Windstream Net Income Slips, But Revenue Grows

Windstream Corp. saw it’s fourth quarter and full year earnings slip, primarily due to integration costs of its year-long acquisition spree of a variety of entities.

The Little Rock-based telecom and broadband provider reported fourth quarter net income of $72.4 million, down roughly 4% from one year ago. Revenues for Windstream rose to $981 million, a 30% increase from last year’s fourth quarter.

For the full year, Windstream earnings topped $310.7 million, down 7%, on sales of $3.71 billion, a 24% increase from 2009.

Windstream has been involved in a series of acquisitions for more than a year. During 2010, it announced 4 deals that expanded the company’s footprint into new markets and diversified its offerings in broadband infrastructure and data holdings.  It also recommitted to keeping its corporate headquarters in Arkansas earlier in 2010.

"2010 was an incredible year for Windstream, and I am very pleased with all that we accomplished," said Windstream CEO Jeff Gardner. "We continued to improve our top-line trends and achieved our revenue and cash flow goals for the year. Our team did a fantastic job executing our business plan while successfully integrating the four companies we acquired during the year."

Windstream officials will hold a conference call with analysts later this morning. Talk Business will update this story later today.