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Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-10-13

Ribbon Communications to Report Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results on October 27, 2026

PR Newswire

PLANO, Texas, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global leader in real-time communications technology and IP optical networking solutions, today announced that it will report financial results for the third quarter of 2026 after the close of the market on Tuesday, October 27, 2026. Following the release, Ribbon Communications will host a conference call with the financial community at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss the results. Conference Call Details and Webcast Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2026 Time: 4:30 p.m. ET Dial-in number (Domestic): 877-407-2991 Dial-in number (International): 201-389-0925 Instant Telephone Access: Call me™ Live (Listen-only) Webcast: Available via the Investor Relations website at investors.ribboncommunications.com. About Ribbon Ribbon Communications (Nasdaq: RBBN) is a global provider of voice communications software, IP routing, and optical networking to mobile and wireline service providers, enterprises, critical infrastructure and defense sectors. We support our customers' Path to Autonomous Networks by leveraging the latest AIOps automation platforms and Agentic AI technologies, helping them deliver better customer experiences, reduce operational costs, and achieve sustainable growth. To learn more about Ribbon, visit rbbn.com. Investor Contact | Media Contact +1 (978) 614-8050 | Catherine Berthier [email protected] | +1 (646) 741-1974 | [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ribbon-communications-to-report-third-quarter-2026-financial-results-on-october-27-2026-302907502.html

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-07-29

Ribbon Communications Inc. Q2 2026 Earnings Call Summary

Moby
Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Achieved 18% sequential revenue growth driven by record IP Optical bookings and strong U.S. enterprise demand, despite a 19% sequential increase in Cloud & Edge product and services revenue. IP Optical segment reached an all-time high in product and service bookings with a 1.6x book-to-bill ratio, resulting in a 60% year-to-date backlog increase. Performance in Cloud & Edge was impacted by lower year-over-year revenue, but the company is working closely with Verizon to re-accelerate voice switch upgrades within their network to achieve higher velocity for the remainder of the year and into 2027. Strategic partnership with Salesforce for 'Agentforce' validates a new market for AI-powered voice applications, which management expects will drive demand for cloud-native session border controllers. U.S. enterprise growth was bolstered by major wins with Fortune 100 financial and energy firms, emphasizing a shift toward secure, carrier-grade voice and data infrastructure. Management attributed the sequential gross margin improvement to better fixed cost absorption and a favorable geographic mix, specifically increased high-margin U.S. sales. Full-year 2026 revenue guidance was moderated to $810 million–$840 million, primarily due to slower-than-expected deployment velocity for U.S. Tier 1 voice modernization projects. Management anticipates sequential revenue and earnings growth through Q3 and Q4, supported by the robust IP Optical backlog and a strong pipeline of mission-critical projects. The guidance framework assumes approximately $2 million per quarter in increased component and logistics costs, which the company aims to partially offset through surgical price increases. Supply chain limitations are expected to persist in the second half of 2026, particularly for core silicon and optical transceivers, given the high demand environment. The company expects a 'strong setup' for 2027 as delayed Tier 1 modernization projects move into higher velocity deployment phases. Component cost inflation is now estimated at $5 million for the year, up from initial estimates of a few million dollars, impacting consolidated gross margin targets. BEAD funding has been slow to materialize due to administrative friction and opera…Read full document

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Achieved 18% sequential revenue growth driven by record IP Optical bookings and strong U.S. enterprise demand, despite a 19% sequential increase in Cloud & Edge product and services revenue. IP Optical segment reached an all-time high in product and service bookings with a 1.6x book-to-bill ratio, resulting in a 60% year-to-date backlog increase. Performance in Cloud & Edge was impacted by lower year-over-year revenue, but the company is working closely with Verizon to re-accelerate voice switch upgrades within their network to achieve higher velocity for the remainder of the year and into 2027. Strategic partnership with Salesforce for 'Agentforce' validates a new market for AI-powered voice applications, which management expects will drive demand for cloud-native session border controllers. U.S. enterprise growth was bolstered by major wins with Fortune 100 financial and energy firms, emphasizing a shift toward secure, carrier-grade voice and data infrastructure. Management attributed the sequential gross margin improvement to better fixed cost absorption and a favorable geographic mix, specifically increased high-margin U.S. sales. Full-year 2026 revenue guidance was moderated to $810 million–$840 million, primarily due to slower-than-expected deployment velocity for U.S. Tier 1 voice modernization projects. Management anticipates sequential revenue and earnings growth through Q3 and Q4, supported by the robust IP Optical backlog and a strong pipeline of mission-critical projects. The guidance framework assumes approximately $2 million per quarter in increased component and logistics costs, which the company aims to partially offset through surgical price increases. Supply chain limitations are expected to persist in the second half of 2026, particularly for core silicon and optical transceivers, given the high demand environment. The company expects a 'strong setup' for 2027 as delayed Tier 1 modernization projects move into higher velocity deployment phases. Component cost inflation is now estimated at $5 million for the year, up from initial estimates of a few million dollars, impacting consolidated gross margin targets. BEAD funding has been slow to materialize due to administrative friction and operator resistance, leading management to exclude significant BEAD-related revenue from the 2026 outlook. Geopolitical dynamics have not disrupted ECI operations, though management remains vigilant regarding global supply chain stability. The IP Optical segment remains EBITDA negative, with management focused on improving geographic mix and operational efficiency to reach breakeven. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management identified core silicon, memory, and optical transceivers as the primary areas of inflationary pressure. The company is using a 'surgical' approach to pass through costs, including reducing price guarantee timelines for hardware-integrated software sales. Verizon remained a 10% plus customer in Q2 and is expected to maintain that status in the second half of the year as deployment rates re-accelerate. The $25 million first-half revenue decline from Verizon accounts for a significant portion of the downward revision to full-year guidance. DCI projects doubled sequentially in Q2 and now represent approximately 10% of IP Optical revenue. Management sees a $50 million pipeline of incremental business over the next 12-18 months from new customers in this segment. Ribbon is expanding its enterprise edge portfolio to help large organizations completely eliminate legacy copper and Sonnet infrastructure. These products allow enterprises to preserve legacy TDM services while moving the demarcation point to a modern IP-based edge.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-07-28

Ribbon Communications: Q2 Earnings Snapshot

Associated Press

PLANO, Texas (AP) — PLANO, Texas (AP) — Ribbon Communications Inc. (RBBN) on Tuesday reported a loss of $26.9 million in its second quarter. On a per-share basis, the Plano, Texas-based company said it had a loss of 15 cents. Losses, adjusted for amortization costs and stock option expense, were 3 cents per share. The maker of technology for telephone services over internet networks posted revenue of $192.3 million in the period. For the current quarter ending in September, Ribbon Communications said it expects revenue in the range of $215 million to $230 million. The company expects full-year revenue in the range of $810 million to $840 million. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on RBBN at https://www.zacks.com/ap/RBBN

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-07-28

Ribbon Communications Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat
Interested in Ribbon Communications Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Q2 results exceeded guidance: Revenue reached $192 million, up 18% sequentially, while adjusted EBITDA improved to $12 million and non-GAAP gross margin rose to 49.3%. However, revenue remained down 13% year over year. IP Optical momentum was strong: The segment posted record bookings, a 1.6x book-to-bill ratio and backlog growth of more than 60% in 2026, driven by data-center interconnect, defense and infrastructure demand. It still reported a $6 million adjusted EBITDA loss. Ribbon lowered its full-year outlook amid slower Verizon deployments and higher costs: 2026 revenue is now expected at $810 million to $840 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $78 million to $88 million. Management expects delayed voice-modernization projects to support backlog and a stronger 2027. 3 Penny Stocks Analysts Believe Are Headed Higher Ribbon Communications (NASDAQ:RBBN) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $192 million, up 18% sequentially but down 13% from a year earlier, as stronger IP Optical demand and enterprise activity offset continued softness in its Cloud and Edge business tied largely to lower Verizon sales. Chief Executive Officer Bruce McClelland said revenue and earnings exceeded the midpoint of the company’s guidance. Adjusted EBITDA was $12 million, improving by $20 million from the first quarter, while non-GAAP gross margin rose 350 basis points sequentially to 49.3%. → Volatility Is Back and These 3 Market Tollbooths Are Best Positioned to Profit “We had a solid second quarter with key financial metrics above the midpoint of our guidance,” McClelland said, pointing to improving results in both operating segments. Product and services revenue excluding maintenance increased 28% sequentially, according to the company. Ribbon’s IP Optical Networks segment generated $82 million in second-quarter revenue, up 30% sequentially and down 2% year-over-year. The annual decline reflected the expiration of a legacy maintenance contract in Europe, partially offset by higher sales in the Americas and European defense markets. → This Tiny AI Supplier Could Be More Important Than the Chipmakers IP Optical product and services bookings reached an all-time high, with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.6 times. Overall backlog in the segment has increased by more than 60% so far in 2026, McClelland said. Se…Read full document

