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Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (CMTL)

Q1 2008 Earnings Call· Thu, Dec 6, 2007

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Comtech Telecommunication Corp. first quarter fiscal 2008 earnings conference call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. [Stephanie LaMantia] of Comtech Telecommunications, please go ahead. [Stephanie LaMantia]: Thank you and good morning. Welcome to the Comtech Telecommunications Corp. conference call for the first quarter of fiscal year 2008. With us on the call this morning are Fred Kornberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comtech, Robert Rouse, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Michael Porcelain, Chief Financial Officer. The news release on the company’s results was issued yesterday afternoon. If you have not received a copy, please call me and I’ll be happy to send you one. Before we proceed I need to remind you of the company’s safe harbor language in the following way. Certain information presented in this call will include, but not be limited to information relating to the future performance and financial condition of the company. The plans and objectives of the company’s management and company’s assumptions regarding such performance and plans are forward looking in nature and involve certain significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from such forward looking information. Any forward looking statements are qualified in their entirety by cautionary statements contained in the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filing. With that, I’m pleased to introduce the President of Comtech, Fred Kornberg.

Fred Kornberg

Analyst

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today. I’m pleased to report once again a very strong first fiscal 2008 quarter, which supports my optimistic comments that I made on our last September earnings call, when I said that I expect that fiscal 2008 to be another year of record revenues and profits, our sixth year in a row. What’s more, this unprecedented growth has predominately been organic. Our company continues to benefit from the compelling product and technology solutions we offer as well as from the strengths, diversity and breadth of our business of our customers and of our end markets we operate in. Before I provide updated guidance for fiscal 2008, Mike Porcelain, our Chief Financial Officer will provide an overview of our financial results for the quarter and Rob Rouse our Chief Operating Officer will them provide an update on each of our three business segments. Mike.

Mike Porcelain

Analyst

Good morning everyone. Let’s begin by reviewing some of the key income statement trends for the quarter ended October 31st. First quarter sales were $115.1 million compared to $97.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2007. The increase reflects significant growth in both our Mobil Data Communications and RF Microwave Amplifier segments, partially offset by lower net sales in our Telecommunications Transmission segment. Sales in our Telecommunications Transmission segment were $3.1 million lower in the first quarter of fiscal 2008 than in the first quarter of fiscal 2007. The decrease in net sales in the segment primarily reflect decreased sales of our Over the Horizon Microwave systems, partially offset by an increase in sales of our Satellite Earth Station products. Sales of our Over the Horizon Microwave equipment were negatively impacted by lower sales to the US DoD for a 16 megabits per second Tropocatter Modem Upgrade Kits for use on the TRC-170 Digital Tropocat Terminals, as well as lower sales both direct and indirect to our North African country and customer who we believe is between major phases of a multi year roll out of a large project. Sales of our Satellite Earth Station products were higher in Q1 2008 as we continue to benefit from increased demand for our bandwidth equipment Satellite Earth Station modems used in both commercial and government network applications. In our Mobile Data Communications segment, sales increased by $17.3 million, primarily due to the significant increase in deliveries to the US Army in connection with our new MTS and Blue Force Tracking IDIQ Contracts with the US Army that were awarded to us in August 2007. Our Q1 2007 sales for the Mobile Data Communications segment included sales of $1.2 million related to a favorable cumulative adjustment on our original MTS contract. Sales…

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Good morning and thank all of you for joining the call today. I will provide an update on the key opportunities, issues and trends pertinent to each of our businesses. In Telecommunications Transmission, we developed products and systems used to either increase data though put, minimize satellite data transponder costs and enhance satellite network bandwidth deficiency, or enable wireless communications in environments where terrestrial communications are unavailable, inefficient or too expensive. This segment, as you know, is comprised of two major product lines; Satellite Earth Station products and Over the Horizon Microwave systems. Our Satellite Earth Station product line experienced very strong bookings in Q1. We believe that our newer modems, the Carrier-in-Carrier enabled CDM-Qx that addressed the commercial market, and the government focused SLM-5650 Modem have gained significant attention in the market as customers have gained appreciation for the significant satellite bandwidth savings and other features offered by the industry leading products. The CDM-Qx modem is among the most powerful products we have ever delivered to the marketplace. The up to 50% reduction in satellite transponder costs generated by this product for our customers has driven significant sequential quarterly bookings growth of this product over the past few quarters with no signs of slowing. The bandwidth savings from the CDM-Qx are incremental to our operational savings resulting from other techniques we offer, such as our patented Forward Error Correction Technology. During the first quarter we also introduced the CLO-10 Link Optimizer, a stand alone Carrier-in-Carrier enabling product that targets customers requiring Carrier-in-Carrier bandwidth efficiencies. These can be current or potential modem customers for us that want to continue to use their existing modems but at the same time benefit from the compelling value proposition offered by Carrier-in-Carrier Technology. The CLO-10 has proven to be a powerful door opener with…

