Jerry Colella
Analyst · Dougherty & Co. Your line is open
Thanks, Seth. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. This morning I will review our results for the first quarter of 2016, including some key highlights. Following that I will give some color and an update on our progress with the Newport acquisition and finally, I’ll provide our outlook for the second quarter of 2016. Seth will follow me with further details on our financial results and then we’ll open the call for your questions. Total first quarter revenue was $184 million, up 7% from last quarter and non-GAAP EPS was $0.38. Our results were at the high-end of our guidance range driven by strong revenue from our semiconductor customers. Conditions in the semiconductor market have improved and our first quarter revenue was up 18% as device manufacturers ramped 16 nanometer and smaller devices, utilizing 3D structures and multi-patterning. Both3D NAND and multi-patterning rely heavily on action deposition processes which require a high degree of content that MKS provides. We believe that the industry relied more and more on multi-patterning and 3D structures as features shrink to 10, 7, 8 and 5 nanometers. Double-patterning will advance to triple-patterning and even quad-patterning for some layers as features continue to shrink, doubling the number of etch, deposition, and cleanings steps required. This increase is a capital intensive in these processes which will drive growth opportunities for MKS for a number of years to come. As features get smaller and critical etch and deposition steps increase, achieving quality, uniformity, and repeatability become increasingly more difficult. In critical etch, one of the challenges our customers face is the ability to deliver energy to etch a deep, narrow space while maintaining etch productivity, selectivity, and smooth straight walls. To achieve this, OEMs increasingly are turning to RF pulsing. In the second half of 2015, we launched a new RF generator platform called Edge. In the design, MKS developed the capability we call adaptive pulse technology that delivers exceptionally repeatable pulses resulting in defined profile control which helps balance the trade-off between edge accuracy and speed. This launch has been highly successful and we’re already receiving production quantity orders from major etch OEMs with this revolutionary generator. Before features could be etched, thin, uniform layers must be deposited, and with smaller feature sizes atomic layer deposition, ALD, and plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition, PEALD, are being [indiscernible] to deposit the extremely thin and conformal of material needed on the wafer. Based on the history of technical and commercial performance, our Paragon Remote Plasma Source as well as numerous other MKS technologies have been selected for the next generation ALD platform, from the leading ALD OEM. More broadly in our semiconductor business, we had additional design-ins and wins this quarter in a number of applications, including RF power for die simulation and semiconductor packaging, Liquizon dissolved ozone systems for wafer cleaning, remote plasma sources for FD exhaust cleaning, and revolution plasma sources for strip at a major logic manufacturers new fab, in China. I'm pleased to see additional success in our core semiconductor market; especially in RF we’ve made significant progress against the competition. Moving to our adjacent markets, last year we announced that we have entered into an agreement with a leading vacuum solutions provider to supply properly labeled and customized gauge products. This opened a new sales channel to the industrial and process marketplace, an important market for our vacuum, flow, and analytical products. In this quarter we started to fulfill the orders against this agreement. Another industrial process application we had additional sales this quarter for microwave products used in candy manufacturing as a customer’s production was extended to North American facilities. In the environmental monitoring market, we were pleased to receive orders from yet another government agency for our AIRGARD chemical warfare detection and monitoring systems, which safeguard critical infrastructure from airborne hazards. In addition to new design wins, follow-on business is extremely important to our success. I'm pleased to report that we’ve meaningful recurring business across many markets including thin-film applications such as OLED and solar cell manufacturing where we continue to ship our Liquizon dissolved ozone, flow, pressure, power and gas analysis products. At this point, I’d like to move to the Newport acquisition. On February 23, we announced our intent to purchase Newport Corporation, a global technology leader in photonics, lasers, and precision optics with a broad portfolio ranging from components to integrated subsystems. Newport has a balanced participation and a diverse array of end markets ranging from semiconductor to life and health sciences, which will both expand MKS's position in our existing markets and extend our reach into new markets. This supports our strategy to expand into adjacent markets while increasing our served addressable market and our core semiconductor business. I'm truly excited about the combination of MKS with a complementary technology Newport brings. While Newport and MKS are technology leaders with a long history of designing solutions that address the difficult challenges our customers face. Together, we will have an even more formidable portfolio of products and capabilities to address the needs of technology enabled solutions. I’m further encouraged by the number of positive comments from our customers, particularly our largest ones, about the opportunity to bring integrated technical solutions to these customers, that's a combination of Newport and MKS can provide which no other competitor can. Our thesis with this acquisition is that we will capitalize on synergies between the two companies, which will allow us to realize additional growth and profitability. We have a dedicated integration team in place and have developed extensive plans which include product cross-selling and synergy activities immediately after the acquisition closes. We anticipate reinvesting some of the savings in these activities into high-growth areas within Newport's product portfolio. From market opportunity perspective, we estimate that the addition of Newport will expand our served addressable market by $4.8 billion. Geographically, we operate in many of the same locations and we have the opportunity to optimize and leverage our combined sales channels to improve customer access, enable the cross-selling I referred to earlier. From a technology perspective, both Newport and MKS are leaders in critical technologies that enable advanced processes. Control of the interrelationship between process parameters is crucial to productivity and quality in advanced manufacturing. And the combination of Newport and MKS, would give us critical mass to synergistically respond to these complex challenges with integrated solutions that satisfy customers needs. MKS continues to differentiate ourselves from the competition and this acquisition gives us many exciting new places to grow. MKS has a long history of successfully acquiring and integrating high technology companies and this acquisition and preliminary integration planning activities are progressing well. We were excited about the team work we have seen so far between the companies and believe there was a strong cultural fit between the organizations. We have received all the necessary regulatory approvals, secured financing for the transaction, and subject to the approval of the transaction for the stakeholders, stockholders of Newport tomorrow, we anticipate closing this Friday. And finally, I'm pleased to announce that Dennis Werth will assume the leadership role as Senior Vice President of Newport reporting to me. This ensures continuity and stability in the Newport business unit as we continue integration into MKS. At this point, I’d like to turn to our outlook for the second quarter. The semiconductor industry is recovering from the softness we saw late last year and based on the input from our customers, as well as industry analysts, we anticipate continued recovery as we progress through 2016. 3D NAND and multi-patterning will continue to propel growth as the industry implements 10 nanometer and small align with designs. Based on these factors and looking at our current business levels, we anticipate that MKS standalone sales in the second quarter may range from $185 million to $205 million. And at these volumes, our non-GAAP net earnings could range from $0.41 to $0.54 per share. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Seth to discuss our financial results and expand on our guidance.