Interested in Ribbon Communications Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Q2 results exceeded guidance: Revenue reached $192 million, up 18% sequentially, while adjusted EBITDA improved to $12 million and non-GAAP gross margin rose to 49.3%. However, revenue remained down 13% year over year. IP Optical momentum was strong: The segment posted record bookings, a 1.6x book-to-bill ratio and backlog growth of more than 60% in 2026, driven by data-center interconnect, defense and infrastructure demand. It still reported a $6 million adjusted EBITDA loss. Ribbon lowered its full-year outlook amid slower Verizon deployments and higher costs: 2026 revenue is now expected at $810 million to $840 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $78 million to $88 million. Management expects delayed voice-modernization projects to support backlog and a stronger 2027. 3 Penny Stocks Analysts Believe Are Headed Higher Ribbon Communications (NASDAQ:RBBN) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $192 million, up 18% sequentially but down 13% from a year earlier, as stronger IP Optical demand and enterprise activity offset continued softness in its Cloud and Edge business tied largely to lower Verizon sales. Chief Executive Officer Bruce McClelland said revenue and earnings exceeded the midpoint of the company’s guidance. Adjusted EBITDA was $12 million, improving by $20 million from the first quarter, while non-GAAP gross margin rose 350 basis points sequentially to 49.3%. → Volatility Is Back and These 3 Market Tollbooths Are Best Positioned to Profit “We had a solid second quarter with key financial metrics above the midpoint of our guidance,” McClelland said, pointing to improving results in both operating segments. Product and services revenue excluding maintenance increased 28% sequentially, according to the company. Ribbon’s IP Optical Networks segment generated $82 million in second-quarter revenue, up 30% sequentially and down 2% year-over-year. The annual decline reflected the expiration of a legacy maintenance contract in Europe, partially offset by higher sales in the Americas and European defense markets. → This Tiny AI Supplier Could Be More Important Than the Chipmakers IP Optical product and services bookings reached an all-time high, with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.6 times. Overall backlog in the segment has increased by more than 60% so far in 2026, McClelland said. Segment gross margin rose 680 basis points sequentially to 35.2%, supported by product and geographic mix as well as higher fixed-cost absorption. Demand was broad-based across regional service providers, data-center interconnect projects, critical infrastructure customers and defense agencies. Ribbon said the number of new data-center interconnect projects doubled from the first quarter, with three projects awarded in the first quarter and six additional projects in the second quarter. → 2 Stocks Built to Thrive If Inflation Refuses to Fade McClelland said data-center interconnect-related projects represented more than 10% of IP Optical revenue during the quarter. The company also cited a new project in Africa to build an optical fiber backbone across several countries, connecting data centers and other services. Defense-related revenue increased nearly 60% both sequentially and year-over-year, according to Ribbon. The company recently introduced its “Network in a Box” offering for secure networking requirements in rugged environments. Despite strong bookings, the IP Optical segment posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of $6 million. Chief Financial Officer Rick Marmorek said the result improved by $11 million sequentially. Management said it is seeking additional efficiency improvements and noted that greater sales in North America and Europe could help margins, given comparatively lower margins in parts of Asia-Pacific. Cloud and Edge revenue was $111 million, up 11% from the first quarter but down 19% year-over-year. McClelland attributed the annual decline primarily to lower sales to Verizon, following record shipments and deployment activity related to the carrier’s Voice Network Transformation program in the prior-year period. Verizon and Vardi each remained customers accounting for more than 10% of Ribbon’s revenue in the quarter. Management expects Verizon to remain a 10%-plus customer in the second half, though it said voice switch upgrade deployments have progressed more slowly than anticipated. Ribbon has reduced its expected second-half growth rate because of the timing of U.S. Tier 1 voice-modernization projects, while saying that the delayed activity increases backlog and opportunity for 2027. McClelland said the company and Verizon remain aligned on accelerating deployments and capturing the cost savings associated with retiring legacy systems. Cloud and Edge gross margin was 59.8%, up 300 basis points sequentially but down 210 basis points from a year earlier. Marmorek said Ribbon has adjusted staffing that had been retained for anticipated service deployments and expects professional-services revenue and margins to improve in the second half. The segment’s adjusted EBITDA was $18 million, or 16% of revenue, up $10 million sequentially but down $19 million year-over-year. Enterprise sales, including large enterprise, critical infrastructure, government and defense customers, rose 42% sequentially. Ribbon reported significant voice communications infrastructure wins with large companies, including a global Microsoft Teams deployment for a major financial institution and a competitive replacement project with a major U.S. automobile manufacturer. The company also announced a partnership with Salesforce for its Agentforce Contact Center offering. Salesforce is using Ribbon’s cloud-native voice capabilities as part of the platform, which is deployed across multiple AWS instances. McClelland said Ribbon sees AI-enabled contact centers as a potential emerging market for secure, carrier-grade voice communications. Ribbon added five customer wins during the quarter in which AWS was selected as the deployment platform. The company said it is seeing increased interest in cloud-native communications platforms that can connect people, applications and AI services securely. For the third quarter, Ribbon forecast revenue of $215 million to $230 million and adjusted EBITDA of $26 million to $31 million. For the full year, it updated its outlook to revenue of $810 million to $840 million and adjusted EBITDA of $78 million to $88 million. Management said the outlook includes approximately $2 million per quarter of higher product costs tied to components and logistics, with potential partial offsets from price increases. The company expects supply limitations in the second half as demand rises for key technologies. Second-quarter cash flow from operations was negative $12 million, driven by lower billings and adjusted EBITDA. Ribbon ended the quarter with $45 million in cash and a net debt leverage ratio of 4.0 times. Net interest expense totaled $11 million, while non-GAAP net loss was $5 million, or $0.03 per diluted share. McClelland said Ribbon expects meaningful sequential improvement through the remainder of 2026 and a stronger 2027, supported by IP Optical bookings, enterprise demand, secure communications opportunities and the anticipated recovery in voice-network modernization deployments. Ribbon Communications Inc is a global provider of real-time communications software and network solutions for service providers and enterprises. The company's offerings address the full life cycle of voice, video and data transmission across fixed, mobile and cloud environments. Ribbon's technology portfolio is designed to enable secure, intelligent and interoperable communications in applications such as unified communications, contact centers, wholesale VoIP interconnect and next-generation 5G networks. Ribbon's product suite includes session border controllers (SBCs), which secure and interwork IP voice and multimedia sessions; Diameter signaling controllers for 4G/5G policy and charging control; network edge virtualization platforms; and analytics engines for service assurance and fraud management. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Ribbon Communications Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for July 2026.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-07-28

Ribbon Communications Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results

PR Newswire
Revenue increased 18% sequentially and Profitability improved by $20M; further gains expected in 2H 2026 Record IP Optical Quarterly Bookings led by growth in North America; Critical Infrastructure and DCI Wins Large Enterprise momentum, including selection by Salesforce for Agentforce Contact Center PLANO, Texas, July 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global leader in real-time communications technology, IP routing, and optical networking solutions, today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2026. Second Quarter 2026 Highlights Financial Results¹: Revenue was $192 million, compared to $221 million for the second quarter of 2025 GAAP Operating Loss was ($12) million, compared to income of $4 million for the second quarter of 2025 Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA was $12 million, compared to $32 million for the second quarter of 2025 GAAP Gross Margin was 47%, compared to 49.6% for the second quarter of 2025 Non-GAAP Gross Margin was 49.3%, compared to 52.1% for the second quarter of 2025 "We had meaningful sequential improvement in revenue and profitability in both of our operating segments in the second quarter, with key financial metrics above the mid-point of our guidance. Demand continued to strengthen in our IP Optical Networks business, resulting in a new record level of bookings, and one of our best quarters in the U.S. market," stated Bruce McClelland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ribbon Communications. "The Enterprise market was also a highlight in the quarter with a major Microsoft Teams Voice deployment with a top tier financial institution, and the announcement of our partnership with Salesforce for their new Agentforce Contact Center launch." Mr. McClelland continued, "For the balance of the year, we continue to expect sequential revenue growth and improved earnings. We see several larger opportunities in our IP Optical business that could provide additional upside, balanced by a more moderated view of voice modernization deployment acceleration with our U.S. Tier One Service Providers. We expect second-half revenue growth from several regions, including Telecom Operators and Critical Infrastructure Providers in EMEA and Southeast Asia, U.S. Government Federal Agencies, and U.S. Regional Service Providers investing in multi-purpose optical networks that support Data Center Interconnect…Read full document

Revenue increased 18% sequentially and Profitability improved by $20M; further gains expected in 2H 2026 Record IP Optical Quarterly Bookings led by growth in North America; Critical Infrastructure and DCI Wins Large Enterprise momentum, including selection by Salesforce for Agentforce Contact Center PLANO, Texas, July 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global leader in real-time communications technology, IP routing, and optical networking solutions, today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2026. Second Quarter 2026 Highlights Financial Results¹: Revenue was $192 million, compared to $221 million for the second quarter of 2025 GAAP Operating Loss was ($12) million, compared to income of $4 million for the second quarter of 2025 Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA was $12 million, compared to $32 million for the second quarter of 2025 GAAP Gross Margin was 47%, compared to 49.6% for the second quarter of 2025 Non-GAAP Gross Margin was 49.3%, compared to 52.1% for the second quarter of 2025 "We had meaningful sequential improvement in revenue and profitability in both of our operating segments in the second quarter, with key financial metrics above the mid-point of our guidance. Demand continued to strengthen in our IP Optical Networks business, resulting in a new record level of bookings, and one of our best quarters in the U.S. market," stated Bruce McClelland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ribbon Communications. "The Enterprise market was also a highlight in the quarter with a major Microsoft Teams Voice deployment with a top tier financial institution, and the announcement of our partnership with Salesforce for their new Agentforce Contact Center launch." Mr. McClelland continued, "For the balance of the year, we continue to expect sequential revenue growth and improved earnings. We see several larger opportunities in our IP Optical business that could provide additional upside, balanced by a more moderated view of voice modernization deployment acceleration with our U.S. Tier One Service Providers. We expect second-half revenue growth from several regions, including Telecom Operators and Critical Infrastructure Providers in EMEA and Southeast Asia, U.S. Government Federal Agencies, and U.S. Regional Service Providers investing in multi-purpose optical networks that support Data Center Interconnect (DCI), broadband internet access, and mobile backhaul." Rick Marmurek, Chief Financial Officer of Ribbon Communications, remarked, "Our financial results in the second quarter reflected improved execution in the business with healthy customer demand across most of our markets. Our financial priorities remain unchanged—execute efficiently, expand margins over time, and generate stronger cash flow as higher-value growth opportunities become a larger part of our business." Business Highlights: Planters Broadband Selects Ribbon to Launch New 400G/800G- Ready Optical Route Ribbon's Cloud Native Technology Partners with Agentforce Contact Center in the Public Cloud Ribbon Introduces Rapid Deployment Networking Solutions for Mobile Data Centers, Defense Agencies, and Critical Infrastructure Providers Ribbon and Comporium Expand Partnership to Advance Voice Infrastructure Modernization MGW Partners with Ribbon to Modernize Infrastructure and Expand Rural Connectivity Business Outlook2 For the third quarter of 2026, the Company projects revenue of $215 million to $230 million. Non-GAAP gross margin is projected in a range of 51% to 52%. Adjusted EBITDA is projected in a range of $26 million to $31 million. The Company has also adjusted full-year 2026 targets and now expects revenue in a range of $810 million to $840 million, non-GAAP gross margin in a range of 51% to 52%, and Adjusted EBITDA in a range of $78 million to $88 million. The Company's outlook is based on current indications for its business, which are subject to change. Upcoming Conference Schedule August 17-18, 2026: Rosenblatt 6th Annual Tech Summit 2026: The Age of AI August 25, 2026: Jefferies Semiconductor, IT Hardware & Communications Technology Conference Conference Call and Webcast InformationRibbon Communications will host a conference call to discuss the Company's financial results at 4:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Dial-in Information: US/Canada: 877-407-2991International: 201-389-0925Instant Telephone Access: Call me™ A live (listen-only) webcast and replay will be available on the Company's Investor Relations website at investors.ribboncommunications.com. Investor Contact+1 (978) [email protected] Media ContactCatherine Berthier+1 (646) [email protected] About RibbonRibbon Communications (Nasdaq: RBBN) is a global provider of voice communications software, IP routing, and optical networking to mobile and wireline service providers, enterprises, critical infrastructure and defense sectors. We support our customers' Path to Autonomous Networks by leveraging the latest AIOps automation platforms and Agentic AI technologies, helping them deliver better customer experiences, reduce operational costs, and achieve sustainable growth. To learn more about Ribbon, visit rbbn.com. Important Information Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release, including without limitation, statements regarding Company's projected financial results for the third quarter and full year 2026 and beyond; expected customer bookings, spend and timing; beliefs about the Company's business strategy, including new product introductions such as the Acumen AIOps platform; beliefs about the accelerating adoption of AI and the shift towards autonomous networking; and the timing of customer network transformation projects, are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "anticipates", "believes", "could", "estimates", "expects", "expectations", "intends", "may", "plans", "projects" and other similar language, whether in the negative or affirmative, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current expectations and assumptions regarding its business, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are unknown and/or difficult to predict and that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, unpredictable fluctuations in quarterly revenue and operating results; the impact of restructuring and cost-containment activities; impacts from new tariffs, the proposed termination of the USMCA and other trade restrictions or taxes on our products; supply chain disruptions resulting from component availability; impacts from the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and related economic volatility and uncertainty resulting therefrom; the impact of military call-ups of our employees in Israel; material litigation; the impact of fluctuations in interest rates; material cybersecurity and data intrusion incidents, including any security breaches resulting in the theft, transfer, or unauthorized disclosure of customer, employee, or company information; our ability to comply with applicable domestic and foreign information security and privacy laws, regulations and technology platform rules or other obligations related to data privacy and security; failure to compete successfully against telecommunications equipment and networking companies; failure to grow our customer base or generate recurring business from our existing customers; credit risks; the timing of customer purchasing decisions and our recognition of revenues; macroeconomic conditions, including inflation; our ability to adapt to rapid technological and market changes; our ability to generate positive returns on our research and development; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and obtain necessary licenses; our ability to maintain partner, reseller, distribution and vendor support and supply relationships; the potential for defects in our products; risks related to the terms of our credit agreement; higher risks in international operations and markets; currency fluctuations; unanticipated adverse changes in legal, regulatory or tax laws; future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies; and/or failure or circumvention of our controls and procedures. We therefore caution you against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. These factors are not intended to be an all-encompassing list of risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company's business and results from operations. Additional information regarding these and other factors can be found in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. Any forward-looking statement made by the Company in this release speaks only as of the date on which this release was first issued. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement publicly or otherwise, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law. Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial MeasuresThe Company's management uses several different financial measures, both GAAP and non-GAAP, in analyzing and assessing the overall performance of its business, making operating decisions, planning and forecasting future periods, and determining payments under compensation programs. The Company considers the use of non-GAAP financial measures helpful in assessing the core performance of its continuing operations and when planning and forecasting future periods. The Company's annual financial plan is prepared on a non-GAAP basis and is approved by its board of directors. In addition, budgeting and forecasting for revenue and expenses are conducted on a non-GAAP basis, and actual results on a non-GAAP basis are assessed against the annual financial plan. The Company defines continuing operations as the ongoing results of its business adjusted for certain expenses and credits, as described below. The Company believes that providing non-GAAP information to investors allows them to view the Company's financial results in the way its management views them and helps investors to better understand the Company's core financial and operating performance and evaluate the efficacy of the methodology and information used by its management to evaluate and measure such performance. While the Company's management uses non-GAAP financial measures as tools to enhance its understanding of certain aspects of the Company's financial performance, management does not consider these measures to be a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP measures. In addition, the Company's presentations of these measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered alternatives for, or in isolation from, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Investors are cautioned that there are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures. In particular, many of the adjustments to the Company's financial measures reflect the exclusion of items that are recurring and will be reflected in its financial results for the foreseeable future. Stock-Based CompensationThe expense related to stock-based awards is generally not controllable in the short-term and can vary significantly based on the timing, size and nature of awards granted. The Company believes that presenting non-GAAP operating results that exclude stock-based compensation provides investors with visibility and insight into its management's method of analysis and its core operating performance. Amortization of Acquired Technology (including software licenses); Amortization of Acquired Intangible AssetsAmortization amounts are inconsistent in frequency and amount and are significantly impacted by the timing and size of acquisitions. Amortization of acquired technology is reported separately within Cost of revenue and Amortization of acquired intangible assets is reported separately within Operating expenses. These items are reported collectively as Amortization of acquired intangible assets in the accompanying reconciliations of non-GAAP and GAAP financial measures. The Company believes that excluding non-cash amortization of these intangible assets facilitates the comparison of its financial results to its historical operating results and to other companies in its industry as if the acquired intangible assets had been developed internally rather than acquired. Litigation CostsIn connection with certain ongoing litigation where Ribbon is the defendant (as described in the Company's Commitments and Contingencies footnotes in its Form 10-Qs and Form 10-Ks filed with the SEC), the Company has incurred litigation costs beginning in 2023. These costs are included as a component of general and administrative expense. The Company believes that such costs are not part of its core business or ongoing operations, are unplanned, and generally are not within its control. Accordingly, the Company believes that excluding litigation costs related to these specific legal matters facilitates the comparison of the Company's financial results to its historical operating results and to other companies in its industry. Cybersecurity IncidentThe Company has recorded expenses associated with responding to and remediating a cybersecurity incident, including costs for external legal services, cybersecurity experts, and IT restoration activities. The Company believes that excluding these expenses facilitates the comparison of its financial results to its historical operating performance and to other companies in its industry, as these costs are non‑recurring in nature and are not associated with future revenue streams or ongoing operational benefits. Acquisition-, Disposal- and Integration-RelatedThe Company considers certain acquisition-, disposal- and integration-related costs to be unrelated to the organic continuing operations of the Company and its acquired businesses. Such costs are generally not relevant to assessing or estimating the long-term performance of the acquired assets. In 2025, the Company recorded expense for legal and professional fees associated with contemplated corporate development activities. The Company excludes such acquisition-, disposal- and integration-related costs to allow more accurate comparisons of its financial results to its historical operations and the financial results of less acquisitive peer companies and allows management and investors to consider the ongoing operations of the business both with and without such expenses. Restructuring and RelatedThe Company has recorded restructuring and related expense to streamline operations and reduce operating costs by closing and consolidating certain facilities and reducing its worldwide workforce. The Company believes that excluding restructuring and related expense facilitates the comparison of its financial results to its historical operating results and to other companies in its industry, as there are no future revenue streams or other benefits associated with these costs. Preferred Stock and Warrant Liability Mark-to-Market AdjustmentThe Company recorded adjustments to the fair value of its Series A Preferred Stock and Warrants to purchase shares of the Company's common stock in Other (expense) income, net. Both of these instruments were issued in March 2023 in connection with the Company's private placement and have been classified as liabilities and marked to market each reporting period until the Series A Preferred Stock was fully redeemed on June 25, 2024. The Warrant liability remains outstanding and will continue to be marked to market each reporting period. The Company excluded these gains and losses from the change in the fair value of these liabilities because it believes that such gains or losses were not part of its core business or ongoing operations. Tax Effect of Non-GAAP AdjustmentsThe Non-GAAP income tax provision is presented based on an estimated tax rate applied against forecasted annual non-GAAP income. The Company computes its non-GAAP estimated tax rate using its estimated GAAP annual effective tax rate for the period and adjusting for the tax effect of pre-tax non-GAAP adjustments. The Company computes a single annual non-GAAP rate for the Company and applies that rate (rather than multiple rates by jurisdiction) to its consolidated quarterly results. The Company expects that this methodology will provide a consistent rate throughout the year and allow investors to better understand the impact of income taxes on its results. Due to the methodology applied to its estimated annual tax rate, the Company's estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income will differ from its GAAP tax rate and from its actual tax liabilities. Adjusted EBITDAThe Company uses Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure to review and assess its performance. The Company calculates Adjusted EBITDA by excluding from income (loss) from operations: depreciation; stock-based compensation; amortization of acquired intangible assets; certain litigation costs; expenses related to cybersecurity incidents; acquisition-, disposal- and integration-related expense; and restructuring and related expense. In general, the Company excludes the expenses that it considers to be non-cash and/or not a part of its ongoing operations. The Company may exclude other items in the future that have those characteristics. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that is used by the investing community for comparative and valuation purposes. The Company discloses this metric to support and facilitate dialogue with research analysts and investors. Other companies may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently than the Company does, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. 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TranscriptFY2026 Q22026-07-28