Fred Kornberg

Analyst

Once again, as I have stated before and will restate again today, our ability to provide revenue to and EPS guidance accurately is dependent upon a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control. These factors include but are not limited to the timing of bookings and related revenues in large contracts, the uncertainty, particularly in today’s environment regarding US Government funding priorities and budget constraints and three the economic conditions in general. That said, I will provide updated guidance as I have done in the past on a GAAP basis, which includes amortization of stock based compensation as well as on a Non-GAAP basis which excludes amortization of stock based compensation. With that in mind, we are increasing our fiscal 2008 revenue guidance to arrange a $515 to $530 million from our previous September guidance range of $500 to $515 million. We are also increasing our estimated Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2008 to be in the range of $2.70 to $2.82 from a September guidance of $2.72 to $2.78. I should also point out that our revised guidance assumes approximately $.09 worth of additional R&D spending from what we assumed in our September guidance. This rise in our R&D spending is due to our ramped up efforts on key and existing programs and technologies, in fact, despite the significant increase in sales forecasted for fiscal 2008 R&D as a percentage of revenue is expected to increase to approximately 8%, a solid tangible investment in our future. The Non-GAAP EPS guidance equates to a GAAP diluted EPS range of $2.53 to $2.58, again, as compared to our September guidance of $2.48 to $2.54. As I stated earlier our strong Q1 results and the underlying strength of our business provide me with great optimism about the future of Comtech. We are generating these strong results and at the same time increasing significantly our R&D spending to ensure that we remain market leaders in the segments we operate in. While our first priority is the organic growth of our core businesses, we do continue to actively pursue an acquisition strategy to also add additional future growth. Once again, fiscal 2008 is well on its way to becoming another record year for Comtech, our sixth year in a row. Now, we will be happy to take your questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We’ll take our first question from Richard Valera, go ahead sir. Richard Valera – Needham & Company Inc.: On your Over the Horizon discussion, I think you alluded to a second $40 million potential type of award, can you describe that, I think that is something in addition to the potential award from your North African customer is that correct?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Yes, let me clarify also quickly Rich, when Fred went through the Non-GAAP earnings per share it is $2.77 to $2.82 it is a five cent range just to clarify that in case it was unclear. On the Over the Horizon side, yes we have two opportunities with the same end customer but they are with two different prime contractors, one of them is kind of the continuation of the order related contract that we have been talking about for some time, the other one is unrelated to that but with the same end customer country wise. We have two of the, as I said it is possible that we could book both of them this year, it is possible maybe one of them shifts into next year, we are pursuing two fairly sizeable opportunities with that end customer. Richard Valera – Needham & Company Inc.: In your discussion of Mobile Data, you mentioned you thought that the second quarter would be the peak revenue quarter for Mobile Data, this year, do you expect it will be the peak overall revenue quarter for Comtech as well this year?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Just given the fact, again, when you look at the bookings as I mentioned $159.5 million just in that segment in one quarter it is obviously going to drive a lot of revenue in the quarter after that and as we said before the Mobile Data Com business can be lumpy in that regard and that timing does vary between years. Each year the peak quarter can be a different quarter within the year, so, given the significance of Mobile Data Com to our total revenues I think that would be a fair assumption as well, just given the amount of backlog that we have going into the quarter. Richard Valera – Needham & Company Inc.: With respect to the increase in R&D spending, obviously, you are sort of in a competitive situation on the Blue Force Tracking front and its sounds like you are spending pretty aggressively to upgrade your offerings. Can you give us a sense of where you think things stand and what kind of timeline we might see in terms of how that competitive situation plays out at Blue Force Tracking?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

