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Tag: IT services

Vodafone Extends Tech Partnership with Ryanair

FILE PHOTO: Different types of 4G, 5G and data radio relay antennas for mobile phone networks are pictured on a relay mast operated by Vodafone in Berlin

LONDON (Reuters) – Vodafone <VOD> has secured a seven-year technology partnership with Ryanair <RYAAY> to handle services including online booking, passenger boarding and in-flight transactions for the Irish airline in Europe.

The two companies said on Wednesday they had extended an existing partnership for Vodafone Business to support 300 Ryanair sites and some 153 million passengers across 40 countries.

As part of the agreement, the British mobile company will help Europe’s biggest budget airline to speed up the time it takes to connect a new airport or site for use. It should also lead to a faster turnaround of planes.

“Airline passengers will demand even more in the coming years, and we will work alongside Ryanair to help them prepare for the future using our full portfolio of products and services,” said Vinod Kumar, head of Vodafone Business.

Vodafone Business is the mobile operator’s enterprise arm that offers cloud IT services and the connection of unlimited devices on its Internet of Things network for small and multinational companies.

Vodafone Business accounted for 30% of group service revenue in its financial year ending March 31, 2019.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Mark Potter)

General Dynamics Tops Profit Estimates

Oct 24 (Reuters) – U.S. aerospace and defense company General Dynamics Corp beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by higher demand for its IT services by U.S. government agencies.

The company closed its $9.7 billion purchase of IT services-heavy CSRA Inc in the middle of the year. This was the first full quarter for General Dynamics to report the results of that business as the U.S. government is in the midst of a broad modernization effort.

Revenue rose at all of the company’s businesses, with its information technology unit recording the biggest jump.

Revenue from the IT business more than doubled to $2.31 billion, as integration of the unit continued and the business won several contracts during the quarter. Major wins during the quarter for the unit included a $330 million contract from the U.S. Census Bureau and a $210 million contract from the Centers Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Profit margins at the IT services business slipped from 9.5 percent to 6.8 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Total operating margins for General Dynamics were 12.5 percent, down from 14 percent in the same period last year.

Revenue from the company’s aerospace division, which makes business jets, rose 1.8 percent. Total new Gulfstream deliveries, a key metric for investors, fell to 27 from 30 compared with the third quarter last year. But compared with the second quarter, deliveries rose by one jet and large-cabin Gulfstream deliveries rose to 21 from 18 in the second quarter.

Net earnings rose 11 percent to $851 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned $2.89 per share, beating Refinitiv estimates of $2.76.

Total revenue rose 20 percent to $9.09 billion, but fell short of estimates of $9.38 billion.

The company’s total backlog at the end of third-quarter 2018 was $69.5 billion, up 4.9 percent from second-quarter 2018. The biggest backlog contributor came from a $3.9 billion contract from the U.S. Navy for the construction of fourĀ (DDG-51) guided-missile destroyers.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Susan Thomas)