通訊大會，以及另一場重要展會——舊金山 OF​​C 大型光學會議。所以，期待見到你。我們已經有了一個好的開始，讓我們度過一個美好的 25 歲。接線員，謝謝您，就這樣吧。

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開您的線路。感謝您的參與。