I think what we are trying to do here, Rich, is try to get our solution in front of the customer as quickly as possible, I don’t want to go into specific tactical timeline type things for obvious reasons, but some of the technology that we are spending on now are things that are going to help us throughout that segment not just as it relates to this product, in terms of throughput, density and things like that. All I can tell you right now is we think we are on track to have a product or solution in front of the customer on a timeline that is consistent with what they are looking for at this point. Tactically we wouldn’t want to discuss it beyond that. Richard Valera – Needham & Company Inc.: One quick one for me, RF Amplifiers, the margins were a little bit lower despite the higher revenue and you mentioned apparently, sounds like you are getting used to production of certain new production technologies, do you think that as you come with the learning curve there that the margins in that RF Amplifier business should improve throughout the year?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

I think there is what you are going to see happening is that we do have a few newer type technologies that are going through the plan now and they’ve been delivered, let’s say, over the last three to six months and will continue during the year, and those contracts the margins are obviously what they are, that will continue during the year, obviously if we get any add on work with those customers we would hope to be past the growing pains, if you will, of some of the newer technology there. I would expect the margins overall for that business for the full year to be a bit lower than they were last year. Richard Valera – Needham & Company Inc.: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Tim Quillin, go ahead sir. Tim Quillin – Stephens Inc.: Rob, could you go through the backlog by segment please, I know you provided the Amplifier already?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Sure, the Amplifier as I said Tim was $47.8, Tel Com was $54.3 and Mobile Data was $146.9. I’ll also point out that if you do the math you could obviously calculate the bookings by segment and when you calculate the bookings by segment the Tel Com may not look that impressive but keep in mind our Over the Horizon bookings in the quarter were virtually nothing, as we wait for these large jobs. Really, almost all of our bookings in the first quarter were the Satellite Earth Station business and they were very impressive. Tim Quillin – Stephens Inc.: Yes, exceptional bookings there. Can you just comment on any economic sensitivity that you might have with that Satellite Earth Station business, clearly you are not seeing on the bookings yet, but if we have a global economic slow down what do you think happens with that business?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

It’s really, Tim, more tied to the Tel Com infrastructure build out, for example, right now as you know we are focused let’s say in the cellular back hold area where in many part of the world infrastructure is just starting to be built out, could that be somewhat tied into economic activity, possibly. It’s infrastructure for the future that we see continuing for many years, keep in mind that in that business we are very small percentage of our business is with domestic US customers, because obviously in the United States we have a robust terrestrial and wire line infrastructures. I don’t see it directly impacting it, but obviously if there is a complete international global economic meltdown that impacts what a lot of people do. As you can tell from the booking we are not experiencing any of that at this point in time. Tim Quillin – Stephens Inc.: What’s the capacity to shift in the Mobile Data business, the bookings were very strong and you expect a strong quarter in terms of revenue in 2Q but how much can you shift in a given quarter?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

All I can say is that we are at capacity even at this level with some of that spiking in Q2 is just not an issue for us. Tim Quillin – Stephens Inc.: On the Amplifier margins, is this related to CREW 2.1 or is it something different?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

It’s something different, there are a bunch of other newer, higher power type jobs we have going through the plant that have had some learning curve associated with them. Certainly in terms of the first few batches of CREW, we made a bunch of investments there, obviously as CREW 2.1 were to ramp up we would expect to do better in higher volume in the learning curve behind us. Some of it is CREW 2.1 but there are other programs in there as well. Tim Quillin – Stephens Inc.: Lastly, on the export licensing issue, outline a worst case scenario there if you could?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

I would just point, obviously as we say in there it relates to a $2 million potential shipment here, I think the 10-Q provides a good summary of what’s happening and as you know the export laws and regulations, especially for some of our technologies dual use are extremely technical and complex but we’ve done a pretty full review of this and believe that we’ll be able to demonstrate our employees made a good faith effort to comply with the rules and we’ll be discussing with them in the months ahead and we’ll see where we come out. Given the nature of it I really don’t want to comment much beyond what’s in our 10-Q at this point, to just point out that the size of it and that we are taking it seriously and doing an investigation and believe we took every step that we could to try to make a good faith effort there to comply. Tim Quillin – Stephens Inc.: Thank you, great quarter.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Tyler Hojo, go ahead sir. Tyler Hojo – Sidoti & Company: My first question, just in regards to a follow up on the subpoena related to Brazil, what kind of maybe legal expenses is contemplated in your updated guidance as we progress through the fiscal year?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Tyler I don’t want to go through that, they are not of a material enough nature where they are going to impact your model for the year. We obviously, given the matter is ongoing, have some baked in there for Q2 but they are not going to drive, when you look at our guidance for the year, the numbers one way or the other, in terms of the legal expense side of it. Tyler Hojo – Sidoti & Company: One more on that topic, have you guys run into issues similar to this in the past, and if so, how did they play themselves out?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Certainly not in recent years, Tyler, we have not run into any similar issues. Tyler Hojo – Sidoti & Company: That’s fine. Going back to the RF segment I was kind of curious, I guess I can understand why margins are coming down a little bit but I guess a little bit longer term, are kind of the mid teens type margins that you saw back in 2005, 2006. Is that a level that is not attainable for the future or maybe if you could just walk us through that.

