Earnings Labs

Inseego Corp. (INSG)

Q4 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Mar 6, 2014

$14.75

-1.54%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-25.61%

1 Week

-30.88%

1 Month

-30.18%

vs S&P

-28.13%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. And welcome to the Novatel Wireless Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2013 Earnings Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions) After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Hunt, the Blueshirt Group for Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Matthew Hunt

Management

Good afternoon. And thank you for joining us on our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013 conference call. We will begin with a brief business overview and outlook from Chairman and CEO, Peter Leparulo followed by a financial overview and guidance from Chief Financial Officer, Ken Leddon. We’ll then open the call for questions. As a reminder, this conference call is being broadcast on Thursday, March 06, 2014 over the phone and Internet to all interested parties. The information shared in this call is effective as of today’s date and will not be updated. During this call, non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed. The reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the earnings release, which is available on the investors’ section of our website. An audio replay of this call will also be archived there. Please also be advised that today’s discussion will contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking are not historical facts, but rather are based on the company’s current expectations and beliefs. For a discussion of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, please refer to the risk factors described in our Forms 10-K, 10-Q and other SEC filings which are available on our website. Now I would like to introduce Peter Leparulo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Novatel Wireless.

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

Thanks Matt. Good afternoon and thank you for joining our call today. I’d like to take a little longer than usual today so that I can set forth in detail how we are transitioning our business. First, I will go through the growth and development of our M2M pipeline and our strategy in this business. I will then provide an update on the steps we described on our last call for how we are transforming mobile computing to a more profitable approach. And for each of these areas, we’ll spend some time providing our specific plans and expectations as we move into 2014. Before we get started on that discussion, I’d first like to discuss the significant progress we have made on substantially streamlining our entire operations, as we simultaneously reshape the company and execute on our transition plan. We announced our restructuring initiatives in September and have been implementing them as quickly as possible. In the fourth quarter, we substantially reduced our non-GAAP operating expenses by $8.9 million or 34% year-over-year and we reduced our headcount by 31% year-over-year. The restructuring initiatives we are undertaking are aimed to align our expenses to revenue and opportunities. Importantly, they are also consistent with the skill sets and longer term business model we are targeting as part of this strategic refocusing of the company. With that, a quick overview of our financials, we closed the full year with total revenue of $335 million of which M2M represented $37.6 million going 18% over the prior year. In the fourth quarter, revenue was $65.3 million and EBITDA was a loss of $3.4 million. In our M2M business, during the year, we made key progress in developing new products along with our targeted vertical markets, integrating with and on boarding major partners in our targeted…

Ken Leddon

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Peter. I will begin with the financial overview of the fourth quarter and then will provide details regarding our outlook. For the fourth quarter, revenue was $65.3 million. Breaking that revenue performance down by business segment, our mobile computing revenue in the quarter was $57 million. This includes $50.7 million of MiFi revenues, $1.5 million of USB modems combination card and related products and $4.8 million from our PC OEM business. Our M2M products and solutions revenue totaled $8.3 million and were up 23% from the same quarter last year. From a geographic perspective, sales in North America accounted for approximately 95% of total revenue. Net operating loss for the fourth quarter was $21.4 million and our net loss was $21.3 million or $0.63 loss per share. GAAP operating loss in the quarter includes a contingent loss for litigation of $14.3 million and $893,000 in restructuring charges. From here on, I will discuss our results on a non-GAAP basis unless otherwise noted. Please see our earnings release for a reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP fourth quarter and fiscal year results. The non-GAAP adjustment for the fourth quarter totaled $15.7 million and included the recognition of a contingent loss and litigation, restructuring charges, share based compensation expense, and amortization of acquired intangible assets. Non-GAAP gross margin in the fourth quarter was 18.6% and includes inventory write-down and price for tax and charges related to legacy products that impacted the gross margin by 450 basis points this quarter. Non-GAAP operating expenses totaled $17.5 million, down from $21.7 million in the prior quarter and $26.4 million in the same quarter last year. This reduction was driven primarily by our restructuring efforts which we began in September. Looking at operating expenses by category, R&D expenses were $8.8 million compared to the…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. At this time we will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) And our first question will come from Mike Walkley of Canaccord Genuity.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity

Hi thanks. This is (inaudible) on for Michael Walkley. And thanks for taking my questions. A quick question on your guidance, basically soft mobile computing guidance for Q1 and then you talked about stronger back half of the year. I guess, I mean just looking at the business in general, I mean, do you think this whole mobile computing space, especially the MiFi particularly declining business now as hotspot capabilities into smartphones and tablet, eat away a good potential and then the competition in dual sourcing essentially eating away your share gains. I mean how do you get this business to grow versus in 2014 essentially, I mean this has been flat for the last two years as for now?

