8X8 Turns a Profit

By Richard Martin

Swinging from loss to profit, hosted VoIP provider 8X8  Inc. (EGHT) today reported that it made $414,000 in net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2010, which ended June 30. 8X8 lost $3.9 million in the previous three months.

“During the first quarter of fiscal 2010, 8×8 recorded new sales to 2,907 business customers, up from a previous record of 2,792 businesses in the prior quarter,” the company reported in a statement, “and increased its business customer subscriber base by 1,253 net new business customers, compared to 1,053 in the same period last year and 1,307 in the previous quarter.”

“There is an issue in the market benefiting us: the rapid frightening pace of consolidation,” 8X8 CEO Bryan Martin said in an interview with VON before the earnings were announced. “Companies that six months ago were fierce competitors are now for sale, and we’ve been approached and asked to buy them.”

He declined to name specific companies that are on the block.

Focused on the small and medium-sized business market, 8X8 said that during the quarter it signed a record 2,907 new business customers and rolled out co-branded IP business phones in Office Depot stores nationwide. The company plans to offer an advanced business conferencing system starting later this year.