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Are you talking operating margins? I think that is certainly a goal we shoot for and I think in the longer term it is achievable I think in order to achieve that we’ll have to have a few programs that are in a real production stage that are kind of more normalized. The last year and a half, Tyler, we have a lot of, obviously, in doubling in size over the last couple years we’ve had a lot of new technologies, new development programs in there which have brought it down somewhat. I think it’s possible that we can get back to that level, I don’t see it for the full year just based on where we were for the first quarter and some of the programs that are going though the plant right now are going to carry those margins with them until the end of the program. For this year, I would say that would be a bit of a stretch but going forward you bet, that is what we are shooting for. Tyler Hojo – Sidoti & Company: In terms of the R&D, I guess, certainly understandable that there are some additional costs specifically on the MTS and the Blue Force Tracking, but I guess what I’m curious about is at what point do you think that the R&D starts backing down, do you think that well into 2009 or how do you look at that?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

As I said it to, I think it was Rich earlier, some of the R&D we are doing as it relates to the Blue Force Tracking, we are trying to get the customer everything they could possibly ask for so we are accelerating our normal R&D but at the same time we want to continue to grow and to continue to grow we are going to have to continue to invest in our technology so what I would hope happened is our R&D spending in 09’ is, assuming we grow, continues to go up. That’s the investment we need to make to continue on that trend and as Fred said almost all of our growth has been organic over the past few years so as long as that top line is growing, we are introducing new products and as you can see our gross margin also went up in the quarter. It’s going to be very situational Tyler, so I would like to think that we will continue to spend more in R&D going into next year, obviously it would be a bit lower percentage given the higher sales if we were to continue to grow but we really need to continue to look at it based on the situational basis as it relates to where we are in a product lifecycle. That’s just the investment we need to make to continue to grow. Tyler Hojo – Sidoti & Company: I know last quarter you guys had thought that R&D spending would taper down a little bit, I guess what changed in the last three months since we’ve had that conversation on R&D, I guess now you are looking at more of an $11 million type run rate as opposed to maybe a little bit lower than $9.5.

Robert Rouse

Analyst

There are certain new activities we’ve launched; we are trying to take a little bit of advantage of the higher margin we are generating to reinvest quicker. There are certain discrete project in the Mobile Data Com area that we’ve really accelerated again to try to be as responsive and as possible to our customer. Again, I don’t want to go into specific R&D projects that we are working on but I think as I said as long as we can continue grow the revenue we are going to make those investments that we see appropriate. If we are able to accomplish everything that we need to earlier on in the year, might we tail it off at the end, possibly, but there could be a new R&D project. The numbers that Fred went through there are where we see what we need to accomplish this year based on the guidance we told you and position us well for next year which is my primary focus right now. Tyler Hojo – Sidoti & Company: Very good, thank you.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Mark Jordan, go ahead sir. Mark Jordan – [Not Given]: A quick question on Tropo you had stated on the last call that you were also trying to market to other customers in other countries. Could you update us on where you are on that endeavor? Secondly, do you see any effective competition in the marketplace as you start broadening your net?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

On the first point, as I said last time, there are certainly more opportunities that we believe are out there but as I also said these international opportunities do take time. This isn’t just a hardware sale, there is an education process you know as I would say what is Tropo. All I would say there is to reiterate my pre-prepared comments we continue to make progress but there is nothing at this point I want to talk about publicly just given the fact that they do tend to take some time. There is nothing we have baked into our 08’ numbers but we think in 09’ and 10’ that we would be disappointed if we didn’t break through to at least one of two new markets. In terms of competition, we really don’t see that in a big way, I know there was another company out there that has talked about making a few sales in the like, but we really haven’t seen it be a big factor for us at this point in time. Mark Jordan – [Not Given]: I guess back to the Brazilians issue, can you talk about the specific product group that this was in, was it a Tropo related and secondly, it was a $1.9 million piece of business; I don’t think I saw that announced?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

First of all Mark, this was a satellite based offering and it was announced, I believe as part of Mike as part of a…

Mike Porcelain

Analyst

I think we did issue a public press release earlier in the year.