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

Sure, this is Peter. In terms of the smartphone and the mobile hotspots, we believe that essentially coexisting. There are certainly some people who use our smartphone functionality, but as we’ve gone over on a couple of times on prior calls because of the power consumption issues, user experience, there is a strong segment in the market that does not go that way, as well as [lead time] mode and operational just motivational behavior to have a separate subscription, which has significantly higher ARPU than user (inaudible) handset. So we are rafting it right now being the smartphones and again we believe that segment of population will go that way, but a segment will continue. So there is a product category is here for long-term in our view. The challenge and in it is the dual sourcing. As you suggest that there are short replacement cycles and with dual sourcing there is also high term low tier. And so dual sourcing overlaying that means that the product replacement cycles are even faster. So we think the underlying market is still dwelling, the operators certainly are promoting wireless data heavily into the future. And the challenge that we had is picking the products where we are getting our ROI. And that’s what we're going to do going forward in this space.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity

Okay, thanks. And then just one for Ken, obviously decline in the cash, Ken, is there a minimum cash level that you’re comfortable with or you’re targeting? I mean what are the long-term plans and timeframes to get this business basically cash flow positive?

Ken Leddon

Chief Financial Officer

Well, I think we said in our comments that we believe what the growth rate we expect to see in M2M and a recovery of the mobile computing business with the launch of new products at the end of year that by the end of the year things will be back at a profitable level given what we see today. So I don’t think we have any specific number of minimum cash balance, I think we have enough cash to get, to complete the transition of the company and to get to the other side of the restructuring and return to profitability. And I know that cash drop that we saw this quarter was really driven by a 22,000, I mean the $22 million pay down on accounts payable that we did for operational reason that gave us a significant cost benefit and that’s the pattern that we don’t think will be repeated in the past. So we don’t think there is any issue right now with cash balances or cash adequacy. We think we’ve had plenty to get give us to other side of this restructuring and to the point where we have seen significant in M2M business.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity

Okay, thanks and just one last one from me, Peter on the Insurance Telematics have solid deal wins with [RST] and then now with Telematics and (inaudible) as you pointed and are there any other design wins in the pipeline other designs that are looking promising? And then just overall this is a pretty mason market, but a very compelling market I mean U.S. market itself is about $150 million in short passenger vehicles. I mean is there -- how do you look at this business maybe in a year or two from now and is there a particular market share that you’re tracking for the UBI or for the Insurance Telematics market?

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

Sure. So we’re addressing Insurance Telematics market essentially dealing with the application service providers. And there are a lot of those. And there is and as you might have seen some at least Interplay between them where there is a certain level of consolidation among them right now which we believe actually will play our benefit. Within the application service providers, we are targeting just having a dominant market share; we think we have absolutely the right products. We have high levels of vehicle compliance. We spent the last 6 to 8 months ensuring that our products are optimized for the Insurance Telematics market essentially how the application service providers is the features that they use to generate ARPU, as well as to mitigate risk for insurance policies then our products are optimized to meet the end customer requirements for that. So we think that plays a better barrier entry and gives us a competitive advantage in that space. Market share is difficult because it is a fairly new space that has a high CAGR, but albeit as you suggest of low base right now because it’s just beginning. So we think we’re in the large deals. We think we’re in with the right application service providers who in turn have downstream direct insurance accompany design wins and the market share will really follow the design wins that they have downstream. Does that answer your question?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity

It does Peter. Thanks for taking my questions; I will pass the line for now.

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

My pleasure.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And our next question will come from Bryan Prohm of Cowen & Company. Bryan Prohm - Cowen & Company: Hey good afternoon. I am sorry I am little bit late guys. I am in a couple of places at the same time this afternoon. So just to follow up on the MiFi trajectory this is a flat business for last two years, the outlook suggests that if you grow the business by teens sequentially for a few quarters it might get to that point again where the revenue is 250 to 275 but realistically it feels like with some new product introductions you might have some challenges to get there. I was more intrigued that the commentary in the prepared remarks, it’s basically a breakeven business at the $57 million run rate in the quarter that just went by that correct it I have that right?

