Hauppauge Cuts Losses

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.: Hauppauge Digital, maker of TV reception hardware for laptops and PCs, reported increased sales and cut its losses for the first fiscal quarter of 2010.

Hauppauge said sales were $17.9 million for the quarter ending Dec. 31, an increase of approximately 3.4 percent from the $17.3 million reported for the previous year’s first fiscal quarter. The company posted a net loss of $334,551 compared to a net loss of $1.77 million the year earlier, when the company was closing on the acquisition of Pinnacle’s PCTV business.

Net loss per share for the F1Q10 3 cents on a basic and diluted basis, compared to a net loss per share of 18 cents for F1Q09.

“We continue to see a gradual improvement in our quarterly sales, primarily due to increased North American revenues which resulted in consecutive back to back quarterly sales increases,” said Ken Plotkin, Hauppauge CEO. “European sales are still weak, which we believe is due to a European market which has not yet seen the turnaround from the 2008/2009 economic recession. The PCTV acquisition, which closed in late December 2008, has added a number of new customers in North America, despite the continued recession. The PCTV acquisition has also helped improve our profit margins. The strengthening of the euro versus the dollar has helped our European sales, though this trend appears to not be carrying through for the balance of 2010.”