Antonio Perez
Analyst · Ananda Baruah with Brean Murray, Carret & Company
Thank you, Sandy, and good morning, everyone. Before I share with you my observations on the second quarter, I would like to spend a few minutes giving you my perspective on the last Wednesday announcement about the fact that we are exploring strategic alternatives for our digital imaging patent portfolios, which consist of approximately 1,100 patents, which are approximately 10% of our total patent portfolio. This action does not change our intellectual property litigation strategy at the international rate commission or in the district courts. And we remain confident that the patents being litigated will be found to be valid and infringed. One of the great strengths of this company has always been our intellectual property. We were one of the first companies to invest in digital imaging technologies and, in fact, we invented the digital camera in 1975. We continue to innovate and pioneer many of the major advances in digital imaging devices, systems and services. It is also important to recognize that we continue to invest and innovate in several other areas, including material science, device physics and computational sciences. We expect to maintain significant patent portfolios in all of these areas and, therefore, our business in the Graphic Communications Group and in the Consumer Digital Group will continue to be well positioned from an intellectual-property perspective. We will build our intellectual property portfolio in a manner that will provide technology platforms for future growth. Examples of those will be functional materials, microfluidics and the intelligent management of digital assets. We always have 3 fundamental objectives surrounding our intellectual property strategy, which are and have always been design freedom, gaining access to new markets and partnerships and generation of cash and earnings. The announcement on Wednesday falls within that strategy. Given the heightened demand in the marketplace for premium intellectual property assets, we believe that the timing is right and that we have a great opportunity for these very valuable assets. While we cannot predict at this time the final structure of any transaction, we will work with our advisers to identify the right alternative for the company and for our shareholders. Again, without committing to a specific timetable, we expect to run an efficient process. We have a very experienced intellectual property team, a proven record, licensing parts of our portfolio and complementary patents. In summary, the announcement reinforces the strategy of the company. We are committed to completing our transformation to a digital, profitable and sustainable company by 2012. And now I would like to highlight the key elements of our second quarter performance. As you are aware, scaling our 4 digital growth businesses: Consumer and Commercial Inkjet, Workflow Software & Services and Packaging Solutions, is a key priority for 2011. These businesses are all based on differentiated value propositions and target large markets in need of transformation. They will be the foundation for the digital, profitable and sustainable product in 2012 and beyond. This quarter, when compared to the prior-year quarter, they grew 22%. Way above the industry growth and more than doubling the 2010 year-over-year growth rate. Let me break it down for you. The momentum in the market that we saw in the first quarter for our Consumer Inkjet and Packaging Solutions continued in the second quarter. These businesses together grew 50% again this quarter, demonstrating that building an installed base of equipment will drive higher margin annuities that will grow in the future. Once again, our Consumer Inkjet Printer growth continues to significantly outpace the market. We have been increasing our market share in all of the markets where we are participating. Our new low-cost platform, which we launched at the end of the first quarter, continues to gain traction. It positions us well to compete in a very highly competitive printer pricing environment, which is no doubt driven by low industry growth. We continue to win new accounts, expand our shelf space in existing accounts and enter new geographies, while maintaining a printer price premium, which is around 20%. While there are many financial and operational metrics that we monitor on this business, the metric that best measures the success of this business and is the best measure for its future profitability is ink gross profit. In order to grow ink gross profit, we must continue to build our installed base of printers and, very importantly, reach the consumers who print the most. I'm very pleased with our ink growth. Ink revenue grew more than 100% compared to the prior year this quarter. This business performance demonstrates that we are on a path to double our ink gross profit again this year. In Packaging Solutions, our differentiated FLEXCEL NX System continues to gain momentum. Compared to the prior year, we more than doubled revenues again this quarter by expanding the installed base and selling the related consumables that are used with our new and our existing installations. Our Commercial Inkjet and Workflow Software and Services businesses grew a combined 6% in the second quarter of 2011 compared to the prior year. As we said in our last quarterly conference call, we expect the growth from these product lines to accelerate in the second half of the year. The Commercial Inkjet PROSPER Presses that we began installing in customer locations at the end of 2010 are achieving all the benefits of this breakthrough technology in the field. We did incur more than planned startup costs to ensure that the earliest adopters of our Stream Technology achieve all of the efficiency gains from this solution as they move to full scale production. The PROSPER