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

Yes. Bryan, if we divide the business two segments and we looked at the EBITDA on mobile computing for this quarter, it was pretty close to about a breakeven situation. And so what you are seeing here that breakeven number is to come down significantly as we have reduced our operating expenses and we have brought that business -- I guess we transfer it to some degree to ensure a greater probability of recovery of our development ROI. And so that’s what we’ve seen this quarter. So therefore the EBITDA loss in the quarter somewhat it was driven by the M2M business which we are investing happy to investing pretty heavily in the last few quarters and now we are up to the point where we start to see the return and the benefit of all that as you see Verizon. Bryan Prohm - Cowen & Company: All right. But that business could even into contract by 15% or so until the breakeven on annually. So what then is the breakeven run rate, revenue run rate on a quarterly basis for the M2M business for M2M products and solutions? It sounds like you are talking first quarter return to perform breakeven and with the run rate in the $60 million annualized run rate in the fourth quarter?

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

Yes, that is correct. Bryan Prohm - Cowen & Company: Okay. So I got the math straight in my head. So help me to understand; what exactly is the weakness that’s pressuring MiFi, is this a competitive situation. I understand that there is a separate market for smartphones and hotspots in differentiated consumer mobile devices and maybe this is more of a strict enterprise play. Is that a replacement cycle, what are the more new ones puts and takes that I might be missing to try to see how the market is going to reaccelerate in the back half?

Ken Leddon

Chief Financial Officer

I think, it’s predominantly you are seeing the impact of dual sourcing of the operators, which causes channel positions, they haven’t flow. And we have to show the channel in those places. I will say again the targeted strategy that we have is to compete with those swaps where we believe we will have the highest probability of getting our ROI dollars. And within that context, you will see us launch our next generation products towards the middle and back half of the year, that meet those requirements for returns, but in the short term you will see the impact of dual sourcing. Bryan Prohm - Cowen & Company: Okay, great, thanks guys.

Ken Leddon

Chief Financial Officer

Okay.

Operator

Operator

And the next question is from Peter Misek of Jefferies.

Billy Kim - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Hi guys. This is Billy Kim filling in for Peter.

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

Hi.

Billy Kim - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Just in terms of the total OpEx level, how comfortable are you guys with the current levels and how should we think about it going for the rest of the year?

Ken Leddon

Chief Financial Officer

We’re going to continue to obviously monitor our OpEx. We think we’re in a good place where we are right now. And we’re constantly monitoring that, our OpEx resources and making sure that’s in line with the business activity we see in front us. So, a lot of it will be driven by our design wins and level of those design wins that we have going forward, but we keep an eye on it. I think we’re pretty much in optimized place right now where we license some synergies between the M2M and mobile computing business as well. So I think we’ll kind of leave it at that.

Billy Kim - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Got it. And one other piece, just in terms of the accounts payable, pay down, was there anything unique there in the quarter?

Ken Leddon

Chief Financial Officer

Is there anything what?

Billy Kim - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Was there anything unique there in the quarter and how should we think about kind of base…?

Ken Leddon

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, there was something unique. We did that for an operational reason to save this significant amount of money by doing that, but it’s kind of a one-time event, we don’t expect that pattern to repeat. We expect that to get more back in line with our typical days payable outstanding which is significant better than what we had at the end of this quarter and therefore not be the draining cash this quarter.

Billy Kim - Jefferies

Analyst · Jefferies

Got, it thanks guys.

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

Thanks Billy.

Operator

Operator

And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Peter Leparulo; I apologize, for any closing remarks.

Peter Leparulo

Chairman

That happens every day, operator. No problem. Well everybody, thank you very much for your time and attention and indulging me as I really try to be as transparent as possible as to what our strategy was. And we look forward very much updating you on the progress next quarter. Thanks again.

Operator

Operator

To access the digital replay of this conference, you may dial 1877-344-7529 or 1-412-317-0088 beginning at 6:30 Eastern Time today. You will be prompted to enter a conference number, which will be 10040570. Please record your name and company when joining. The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.