FY2026 Q2 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 90 paragraphs
Operator

Greetings, welcome to the Ribbon Communications second quarter 2026 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Fahad Najam, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Fahad Najam

Good afternoon, welcome to Ribbon's second quarter 2026 financial results conference call. I am Fahad Najam, SVP Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations at Ribbon Communications. Also on the call today are Bruce McClelland, Ribbon's Chief Executive Officer, and Rick Marmorek, 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 rbbn.com, where both our press release and supplemental slides are currently available. Certain matters we will be discussing today, including the business outlook and financial projections for the third quarter of 2026 and beyond, are forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in the documents filed with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K.

Fahad Najam

I refer you to our safe harbor statement included in the supplemental financial information posted on our website. In addition, we will present non-GAAP financial information on this call. Reconciliations to the applicable GAAP measures are included in the earnings press release we issued earlier today, as well as the supplemental financial information we prepared for this conference call, which again are both available on the investor relations section of our website. Now I would like to turn the call over to Bruce.

Bruce McClelland

Great. Thanks, Fahad. Good afternoon, everyone, thanks for joining us today to discuss our second quarter results and outlook for the second half of the year. We had a solid second quarter with key financial metrics above the midpoint of our guidance. Revenue grew 18% sequentially to $192 million, earnings improved by $20 million-$12 million, with improvement in both of our operating segments. Excluding maintenance, product and services revenue increased 28% sequentially. Following a similar pattern to the first quarter, bookings in our IP Optical segment were very strong. In fact, product and service bookings were an all-time high in the quarter, with a book-to-bill of 1.6x revenue. Overall IP Optical backlog has increased more than 60% so far this year.

Bruce McClelland

This includes several new data center interconnect projects and one of our strongest quarters ever in the U.S. market, supporting mission-critical networks and broadband services. The U.S. enterprise market segment was also a real highlight in the quarter. We expanded several strategic customer relationships, including voice and data projects with multiple Fortune 100 companies, including one of the nation's largest financial institutions and another project with one of the nation's largest energy producers. During the quarter, we announced a very significant and material partnership with Salesforce to accelerate time to market of its new agentic AI contact center offering, Agentforce Contact Center, which integrates Ribbon's secure carrier-grade voice capabilities. We believe this validates a new market segment enabling enterprise customers to securely deploy AI-powered applications while leveraging the resiliency and reliability of carrier-grade communications infrastructure. I'll expand on this very important partnership in more detail shortly.

Bruce McClelland

When comparing year-over-year, as we expected, sales in our Cloud and Edge segment in the second quarter were down 19% year-over-year, primarily as a result of lower sales to Verizon. It's important to remember that the prior year included record shipments and deployment activity associated with Verizon's Voice Network Transformation program, creating a particularly difficult year-over-year comparison. IP Optical results in the second quarter were very consistent with the previous year, growing modestly after accounting for the completion of a long-term support maintenance contract. In summary, solid performance in the second quarter with progress against several of our strategic growth objectives and meaningful improvement versus the first quarter.

Bruce McClelland

Looking into the balance of the year, we continue to expect sequential revenue growth and improved earnings in Q3 and Q4, supported by the strong IP Optical bookings momentum in the first half and a strong pipeline of new projects. There are a number of larger opportunities within our IP Optical business that could drive additional growth. Therefore, we have a wider range of potential outcomes for the second half of the year, which I'll comment on more later. Voice network modernization deployments with U.S. Tier 1 service providers have improved, but more slowly than we expected, moderating our second half growth rate while increasing the backlog and opportunity in 2027.

Bruce McClelland

Looking at the broader market environment, we continue to see healthy investment across communications infrastructure, especially tied to building and expanding mission-critical networks, data center interconnectivity, and adoption of cloud-native technology to be able to innovate more quickly, improve cybersecurity, and support agentic AI voice deployments. From an end market perspective, as expected, sales to both service providers and enterprises in the second quarter were up significantly versus the first quarter. Total enterprise sales, which includes large enterprise, critical infrastructure, and government and defense agencies, increased 42% sequentially. Year-over-year sales were essentially flat with growth in large enterprise offsetting lower sales to federal and defense in the quarter. Total service provider revenue increased 9% sequentially in the second quarter, with both Verizon and Bharti remaining 10%+ customers.

Bruce McClelland

Consolidated gross margin in the quarter was in line with our expectations, with IP Optical revenue and margins a little stronger than expected. The growth in the U.S. market contributed to the significant sequential improvement in IP Optical margins in the second quarter. Cloud and Edge margins also improved sequentially, reflecting the higher product revenue offset by continued lower professional service revenue. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $12 million, a $20 million improvement versus the first quarter, and above the midpoint of our guidance. Now a few more highlights in each of our operating segments. Starting with our IP Optical Networks business. As I mentioned, we had our strongest bookings quarter ever since the acquisition of ECI in 2020. Demand was broad-based across multiple customer segments and geographies, giving us increasing confidence as we move through the second half of the year.

Bruce McClelland

Product and services revenue increased 36% sequentially in the quarter, with the largest increase coming from our optical networking Apollo solutions, which increased over 70% sequentially. Geographically, the strongest growth in the quarter was here in the U.S. with a combination of regional service provider, data center, and critical infrastructure projects. One of the most encouraging growth opportunities continues to be data center interconnect. During the quarter, we doubled the number of new projects as compared to the first quarter. These projects spanned multiple regions and customer types, including a new major award in Africa, where we will be helping our customer build an optical fiber backbone spanning several countries, connecting data centers and other services. Mission critical infrastructure also continues to be a key area of strength and differentiation for our IP Optical solutions.

Bruce McClelland

Utilities, transportation providers, and government agencies continue to invest in highly secure private communications networks where reliability and resiliency remain paramount. During the quarter, we had a significant number of projects in the U.S. and EMEA regions, including the major expansion project I mentioned with one of the largest energy providers in the U.S. We continue to expand our portfolio to address this key market segment. Our solutions are a great fit with significant differentiation. We have a strong position with multiple defense agencies across Europe and the Middle East, where it's imperative that they continue to modernize and expand their secure command and control networks. Defense related revenue increased nearly 60% sequentially and year-over-year, reflecting the growing importance of secure optical transport and IP networking in these environments.

