Bell Microproducts Inc. marked its 20th anniversary in 2007 with mixed news. The San Jose, Calif.-based company closed out the year with strong revenue growth in its main U.S. and European markets, but it was also dogged by problems with financial regulators and must restate results from prior years.
Bell Micro, which specializes in storage systems, computer systems and semiconductors, said preliminary figures show annual revenue was approximately $4.05 billion, an increase of 19 percent from the previous year, according to company documents. Much of that rise was attributed to sales from ProSys Information Systems, which Bell Micro acquired at the end of 2006. Without ProSys, revenue was up only 9 percent year over year.
Regionally, North American revenue increased 24 percent in 2007, resulting primarily from a stepped-up focus on the company's higher-margin industrial/OEM sales group. In Latin America, revenue rose 12 percent, fueled by Bell Micro's export business in Miami and growth in the solutions product category. The company's European operations, representing about 43 percent of yearly revenue, posted growth of about 16 percent for the full year, some of which stemmed from a positive foreign-currency translation.
On a down note, Bell Micro was delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange in March after it failed to provide updated financial information pending a review of its historical accounting practices. In a March press release, the company stated that it was "working diligently to complete this process and will promptly seek relisting of its common stock once completed."