ACADEMIA

Meru announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2012.

First Quarter 2012 Financial Results

Total revenues for the first quarter of 2012 were $19.4 million, down 4% from $20.2 million in the first quarter of 2011. Total product and service revenues (excluding ratable revenues) for the first quarter of 2012 were $19.4 million, up 4% from $18.6 million in the first quarter of 2011. Products revenues for the first quarter of 2012 were $15.8 million, up 2% from the $15.4 million reported in the first quarter of 2011.

Net loss as reported in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) was $14.5 million for the first quarter of 2012, or a net loss of $0.82 per basic and diluted share, compared to net loss of $3.4 million, or $0.20 loss per basic and diluted share, for the same period of 2011.

Meru reported first quarter fiscal year 2012 non-GAAP net loss of $8.9 million, or a net loss of $0.50 per basic and diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net loss of $2.0 million, or $0.12 loss per basic and diluted share, for the same period of fiscal year 2011. Non-GAAP results for the first quarter of 2012 exclude the impact of stock-based compensation expense of $2.2 million, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles of $0.1 million, chief executive officer transition costs of $0.9 million, and a litigation reserve expense of $2.4 million. Non-GAAP results for the first quarter of 2011 exclude the impact of stock-based compensation expense of $1.4 million. Please refer to the reconciliation of Meru's GAAP to non-GAAP results provided at the end of this release.

"While the first quarter is typically our seasonally weakest quarter, this quarter was especially challenging in light of CEO and product transitions", said Bami Bastani, president and chief executive officer, Meru Networks. "I have been conducting deep reviews of our business and have initiated actions designed to enable smooth handling of our growth, both in products and services, and the customers we serve. These actions include enhancements to existing systems and adjusting our current cost structure and planned expenditures to more closely align with our near term revenue expectations. At the same time, we continue to see healthy market demand and we continue to add new customers. We believe our long-term market potential is large, and are optimistic about our business in the coming quarters."

First Quarter Business Highlights

Announced the hiring of Bami Bastani, Ph.D., as president and CEO of the company.

Dr. Bastani is a 30 year veteran in the high tech community, with over a decade of experience in the communication, mobility and consumer markets.

Grew customer count to over 6,200, adding more than 280 customers worldwide during the quarter in traditional verticals of higher education, K-12, and healthcare, as well as new enterprise customers from the retail, manufacturing, logistics, hospitality, and sports and entertainment verticals.

Notable key customer wins during the quarter include:

A major new customer in Northern Ireland deploying Meru's solutions at approximately 1200 locations to nearly 350,000 users.

A major Japanese electronics company standardizing on Meru's technology for a new software plant that is scheduled to open in the middle of this year.

A large US hospital displacing its existing Cisco wireless LAN infrastructure with Meru's wireless LAN solutions throughout the hospital.

Continued on-ship expansion of Meru's solutions for one of the world's largest cruise lines.

New product announcements include:

AP110 Access Point, a new low-cost wireless and wired access solution for branch offices, telecommuters and mobile travelling individuals.

Virtualized Meru System Director WLAN Operating System and Controllers and Cloud-hosted Application Services.

Virtualized Mobility Solutions that can be deployed on-premise, within virtualized private cloud environments, or as a subscription-based, hosted application.