Bruce McClelland

To continue addressing the significant opportunities within the defense market, we recently announced the commercial availability of our Network in a Box product offering, targeting critical network infrastructure requirements in highly challenging and rugged environments. In the Asia-Pacific region, our business in India remains strong with good visibility into the second half and significant additional growth opportunities in 2027, including a very substantial optical networking expansion project. We also closed additional opportunities across Southeast Asia in countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Japan, and expect further growth in the second half. Overall, demand across our IP Optical business remains healthy and increasingly diversified. The mix of opportunities includes higher value applications including data center interconnect, mission critical infrastructure, and secure communication networks, which we believe represent attractive long-term growth opportunities. Turning to our Cloud and Edge business.

Bruce McClelland

Product and services revenue increased 19% sequentially, with sales to both enterprises and service providers increasing quarter-over-quarter. The majority of the sequential increase resulted from a number of new projects with large enterprise customers. In the quarter, we closed two significant voice communication infrastructure deals with major Fortune 50 companies. As I mentioned earlier, the first is a global Microsoft Teams deployment with one of the nation's largest financial institutions. It leverages our entire portfolio of SBC, policy routing, analytics, and management products deployed on-premise across multiple data centers around the world. With the increased awareness and focus on cybersecurity, our ability to constantly monitor threats and proactively address vulnerabilities via a new SecOps offering was a key factor in our selection. This will be one of our largest Microsoft Teams deployments to date.

Bruce McClelland

The second is a new customer win and competitive replacement with one of the largest U.S. car manufacturers. They're initiating a global voice communications upgrade and selected Ribbon to replace a legacy platform. The other major announcement we had in the second quarter was the partnership with Salesforce, who are leveraging our cloud-native portfolio to bring voice capabilities to its Agentforce platform. This win is highly strategic as we believe there is a new market forming with the integration of AI applications and voice communication. With Salesforce, we'll benefit from the growing traction Agentforce is enjoying in revolutionizing the contact center market across the entire spectrum of small, medium, and large businesses.

Bruce McClelland

As AI agents augment or even replace human agents and tasks, we expect a dramatic increase in total voice call sessions as contact center capacity will no longer be limited by human agent capacity, and instead will be driven by available GPU compute capacity. This should drive strong demand for our cloud-native SBCs, serving as voice firewalls for each AI agent. In fact, another important and long-term customer, Bandwidth, also called out the favorable tailwinds they expect from serving voice agents globally on their platform, which also leverages Ribbon technology. The cloud-native Ribbon session border controller and SIP routing engine is integrated into the Agentforce Contact Center application and deployed across multiple AWS instances to support rapid deployment and scalability.

Bruce McClelland

Public cloud is increasingly becoming the infrastructure of choice for these types of applications, and we added five additional customer wins in the second quarter where AWS is the chosen deployment platform. Overall, we continue to advance our strategy of broadening the base of solutions within our Cloud and Edge segment beyond traditional voice modernization into a broader secure communications portfolio supporting cloud-native networking, AI-enabled communications, and mission-critical enterprise infrastructure. With that, I'll turn it over to Rick to provide additional financial details on our results and come back on to discuss outlook for the third quarter. Rick?

Rick Marmorek

Thanks, Bruce. Good afternoon, everyone. Let's begin with our consolidated financial results. In the second quarter of 2026, Ribbon generated revenue of $192 million, up 18% sequentially and down 13% year-over-year. Consolidated non-GAAP gross margin was 49.3%, increasing 350 basis points sequentially and down 280 basis points year-over-year, primarily due to lower margins in our Cloud and Edge segment and approximately $1 million of higher component and logistics costs. As we indicated on our last earnings call, we continue to expect a stronger second half, which will drive additional margin improvement. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $88 million, up $1 million year-over-year. While we continued to face FX headwinds from the stronger Israeli shekel, we were able to offset most of that impact through targeted cost savings. Adjusted EBITDA was $12 million, up $20 million sequentially and down $20 million from the prior year.

Rick Marmorek

Net interest expense was $11 million in the quarter. Non-GAAP net loss was $5 million, a $15 million decline year-over-year. This resulted in a non-GAAP diluted loss per share of $0.03, down $0.08 compared to the prior year. Now let's turn to the results of our two business segments. In our IP Optical Networks segment, second quarter revenue was $82 million, increasing 30% sequentially with significant growth in North America. Year-over-year sales were down 2%, primarily due to lower sales in Europe, reflecting the end of a legacy maintenance contract in the fourth quarter of 2025, partially offset by higher sales in the America region and our European defense vertical. We delivered another strong bookings quarter with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.6x, positioning the segment for continued growth in the second half.

Rick Marmorek

Second quarter non-GAAP gross margin was 35.2%, up 680 basis points sequentially and down 70 basis points year-over-year. The sequential improvement was driven by a combination of product and geographic mix, as well as improved fixed cost absorption from higher revenue. IP Optical Networks adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $6 million, improving $11 million sequentially and down $1 million versus the prior year due to slightly lower revenue. Now turning to our Cloud and Edge business. Second quarter revenue was $111 million, up 11% sequentially and down 19% year-over-year. Non-GAAP Cloud and Edge gross margin was 59.8%, improving 300 basis points sequentially and down 210 basis points from the prior year. As we noted on our first earnings call, we had retained key resources to support anticipated higher service deployments, which we have now adjusted and expect improved services margin in the second half.

Rick Marmorek

Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $18 million or 16% of revenue, improving $10 million sequentially and down $19 million year-over-year. Cash flow from operations was a use of $12 million in the quarter, driven by lower billings and lower second quarter adjusted EBITDA. We ended the quarter with $45 million in cash and our net debt leverage ratio was 4.0 times. As revenue and earnings grow sequentially in the second half, we expect our cash balance to improve. Capital expenditures totaled $5 million in the quarter. In conclusion, as expected, our second quarter results improved substantially from the first quarter. We remain focused on growing both revenue and adjusted EBIT in the second half while maintaining cost discipline, including the ability to flex our services cost structure up or down based on the timing of deployments. With that, I'll turn the call back to Bruce.

Bruce McClelland

Great. Thanks, Rick. As evidenced by the stronger IP Optical sales and bookings trend, we're incrementally positive on the outlook for the business for the balance of the year and beyond, which I'll discuss more in a minute. As I mentioned earlier, we're also having very good success growing our market share in secure voice communication for enterprises across multiple use cases, including unified communications, contact center, desktop, and agentic AI applications, and have a solid backlog and pipeline of projects for the second half of the year. We continue to work closely with Verizon to re-accelerate voice switch upgrades within their network and have good alignment and engagement, although there is still more work to do to achieve the higher velocity that we're mutually targeting for the rest of the year, and even higher deployment rates in 2027.

Bruce McClelland

There is a sense of urgency to go faster and capture the significant cost savings associated with the investment. We're also exploring additional catch products with several of our customers that enable even further cost savings by moving the TDM-to-IP conversion right out to the subscriber edge, completely eliminating the legacy copper infrastructure. The large voice modernization projects we have underway with several U.S. defense agencies are also progressing. We are still confident in reaching full commercial deployment this year, opening the opportunity for additional expansion business in the new government fiscal year. There's a very good pipeline of additional projects across civilian and military organizations where Ribbon is highly differentiated. We expect new wins later this year.

Bruce McClelland

Given the latest view on these key voice modernization projects, we have moderated our expected revenue increase for the second half of the year, but expect a good setup for 2027. To be clear, there's still a large market opportunity over the next several years to replace legacy voice communication infrastructure with modern cloud-based technology and retire TDM voice networks, and we're positioned to capture a significant portion of the capital and operational spend. This provides a great platform to expand our base of solutions beyond traditional infrastructure into a broader secure communications portfolio supporting cloud-native networking, AI-enabled communications, and mission-critical enterprise infrastructure. As mentioned on our last earnings call, we're seeing solid momentum in the other areas of our business, which are becoming increasingly meaningful contributors and key growth pillars as our customer base broadens and communication networks continue to evolve.

Bruce McClelland

The first key focus area of growth for Ribbon is in the critical infrastructure and government market sectors, where we're uniquely positioned with our voice and data portfolio. We continue to add new logos and improve our win rate across this segment, both internationally and in the U.S., with numerous energy companies and transportation providers. Sales to government and defense customers in the second quarter represented 10% of overall revenue. We're working closely with a number of large system integrators and specialized channel partners to address this large and growing market. We believe our product and service offerings maintain meaningful differentiation. The secure communications market has very unique requirements and is in the early stages of a multi-year investment cycle, replacing legacy voice and data communication infrastructure with modern software and IP networking technology.

Bruce McClelland

Our second major focus area this year is targeting the exponential growth in data traffic and the massive investment in fiber and wireless network infrastructure. Here in the U.S., we've been very focused on regional service providers who are investing in fiber-to-the-home services, which contributed to our strong bookings in the second quarter. In many cases, these providers are now designing their metro transport networks to also support data center and enterprise traffic as construction moves to areas of the country where there's lower permitting risks, plentiful power availability, and lower cost of cooling infrastructure. While BEAD funding has been slow to materialize, this additional funding will only accelerate investment in this area. Similarly, many of our international IP Optical deployments are multipurpose fiber transport networks supporting fiber internet access, mobile backhaul, enterprise services, and data center interconnect.

Bruce McClelland

Finally, we believe there's a new category emerging as the adoption of AI increases within the enterprise, similar in nature to the widespread use of unified communications platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. As customers begin integrating AI into customer engagement, collaboration, and business workflow applications, secure carrier-grade voice communications are becoming an increasingly important part of the overall architecture. While it's still early, we're seeing growing customer interest in cloud-native communication platforms that can securely connect people, applications, and AI services. This is an area where we believe Ribbon is well-positioned. Our cloud-native communications portfolio, together with our strategic partnership with AWS, provides a strong foundation to support these next-generation deployments. We have a solid pipeline of innovation related to AI voice, with a focus on enhancing the security feature set of our platforms to ensure our customers can deploy AI capabilities with confidence.

Bruce McClelland

While still early, customer engagement around these opportunities continues to increase and reinforces our confidence in the long-term direction of the business. Taken together, these growth drivers represent an important evolution of Ribbon. While voice network modernization remains a large revenue opportunity, our business is becoming increasingly diversified across enterprise, digital infrastructure, mission-critical networks, and AI communications. We believe this diversification expands both our customer base and our addressable market while creating a more balanced growth profile over time. In summary, we're operating in a dynamic market with fresh tailwinds and momentum in the strategic growth areas of our business, offsetting timing delays in other areas. We remain confident in meaningful sequential improvement for the rest of the year and a stronger 2027.

Bruce McClelland

With that backdrop, for the third quarter of 2026, we expect revenue in a range of $215 million-$230 million. Adjusted EBITDA in a range of $26 million-$31 million. For the full year, we're updating our outlook and now expect revenue in a range of $810 million-$840 million, and Adjusted EBITDA in a range of $78 million-$88 million. Our guidance assumes approximately $2 million per quarter in increased product cost associated with higher components and logistics expenses, with the potential to partially offset through targeted price increases. Consistent with the broader industry trend, we do anticipate supply limitations in the second half of the year given the increasing demand environment for key technologies. Operator, that concludes our prepared remarks, and we can now take a few questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star key. One moment please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Ryan Koontz with Needham & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Ryan Koontz

Great. Thanks for the question. I wonder if you could expand a bit on the supply chain you referenced there at the end about $2 million a quarter in cost impacting you. Can you maybe peel that back a little bit in terms of where you see the most sensitivity around supply, whether it's optics or memory or high-end silicon? I'm sure it's any number of whack-a-mole areas. Thanks.

Bruce McClelland

Hey, Ryan, thank you for the question. To your point, it's a number of areas. It does depend on the product to some extent. If I give three different examples. In our Cloud and Edge business, we're many times running our software on commercial off-the-shelf hardware, Dell servers, HP servers. We've certainly seen an inflation around those types of products. In that case, it's really a complete pass-through, where we're reselling those platforms integrated with our software. We're minimizing any impact around that and reducing price guarantee timelines and things like that to make sure we protect ourselves and our customers at the end of the day. A second example, around our IP routing platforms. The core silicon in that case dominates a lot of the product cost, and we've certainly seen inflation around core silicon expenses as the core manufacturing costs have gone up.