Robert Rouse

Analyst

It might have been even at the end of 06’. Mark Jordan – [Not Given]: Given the fact that you do extensive work internationally in the satellite arena, what is it that caught the eye of the regulators about this specific issue?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

On that point, Mark, just try to appreciate the fact that we are trying to investigate it, we think we tried to make the good faith effort. I really don’t want to go into the specific nuances of the issues at this point in time. It is something we are still looking at but as we said in our 10-Q we took a good faith effort to get it right and we will be able to demonstrate that point. Mark Jordan – [Not Given]: Final question in the 10-Q when you talked about inventories you stated that you had a couple of million dollars of inventories related to a contract manufacturing relationship you had with third party, could you give a little color in terms of how significant that is and is there something that has some opportunity to grow over time?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

At this point in time it’s really not that significant a revenue stream for us, Mark, but what we have been trying to do as you know, we’ve tried to really use our BF Data facility out in Arizona as kind of a manufacturing center of excellence for us, in fact, if you look at our 10-Q you’ll see that most of our manufacturing of our Mobile Data Com products is done out there. We even have components in our RF Microwave Amplifier done out there. We have some Tropo modems done out there, so given the core competencies that our team has developed out there, there is no reason why we can’t provide similar work for other companies. We are just starting to work on the area at this point, but up until now it hasn’t been a major revenue driver for us. Mark Jordan – [Not Given]: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Jim McIlree, go ahead sir. Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart: You talked about MTS funding and I just want to make sure, are you including the global war on terror funding and potential MRAP of related MTS in your guidance?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

No, Jim, let me just walk through it just to make it clearer for you. First of all as far as MRAP goes, MRAP is a separate funding bucket, we don’t even see, it’s impossible for me to quote those numbers, we don’t see them, so the $273 million that I referred to earlier is actually in the Army budget I identified as MTS. As you may know, right now, President Bush and Congress are kind of at odds as to the conditions that he will be willing to sign the budget under. So, the baseline budget, the $73 million, that has been appropriated, but the $200 million of funding in the global war on terror, the supplemental if you will, that’s identified specifically for MTS, no one at this point seems to have an issue with. What Bush is fighting about now is the terms, for example, when we are going to withdraw troops from Iraq, the definition of torture, those types of things, why the budget is not completely signed yet. What I meant to say in my comments is that our revenue guidance for the rest of the year doesn’t include anything in there for the $200 million that’s in the global war on terrorism at all. It only includes a pretty modest amount related to the $73 million in base funding because some of that we may receive too late in the year to recognize revenue. If the entire $273 million budget were to be approved, we are only assuming a piece of the $73 million actually gets recorded as revenue in fiscal 08’. We view the 08’ budget as more a driver going into 09’. Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart: That’s very helpful. You talked about Q2 this year being a peak in the Mobile Data, does that imply that there is a big fall off in the second half or is it just a modest fall off, or you peak at Q2 and flatten out after that?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

When we say peak, it’s a peak within the year. When you have $159 million in bookings in Q1, no matter how they run out after Q2 is going to have more than any other quarter. I don’t say they are going to fall off the cliff so to speak but I don’t expect them to be as high as Q2. The only way that could happen would be if the entire budget was approved and they decided to accelerate some of these orders which we are not baking in at this point in time. From our understanding, it may take some time for the budget to work its way through the debate going on between the President and Congress. It just wouldn’t be prudent at this time to do that. I would expect Q2 to be higher and then Q3 and Q4 are just going to be derivatives of how much of a peak are in Q2. Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart: So of that $159 million, I assume that you shipped part of it in Q1?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Yes. Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart: Are you saying that most of or over half of the remaining would be shipped in Q2? I am just trying to get a feel for when you talk about peak Q2 and up substantially, what that commentary means?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

I understand, Jim. Again, we are trying to avoid the quarterly; trying to focus more on the year. Some of it was shipped in Q1 and there are pieces of it that do have schedules that go out to Q3 and Q4, but it’s a meaningful peak. I don’t want to get into specific revenue estimates by quarter, but it’s meaningful. Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart: I will just try to beat the R&D horse a little bit more. When you talk about growing throughout the year, you are talking about this $11 million level staying at that $11 million and rising, or kind of flattening out at this $11 million for the rest of the year?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

I would anticipate that it will be on or about that level for the full year. If you look at it on an annualized basis, I think if you annualized that number, you should be within $2 million or $3 million of that estimate for the year. Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart: Does the guidance contemplate any sort of stock buyback?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

It does not.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Michael Connelly.

