iPass Gains on Major US Bank Deal

iPass (NASDAQ:IPAS) announced on Wednesday (August 29) that a US-based financial services company has selected them to provide global Wi-Fi connectivity and wireless management solutions for its employees.

iPass, a provider mobile connectivity and location technology around the world, said that the deal will keep bank employees connected on their corporated-issued devices, thereby ensuring their productivity while maintaining costs.

Further, the company said that the bank will be able to tell how and when their employees connect to WiFi on the bank’s device.For example, the bank can connect the devices to iPass for inflight connectivity rather than using a native inflight WiFi provider that normally charge premiums rates.

“Enterprises want more than WiFi network access, and iPass SmartConnect delivers, giving them a complete solution that provides more effective management of their enterprise mobile workforce,” Patricia Hume, COO of iPass, said in the press release.

It was noted that bank employees can connect to WiFi using the iPass SmartConnect option which automatically switches back to cellular connection when a suitable WiFi is not available.

On August 8, in the company’s second quarter earnings call maintained a positive outlook for the year despite reporting a decline in revenue as compared to the first quarter.

The company reported revenues of US$10.5 million in second quarter of 2018 as compared to $11.4 million in first quarter.

Further, iPass pushed forward its SmartConnect platform and said that it expects the subscriber base to be ‘north of 500 million’ based on deals in the company’s pipeline for upcoming quarters.

Over the past few months, the company has been expanding its WiFi footprint in many countries, including India and the UK. iPass expects to sign more license deals in the current year to meet its revenue targets.

“Expectations for the year haven’t changed from what we originally said going into 2018 which [was to return to revenue growth] we expect to grow revenue ….significantly … in 2018 over 2017,” Darin Vickery, CFO of iPass, said in the earnings call. “Our 2017 number [in terms of total revenue] were the US$54.4 million. We can hit those kind of targets.”

Following the announcement, shares of iPass jumped over 30 percent around midday with the company closing the trading session on Wednesday at US$2.21. The shares were up 20.77 percent over the one day trading period with over 3.5 million shares traded.

However, the stock has a “Sell” ranking on TradingView with 13 verticals against, eight in neutral and five in favor.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Bala Yogesh, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.