Press' combination of image quality and productivity is superior to any digital press in the market and our sales product continues to be very strong in both developed and emerging regions. An important proof point for us is that with some of our earliest customers, who have been using the Press in production for a while and experiencing the benefits of this unique solution, are placing orders for additional units already. While we are well positioned for a strong growth in the second half of the year, we are also focused strongly on driving down the unit manufacturing costs of the Presses and, importantly, significantly reducing the installation and training times, which will lower our service cost in the second half of the year and accelerate the recognition of revenue. We're also pleased with the growth from our PROSPER printheads, particularly the color printheads. Customers are recognizing the benefits of this hybrid printing solution. In this quarter, we had our largest unit and revenue quarter since we introduced the product. Finally, our Workflow Software and Service business had solid growth in the service part of the business. The growth continues to be driven by strong demand for business process services in the emerging markets. Taking into account our first half performance and our outlook for the second half of the year, we expect that the full year growth rate from our 4 digital growth businesses will be between 30% and 40%. Growth that will fuel higher margin annuities in the future. Consumer Inkjet is well positioned at retail and online for a strong back-to-school and holiday season and the funnel for Commercial Inkjet remains robust, setting us up well for a strong back half. Now I would like to take a look at our cash performance in our cash-generating business. Revenues in our Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group declined 14% compared to the prior year. We continued to aggressively reduce manufacturing and operating costs, in line with the revenue declines. And we see tangible progress in the actions we're taking to minimize the impact of the increase in the cost of silver. The pricing actions that we have implemented combined with our hedging program enabled FPEG to post a profit this quarter. We are maintaining our market share, and we continue to manage this business for cash. Revenues in our Prepress Solution business grew 4% compared to the second quarter of 2010, fueled by strong growth from both digital plates and computer-to-plate equipment in the emerging markets. The profitability of the business was impacted this quarter by higher aluminum and raw material costs, plus weakness in Japan, on top of the already forecasted price erosion. The additional price actions that we're taking, combined with the hedges that we have now in place, positions us for a more profitable second half. Now moving on to digital capture and devices. The transformative strategies that were implemented focused on earnings and cash generation rather than on top line, and is starting to pay off. Revenues in our digital capture and device business were down 22% in the second quarter, but the revenue is higher-quality revenue. Let me explain. We made participation choices driven by gross margins, and we have substantially reduced the operating cost structure of this business. This has enabled the Consumer Digital Group to reduce its operation costs by approximately $40 million compared to the second quarter of 2010. The choices that we are making are sustainable, and we will have lower operating costs in the second half of the year as well. We're taking the right actions to position the business for significantly improved profitability in the second half of the year, which is the peak season for digital capture and devices. Our Retail Systems Solutions business grew 8% compared to the prior year. The touch points that we have been placing are getting traction with customers, who are taking advantage of direct Facebook connectivity from our photo kiosks and purchasing more premium products, such as photo books and greeting cards. As you're aware, our 2011 cash plan includes generating between $300 million and $400 million in proceeds from the sales of certain nonstrategic assets and operations and $250 million to $350 million in intellectual property revenue. We generated about $75 million from asset sales and approximately $30 million in intellectual property revenues in the first half of the year. You do have to remember though that the majority of our intellectual property revenue and asset sales typically comes in the second half of the year. We continue to move projects through the divestiture process and seek resolutions with companies who are using our patented technology in their products. We remain committed to completing these asset sales and securing new intellectual property licenses in 2011. We used approximately $350 million in cash this quarter, essentially in line with our 2010 cash performance. When you adjust for 2 things: one, the cash that we received from nonrecurring intellectual property licensing revenue in the second quarter of 2010; and second, the timing of our contribution to the U.K. pension plan. The contribution of the U.K. pension plan was moved from the fourth quarter in 2010 to the second quarter this year. When we evaluate our cash performance in the first half combined with our outlook for the second half, we will finish the year with between $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion, in line with our prior year end cash balance. We finished the quarter, the second quarter, with around $1 billion in cash, and our heaviest cash usage periods are already behind us. Consistent with prior years, we will generate cash in the second half of this year. I would turn the call now to Ann, who will provide more details about our performance.