Michael Connelly

Analyst

As it relates to the telecom transmission business, it sounds like you have got some new products that are opening the door for the U.S. market and your sales have been predominantly overseas on the commercial side. What are your expectations from domestic telco sales going forward, given some of these new products?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Mike, in the Earth Station product line, our key markets are really international for commercial and then U.S. government on the domestic side. The need for satellite domestically in the U.S. is somewhat limited by the fact that most people are using wireline or terrestrial wireless infrastructure. We don’t see that as a huge market. Our primary customers are there; our customers who, like DirecTV, are using our equipment to send out broadcast type of content. The exciting thing about some of our new products, I would use two areas as an example. In the commercial area, in the cellular back haul area carrier-in-carrier for example basically enables them to be 50% more efficient. That’s a very, very compelling ROI model that we could sell to our commercial customers. The same thing applies for the DoD. They look at it a little bit differently and they are less concerned about the cost than they are if we can get 50% more through the same pipe. So, when you are talking about that type of proposition to a customer, be it commercial or defense, it’s very, very compelling. I think the bookings numbers that I pointed to earlier really solidify our view on that.

Michael Connelly

Analyst

It seems like there is a big push for broadband access on all new commercial aircraft business jets. Do you think that strong demand plays into your product sales in Earth Station?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

The area there where we would have the most connectivity is in our RF microwave amplifiers group we do sell amplifiers that are used in part of air to ground communications and we do sell to some of the larger avionics type of companies that sell into the large and small aircraft markets. But again, in the context of our overall revenues that’s not a major, major chunk of our revenues but it certainly would drive revenue within that segment.

Michael Connelly

Analyst

Shifting to MTS, you talked a little bit about the [M-wrap] and it seems like that program is coming under some pretty intense scrutiny. I don’t even know if you’ve taken this outlook in terms of the joint light tactical vehicle or some of the unmanned ground vehicles, how might that affect the MTS segment?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

For us Mike as I said earlier, we are not focused directly on M-wrap. M-wrap is a program that could use our technology, so any vehicle that could potentially need satellite as a backup channel when terrestrial isn’t available would be a potential opportunity for us. But again, there we are not selling necessarily directly to our normal customers. We would be getting orders from other commands that were responsible for funding the M-wrap. Anything in that area that we were to accelerate would help us, but we have less visibility there.

Michael Connelly

Analyst

Finally, in terms of your revenue guidance, I assume that doesn’t include any of the opportunities related to the North African customer or any of the other OTH opportunities?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

That’s right. That includes zero revenue from any new international customers. That’s correct.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Tim Quillin – Stephens, Inc. Go ahead, sir. Tim Quillin – Stephens Inc.: I can’t believe you almost got through this conference call without talking about uses of cash. Can you talk about where you are in terms of the acquisition pipeline and what’s your posture is regarding share repurchases as well? Thank you.

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Tim, I think we are in the same place we were at the end of last quarter. I think the pipeline is a bit more robust than it was three months ago but no definitive decision has been made in the buyback area. We are continuing to look at it, but there are M&A activities that we are actively looking at.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart. Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart: On the Track 170, in addition to what you got this morning you are expecting further orders throughout the year, is that correct?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

That’s correct, Jim. Jim McIlree – Collins Stewart: Does that just get you a flat Track 170 year or is that ramping for them yet?

Robert Rouse

Analyst

Given that last year was a strong year, if you look at the numbers they did about half of the upgrades last year and I would not expect that particular opportunity as it related to the modem upgrade kits to ramp this year.

Operator

Operator

We appear to have no further questions at this time, sir. I will turn it back to Mr. Kornberg.

Fred Kornberg

Analyst

Thank you very much for your interest in Comtech and we certainly look forward to speaking with you again soon in three months and the next quarter. Thank you so much for attending.