Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
Our first question is from Jeffrey Kessler with Lehman Brothers. Please proceed with your question.
Jeffrey Kessler - Lehman Brothers
Thank you. Before I begin, I just want to say, Bob, I don't say this very often, maybe five or ten years to departing CFO, but it's been a real pleasure working with you and despite the fact that you have been (inaudible) 14b-0.09 times, fact is you are one of our best CFOs that I have worked with and I do want to thank you for all the help that you have given me as an analyst working with the company for the last few years.
Bob Ritter
Jeff, if I can just cut in a second, I appreciate what you have said, but I am still here and still working the way and I still expect to be answering questions for several months. So I am sure I'll talk to you again.
Jeffrey Kessler - Lehman Brothers
I am just standing out. And anyway getting on to the -- for more of a mundane stuff. Can you guys give me some idea of what was it that drove 25.7% margin in DHS last year? That was kind of historically high, made the comp really tough and you won't going to be a little feed that and I just want to have an idea of: what was in the last year that made it so good?
Bob Ritter
Jeff, it's Bob. If you look at last years results the normal ongoing operating margin was pretty similar to what we would normally experience. The key back the last year was the, I guess the curst that comes from a slowing bill and at with the lower installation growth that we had in the fourth quarter last year, we were very good at managing our cost down and as a result the upfront investment cost that we normally would record when for new subscribers was very low in that quarter.
Jeffrey Kessler - Lehman Brothers
Right. So last years fourth quarter was the first indication of the slowdown and you got the benefit of GAAP effectively, by having lower installs.
Bob Ritter
But actually I think its was the second and third quarter where we start to see slowing, but it was really the first quarter where we had a really big drop in terms of installations where our people as I said before did a great job of managing that.
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