Mitcham Industries, Inc. (MIND), headquartered in Huntsville, Texas, is a geophysical equipment supplier that offers for lease or sale new and “experienced” seismic equipment to the oil and gas industry, seismic contractors, environmental agencies, government agencies and universities. With sales and service offices in Calgary, Canada; Brisbane, Australia; Singapore; Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia; and the U.K. and with associates throughout Europe South America and Asia, Mitcham conducts operations on a global scale and is the largest independent exploration equipment lessor in the industry.
In December 2007, Mitcham announced that its Seamap unit has completed an agreement with the principals of Tanglesolve Instrumentation Ltd. to acquire all intellectual property rights related to the source controller software utilized in its GunLink product line. With this new agreement, there will be no royalties on future sales of existing GunLink products. The arrangement also includes ongoing support and collaboration agreements with the principals of Tanglesolve as well as a non-compete provision with Seamap in related areas. The total cost of acquiring these rights, less certain accrued royalties which will not be paid, amounts to approximately $1.5M.
Fiscal year 2008 results for the company reported in December 2007 showed improvement across the board. Total revenues were reported at $17.2M compared to $12.7M reported in fiscal year 2007 third quarter. Income before taxes increased to $4.0M from $2.5M in fiscal year 2007. Net income was $2.4M compared to $3.9M in fiscal year 2007. Net income during the fiscal third quarter of 2007 included the realization of deferred tax assets which resulted in a $1.3M benefit to income taxes. This compares to income tax expense of $1.6M during the fiscal third quarter 2008.
Recently the company announced the election of Robert John Albers to its Board of Directors. Bill Mitcham, the company’s president and chief executive officer commented that Albers has an impressive record of expertise and leadership in both the oil service and exploration segments of the industry.
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