TeleCommunication Systems / TSYS

About TeleCommunication Systems

275 West St., Annapolis, Md. 21401
www.telecomsys.com | 410-263-7616 | Founded: 1987

Industry: Telecommunications | Category: Public Companies

Twenty-five percent of the company's revenue last year came from contracts from U.S. government agencies, including the General Services Administration and the Defense, Justice and State departments.
Since going public in 2000, TeleCommunication Systems has operated without profit, and last year its loss nearly doubled, to $21.7 million from $11.5 million in 2005. The company reported revenue of $124.9 million last year but continues to operate with an accumulated deficit of $183 million.
To help shore up its core business last year, the company sold two of its subscriber segments, which sold BlackBerry services and provided real-time financial market data to wireless-device users. The company also plans to divest a wireless-data division that provides the ability to capture digital signatures for proof of delivery.
The discontinued operations of those divisions were maintained on the company's books as operating losses, said Thomas M. Brandt Jr., chief financial officer.
"Were it not for [them], our company would have been profitable," Brandt said in an e-mail.
The company expects a profit this year, in part because it was named one of six contractors on a $5 billion Army contract for worldwide satellite services. TeleCommunication Systems' first order on that contract is larger than all of the company's government systems work last year, and the company expects its government work to increase over the next five years, Brandt said.
On the commercial side, the company expects more opportunities for its wireless technology, which provides infrastructure for determining a cellphone's location and applications that use that information for navigation, traffic information, finding points of interest and locating friends.

Chairman and CEO: Maurice B. Tose

2006 Financial Data

Revenues: $124,936,000 | Net Income: $-21,695,000
Asssets: $83,695,000 | Earnings Per Share: $-0.54
Total employees: 653 | Local employees: 443