[Satellite TODAY Insider 11-19-10] Gilat Satellite Networks is beginning to reap benefits from acquisitions made during 2010, as Raysat Antenna Systems contributed about $3 million of the $4.7 million in revenue growth Gilat reported in its 2010 third quarter.
    Third-quarter sales of $58 million were higher than analysts’ $53.3 million estimate and increased from $51.8 million in the same period a year ago, Gilat announced Nov. 18.
    Jim Breen, a research analyst at William & Blair, told Satellite TODAY Insider that Gilat’s acquisitions of Raysat and Wavestream Corp. have helped the company offset sales declines in U.S. markets. “Although sales in the United States declined, Gilat expects that its acquisition of Wavestream will close by the end of the year, providing accretion for 2011 and penetration into Department of Defense accounts.”
    During a conference call, Gilat CEO Amiram Levinberg said while Raysat’s contributions to the company were valuable, Gilat does not to set want unrealistic expectations for Wavestream. “We expect Wavestream to continue to grow. We think that growth will still be double-digit growth, not as rapid as they used to have in the last two to three years, but still a significant growth — not further than that,” he said. “We recognized some revenues from RaySat Antenna Systems this quarter, which was also a reason why this quarter is higher than the previous quarter and also the equivalent quarter in last year.”
    Net income during the period stood at $36.2 million, however, Gilat trails its nine-month revenue position in 2009, with revenues at $166.9 million compared to $171.5 million at the same stage last year.
    Levinberg added that the company’s current cash balances are now at a suitable level to close the Wavestream acquisition, “but we don’t want to be left with the minimum cash balances. So we are pursuing different alternatives. There is nothing specific for right now. There are a few alternatives for us. We still have a few weeks or so to determine exactly which route we are going to pick,” he said.

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