Brightpoint, Inc. (NASDAQ: CELL) is a leading global communications technology firm that specializes in the distribution of wireless devices and in providing customized logistics services to the wireless industry.
Brightpoint had a 2009 revenue of $3.2 billion. With 3,269 employees and 25,000 customers in more than 25 countries, Brightpoint handled 84 million wireless devices globally[2] in 2009.
Brightpoint's services include distribution, channel development, product customization, E-Business solutions, and other outsourced services that integrate with its customers.
In both 2007 and 2009, Brightpoint was selected as one of America's Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE Magazine, ranking in the top 5 of the "Wholesalers: Electronics" category each year.

Brightpoint, Inc., incorporated in August 1989, provides supply chain solutions to the wireless technology industry. The Company’s primary business is moving wireless devices closer to, or directly into, the hands of mobile subscribers. Its business includes distribution channel management, logistic services, activation services and the sale of prepaid airtime. During the year ended December 31, 2009, the Company handled a total of approximately 83.5 million wireless devices. It handled approximately 64.3 million wireless devices through its logistic services business and approximately 19.2 million through its distribution business. The Company provides customized logistic services, including procurement, inventory management, software loading, kitting and customized packaging, fulfillment, credit services and receivables management, call center and activation services, Website hosting, e-fulfillment solutions, reverse logistics, transportation management and other services within the global wireless industry. In March 2011, the Company acquired the business and assets of C20 Mobile Pte. Ltd. and C20 Corporation Pte. Ltd.
The Company’s customers include mobile network operators, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), resellers, retailers and wireless equipment manufacturers. It provides value-added distribution channel management and other supply chain solutions for wireless products manufactured by companies, such as Apple, High Tech Computer Corp., Kyocera, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Research in Motion, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. It has operations in various countries, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, India, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Logistic Services
The Company’s logistic services include procurement, inventory management, software loading, kitting and customized packaging, fulfillment, credit services and receivables management, call center and activation services, Website hosting, e-fulfillment solutions, reverse logistics, transportation management and other services. In many of its markets, the Company has have contracts with mobile operators and wireless equipment manufacturers, to which it provides its logistic services. These customers include, but are not limited to, operating companies or subsidiaries of Debitel (Denmark and Germany), Euroset (Finland), Kyocera (United States), MetroPCS (United States), Research in Motion (United States), Sprint (United States), T-Mobile (United States), T-Mobile Slovensko (Slovakia), TracFone (United States), and Vodafone (Australia, New Zealand and Germany). During 2009, logistic services accounted for approximately 11% of its total revenue and accounted for approximately 77% of the total wireless devices it handled.
Product Distribution
In the Company’s product distribution activities, it provides distribution channel management services to wireless devices manufacturers through the purchase of a variety of wireless voice and data products for delivery to its customers. It markets and sells these products to its worldwide customer base of approximately 25,000 customers. Product distribution revenue includes the value of the product sold and generates higher revenue per unit, as compared to its logistic services revenue. The wireless devices the Company distributes include a variety of devices designed to work on various operating platforms and feature brand names, such as Apple, High Tech Computer Corp., Kyocera, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Research In Motion, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. It also distributes accessories used in connection with wireless devices, such as batteries, chargers, memory cards, car-kits, cases and hands-free products. The Company purchases and resells OEM and aftermarket accessories, either prepackaged or in bulk. Its accessory packaging services provide mobile operators and retail chains with custom packaged and/or branded accessories based on the specific requirements of those customers.
Activation Services
In its activation services business, the Company provides wireless activation solutions for its clients through retail, enterprise and online channels. The Company markets these services under the Actify brand name in the United States and has activation agreements with AT&T, Sprint, T Mobile, Boost, and Verizon Wireless. It establishes and manages a network of authorized channel partners that include brick and mortar retailers, online retailers, corporate enterprise, value added resellers and OEMs. The provides its channel partners with access to authorized products and support them through commissions management, e-commerce procurement solutions, sales and marketing programs, merchandising programs, training programs, incentive programs and cooperative advertising. As its channel partners activate or upgrade subscribers through its agency agreements, they earn commissions. Through these agreements, the Company manages commissions from the mobile operators and pays the channel partners their pro-rata portion of the commissions after deducting its fees. It provides additional managed services to serve corporate enterprise and OEM consumer and business channels, specializing in wireless procurement, ecommerce activations and account management services.
Prepaid Airtime
Through its prepaid airtime business model, the Company participates in the ongoing revenue stream generated by prepaid subscribers. It earns a fee from purchasing electronic activation codes from mobile operators and MVNOs, and distributing them to retail channels. Much of its activity in the prepaid airtime business model is in the Company's Europe and Americas Divisions. Sales of electronic activation codes to retail customers are included in logistic services revenues. The Company distributes prepaid airtime in many of its operations on behalf of mobile operators and MVNOs, such as Virgin Mobile (United States), Sonofon (Denmark), Tele2 (Sweden) and TeliaSonera (Sweden).
The Company competes with BrightStar Corporation, Tessco Technologies, D&H Distributing, Parktel, Cellnet Group Ltd., Axcom, 20:20 Logistics, Ingram Micro, ATC Technology Corporation, CAT Logistics, New Breed Logistics, UPS Logistics, Arvato Logistics Services, CEVA Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel, American Wireless, LetsTalk, Simplexity, QDI, Wireless Channels, Avenir S.A., InComm, Alphyra and Euronet.


