Thomson sees strong growth in cable set-top box volumes

Monday, April 27th, 2009 
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PARIS — The Board of Directors of Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453, NYSE: TMS), met on Monday April 27, 2009 to review revenues for the quarter ending March 31, 2009 and the status of the ongoing balance sheet restructuring discussions.

Thomson Connect

Following the January 2009 decision to dispose of the Grass Valley activities, the access products activities are regrouped within a new operating segment named Thomson Connect, which includes set-top boxes, modems, gateways and Software Service Platform activities.

The trends observed in 4Q 2008 continued in 1Q 2009. In comparison with a particularly weak 1Q 2008, the strong performance in access products in 1Q 2009 was mainly attributable to:

  • Strong growth in cable set-top box volumes, driven by higher shipments to a key North American customer and sustained demand from cable operators in Europe more than offsetting lower cable modem volumes;
  • Sustained demand from telecom operators for broadband access gateways, especially in Europe and Latin America;
  • Substantial mix improvement in the Satellite business, driven by strong demand for high-end products (HD-PVR) for a key customer in North America, and by market share gains; and
  • Stable prices overall in 1Q 2009 compared with 4Q 2008.

Revenues of the Software Service Platform business in 1Q 2009 were negatively impacted by a significant decline in investments due to the current economic environment.

KPIs                       1Q 2009  1Q 2008  Change (%)
----                       -------  -------  ----------
Cable (million units)          1.3      1.0       33.6%
Satellite (million units)      2.3      2.2        3.7%
Telecom (million units)        2.9      2.3       27.0%
                           -------  -------  ----------
  Total (million units)        6.4      5.4       18.9%

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