Ribbon Communications is a Plano-based maker of carrier voice software and IP optical gear whose second-quarter rebound still leaves the equity priced as if cash conversion is not yet earned. Record bookings in the IP Optical Networks segment and a Salesforce Agentforce voice partnership sit beside a May leverage-covenant waiver, a departing finance chief, and a cash pile that has already been cut in half since year-end. The investment debate is whether the optical backlog and large-enterprise session-controller wins refill the cash account before the September leverage test, or whether slower Verizon voice-modernization keeps the company on the wrong side of its credit agreement.
The sequential print looks like a turn. Revenue rose to $192 million from the first-quarter trough. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, the cash-earnings proxy that strips stock pay and restructuring, climbed to $12 million. That twenty million sequential swing is real operating leverage on higher product mix, not a tax artifact. The year-ago comparison still hurts. Sales were $221 million then, and the same cash-earnings line was $32 million. Cloud and Edge, the higher-margin session-controller franchise, remains down because Verizon is installing voice upgrades more slowly than last year.
Cash and equivalents ended June at $44 million. Face-value term borrowings still sit near $338 million after a May amendment that waived the June leverage test. Management now guides full-year sales of $810 million to $840 million, a cut driven mostly by a twenty-five million first-half Verizon hole. The question the next two quarters resolve is whether IP Optical backlog conversion and enterprise session-controller wins can fund the credit box without another amendment.