The year 1996 was Brightpoint's best ever. Distributors were handling 30 percent of the cell phones and accessories being sold by the industry, with the remaining 70 percent shipped by the phone manufacturer to the service carrier or directly to retail stores like Radio Shack and Office Depot. Laikin wanted a piece of the retail pie too and announced in March that Brightpoint would be performing the repackaging and preprogramming of the "Cellular to Go" phone products marketed by U.S. Communications, Inc. in such mass retail outlets as Target, Kmart, and CompUSA. Brightpoint also announced that its own branded line of cell phone accessories named Brightlink would be sold in mass market retail outlets around the United States. Moreover, in 1996 Brightpoint agreed to provide the inventory management, order fulfillment, and packaging and telemarketing services for a new joint venture named Wireless LLC formed with paging service provider Metrocall Inc. and wireless developer America Unplugged of South Carolina. Finally, in late 1995 Brightpoint expanded its participation in the "Cellular to Go" venture by adding the Michigan chain Meijer, Inc. to its growing list of retail customers.
The year's biggest move, however, was the acquisition in early June of Allied Communications, Inc., the fourth-largest cell phone distributor in the United States and one of Brightpoint's sharpest competitors. In exchange for $42 million of Brightpoint stock, Allied added $150 million in sales to Brightpoint's kitty and vastly expanded its U.S. and Latin American presence. As Howell explained, the acquisition--which transformed Brightpoint from the third-largest to the second-largest U.S. cell phone distributor--gave the company more "purchasing power and financial stability, as well as more infrastructure." It also fit neatly with Brightpoint's new focus on retail sales, which Allied had specialized in. Now, Howell continued, "we can offer dealers one-stop shopping and speed of delivery." Of the hundreds of distributors that once crowded the wireless equipment distribution market, only five remained.
The feverish growth continued as the year wore on. Brightpoint secured a beachhead in the new PCS digital cellular technology standard by becoming the sole distributor of PCS phone equipment for BellSouth Mobility DCS in three southern states and won a contract with Omnipoint Communications Inc., the fifth-largest PCS operator in the United States, to provide phone packaging, inventory management, and order fulfillment services for Omnipoint's market of 40 million potential PCS customers. Finally, Brightpoint further consolidated its international strategy by acquiring distributor Hatadicorp Pty. Ltd. of Sydney, Australia, to form Brightpoint Australia Pty. Ltd. and increasing its ownership of Brightpoint International Ltd. to 100 percent.
Despite rapid growth, by 1997 the best days for Brightpoint and the cell phone industry at large seemed to lie ahead. The growth in U.S. cellular use was expected to continue at 20 percent annually, and the percentage of the U.S. population with cellular phones was expected to grow from 15 to at least 40 percent by 2002. Less than 1 percent of the potential international cellular market had been tapped by 1996, and the number of international subscribers was expected to top 180 million by the year 2000. By moving toward a fifty-fifty mix of international and domestic business, Brightpoint was poised to reap the benefits of this global growth, and analysts were predicting that its sales would break $1 billion by the end of the century.
Principal Subsidiaries: Brightpoint International Ltd.; Brightpoint Latin America.


OVERALL
Beta: 1.76
Market Cap (Mil.): $690.13
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 68.19
Annual Dividend: --
Yield (%): --
FINANCIALS
CELL.OQ Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 16.59 16.00 19.31
EPS (TTM): 1.91 -- --
ROI: 9.81 5.53 16.24
ROE: 17.41 6.82 17.90


Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1989
Employees: 250
Sales: $280 million (1995)
Stock Exchanges: NASDAQ
SICs:: 5065 Telephone Equipment, Wholesale

Name Age Since Current Position
Laikin, Robert 47 1996 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Boor, Anthony 48 2010 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Treasurer
Howell, J. Mark 46 2008 President, Brightpoint Americas
Thomlinson, R. Bruce 49 2011 President, Asia Pacific
Gupta, Anurag 46 2010 President, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Currie, John 46 2007 Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Paulson, Larry 57 2011 Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
Carpenter, Craig 42 2011 Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary
Donargo, Vincent 48 2005 Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, Controller
Stead, Jerre 68 2004 Lead Independent Director
Roedel, Richard 61 2002 Independent Director
Pratt, Marisa 45 2003 Independent Director
Hermann, Eliza 49 2003 Independent Director
Wilska, Kari-Pekka 63 2005 Independent Director
Lucchese, Cynthia 50 2009 Independent Director
Ridge, Thomas 65 2009 Independent Director
Levy, John 55 2010 Independent Director

Address:
6402 Corporate Drive
Indianapolis, Indiana 46278
U.S.A.
 
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