Virgin Mobile USA swung to a third-quarter net profit of US$4.1 million and heralded its US$39 million recent acquisition of rival MVNO Helio a success. Its Q3 profit compares with a loss of US$7.4 million a year ago. Total operating revenue rose to US$323.2 million, up from US$319.5 million a year earlier. Net service revenue rose to US$305 million compared with its own forecast of US$285 million to US$295 million. “Our business performed well in the third quarter,” said Dan Schulman, CEO. Citing an 8 percent increase in gross customer additions year-over-year and a 61 percent increase in Adjusted EBITDA, Schulman continued: “Despite a challenging economic environment, we have not stood still. In the third quarter we closed the acquisition of Helio, and just 21 days later announced the launch of Shuttle, our first EV-DO phone with integrated Helio data services offered to our prepaid and hybrid customers.” Reuters reports that Virgin Mobile shares jumped 25 percent in after-hours trading following release of the financial report.

Virgin Mobile USA announced in June it had bought rival MVNO Helio from SK Telecom for US$39 million in stock with SK Telecom maintaining a 17 percent stake in the enlarged company. It was subsequently reported that Helio had reduced its cost base by around 70 percent prior to the acquisition being completed, including reducing its staff by two-thirds and closing almost all of its retail outlets. More recently, Virgin begun the process of integrating Helio under a new branding tagline, ‘Helio By Virgin Mobile: Plan To Have It All.’ Looking ahead, Virgin has forecast fourth-quarter net service revenues will grow in a range of 6-9 percent to around US$310 million to US$320 million.