Fred Kornberg
Analyst · Noble Financial
Thanks, Mike. Thank you very much. At this point, I'd like to discuss some of the recent developments in each of our 3 business segments, which should add some color as to why we continue to be optimistic about fiscal 2014 and beyond. Our largest segment remains our Telecommunications Transmission segment. Within this segment, the majority of our revenues have been and are expected to continue to be from our Satellite Earth Station product line. Our strong leadership position and market share in the Satellite Earth Station area is driven by our proven ability to deliver the most bandwidth-efficient modems to our end customers. As you know, we have a long track record of being the innovation leader in this space. A few years ago, we introduced our patented Carrier-in-Carrier technology, which allows our modems to use the same bandwidth both to transmit and receive satellite channels simultaneously thereby, essentially doubling bandwidth efficiency. Unfortunately the introduction of this groundbreaking technology coincided with the onset of the economic downturn and therefore, muted the potential sales that we believe could have been realized in a much more favorable economic environment. We believe although this technology has been in the marketplace for a few years, that this technology has a long way to go as the economy rebounds and government spending returns to normal. In 2012, we also introduced the new line of products called advanced VSAT. These products combine a variety of technologies within our IP portfolio, among others, which include advanced Forward Error Correction, advanced coding modulation and our managed bandwidth technology to provide integrated solutions. By listening closely to our end customers, we have been able to offer our advanced VSAT solutions into markets that have traditionally been served primarily by TDMA solutions. The good news is that, recently, we have seen certain TDMA users moved away from that technology, demand a more dedicated and reliable bandwidth, as well as being unwilling to tolerate the latency issues associated with TDMA. The contract we received from Harris Corporation to replace Royal Caribbean Cruise line's TDMA systems with our advanced VSAT product systems is a good example of this. We've also believe that other industry users may follow in this direction, when they realize the limitations of TDMA and the advantages of using our advanced VSAT products. On the U.S. government side, procurement and -- procurement of products practically came to a dead stop in the middle of 2013. A return to normalcy in the U.S. government communications equipment procurement process should serve as an additional catalyst for growth. Despite the overall downward pressure on government spending during the past year, we did receive a very significant contract from the U.S. Navy with a potential value of $29 million. We will be developing and then manufacturing the Advanced Time Division Multiple Access Interface Processor or ATIP for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. This contract is strategically important to us as it enters us into the protected MILSATCOM market. Although we undoubtedly continue to operate in a challenging environment, we have experienced some stabilization in the Satellite Earth Station area as evidenced by another quarter of solid bookings in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. So in the Satellite Station area, we believe we have weathered some market-specific headwinds for the past few years. We have adjusted our operating expense levels accordingly, while actually continuing to invest heavily in R&D. As a result, we believe that we are nicely positioned to capitalize on market opportunities as conditions further stabilize and eventually improve. The other product line in the Telecommunications Transmission segment is our over-the-horizon microwave or troposcatter product line. We expect that fiscal 2014 will be a strong year for our tropo business. Anchored by very strong backlog, we see a marked increase in revenues over fiscal 2013. Just last week, we announced a $6.3 million add-on to the $51 million North African end customer contract award that we received in fiscal 2013. There are also additional large opportunities with this end customer that we believe will materialize in the years ahead. And more importantly, we hope to duplicate this type of relationship with other countries in the next few years. As our technology and data throughput has advanced, so has the number of potential users for tropo. In recent years, we have strengthened our marketing presence in many new international markets and we are beginning to see these efforts pay off as evidenced by contracts that we have received in Saudi Arabia and Sweden. We're also addressing, in some cases, have already bid on other large opportunities in the Middle East, Asia, South America and Africa. On the U.S. environment side of the tropo area, bookings of our SNAP and MTS terminals have been very soft for the past year or so. However, once the U.S. government works through its budget issues, we believe that our expanded tropo product lines will fit nicely into the DoD's future plans. We now expect to receive tropo orders for additional SNAP and MTPS terminals during fiscal 2014, with the related revenues most likely moving into 2015. We also believe the U.S. Military spending for our transit case tropo will expand significantly in the coming years as it is the only tropo system that has been qualified by all U.S. Military services, is backward-compatible with the Army inventory of AN/TRC-170 tropo systems, the price of these systems is significantly