Rackspace Reports Second Quarter Financial Results 

Rackspace Hosting, Inc. announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.

Net revenue for the second quarter of 2014 was $441 million, up 4.8 percent from the previous quarter and 17 percent from the second quarter of 2013. Net revenue for the second quarter of 2014 was positively impacted by currency exchange rates when compared to the previous quarter by $1.9 million and positively impacted when compared to the second quarter of 2013 by $9.9 million.

For the third quarter of 2014, the company is forecasting quarter-over-quarter sequential net revenue growth of 3 to 4.5 percent, resulting in net revenue in the range of $454 million to $461 million.

"This was a record quarter for Rackspace,” said Graham Weston, Chairman and CEO of Rackspace. “We added thousands of new customers, including one of our largest ever, and we saw solid growth from existing customers like Under Armour, SunPower and Alex and Ani. We generated a company record $20 million in incremental revenue in the quarter and revenue per server was an all time high. Total revenue grew 4.3 percent on a constant currency basis, which was the highest rate of growth that we’ve generated since the fourth quarter of 2012.”

Total server count in the second quarter of 2014 increased to 107,657, up from 106,229 servers at the end of the previous quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $142 million, a 1.5 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2014. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 32.1 percent compared to 33.2 percent in the previous quarter.

The company expects Adjusted EBITDA margin to be in the range of 31 to 33 percent in the third quarter of 2014.

Net income was $22 million for the quarter, down 11.8 percent from the previous quarter. Net income margin for the quarter was 5.1 percent compared to 6.0 percent for the previous quarter.

Cash flow from operating activities was $125 million for the second quarter of 2014. Capital expenditures were $112 million, including $65 million for purchases of customer gear, $14 million for data center build outs, $7 million for office build outs and $27 million for capitalized software and other projects.

Adjusted Free Cash Flow for the quarter was $26 million. Return on Capital was 10.0 percent in the second quarter, compared to 11.4 percent in the previous quarter. Average monthly revenue per server was $1,375, compared to $1,336 in the previous quarter.

At the end of the second quarter of 2014, cash and cash equivalents were $340 million, and interest-bearing debt including capital lease obligations totaled $42 million.

On a worldwide basis, Rackspace employed 5,798 Rackers as of June 30, 2014, up from 5,743 in the previous quarter.

Rackspace Business Highlights

• Rackspace announced its managed cloud strategy for delivering public cloud services to market, including enhanced service levels and a more transparent service-based pricing model. Rackspace also created developer+, a new program for developers that offers essential services needed to build scalable applications. This strategy focuses on Rackspace's historical strength working with businesses and developers who want a strong partner to help design, manage and scale their cloud operations.
• Gartner, Inc. placed Rackspace in the Leaders quadrant of the “Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting” in both North America and Europe. The Gartner assessment evaluates providers based on the completeness of their vision and their ability to execute. Rackspace was among the 17 providers assessed byGartner, and one of only two in the Leaders quadrant in North America. In Europe, the firm analyzed 17 providers and Rackspace was one of seven in the Leaders quadrant.
• Rackspace launched OnMetal Cloud Servers to reduce cloud complexity and help cloud applications scale. These API-driven bare metal servers can be spun up as quickly as virtual machines. OnMetal Cloud Servers are designed for customers with rapidly growing infrastructure footprints who value the agility and elasticity of cloud along with the simplicity and cost-efficiency of colocation.
• ObjectRocket demonstrated Automated Online Compaction and its rapid-deployment API at MongoDB World and extended its free backup service to MongoDB databases hosted with any provider. ObjectRocket offers MongoDB users a one-click, automated compaction solution, effectively eliminating the need for what can be a difficult and time consuming manual database maintenance process. Automated Online Compaction allows MongoDB instances to be compacted online and in the background on the ObjectRocket platform.
• Rackspace was named the sixth “best place to work” in the U.K. in the large company category of the U.K.'s 2014 Great Place to Work Awards. This is the 10th consecutive year that Rackspace has been recognized by theGreat Place to Work Awards. The awards seek to identify companies with highly committed individuals who help their organization achieve its business objectives and consistently go the extra mile. In addition, the award looks for companies whose leadership team ensures that each employee feels trusted and supported. The award's objective is to recognize a sense of camaraderie and a desire to work for growth, attributes that Rackspace openly demonstrates.