Bruce McClelland

Having a long-term agreement with those suppliers and managing that carefully is really important. Memory obviously plays into that as well, as there's a considerable amount of memory in those products. Finally, as you mentioned, in our optical products, it's really around the core optical transceiver technology and managing those costs. We're taking a fairly, I'll call it surgical approach around how to manage those inflationary costs and working with customers to pass on some of those expenses. It's not a one-size-fits-all. We've got to be careful in how we manage it out into the market.

Ryan Koontz

Really helpful. Thank you, Bruce. Maybe follow up, you mentioned this new initiative around subscriber edge, IP voice. I wonder how you're thinking about that relative to, is this kind of fiber or wireless offerings? I assume you don't want to be in the CPE hardware business, so how would you add value at that level? Is it with some kind of embedded software, or how are we thinking about that?

Bruce McClelland

Yeah. It mostly focused around enterprise edge as opposed to subscriber or residential edge.

Ryan Koontz

Got it.

Bruce McClelland

That's, in general, not a space we're in, but we're definitely in the enterprise edge and have a portfolio already there today that we sell through our customers in either a sell to or a sell through model. We've expanded that portfolio and have a number of new products where, and even a larger enterprise now can preserve the legacy TDM services and move that demark point right to the edge at the enterprise so that the legacy copper or SONET infrastructure can be completely removed. We're providing a set of interfaces facing the enterprise to preserve that. That's a business we're already in today. Now we're expanding that with some new enhanced products, and the early indications are they should be pretty popular in the market and enable the full elimination of copper at that point.

Ryan Koontz

That's great. Thanks so much. That's all I've got.

Bruce McClelland

Thanks, Ryan.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Christian Schwab with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed with your question.

Christian Schwab

Great. As it relates to Verizon, were they a 10% customer in Q2?

Bruce McClelland

Yes. Yeah, they were. Christian, hey. They and Bharti were both 10%+ customers again in the quarter.

Christian Schwab

Okay, great. As we look to the second half of the year, and the increased growth, but the moderating expectation of Verizon, will Verizon still remain a 10% customer in the second half of the year?

Bruce McClelland

Yeah, we believe so. The first half has obviously been a slower deployment rate, as we've talked about multiple times below the 2025 levels. We expect Q3 to be stronger and Q4 to be stronger, so we expect those to continue to increase and we expect them to increase at a rate similar to the growth in the overall business such that they would remain at 10%+. We'll see how it plays out, but that's the visibility we have today.

Christian Schwab

Great. As far as non-GAAP gross margins in the back half of the year in the IP Optical business, would you assume that that remains at the levels that we saw in Q2, or what are the pluses and minuses there?

Bruce McClelland

Yeah, that's exactly right. I think we're modeling it very consistent with Q2. Maybe it's down a hair just depending on the mix, what the regional mix is. Obviously, we're absorbing some of these additional component costs and passing some of them along as well. The overall blend we expect is pretty consistent with the second quarter.

Christian Schwab

Moving to the Cloud and Edge on the non-GAAP gross margins, the improvement there, would we expect that to improve in the second half of the year from that level again or remain consistent?

Bruce McClelland

Yes. We do expect some improvement in the second half of the year on Cloud and Edge. Obviously, there was a big step up Q1 to Q2, we're still below the lower to mid-60s that we were last year. We expect continued improvement in Q3 and Q4. One of the key drivers there is just incremental professional service revenue. We've talked about that had come down as the deployment rate had slowed down, we expect that to help recover margins in the second half.

Christian Schwab

Great. It sounded like last quarter you talked about 30 customers with existing Ribbon IP Optical deployments have been awarded BEAD grants. I thought I heard you say it's kind of been slow to happen or slow to be bookings and orders. Did I hear that right? Or maybe just give us a quick update on what you're seeing in BEAD for the second half of 2026.

Bruce McClelland

You heard correctly on both cases. We have over 30 customers that we know have programs lined up that they'll do with us once they secure BEAD funding. It's been, I don't know what others have seen, but what we've seen is it's been a very slow adoption rate, even though approvals have gone through NTIA and through NIST. There seems to be some friction in the environment or the process to get money out into the hands and spent. Whether that's something on the funding side or resistance on the operator's side to leverage that funding, given the restrictions or the conditions that come with it's a little unclear. We have not seen a lot of BEAD funding flow into the market so far and are not really expecting much in the second half of the year.

Christian Schwab

Thank you for that clarity. My last question has to do with initial guidance at the beginning of the year at the midpoint to your current midpoint of guidance. Despite optical, or maybe you assumed optical was going to be as strong as it's turning out to be with the book-to-bill, et cetera. If we just go midpoint to midpoint, is that shortfall almost entirely Verizon?

Bruce McClelland

The majority is certainly our U.S. Tier 1. I think the IP Optical, all things being equal, is playing out stronger in the second half than we'd initially projected. If you just look at Verizon's numbers in the first half, and we report that in our Q, they're probably down about 25 million in the first half of the year. That accounts for a pretty significant amount of the reduction in the full year guidance that we're giving at this point.

Christian Schwab

Perfect. Thank you for that clarity. No other questions. Thank you.

Bruce McClelland

Thanks, Christian.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tim Savageaux with Northland Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Tim Savageaux

Hey, good afternoon. Congrats on the optical bookings in particular, and that's kind of where I want to focus here. Maybe these two questions are combined. I guess, do you expect IP Optical backlog to continue to grow through the second half of the year? Then you'd mentioned, I think a couple of big opportunities in IP Optical, I think in the context of widening the guidance range. I imagine the answer to that first question is somewhat reliant on some of these big deals coming through, or maybe not. I would just like a little more color on both fronts.

Bruce McClelland

Yeah, good question, Tim. Thank you. Our objective obviously is to be able to ramp supply to kind of keep up with what we see as demand. You don't always get that right. We've got to be able to guess 6-12 months in advance on what the demand's going to be. Clearly we could have shipped more in the first half if we'd been able to supply more, given the growth in the backlog. It's good. It gives us good predictability on mix and those sorts of things. I think third quarter, our objective here is to obviously get more out the door. I'm not sure we expect backlog to grow certainly at the same rate in the third quarter. These larger deals I referenced, assuming they materialize in the fourth quarter timeframe, I think that is another catalyst for backlog growth.

Bruce McClelland

That's kind of the way we see it. We've had a nice step up. We're now very focused on delivering and want to be ready for more.

Tim Savageaux

Okay, maybe we can drill down on sort of the nature of some of those larger opportunities. I don't know whether that's you know, how big a factor data center interconnect is in there, or whether those opportunities lie in other verticals. Along those lines, I think you mentioned the number of DCI projects doubling in the quarter.

Bruce McClelland

Right.

Tim Savageaux

Just want to make sure I understand that. I think you talked about, you called out three, I think, major DCI wins. Does that mean three more or six more? Any color on those incremental wins would be appreciated as well.

Bruce McClelland

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, we talked about three projects awarded in Q1, now we had an additional six projects in Q2. Just to provide a little more color, in many cases, it's not a dedicated DCI interconnect network. In almost all cases, except for maybe one, we're building out a flexible, high speed metro long haul, in some cases subsea, optical and IP network. They're being used for multiple purposes, particularly international. A network will handle mobile backhaul. It'll do internet broadband aggregation, in some cases, even satellite, like the Starlink example I gave. Then in almost all cases, they're now picking up regional data center traffic. They look at that as their business case. They want multiple sources of revenue to justify the investment. We're helping build these flexible networks. I referenced one in Africa, which is exactly that example.

Bruce McClelland

It's a carrier of carrier example where they're providing either lit fiber services, IP layer services. It just depends on what the customer demand is. I think if we added up the projects that we had in the second quarter that included data center interconnect, it would be more than 10% of our revenue in the quarter. It's starting to show on the radar at this point.

Tim Savageaux

Okay, great. Thanks. I guess last question, was that 10% of IP Optical revenue or total, I guess?

Bruce McClelland

I'm sorry. Yeah, sorry. 10% of IP Optical revenue, Tim.

Tim Savageaux

Okay. That's what I thought. As you look at the larger opportunities that you referenced, any way to quantify the size of that pipeline in the aggregate, in terms of the type of opportunities that you're shooting for here?

Bruce McClelland

I think, the potential for us, and again, it's over a somewhat of a period of time, maybe a 12 or 18-month period, is over $50 million of incremental business with customers we're not working with today. That just sizes it for you.

Tim Savageaux

Sure does. Thanks very much.

Bruce McClelland

Appreciate it, Tim.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mike Genovese with Rosenblatt Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Amol Dhaliwal

Hi, this is Amol Dhaliwal, stepping in for Mike Genovese. I just have a quick question on the full-year gross margins. In Q1, you guided to 52.5%-53.5%. Now you brought it down to 51%-52%. Is this just due to the mix between optical and edge or is there anything else in there?

Bruce McClelland

Yeah. Hey, Amol. Two factors there. It is mix, more IP optical revenue, which obviously carries lower gross margin, and less Cloud and Edge. Then, within the Cloud and Edge business, given the lower professional service revenue in the first half, higher costs there, that certainly impacted the profitability and gross margin. I guess the third thing I'd add is that the component cost expense. When we started the year, we probably estimated a few million dollars in the year. It's probably closer to $5 million of cost inflation on components. We'll recover some of that, I think, through pricing action, all those things contributed to the now 51%-52% gross margin estimate for the year.

Amol Dhaliwal

Got it. Thank you.

Bruce McClelland

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Dave Kang with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Dave Kang

Thank you. Good afternoon. Just wondering, regarding ECI, whether there were any disruptions because of the geopolitical situation.

Bruce McClelland

No. Hey, Dave. Team's been doing great executing and there's disruptions everywhere in the world these days it seems. The team's continued to stay focused and no disruptions to speak of at all at this stage.

Dave Kang

Just more questions on the supply situation. How much did you leave on the table as far as first half is concerned, and will they be made up in second half?

Bruce McClelland

From a component cost perspective, Dave?

Dave Kang

Component shortages. Sounds like you were supply constrained.

Bruce McClelland

Yeah. I guess, the way I look at it is, there's always something you could do more at the end of the quarter. You're always carrying backlog into the next quarter, obviously. In many cases, customers are fairly flexible. They'll take deliveries as soon as you can get it to them. I've stopped trying to quantify that per se. I pointed out in this case, just because the backlog has grown, as I mentioned, 60% since the beginning of the year. I would hesitate to put a number on it in the first half. How much could we have done if we had unlimited supply? I'm not sure what that exact number is.

Dave Kang

Got it. Lastly, regarding IP Optical, it's still running negative as far as EBITDA is concerned. Can you just go over your plans, how are you going to turn that profitable?

Bruce McClelland

Yeah. It's going to be another mission for us going into next year. As you can see, the gross margins are 200 or 300 basis points below where we had been running the last couple of years at the same revenue level. We are focused on continuing to get more efficient and pull more cost out, both within the above the gross margin COGS structure, as well as in the operational expenses, to continue to reduce the amount of revenue we need to have to get breakeven and positive. The geographical mix makes a huge difference. Some of the growth we've had over the last 12 months has come out of the Asia Pac region, which typically is just carrying a little less margin than what we get out of Europe and North America.

Bruce McClelland

If we can continue on this rate to grow in these two, North American, Europe region, it helps a lot. It's a continued focus and mission here to get to a positive contribution.

Dave Kang

Based on your bookings, actually, it sounds like since you said North America is stronger compared to other regions, it sounds like that could happen sooner rather than later.

Bruce McClelland

Yeah, I think the U.S. environment was, Rick, I think about 15% of IP Optical sales in the second quarter. That's a good start. We need to keep that momentum up. That was a combination of both energy companies, which are obviously investing a lot in the infrastructure in the U.S. environment, as well as with regional service providers. It was a pretty good blend. That was up a lot from the first quarter and a reasonable amount year-over-year. We just need to keep that trend going.