less than refurbishing and maintaining equipment currently in service and the systems high mobility aligns with the new U.S. Military doctrine. On the commercial front, we continue to receive orders from industry-leading oil companies for tropo systems that are used on their drilling and exploration platforms such as the $2.4 million order we announced just last month. To repeat, our optimism about our tropo business in fiscal 2014 is based on the large amount of backlog we have relating to our North African country and customer, the number of quality international proposals that we have in a pipeline and our U.S. government business having nowhere to go but up. All in all, we see fiscal 2014 as the year that our Telecommunications segment will return to growth. Turning to our RF Microwave Amplifier segment. It's important to remember that fiscal 2013 was also a challenging year. However, we received certain important orders in the latter half of the last year, a large majority of which will ship in fiscal 2014. In our traveling wave tube amplifier or TWTA product line, we've experienced delays on large military programs, such as FAB-T and WIN-T. We do see these programs finally being resolved in the coming months. Both of these programs are expected to provide us with a nice revenue stream over the next few years. In fact, as you can see by our recent press release, we just received an additional -- an initial award for approximately $7 million for the WIN-T program. On the commercial side of the TWTA product line, we see the broadband high throughput satellite market most notably the Ka-band area and the direct-to-home satellite TV market as very exciting growth opportunities for Comtech. On the high throughput satellite market, we have already sold our products into most of the larger North American and European Ka-band platforms and are bidding not only on the next generation platforms with the same customers, but also a new opportunities with new customers in new geographies. On the direct-to-home or DTH market, we believe the market is poised for dramatic growth in the next few years as broadcasters are looking to replace the aged bandwidth-deficient klystron amplifiers with high-power, more efficient, more cost-effective and broadband TWTAs, which will support high-definition and ultrahigh-definition program offerings. In addition, these broadcasters, as well as other new entrants to the DTH market are looking to emerging markets as significant growth drivers as these same services are rolled out to a brand new group of potential end-users. We believe that our product offerings are and will be uniquely positioned to serve the dynamic markets opportunity. On the solid-state power amplifier side, our SSPA product line, our business has also been dramatically impacted by the weak U.S. government spending environment. In fact, for over a year, bookings relating to IED-jamming, which has been the largest single end use for our SSPA products in recent years have been virtually 0. When in this -- When and if this area, most notably the CREW 3.3 program will get back on track is not known at this time. We've also experienced delays in the recent -- and have received a certain SSPA orders as a result of our end customers, being areas in their world that are experiencing volatile political conditions. The good news is that during the first quarter of fiscal 2014, we have seen signs that activity is heating up again in certain of our end markets and we are becoming more optimistic that we will receive some sizable international bookings in the second half of fiscal 2014. Although a smaller part of our SSA -- SSPA business, our domestic commercial product lines serving the aviation and medical communities have continued to do well. And more than 50% of our projected RF Microwave Amplifier sales for the remainder of fiscal 2014 are already in backlog. And similar to our Telecommunications segment, we have reduced operating expenses, while at the same time maintaining our R&D investments. As such, we believe we are well-positioned to benefit as conditions continue to improve. In our third market segment, Mobile Data Communications, our largest revenue contributor remains the sustainment work we're performing for the U.S. Army under the BFT-1 contract. These activities continue to be funded, which is continuing evidence of the important role our fielded technology plays within the U.S. Army. We're providing these sustainment services pursuant to a 2-year contract, which expires on March 31, 2014. Under this contract, we receive a $10 million annual fee for the Army's ongoing use of our intellectual property, as well as just north of $10 million of engineering and other support services per year, which are billed on a cost-plus basis. We expect to receive a new contract in our third quarter that will extend our sustainment services for at least a couple of years. We're also continuing to pursue certain specific end markets for our technology that are closely aligned with our existing product offerings. But do not -- we do not expect the related revenues to be of significance until 2015. Our primary goal in the Mobile Data Communications segment continues to be to provide the U.S. Army with outstanding support doing so should position us to participate in the next generation BFT platform, if and when the U.S. Army pursues that path. Finally before turning it over to the operator, I would like to wish our senior management, our Board of Directors, all our employees and all other stockholders, those listening to this call a happy and safe holiday season. With that, I would like to proceed to the question-and-answer part of our conference call. Operator?