Operator
Operator
Good afternoon. My name is Marcello, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Lattice Semiconductor Corporation third quarter 2008 conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. (Operator instructions) Thank you. Mr. Rob O’Brien, acting Chief Financial Officer, you may begin your conference. Rob O’Brien: Thank you, and good afternoon everyone. I’ve had the pleasure to meet or talk with several of you joining in on the call, but for those who haven’t met me this is Rob O’Brien. And I’ve been the Corporate Controller, since joining Lattice in May of 2004. I’ve been the acting CFO since John’s departure. Joining me today on the call is Bruno Guilmart, our President and CEO. The format will be similar to the past. I’ll begin with a Safe Harbor statement. After that I will give a financial review for the third quarter, and Bruno will provide a business review, followed by our fourth quarter outlook. We will then hold a question and answer session. So, now I will start with the Safe Harbor statement. It’s our intention this call will comply with the requirements of the SEC Regulation FD. This call includes and constitutes the company’s official guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008. If at any time after this call we communicate any material changes to this guidance, we intend to update such using public forums such as press releases or publicly announced conference call. The matters that we will discuss today other than historical information include forward-looking statements relating to our future financial performance and other performance expectations. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve risk and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Some of those risks and uncertainties are detailed in our filings with the SEC, including our Form 10-K filed in March of 2008 and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after this call. Our prepared remarks also will be presented within the requirements of SEC Regulation G regarding generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Some financial information presented by us during the call will be provided on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. By disclosing certain non-GAAP information, management intends to provide investors with additional information to permit further analysis of the company’s performance for results and underlying trends. Management uses non-GAAP measures to better assess operating performance and to establish operational goals. Non-GAAP information should not be viewed by investors as a substitute for data prepared in accordance with GAAP. If we use any non-GAAP financial measure during the call, you will find the required presentation of the reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the company’s earnings press release. That concludes the Safe Harbor Statement. And now I would like to go into a financial review for the third quarter. Revenue for the third quarter was $57.6 million, that’s down slightly a 0.8% from revenue of $58.1 million in the prior quarter, and that’s down 1.2% from the $58.3 million reported in the same quarter a year ago. When you look at gross margin for the first quarter [ph], it came in at 54% which is below our guidance and under the gross margin we reported last quarter at 56%, but comparable with the 54.2% we posted in the third quarter of 2007. This sequential change in gross margin was primarily due to product mix and Bruno is going to elaborate that later in the call. A portion of this was due to the current quarter’s strong growth in new products, typically these carry an initial lower gross margin than other products that we sell. Total operating expenses, excluding intangible asset amortization and restructuring, for the third quarter came in at $32.1 million, that’s $1 million lower than the $33.1 million we posted in the second quarter. The lower quarter over quarter operating expenses were primarily the result of the 2008 restructuring plan that we announced on September 16, 2008. Quarterly R&D expense was $17.5 million, which was lower than the $17.9 million we recorded last quarter. Quarterly SG&A expense was $14.5 million, and was lower than the $15.2 million we reported in the second quarter. The company recorded a $3.9 million restructuring charge in the third quarter primarily related to the costs associated with the 2008 restructuring plan, which included a 14% headcount reduction. We expect to record approximately another $300,000 restructuring costs in Q4 at which time we think the 2008 restructuring plan will be substantially complete. Intangible asset amortization was $1.4 million last quarter. It was the same this quarter. We expect the same in the fourth quarter, and then we have a small tail end of about $230,000 in Q1 of 2009. You will note in our other income category of our income statement, you will see a negative $1 million and a negative $10 million for the third and second quarter respectively. During the current quarter we recorded a $1.7 million impairment charge compared to last quarter’s charge of $11.3 million. Both of these charges are primarily related to other than temporary decline in the fair value of auction rate securities. The fair value of auction rate securities at quarter end totaled $27.4 million and are recorded in long-term marketable securities on our balance sheet. I will provide a little more detail on the auction rate securities later here in the call. We recorded a tax benefit of $236,000 during the third quarter and that was primarily the result of a foreign tax refund and for the benefit related to the Housing and Economic Recovery Act signed into law just this July. The company has the benefit of significant NOLs and therefore we don’t expect to pay US Federal income taxes in the foreseeable future. The September quarter GAAP net loss was $7 million or $0.06 per share. That compares to $13.6 million loss or $0.12 per share that we posted in the second quarter. The third quarter results included charges of $8.4 million, including the previously mentioned restructuring charge as a result of 2008 restructuring plan, the impairment for other than temporary decline in fair value of investments, the amortization of intangible assets, and stock-based compensation expense. If I exclude these just mentioned charges and expenses, our non-GAAP net income was $1.4 million for the current quarter. That compares to $1.3 million posted last quarter and $1.1 million posted in the comparable quarter last year. I want to talk a little bit about our liquidity position because it remains strong and I would like summarize a couple points as it relates to Lattice. First, cash flow from operations for the three and nine months ended third quarter was $5.3 million and $24.7 million respectively. Second, at quarter end we had $68.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities. Though this is down from the $96.3 million we had at the end of last quarter, it is explained by the extinguishment of our long term debt on our balance sheet through the payment of the remaining $40 million to our convertible note-holders on July 2, 2008. Thirdly, we have the continuing benefit of our cash advance to our foundry partner, Fujitsu, and that totaled $94.4 million at the end of the third quarter. When you sum these up, that would be in the $68.6 million I mentioned in cash and cash equivalents, and the $94.4 million I just mentioned on the advances to our foundry partner. The total liquidity remained strong at $163 million at the end of the third quarter. In addition, not included in the just mentioned $163 million, we have auction rate securities, I mentioned just earlier, on our books at a fair value of $27.4 million, which represents a 30% discount to our par value. Due to the illiquid markets for these types of investments, these auction rate securities are classified long term under long-term marketable securities, which brings me to something that I think we are all keenly aware of, and that’s current global financial crisis. The crisis has created a volatile financial environment which we actively monitor. During this last quarter we responded to market events by selling $5.7 million in auction rates securities at par. We moved money market funds accounts to governmental agency investments. We reduced our commercial paper exposure and sold our remaining shares that we held in UMC. Having said that, there is some indication of cautious optimism, we are seeing a movement back into higher paying money market funds, some movement in the commercial paper markets, bond prices increasing, and the cost of credit default swaps coming down. Hopefully, this will continue and will bode well for our auction rate securities. In addition, we initiated the 2008 restructuring plan which we expect to reduce operating expenses by approximately $4.5 million when compared to a full prior quarter. Rest assured, we will continue to monitor the credit markets. We will make further adjustments to our financial strategy as the events unfold. Now I will move on the remaining balance sheet. You will note that accounts receivable at the third quarter end, September 27 was $29.9 million, that compares to $29.3 million at the end of last quarter and days outstanding was computed at 47 days. That’s more than last quarter of 46 days, but slightly better than the seasonal comparable Q3 of 2007. Inventory at the end of third quarter came in at $35.8 million. That represents a decrease of $3.3 million from the prior quarter end and represents our lowest level in nine quarters. We spent $1.4 million on capital expenditures during the third quarter and the quarterly depreciation expense was $3.5 million, up slightly from the prior quarter. And lastly deferred income was $6.7 million, down $0.8 million from the prior quarter. Now that concludes the financial review portion of the call. And I will now turn it over to Bruno for a business review.