PairGain Posts Record Profit of $4.5 million in 3rd Quarter

TUSTIN — PairGain Technologies Inc., a company that has grown rapidly by focusing on a low-tech corner of the high-tech telecommunications industry, reported record profit and revenue for the third quarter.

The Tustin-based company posted a profit of $4.5 million, or 26 cents a share, for the quarter, more than double the $2.24 million, or 15 cents a share, for the corresponding three-month period a year earlier. Revenue climbed 94%, to $29.6 million from $15.2 million.

For the nine-month period, the company reported net income of $11.3 million, or 68 cents a share, up from $5.63 million, or 37 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue surged more than 75%, to $72.6 million from $41.4 million.

PairGain makes electronic devices that boost the capacity of old-fashioned copper telephone lines so that--over short distances--they can move data and voice signals along at speeds that would ordinarily be the domain of fiber-optic phone lines. The company’s products have been snapped up by telephone companies eager to squeeze more life out of existing networks of copper phone lines rather than spend up to $20,000 per mile to install fiber.

“We are in the right place at the right time,” said Charles Strauch, chief executive of PairGain.