Rackspace Hosting Reports First Quarter 2012 Results

Rackspace® Hosting, Inc. (NYSE: RAX), the service leader in cloud computing, announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2012.

Net revenue for the first quarter of 2012 was $301 million, up 6.4% from the previous quarter and 31% from the first quarter of 2011. Net revenue for the first quarter of 2012 was negatively impacted by currency exchange rates when compared to the first quarter of 2011 by $2.0 million and negatively impacted compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 by $0.6 million.

Total server count increased to 82,438 up from 79,805 servers at the end of the previous quarter, and total customers increased to 180,866, up from 172,510 at the end of the previous quarter.

“With the first quarter of the year completed, we believe we have made good progress toward our operational and financial goals,” said Karl Pichler, chief financial officer.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $101 million, a 1.4% decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2011 and a 33% increase compared to the first quarter of 2011. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 33.4% compared to 36.1% in the previous quarter and 33.0% for the first quarter of 2011.

Consistent with prior periods, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin were negatively impacted by a non-cash charge relating to data center operating leases. During the first quarter, the non-cash data center lease charge was $1.9 million.

Net income was $23 million for the quarter, down 7.5% from the previous quarter and up 68% from the first quarter of 2011. Net income margin for the quarter was 7.7% compared to 8.8% for the previous quarter and 6.0% in the first quarter of 2011.

Cash flow from operating activities was $70 million for the first quarter of 2012. Capital expenditures were $82 million, including $53 million for purchases of customer gear, $9 million for data center build outs, $5 million for office build outs and $15 million for capitalized software and other projects.

Adjusted free cash flow (1) for the quarter was $17 million.

At the end of the first quarter of 2012, cash and cash equivalents were $187 million, and debt including capital lease obligations totaled $144 million.

On a worldwide basis, Rackspace employed 4,335 Rackers as of March 31, 2012, up from 4,040 in the previous quarter.

“While we’ve made a lot of progress so far in 2012, we have much more to do. We are executing through a very important platform shift to our next generation cloud, and we need to make this experience incredible for our customers. Massive technology disruptions like this create once in a lifetime opportunities for companies to seize the moment, take the initiative, and lead the revolution.  Our goal is to lead the revolution,” said Lanham Napier, chief executive officer.

Rackspace Developments and Business Highlights

• OpenStack announces new products and newer versions of operating system.
• IBM and Red Hat join OpenStack and announce their support.
• Rackspace places 1st in the Magic Quadrant, surpassing our competitors.
• Rackspace acquires SharePoint-911 to strengthen business.
• Sony adopts OpenStack.

Conference Call and Webcast

Management will host a conference call to discuss the results starting today at 4:30 p.m. ET.

To access the conference call, please dial 888-437-9318 from the United States and Canada or dial 719-325-2201 from abroad and reference pass code 9390104. A live webcast and a replay of the conference call will be available on Rackspace’s website, located at ir.rackspace.com.

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack®, an open source cloud platform. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Dedicated and Public Cloud. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected operational and financial results, long term investment strategies, growth plans, expected results from the integration of technologies and acquired businesses, the performance or market share relating to products and services; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements or assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include infrastructure failures, the deterioration of economic conditions or fluctuations, disruptions, instability or downturns in the economy, the effectiveness of managing company growth, technological and competitive factors, regulatory factors, and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, filed with the SEC on February 17, 2012 and in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2012, expected to be filed later this week. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

(1) Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA (Non-GAAP financial measure)

We use Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental measure to review and assess our performance. We define Adjusted EBITDA as Net Income, plus income taxes, total other (income) expense, depreciation and amortization, and non-cash charges for share-based compensation.

Adjusted EBITDA is a metric that is used in our industry by the investment community for comparative and valuation purposes. We disclose this metric in order to support and facilitate the dialogue with research analysts and investors.

Note that Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure of financial performance under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (GAAP) and should not be considered a substitute for operating income, which we consider to be the most directly comparable GAAP measure. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and when assessing our operating performance, you should not consider Adjusted EBITDA in isolation, or as a substitute for net income or other consolidated income statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Other companies may calculate Adjusted EBITDA differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. See our Adjusted EBITDA to net income reconciliations in the table below.

Return on Capital (ROC) (Non-GAAP financial measure)

We define Return on Capital (ROC) as follows:

ROC = Net Operating Profit After Tax (NOPAT)
Average Capital Base

NOPAT = Income from operations x (1 – Effective tax rate)

Average capital base = Average of (Interest bearing debt + stockholders’ equity – excess cash) = Average of (Total assets – excess cash – accounts payables and accrued expenses – deferred revenues – other non-current liabilities, deferred income taxes, and deferred rent); calculated on a quarterly basis.

We define excess cash as the amount of cash and cash equivalents that exceeds our operating cash requirements, which is calculated as three percent of our annualized net revenue for the three months prior to period end. We will periodically review the calculation and adjust it to reflect our projected cash requirements for the upcoming year.

We believe that ROC is an important metric for investors in evaluating a company’s performance. ROC relates after-tax operating profits with the capital that is placed into service. It is therefore a performance metric that incorporates both the Statement of Comprehensive Income and the Balance Sheet. ROC measures how successfully capital is deployed within a company.

Note that ROC is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered a substitute for return on assets, which we consider to be the most directly comparable GAAP measure. ROC has limitations as an analytical tool, and when assessing our operating performance, you should not consider ROC in isolation, or as a substitute for other financial data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Other companies may calculate ROC differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. See our ROC reconciliation to return on assets below.

Adjusted Free Cash Flow (Non-GAAP financial measure)

We define Adjusted Free Cash Flow as Adjusted EBITDA plus non-cash deferred rent, less total capital expenditures (including vendor financed equipment purchases), cash payments for interest, net, and cash payments for income taxes, net.

We believe that Adjusted Free Cash Flow is an important metric for investors in evaluating how a company is currently using cash generated, and may indicate its ability to generate cash that can potentially be used by the business for capital investments, acquisitions, reduction of debt, payment of dividends, etc. Note that Adjusted Free Cash Flow is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. See our Adjusted Free Cash Flow reconciliation to Adjusted EBITDA below, as well as our reconciliation of Net income to Adjusted EBITDA provided above.

Net Leverage (Non-GAAP financial measure)

We define Net Leverage as Net Debt divided by Adjusted EBITDA (trailing twelve months).

We believe that Net Leverage is an important metric for investors in evaluating a company’s liquidity. Note that Net Leverage is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. We believe that Net Leverage provides an additional indicator when assessing our liquidity, capital structure and leverage and provides insight into a company’s ability to assume more debt if and when required. A negative Net leverage indicates that our cash and cash equivalents is greater than our total debt as of the balance sheet date. See our Net Leverage calculation below.