Dave Kang

Thank you.

Bruce McClelland

Great. Thanks, Dave.

Operator

Thank you. We have reached the end of the question and answer session, and therefore, I'd like to turn the floor back to Bruce McClelland for closing remarks.

Bruce McClelland

Great. Well, thanks again for everyone being on the call and your interest in Ribbon. We look forward to speaking with many of you at our upcoming investor conference. Operator, thank you as well, and that concludes our call.

Operator

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

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-07-14

Ribbon Communications to Report Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results on July 28, 2026

PR Newswire

PLANO, Texas, July 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global leader in real-time communications technology and IP optical networking solutions, today announced that it will report financial results for the second quarter of 2026 after the close of the market on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Following the release, Ribbon Communications will host a conference call with the financial community at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss the results. Conference Call Details and Webcast Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2026 Time: 4:30 p.m. ET Dial-in number (Domestic): 877-407-2991 Dial-in number (International): 201-389-0925 Instant Telephone Access: Call me™ Live (Listen-only) Webcast: Available via the Investor Relations website at investors.ribboncommunications.com. About RibbonRibbon Communications (Nasdaq: RBBN) is a global provider of voice communications software, IP routing, and optical networking to mobile and wireline service providers, enterprises, critical infrastructure and defense sectors. We support our customers' Path to Autonomous Networks by leveraging the latest AIOps automation platforms and Agentic AI technologies, helping them deliver better customer experiences, reduce operational costs, and achieve sustainable growth. To learn more about Ribbon, visit rbbn.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ribbon-communications-to-report-second-quarter-2026-financial-results-on-july-28-2026-302825565.html

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-04-29

Ribbon Communications Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings Call Summary

Moby
First quarter performance was impacted by a slower-than-normal start to the year, characterized by lower sales to service providers across multiple regions and reduced voice network transformation activity. Management made a deliberate strategic decision to retain key technical resources and expertise despite lower first-half revenue to ensure execution readiness for an anticipated volume ramp in the second half. The IP Optical segment experienced a mix shift toward India, specifically with Bharti Airtel, which provided stronger-than-expected demand but contributed to lower consolidated gross margins. Cloud and Edge segment declines were driven by lower professional services revenue and reduced spending from smaller U.S. service providers, though Verizon remained a 10%-plus customer. Operational results were further pressured by FX headwinds, particularly the strong Israeli shekel, which increased R&D and operating expenses. Strategic momentum is shifting toward cloud-native technologies, evidenced by full commercial deployment of cloud-native SBC solutions in Japan and a new partnership with AWS. The company is pivoting toward high-growth verticals including data center interconnect (DCI) and critical infrastructure, securing five new awards from major energy producers. Management anticipates a much stronger second half of 2026, driven by a return to higher deployment levels at Verizon and a reacceleration of voice network modernization projects. Second quarter guidance assumes meaningful revenue acceleration from North American enterprise customers and continued sequential improvement in Tier 1 service provider spending. The IP Optical segment is expected to grow faster than Cloud and Edge in the second quarter, supported by a strong 1.5x book-to-bill ratio and a healthy pipeline in EMEA and Asia Pac. Future growth is tied to the launch of the Acumen AI Ops and automation platform, with the first lead customer expected to go live later in the second quarter. The company expects incremental business from over 30 customers who have been awarded BEAD grants once federal funds are officially distributed for broadband infrastructure. A significant leadership transition was announced with CFO John Townsend departing and Rick Marmurek, a 15-year company veteran, being promoted to the CFO role. Gross margins were negatively impacted by approximately 300 basis poin…Read full document

First quarter performance was impacted by a slower-than-normal start to the year, characterized by lower sales to service providers across multiple regions and reduced voice network transformation activity. Management made a deliberate strategic decision to retain key technical resources and expertise despite lower first-half revenue to ensure execution readiness for an anticipated volume ramp in the second half. The IP Optical segment experienced a mix shift toward India, specifically with Bharti Airtel, which provided stronger-than-expected demand but contributed to lower consolidated gross margins. Cloud and Edge segment declines were driven by lower professional services revenue and reduced spending from smaller U.S. service providers, though Verizon remained a 10%-plus customer. Operational results were further pressured by FX headwinds, particularly the strong Israeli shekel, which increased R&D and operating expenses. Strategic momentum is shifting toward cloud-native technologies, evidenced by full commercial deployment of cloud-native SBC solutions in Japan and a new partnership with AWS. The company is pivoting toward high-growth verticals including data center interconnect (DCI) and critical infrastructure, securing five new awards from major energy producers. Management anticipates a much stronger second half of 2026, driven by a return to higher deployment levels at Verizon and a reacceleration of voice network modernization projects. Second quarter guidance assumes meaningful revenue acceleration from North American enterprise customers and continued sequential improvement in Tier 1 service provider spending. The IP Optical segment is expected to grow faster than Cloud and Edge in the second quarter, supported by a strong 1.5x book-to-bill ratio and a healthy pipeline in EMEA and Asia Pac. Future growth is tied to the launch of the Acumen AI Ops and automation platform, with the first lead customer expected to go live later in the second quarter. The company expects incremental business from over 30 customers who have been awarded BEAD grants once federal funds are officially distributed for broadband infrastructure. A significant leadership transition was announced with CFO John Townsend departing and Rick Marmurek, a 15-year company veteran, being promoted to the CFO role. Gross margins were negatively impacted by approximately 300 basis points due to lower professional services revenue and elevated service expenses related to maintaining staff for future projects. IP Optical maintenance revenue in Europe declined following the completion of a long-term support contract with a Tier 1 provider, creating a year-over-year headwind. U.S. Federal market projects remain a point of caution, with management awaiting the transition of large programs into full deployment before capacity expansion revenue can be realized. Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Management clarified that while Verizon deployment rates will improve throughout Q2, the primary growth drivers for the quarter are North American enterprise and critical infrastructure projects. EMEA and Africa are also expected to contribute significantly to the sequential step-up before the broader service provider recovery in the second half. The opportunity lies in regional service providers leveraging their fiber-to-the-home infrastructure to pick up interconnect traffic for new regional data centers. Ribbon views this as a 'sweet spot' for their middle-mile IP MPLS and optical transport solutions, particularly as BEAD funding becomes available. Ribbon is targeting two AI areas: using the Acumen platform to automate network operations and providing secure voice boundaries for enterprise Agentic AI applications. Management believes voice will be the primary interface for Agentic AI, allowing Ribbon to repurpose its SBC platforms for these emerging use cases. Visibility has improved over the last 90 days, with the India market remaining a strong catalyst for revenue performance. Management expressed increased confidence in the enterprise and critical infrastructure sectors for the remainder of the year. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-04-29

Ribbon Communications Inc (RBBN) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Demand in India and ...

GuruFocus.com
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: April 28, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Ribbon Communications Inc (NASDAQ:RBBN) reported stronger-than-expected demand in India, particularly with Bharti Airtel, which was a 10%-plus customer in the quarter. The company achieved key wins in the rapidly growing data center interconnect space across multiple geographies, including Europe, the U.S., and Asia. Ribbon Communications Inc (NASDAQ:RBBN) established a new partnership with Amazon Web Services, reinforcing its leadership position in cloud-native secure voice infrastructure. The company has a strong pipeline of projects, including major network upgrades in Europe and Africa, and continued growth in India. Ribbon Communications Inc (NASDAQ:RBBN) is preparing to launch its new AIOps and automation platform, Acumen, with lead customer Optimum, which is expected to go live later this quarter. First quarter revenue decreased by 10% from the prior year, driven by lower sales in both Cloud and Edge and IP Optical Networks segments. Consolidated non-GAAP gross margin was abnormally low at 45.8%, down 280 basis points year-on-year, primarily due to lower professional services revenue. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $8 million, a $14 million decrease from the prior year, driven by low revenues and gross margins. Sales to service providers in the Asia-Pac region were down year-over-year, following a strong performance from the region last year. The company experienced lower sales than anticipated to U.S. Tier 1 service providers, impacting overall performance. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with RBBN. Is RBBN fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: Bruce, you seem confident about improvement in the second quarter, but Verizon's cloud and edge improvements seem to be expected in the second half. Can you elaborate on the timing of Verizon's performance? A: Bruce McClelland, CEO: We don't expect a significant revenue increase from Verizon in the second quarter, but deployment rates should improve progressively. Growth in Q2 will be driven by strong enterprise customer performance in North America and robust activity in the EMEA region, particularly in Europe and Africa. The second half will see broader growth, including Verizon and…Read full document

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: April 28, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Ribbon Communications Inc (NASDAQ:RBBN) reported stronger-than-expected demand in India, particularly with Bharti Airtel, which was a 10%-plus customer in the quarter. The company achieved key wins in the rapidly growing data center interconnect space across multiple geographies, including Europe, the U.S., and Asia. Ribbon Communications Inc (NASDAQ:RBBN) established a new partnership with Amazon Web Services, reinforcing its leadership position in cloud-native secure voice infrastructure. The company has a strong pipeline of projects, including major network upgrades in Europe and Africa, and continued growth in India. Ribbon Communications Inc (NASDAQ:RBBN) is preparing to launch its new AIOps and automation platform, Acumen, with lead customer Optimum, which is expected to go live later this quarter. First quarter revenue decreased by 10% from the prior year, driven by lower sales in both Cloud and Edge and IP Optical Networks segments. Consolidated non-GAAP gross margin was abnormally low at 45.8%, down 280 basis points year-on-year, primarily due to lower professional services revenue. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $8 million, a $14 million decrease from the prior year, driven by low revenues and gross margins. Sales to service providers in the Asia-Pac region were down year-over-year, following a strong performance from the region last year. The company experienced lower sales than anticipated to U.S. Tier 1 service providers, impacting overall performance. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with RBBN. Is RBBN fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: Bruce, you seem confident about improvement in the second quarter, but Verizon's cloud and edge improvements seem to be expected in the second half. Can you elaborate on the timing of Verizon's performance? A: Bruce McClelland, CEO: We don't expect a significant revenue increase from Verizon in the second quarter, but deployment rates should improve progressively. Growth in Q2 will be driven by strong enterprise customer performance in North America and robust activity in the EMEA region, particularly in Europe and Africa. The second half will see broader growth, including Verizon and US federal market expansions. Q: Can you explain the correlation between data centers in rural areas and regional service providers? A: Bruce McClelland, CEO: The correlation is not about regional service providers building data centers but leveraging their network infrastructure for fiber-to-the-home and capacity expansions. This allows them to interconnect with regional data centers, enhancing traffic and connectivity, especially in North America and international markets. Q: Could you elaborate on the Agentic AI opportunity and how Ribbon supports it? A: Bruce McClelland, CEO: We are launching a platform called Acumen, which uses agentic AI to automate network management. It builds on our analytics platform, feeding data into a large language model. Additionally, as agentic AI becomes more prevalent, we see a voice-driven connection between users and applications, where our voice platforms can facilitate secure voice traffic. Q: What are the expected growth rates by segment for Q2, and how do they compare to recent bookings? A: Bruce McClelland, CEO: We expect growth in both segments in Q2, with IP Optical likely growing more than Cloud and Edge. Recent bookings have been solid, and we anticipate growth from data center interconnect projects and critical infrastructure deployments. Cloud and Edge growth will accelerate as Verizon deployments pick up in the second half. Q: Can you provide more detail on the year-over-year declines in Cloud and Edge and IP Optical segments? A: Bruce McClelland, CEO: The decline in Cloud and Edge was not primarily due to Verizon but rather smaller projects with various service providers. For IP Optical, the decline was mainly in Europe, with consistent performance in Asia-Pac, particularly India. European market declines were due to project-based nature of critical infrastructure customers. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-04-29

Ribbon Communications: Q1 Earnings Snapshot

Associated Press

PLANO, Texas (AP) — PLANO, Texas (AP) — Ribbon Communications Inc. (RBBN) on Tuesday reported a loss of $34.5 million in its first quarter. On a per-share basis, the Plano, Texas-based company said it had a loss of 20 cents. Losses, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 5 cents per share. The maker of technology for telephone services over internet networks posted revenue of $162.6 million in the period. For the current quarter ending in June, Ribbon Communications said it expects revenue in the range of $185 million to $195 million. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on RBBN at https://www.zacks.com/ap/RBBN

