Q2 2009 Black Box Network Services Earnings Conference Call - Final.(Broadcast transcript)

OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Black Box Corporation second quarter fiscal 2009 earnings call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode and later we will conduct a question-and-answer session with instructions being given at that time. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) As a reminder today's conference is being recorded.

And I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, the director of investor relations, Mr. Gary Doyle. Please go ahead, sir.

GARY DOYLE, DIRECTOR OF IR, BLACK BOX CORPORATION: Thank you. Good evening, and welcome to Black Box Corporation''s second quarter fiscal 2009 earnings conference call. My name is Gary Doyle and I am the director of investor relations for Black Box. With us today are Terry Blakemore, President and CEO of Black Box Corporation, and Mike McAndrew, our Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today we announced our second quarter fiscal year 2009 results by issuing a press release and furnishing it to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 8-K. We also posted this press release on our website at blackbox.com. We will start today's call with an overview of our results from Terry Blakemore, followed by a more detailed discussion from Mike and Terry. Following this we will field questions as time allows.

Before we begin, and as a reminder, matters discussed in this call may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Black Box's expected financial performance. Actual results may differ materially from expected results and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Potential factors that could affect our business and financial results include changes in economic conditions in our end market and the general market at large. Additional factors are included in our most-recent Form 10-K and today's press release, including the ongoing SEC investigation and shareholder derivative lawsuit. On this call and as presented in today's press release we will discuss some financial information that includes non-GAAP financial measures, including operating net income, operating earnings per share, free cash flow, EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, and organic or same-office comparison. We will limit any non-GAAP financial discussions today to these specific measures.

As I said earlier, our press release was filed with the SEC and posted to our website prior to this call. Please refer to the schedules that accompany the press release for a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measurements to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measurement and other supplemental information. On the IR calendar I'd like to let everyone know that Terry and Mike will be presenting at the UBS global technology and services conference on November 18th in New York City. Please check our website as that date approaches for a press release with more specific information on the conference.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Terry Blakemore.

TERRY BLAKEMORE, PRESIDENT & CEO, BLACK BOX CORPORATION: Thanks, Gary. I am pleased to report that the results for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 demonstrate Black Box's ability to generate well-diversified revenues, solid sustainable margins, and consistent positive cash flow. Revenues for our second quarter were $254 million, a 3% decrease from last year's $261 million and a 5% increase over last quarter's $243 million. Year to date revenues were $496 million, 3% decrease from last year's $513 million. Our second quarter operating earnings per share were $0.94. up $0.07 from last year's $0.87 and $0.20 from last quarter's $0.74. This is a record quarterly operating earnings per share for Black Box and strong evidence of our ability to effectively manage our cost structure in a challenging economic environment.

Year-to-date operating earnings per share were $1.67 versus $1.60 for the same period last year. Second quarter free cash flow was $26 million compared to $8 million last year. On a sequential comparison basis our first quarter '09 free cash flow was $12 million. Year-to-date free cash flow stands at $38 million versus $15 million for the same period of last year. Of our $26 million in free cash flow in our second quarter of '09, …