Summary
8x8 reported fourth-quarter revenue of $144.7 million, up 19.1% from the prior-year quarter, and full-year revenue of $532.3 million, up 19.3%. Gross profit for the quarter was $83.6 million, up 30.9%, and gross margin was 57.8%, up 5.2 percentage points. Operating margin was -27.7%, up 10.3 percentage points, and the full-year operating margin was -27.5%, up 8.4 percentage points. The quarter's operating loss narrowed 13.3% to $40.0 million. The net loss narrowed 10.1% to $45.0 million, and diluted EPS was a loss of $0.42. For the full year, the operating loss narrowed 8.6% to $146.1 million, the net loss narrowed 3.9% to $165.6 million, and diluted EPS loss narrowed 8.7% to $1.57.
The company also pointed to profitability progress on a non-GAAP basis. Non-GAAP pre-tax profit was $0.1 million in the quarter. Non-GAAP gross margin was 61%, compared with 58% in the same period last year. For the full year, non-GAAP pre-tax loss was $12.8 million. Operating cash flow was $0.80 million for the quarter, up 102.6% from the prior-year quarter. Capital expenditures were $1.46 million, down 88.8%, and deferred revenue, current portion only, was $20.7 million, up 191.9%. The company ended the fiscal year with a service subscriber base of approximately 58,000, up from approximately 55,000 a year earlier.
Operational metrics showed upmarket momentum. Total ARR grew 22% to $518.1 million. The company had 761 customers with ARR greater than $100,000, compared with 611 a year earlier, a 25% increase. It closed 45 new customer deals with ARR greater than $100,000 in the quarter, up 7% year over year; those deals were 36% of new bookings and included 28 new logos. Bundled contact center and communications represented 75% of new bookings with ARR of $12,000 or more. Channel bookings grew 7% and made up 53% of new bookings. Contact center new bookings grew 20% and represented 33% of total new bookings. By customer size, enterprise ARR grew 49%, mid-market ARR grew 14%, and small business ARR grew 17%. The MD&A adds that average annualized service revenue per customer rose to $8,439 from $7,876, and mid-market and enterprise customers represented 47% of total annual service revenue and grew 31%.
Guidance was limited. The company said it would provide first-quarter and full-year fiscal 2022 guidance on its earnings call and webcast; the release did not include numerical guidance. Management framed the quarter around continued upmarket momentum and cost discipline, while the filing lists several risks. Those include COVID-19 effects on business activity, especially for small and medium-sized customers, customer cancellations and churn, competitive market pressures, reliance on channel partners, the quality and reliability of services, scaling the business, customer acquisition costs, integration of acquisitions, cybersecurity and privacy compliance, and the convertible senior notes. The MD&A also notes a full valuation allowance against U.S., U.K., and Singapore deferred tax assets because of a cumulative pretax loss position. 8x8 upgraded substantially all customers to its X Series platform as of March 31, 2021, with remaining upgrades planned for fiscal 2022.
Forecast
No forward guidance in this quarter's filings.
Reported figures
GAAP, from SEC filings| Metric | Q4 FY2021 | Q3 FY2021 | QoQ | Q4 FY2020 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $144.7M | $136.7M | +5.9% | $121.5M | +19.1% |
| Research & development | $25.3M | $23.7M | +6.6% | $20.2M | +25.4% |
| Sales & marketing | $70.7M | $64.0M | +10.5% | $65.4M | +8.1% |
| General & administrative | $27.7M | $23.8M | +16.1% | $24.4M | +13.3% |
| Total operating expenses | $184.8M | $171.9M | +7.5% | $167.6M | +10.2% |
| Operating income (loss) | -$40.0M | -$35.3M | -13.6% | -$46.2M | +13.3% |
| Operating margin | -27.7% | -25.8% | -1.9 pp | -38.0% | +10.3 pp |
| Net income (loss) | -$45.0M | -$40.2M | -12.0% | -$50.1M | +10.1% |
| Net margin | -31.1% | -29.4% | -1.7 pp | -41.2% | +10.1 pp |
| Customers | 8 | — | — | 8 | ±0.0% |
Risks
We recorded a net operating loss of approximately $146.1 million for the twelve months ended March 31, 2021, and ended the period with an accumulated deficit of approximately $591.1 million. The filing states we expect to continue incurring operating losses in the near future and will need to increase our rate of revenue growth to generate and sustain operating profitability.
The cloud communications industry is intensely competitive and rapidly evolving, with pricing pressure and competitors including RingCentral, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google, and Amazon. Many competitors have greater resources and brand awareness and may offer bundled services, which could force us to lower prices, reduce revenue, or lose market share.
Customers may elect not to renew their subscriptions, and churn adversely impacts revenues while requiring ongoing sales and marketing spend to retain existing customers and acquire replacements. If churn increases, we must acquire more new customers to maintain revenue and may need to renew certain customers at lower rates.
COVID-19 has created economic disruption, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses, and could reduce demand, lengthen sales cycles, increase churn, and lead to service credits or price reductions. The filing notes uncertainty about the duration and scope of the pandemic and its effects on our customers, suppliers, and vendors.
We have $362.5 million aggregate principal amount of 0.50% convertible senior notes due 2024, and servicing or repaying principal requires cash. The filing states we may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations, which could require asset sales, debt restructuring, or additional equity capital on onerous or highly dilutive terms.
As we increase sales to mid-market and enterprise customers, our sales process has become more complex and resource-intensive, our average sales cycle has become longer, and predicting when sales will close is more difficult. A delay or failure to close a large enterprise opportunity in a particular quarter could significantly harm projected growth rates.
We face aggressive competition for senior management, sales and marketing, professional services, and engineering talent in cloud communications. If we increase compensation or issue more equity to attract and retain employees, we may sustain greater operating losses or increase stockholder dilution.
International expansion is an important growth strategy, and revenue generated from international customers increased to 27% of total revenue in fiscal 2021. Risks include regulatory licensing, local labor laws, currency fluctuations, data protection rules, and limited experience in new markets.
Taxing authorities may challenge our collection of sales and use, value added, or similar taxes; we file more than 1,000 state and municipal tax returns monthly, and several jurisdictions are conducting audits of 8x8. If our positions are unsuccessful, we may be subject to tax payments, interest, and penalties in excess of accrued amounts.
Our physical infrastructure is concentrated in a few data centers and public cloud providers, and any failure or downtime in one facility could affect a significant percentage of customers. The filing states we have experienced interruptions in service in the past and service interruptions continue to be a significant risk.
We have been subject to denial or disruption of service in the past and may be subject to DDOS attacks in the future. A security vulnerability in our or our vendors' infrastructure could lead to increased costs, liability claims, government investigations, fines, reduced revenue, or reputational harm.
SaaS KPIs
All quarters →Non-GAAP gross margin
Total ARR
Non-GAAP operating margin
Customers > $100K ARR
Non-GAAP Service Margin
Summary, forecast, risks and KPIs are extracted from 8X8 INC /DE/'s SEC filings for Q4 FY2021 (10-Q / 10-K and the 8-K earnings release); GAAP figures in the summary are checked against the reported XBRL data. They can contain errors; the filings are authoritative. Processed Oct 2, 2026.