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-04-29

Ribbon Communications Inc. Reports First Quarter 2026 Financial Results

PR Newswire
Growing Demand Increases Confidence in Sequential and 2nd Half 2026 Growth Momentum Building in New Markets including AIOps and Data Center Interconnect First Quarter Revenue in Line with Expectations PLANO, Texas, April 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global leader in real-time communications technology and IP optical networking solutions, today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2026. Ribbon Communications is dedicated to assisting the world's largest service providers, enterprises, and critical infrastructure operators in modernizing and safeguarding their networks and services. First Quarter 2026 Highlights Financial Results¹: Revenue was $163 million, compared to $181 million for the first quarter of 2025 GAAP Operating Loss was ($32) million, compared to ($20) million for the first quarter of 2025 Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA was ($8) million, compared to $6 million for the first quarter of 2025 GAAP Gross Margin was 42.9%, compared to 45.4% for the first quarter of 2025 Non-GAAP Gross Margin was 45.8%, compared to 48.6% for the first quarter of 2025 "We remain confident in the underlying demand environment and continue to expect meaningful second-half growth across multiple end markets including voice transformation projects with U.S. Service Providers and Federal agencies, and growing IP and Optical deployments in the U.S. and EMEA regions, with significant improvement beginning in the second quarter," stated Bruce McClelland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ribbon Communications. "Revenue in the first quarter was in line with expectations and reflected the timing dynamics we outlined earlier this year. While margins were pressured by a slower deployment pace with key U.S. Tier 1 Service Providers and higher sales in India, we expect margin expansion as revenue increases throughout the year." Mr. McClelland continued, "We were particularly pleased by several new Data Center Interconnect wins in the first quarter, as well as multiple new secure private optical network awards supporting major energy producers and distributors in multiple countries. Importantly, we are gaining traction with our Ribbon Acumen™ AIOps platform with several new customer engagements and a growing pipeline of POCs. Furthermore, we believe our recent Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Amazon Web Services furt…Read full document

Growing Demand Increases Confidence in Sequential and 2nd Half 2026 Growth Momentum Building in New Markets including AIOps and Data Center Interconnect First Quarter Revenue in Line with Expectations PLANO, Texas, April 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ribbon Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: RBBN), a global leader in real-time communications technology and IP optical networking solutions, today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2026. Ribbon Communications is dedicated to assisting the world's largest service providers, enterprises, and critical infrastructure operators in modernizing and safeguarding their networks and services. First Quarter 2026 Highlights Financial Results¹: Revenue was $163 million, compared to $181 million for the first quarter of 2025 GAAP Operating Loss was ($32) million, compared to ($20) million for the first quarter of 2025 Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA was ($8) million, compared to $6 million for the first quarter of 2025 GAAP Gross Margin was 42.9%, compared to 45.4% for the first quarter of 2025 Non-GAAP Gross Margin was 45.8%, compared to 48.6% for the first quarter of 2025 "We remain confident in the underlying demand environment and continue to expect meaningful second-half growth across multiple end markets including voice transformation projects with U.S. Service Providers and Federal agencies, and growing IP and Optical deployments in the U.S. and EMEA regions, with significant improvement beginning in the second quarter," stated Bruce McClelland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ribbon Communications. "Revenue in the first quarter was in line with expectations and reflected the timing dynamics we outlined earlier this year. While margins were pressured by a slower deployment pace with key U.S. Tier 1 Service Providers and higher sales in India, we expect margin expansion as revenue increases throughout the year." Mr. McClelland continued, "We were particularly pleased by several new Data Center Interconnect wins in the first quarter, as well as multiple new secure private optical network awards supporting major energy producers and distributors in multiple countries. Importantly, we are gaining traction with our Ribbon Acumen™ AIOps platform with several new customer engagements and a growing pipeline of POCs. Furthermore, we believe our recent Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Amazon Web Services further strengthens our leadership position in cloud-native communications infrastructure to enable Agentic and AI voice capabilities." John Townsend, Chief Financial Officer of Ribbon Communications, remarked, "We continue to make deliberate investments to support our expected second half revenue growth including maintaining higher professional services capacity and retaining highly skilled resources. Notwithstanding this, we are staying focused on controlling expenses and driving efficiencies, helping mitigate currency headwinds." Business Highlights: Ribbon Provides Edge Solutions for Salt's Enterprise Voice Expansion Ribbon and AWS Transform Cloud Deployment for Service Providers and Enterprises Business Outlook2 For the second quarter of 2026, the Company projects revenue of $185 million to $195 million. Non-GAAP gross margin is projected in a range of 49% to 50%. Adjusted EBITDA is projected in a range of $9 million to $14 million. The Company's outlook is based on current indications for its business, which are subject to change. Upcoming Conference Schedule May 12, 2026: 21st Annual Needham Technology, Media, & Consumer 1x1 Conference May 21, 2026: B. Riley Securities 26th Annual Investor Conference June 17, 2026: TD Cowen and CEO Summit Inaugural Disruptive Technology Summit June 23, 2026: Northland Growth Conference Conference Call and Webcast Information Ribbon Communications will host a conference call to discuss the Company's financial results at 4:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Dial-in Information: US/Canada: 877-407-2991 International: 201-389-0925 Instant Telephone Access: Call me™ A live (listen-only) webcast and replay will be available on the Company's Investor Relations website at investors.ribboncommunications.com. Investor Contact +1 (978) 614-8050 [email protected] Media Contact Catherine Berthier +1 (646) 741-1974 [email protected] About Ribbon Ribbon Communications (Nasdaq: RBBN) is a global provider of voice communications software, IP routing, and optical networking to mobile and wireline service providers, enterprises, critical infrastructure and defense sectors. We support our customers' Path to Autonomous Networks by leveraging the latest AIOps automation platforms and Agentic AI technologies, helping them deliver better customer experiences, reduce operational costs, and achieve sustainable growth. To learn more about Ribbon visit rbbn.com. Important Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release, including without limitation, statements regarding Company's projected financial results for the second quarter of 2026 and beyond; expected customer spend and timing; beliefs about the Company's business strategy, including new product introductions such as the Acumen AIOps platform; beliefs about the accelerating adoption of AI and the shift towards autonomous networking; and the timing of customer network transformation projects, are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "anticipates", "believes", "could", "estimates", "expects", "expectations", "intends", "may", "plans", "projects" and other similar language, whether in the negative or affirmative, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current expectations and assumptions regarding its business, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are unknown and/or difficult to predict and that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, unpredictable fluctuations in quarterly revenue and operating results; the impact of restructuring and cost-containment activities; increases in tariffs, trade restrictions or taxes on our products; supply chain disruptions resulting from component availability and/or geopolitical instabilities and disputes (including those related to the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine); other impacts from the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and related economic volatility and uncertainty resulting therefrom; the impact of military call-ups of our employees in Israel; material litigation; the impact of fluctuations in interest rates; material cybersecurity and data intrusion incidents, including any security breaches resulting in the theft, transfer, or unauthorized disclosure of customer, employee, or company information; our ability to comply with applicable domestic and foreign information security and privacy laws, regulations and technology platform rules or other obligations related to data privacy and security; failure to compete successfully against telecommunications equipment and networking companies; failure to grow our customer base or generate recurring business from our existing customers; credit risks; the timing of customer purchasing decisions and our recognition of revenues; macroeconomic conditions, including inflation; our ability to adapt to rapid technological and market changes; our ability to generate positive returns on our research and development; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and obtain necessary licenses; our ability to maintain partner, reseller, distribution and vendor support and supply relationships; the potential for defects in our products; risks related to the terms of our credit agreement; higher risks in international operations and markets; currency fluctuations; unanticipated adverse changes in legal, regulatory or tax laws; future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies; and/or failure or circumvention of our controls and procedures. We therefore caution you against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. These factors are not intended to be an all-encompassing list of risks and uncertainties that may affect the Company's business and results from operations. Additional information regarding these and other factors can be found in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. Any forward-looking statement made by the Company in this release speaks only as of the date on which this release was first issued. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement publicly or otherwise, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law. Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures The Company's management uses several different financial measures, both GAAP and non-GAAP, in analyzing and assessing the overall performance of its business, making operating decisions, planning and forecasting future periods, and determining payments under compensation programs. The Company considers the use of non-GAAP financial measures helpful in assessing the core performance of its continuing operations and when planning and forecasting future periods. The Company's annual financial plan is prepared on a non-GAAP basis and is approved by its board of directors. In addition, budgeting and forecasting for revenue and expenses are conducted on a non-GAAP basis, and actual results on a non-GAAP basis are assessed against the annual financial plan. The Company defines continuing operations as the ongoing results of its business adjusted for certain expenses and credits, as described below. The Company believes that providing non-GAAP information to investors allows them to view the Company's financial results in the way its management views them and helps investors to better understand the Company's core financial and operating performance and evaluate the efficacy of the methodology and information used by its management to evaluate and measure such performance. While the Company's management uses non-GAAP financial measures as tools to enhance its understanding of certain aspects of the Company's financial performance, management does not consider these measures to be a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP measures. In addition, the Company's presentations of these measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered alternatives for, or in isolation from, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Investors are cautioned that there are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures. In particular, many of the adjustments to the Company's financial measures reflect the exclusion of items that are recurring and will be reflected in its financial results for the foreseeable future. Stock-Based Compensation The expense related to stock-based awards is generally not controllable in the short-term and can vary significantly based on the timing, size and nature of awards granted. The Company believes that presenting non-GAAP operating results that exclude stock-based compensation provides investors with visibility and insight into its management's method of analysis and its core operating performance. Amortization of Acquired Technology (including software licenses); Amortization of Acquired Intangible Assets Amortization amounts are inconsistent in frequency and amount and are significantly impacted by the timing and size of acquisitions. Amortization of acquired technology is reported separately within Cost of revenue and Amortization of acquired intangible assets is reported separately within Operating expenses. These items are reported collectively as Amortization of acquired intangible assets in the accompanying reconciliations of non-GAAP and GAAP financial measures. The Company believes that excluding non-cash amortization of these intangible assets facilitates the comparison of its financial results to its historical operating results and to other companies in its industry as if the acquired intangible assets had been developed internally rather than acquired. Litigation Costs In connection with certain ongoing litigation where Ribbon is the defendant (as described in the Company's Commitments and Contingencies footnotes in its Form 10-Qs and Form 10-Ks filed with the SEC, the Company has incurred litigation costs beginning in 2023. These costs are included as a component of general and administrative expense. The Company believes that such costs are not part of its core business or ongoing operations, are unplanned, and generally are not within its control. Accordingly, the Company believes that excluding litigation costs related to these specific legal matters facilitates the comparison of the Company's financial results to its historical operating results and to other companies in its industry. Cybersecurity Incident The Company has recorded expenses associated with responding to and remediating a cybersecurity incident, including costs for external legal services, cybersecurity experts, and IT restoration activities. The Company believes that excluding these expenses facilitates the comparison of its financial results to its historical operating performance and to other companies in its industry, as these costs are non‑recurring in nature and are not associated with future revenue streams or ongoing operational benefits. Acquisition-, Disposal- and Integration-Related The Company considers certain acquisition-, disposal- and integration-related costs to be unrelated to the organic continuing operations of the Company and its acquired businesses. Such costs are generally not relevant to assessing or estimating the long-term performance of the acquired assets. In 2025, the Company recorded expense for legal and professional fees associated with contemplated corporate development activities. The Company excludes such acquisition-, disposal- and integration-related costs to allow more accurate comparisons of its financial results to its historical operations and the financial results of less acquisitive peer companies and allows management and investors to consider the ongoing operations of the business both with and without such expenses. Restructuring and Related The Company has recorded restructuring and related expense to streamline operations and reduce operating costs by closing and consolidating certain facilities and reducing its worldwide workforce. The Company believes that excluding restructuring and related expense facilitates the comparison of its financial results to its historical operating results and to other companies in its industry, as there are no future revenue streams or other benefits associated with these costs. Preferred Stock and Warrant Liability Mark-to-Market Adjustment The Company recorded adjustments to the fair value of its Series A Preferred Stock and Warrants to purchase shares of the Company's common stock in Other (expense) income, net. Both of these instruments were issued in March 2023 in connection with the Company's private placement and have been classified as liabilities and marked to market each reporting period until the Series A Preferred Stock was fully redeemed on June 25, 2024. The Warrant liability remains outstanding and will continue to be marked to market each reporting period. The Company excluded these gains and losses from the change in the fair value of these liabilities because it believes that such gains or losses were not part of its core business or ongoing operations. Tax Effect of Non-GAAP Adjustments The Non-GAAP income tax provision is presented based on an estimated tax rate applied against forecasted annual non-GAAP income. The Company computes its non-GAAP estimated tax rate using its estimated GAAP annual effective tax rate for the period and adjusting for the tax effect of pre-tax non-GAAP adjustments. The Company computes a single annual non-GAAP rate for the Company and applying that rate (rather than multiple rates by jurisdiction) to its consolidated quarterly results. The Company expects that this methodology will provide a consistent rate throughout the year and allow investors to better understand the impact of income taxes on its results. Due to the methodology applied to its estimated annual tax rate, the Company's estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income will differ from its GAAP tax rate and from its actual tax liabilities. Adjusted EBITDA The Company uses Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure to review and assess its performance. The Company calculates Adjusted EBITDA by excluding from income (loss) from operations: depreciation; stock-based compensation; amortization of acquired intangible assets; certain litigation costs; expenses related to cybersecurity incidents; acquisition-, disposal- and integration-related expense; and restructuring and related expense. In general, the Company excludes the expenses that it considers to be non-cash and/or not a part of its ongoing operations. The Company may exclude other items in the future that have those characteristics. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that is used by the investing community for comparative and valuation purposes. The Company discloses this metric to support and facilitate dialogue with research analysts and investors. Other companies may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently than the Company does, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ribbon-communications-inc-reports-first-quarter-2026-financial-results-302756071.html

Related articleQuarter not tagged2026-04-29

Ribbon Communications Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat
Ribbon reported Q1 revenue of $163 million (down 10% y/y), a non‑GAAP gross margin of 45.8% (down 280 bps) and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $8 million; it guided Q2 revenue of $185–195 million and adjusted EBITDA of $9–14 million while citing a 1.1x consolidated book‑to‑bill and confidence in a stronger second half. Demand was mixed: India was a standout (Bharti Airtel was a >10% customer) and IP Optical bookings were strong at 1.5x, but softer sales to U.S. Tier‑1s (notably slower Verizon deployments) and lower professional services hurt margins. Operational momentum includes multiple DCI wins, cloud‑native SBCs now live on AWS, and the upcoming Acumen AIOps rollout with Optimum; CFO John Townsend is leaving and Rick Marmurek is promoted, with ending cash of $70 million and net leverage of 2.9x. Interested in Ribbon Communications Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. 3 Penny Stocks Analysts Believe Are Headed Higher Ribbon Communications (NASDAQ:RBBN) reported first-quarter 2026 results that management said were consistent with expectations for a slower start to the year, while reiterating confidence in a stronger second half driven by improving customer visibility, solid bookings, and an expanding pipeline across regions and end markets. Ribbon generated first-quarter revenue of $163 million, down 10% from the prior year. Chief Executive Officer Bruce McClelland said results reflected the “industry dynamics” discussed on the prior earnings call, with customer timing creating “a slower than normal start to the year.” → Pipelines and Automation: 2 Energy Plays Built for Any Oil Price McClelland noted first-quarter sales came in near the midpoint of guidance, with stronger-than-expected demand in India, particularly from Bharti Airtel, which was a 10%+ customer during the quarter. That strength was offset by lower-than-anticipated sales to U.S. Tier 1 service providers, contributing to an unfavorable mix shift that weighed on profitability. On a consolidated basis, non-GAAP gross margin was 45.8%, down 280 basis points year over year. Chief Financial Officer John Townsend said margin was “abnormally low” primarily because Ribbon carried higher service costs to support an anticipated second-half ramp, while professional services revenue came in lower than expected. → Homebuilder Earnings: D.R. Horton Sticks Out as Pulte & NVR Sales Tank Adjusted EBITDA was…Read full document

Ribbon reported Q1 revenue of $163 million (down 10% y/y), a non‑GAAP gross margin of 45.8% (down 280 bps) and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $8 million; it guided Q2 revenue of $185–195 million and adjusted EBITDA of $9–14 million while citing a 1.1x consolidated book‑to‑bill and confidence in a stronger second half. Demand was mixed: India was a standout (Bharti Airtel was a >10% customer) and IP Optical bookings were strong at 1.5x, but softer sales to U.S. Tier‑1s (notably slower Verizon deployments) and lower professional services hurt margins. Operational momentum includes multiple DCI wins, cloud‑native SBCs now live on AWS, and the upcoming Acumen AIOps rollout with Optimum; CFO John Townsend is leaving and Rick Marmurek is promoted, with ending cash of $70 million and net leverage of 2.9x. Interested in Ribbon Communications Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. 3 Penny Stocks Analysts Believe Are Headed Higher Ribbon Communications (NASDAQ:RBBN) reported first-quarter 2026 results that management said were consistent with expectations for a slower start to the year, while reiterating confidence in a stronger second half driven by improving customer visibility, solid bookings, and an expanding pipeline across regions and end markets. Ribbon generated first-quarter revenue of $163 million, down 10% from the prior year. Chief Executive Officer Bruce McClelland said results reflected the “industry dynamics” discussed on the prior earnings call, with customer timing creating “a slower than normal start to the year.” → Pipelines and Automation: 2 Energy Plays Built for Any Oil Price McClelland noted first-quarter sales came in near the midpoint of guidance, with stronger-than-expected demand in India, particularly from Bharti Airtel, which was a 10%+ customer during the quarter. That strength was offset by lower-than-anticipated sales to U.S. Tier 1 service providers, contributing to an unfavorable mix shift that weighed on profitability. On a consolidated basis, non-GAAP gross margin was 45.8%, down 280 basis points year over year. Chief Financial Officer John Townsend said margin was “abnormally low” primarily because Ribbon carried higher service costs to support an anticipated second-half ramp, while professional services revenue came in lower than expected. → Homebuilder Earnings: D.R. Horton Sticks Out as Pulte & NVR Sales Tank Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $8 million, which Townsend attributed mainly to lower revenue and lower gross margins. Non-GAAP net loss was $8 million, equating to a non-GAAP diluted loss per share of $0.05. Ribbon said revenue fell in both operating segments versus last year: Cloud and Edge declined 8% and IP Optical Networks declined 14%. IP Optical Networks: Revenue of $63 million, down 14% year over year, driven primarily by lower sales in Asia Pacific and lower maintenance revenue, according to Townsend. Segment gross margin was 28.4%, similar to last year but below the company’s target level due to a higher mix of India revenue and fixed cost absorption. Segment Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $16 million. Cloud and Edge: Revenue of $100 million, down 8% year over year. Gross margin was 56.8%, down 575 basis points, reflecting the same dynamic of lower professional services revenue while carrying higher service costs in preparation for anticipated deployment increases. Segment Adjusted EBITDA was $8 million, or 8% of revenue. → Meta Platforms Earnings Preview: What to Watch in Q1 2026 Report McClelland highlighted a key demand indicator: overall consolidated book-to-bill was 1.1x in the quarter, with IP Optical at 1.5x. He characterized IP Optical bookings as “strong,” saying they point to “a much improved quarter ahead.” In Cloud and Edge, McClelland said service provider sales declined about 5% year over year, primarily across a number of smaller U.S. customers. Verizon remained a 10%+ customer in the quarter, but the company said voice network transformation activity was lower than expected, affecting first-quarter results. McClelland said deployment rates are increasing and the company expects activity to “accelerate in the second half of the year,” adding that expansion into the Frontier footprint remains “a significant incremental opportunity.” During Q&A, McClelland told Rosenblatt’s Michael Genovese that Ribbon does not expect a “significant increase in revenue” in the second quarter from its top customer, though he expects deployment rates to “progressively improve throughout the quarter.” He said second-quarter growth is expected to be driven more by North American enterprise demand and strength in EMEA, including Africa. India was a recurring theme. McClelland said demand there was stronger than initially expected, supporting increased confidence in the region’s outlook. In response to a question from Rustam Kanga, McClelland said visibility into India has improved since the prior quarter and described the market as “remaining very strong,” calling it a catalyst that helped the company’s first-quarter revenue performance. In the enterprise, defense, and critical infrastructure vertical, Ribbon said aggregate sales declined about 6% year over year, reflecting lower Cloud and Edge sales to U.S. government agencies, partially offset by increased IP Optical business with international defense agencies. McClelland said voice modernization projects with several U.S. federal agencies continue progressing toward full deployment in coming months, with expected capacity expansion and new projects in the second half. McClelland outlined several first-quarter wins in IP Optical, including three new Data Center Interconnect (DCI) wins across Europe, the U.S., and Asia, as well as five new project awards tied to secure private networks for energy producers and distributors in countries including Germany, Vietnam, Singapore, and Colombia. He also cited an award in Africa for a fiber expansion across three countries that he said is expected to exceed $10 million, with first revenue anticipated in the second quarter. He added that Ribbon now has “more than 30 customers” in the U.S. that have deployed its IP and optical products and have been awarded BEAD grants, with expected incremental business once funds are distributed. In Cloud and Edge, McClelland said Ribbon reached full commercial deployment of its cloud-native session border controller (SBC) solution with a leading service provider in Japan and has an “extensive program” underway with a Tier 1 provider in Europe. He also pointed to a partnership with Amazon Web Services, first announced at MWC in February, and said the company’s “first two customers are now live and providing commercial service” with Ribbon’s cloud-native SBC running in AWS. Ribbon also discussed its upcoming Acumen AIOps and automation platform. McClelland said the product is expected to go live later in the second quarter with lead customer Optimum, and that the pipeline spans use cases including mobile and fixed wireless, E911, and fiber-to-the-home service assurance. In discussing “agentic AI,” he described Acumen as adding an agentic AI-driven operations layer on top of analytics already deployed in customer networks, and said separate opportunities may emerge as enterprises increasingly connect voice interfaces to agentic AI applications. For the second quarter, Ribbon guided to revenue of $185 million to $195 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $9 million to $14 million. McClelland said the company expects revenue acceleration from enterprise and EMEA customers, continued sequential improvement at major Tier 1 service providers, and ongoing strength in India, followed by broad-based growth in the second half, including “a return to higher deployment levels at Verizon.” Ribbon also announced a leadership change in finance. McClelland said Townsend will be leaving the company for another opportunity and that Rick Marmurek has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer. Marmurek said he is “very excited” about the new role and looks forward to driving “sustainable growth and operational excellence.” On the balance sheet and cash flow, Townsend said cash flow from operations was a usage of $22 million in the quarter, with ending cash of $70 million and a net debt leverage ratio of 2.9x. Capital expenditures were $3 million, which he said was in line with the company’s normal run rate. Ribbon Communications Inc is a global provider of real-time communications software and network solutions for service providers and enterprises. The company's offerings address the full life cycle of voice, video and data transmission across fixed, mobile and cloud environments. Ribbon's technology portfolio is designed to enable secure, intelligent and interoperable communications in applications such as unified communications, contact centers, wholesale VoIP interconnect and next-generation 5G networks. Ribbon's product suite includes session border controllers (SBCs), which secure and interwork IP voice and multimedia sessions; Diameter signaling controllers for 4G/5G policy and charging control; network edge virtualization platforms; and analytics engines for service assurance and fraud management. The article "Ribbon Communications Q1 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat.

As of 2026-10-17 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook