Adam C. Spice
Analyst · Tore Svanberg with Stifel, Nicolaus
Thank you, Kishore. I will first review our results, and then briefly discuss our outlook. In summary, our Q4 revenue of $24.8 million is slightly below the low end of our guidance of $25 million to $26 million and proves challenging in the face of late-breaking inventory correction in cable. While our Q4 revenue decline on a quarter-on-quarter basis by 11%, it grew by a robust 29% compared to the year-ago quarter. As Kishore noted, the revenues from cable took a modest step back in the quarter, following 4 consecutive quarters of growth. The weakness in cable was restricted to our DOCSIS 3.0 voice and data modem products, and we estimate the deployment momentum behind DOCSIS 3.0 modems will remain strong with major MSOs in 2013. Now moving to the rest of the income statement. GAAP and non-GAAP gross profit for the fourth quarter were both approximately 63% of revenue, above our prior guidance of 61%. This compares to 63% in the third quarter of 2012 and 61% in the year-ago quarter. The significant improvement in gross margins relative to our guidance was largely due to a combination of cost improvement driven by our supply chain team, favorable product mix changes and less-than-anticipated declines of our product ASPs. Our Q4 GAAP operating results -- operating expenses were $20.1 million, which included $2.8 million of stock-based compensation, $1.3 million for an accrual related to our performance-based equity bonus plan for 2012 and $1.1 million in net professional fees related to the Silicon Labs patent litigation and previously disclosed export compliance matter. As we've discussed previously, payouts under our 2012 performance bonus plan will be settled through shares of MaxLinear's stock. Net of these items, OpEx was $14.9 million, which is in line with our prior guidance of $15 million. Fourth quarter GAAP OpEx included $12.6 million of R&D expenses, which in turn includes stock-based compensation of $1.8 million and $800,000 related to the 2012 bonus plan. The step up in R&D spending relative to Q3 2012, as per the guidance, was primarily due to project-driven engineering expenses related to a 40-nanometer R&D take out targeting our new satellite initiatives. Fourth quarter GAAP OpEx included $7.5 million of SG&A, which includes $1 million of stock-based compensation, $600,000 in bonus plan accruals and $1.1 million in net professional fees related to Silicon Labs patent litigation and previously disclosed export compliance matter. $1.1 million in net professional fees benefited from a $300,000 accrual reversal for potential fines and penalties arising from any potential violation of U.S. export controls and sanctions laws. We are pleased to note that these U.S. export compliance-related matters have been closed out with the relevant government agency with no resulting fines or penalties. At the end of the fourth quarter 2012, our headcount was 276, as compared to 264 at the end of the third quarter and 255 at the end of 2011. Within the increased headcount in the quarter, we are beginning to realize the benefits of our efforts to optimize R&D expenses by appropriately balancing hiring across our R&D design centers in the U.S., India, China and Taiwan. GAAP loss from operations was $4.4 million in Q4 compared to income from operations of $400,000 in the prior quarter, a GAAP loss from operations of $4.2 million in Q4 of last year. GAAP loss from operations was $12.9 million for the full year 2012 versus GAAP loss from operations of $15 million for 2011. GAAP net loss per share in the fourth quarter was $0.14 on fully diluted shares outstanding of $32.6 million. GAAP net loss per share includes $2.8 million in stock-based compensation expense, $1.3 million from the accrual related to our 2012 performance based bonus plan, and $1.1 million net professional fees attributable the Silicon Labs patent litigation. Net of these items, our non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.02. For the full year 2012, GAAP loss per share was $0.40 and non-GAAP income per share was $0.14, compared to full year 2012 GAAP and non-GAAP losses per share of $0.68 and $0.11, respectively, on a fully diluted basis. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Our cash, cash equivalents and investments balance was approximately $77.3 million at the end of the fourth quarter 2012, compared to $80 million in the prior quarter and $85.7 million at the end of 2011. Our cash generated in operations for the fourth quarter 2012 was $1.4 million, approximately $4.9 million less than in the third quarter 2012, and approximately $3.3 million better than the year-ago quarter. As you recall, we used $2.8 million of our cash to buy back 500,000 shares from our lone remaining VC investor in the fourth quarter. This brings the total share repurchase for 2012 to 2.165 million shares for a total of $12.1 million. Accounts receivable totaled $14.6 million at the end of the fourth quarter compared to $16.3 million in the prior quarter and $10.4 million at the end of 2011. The days sales outstanding for the fourth quarter was approximately 56 days, or 4 days higher than in the previous quarter and 16 days more than the DSOs of 40 days in the year-ago quarter. The year-on-year increase in DSOs is primarily a function of customer mix. As we have moved to a more direct sales for cable customers, we benefited from lower distributor cost, but generally experienced less favorable and slower payment terms that have adversely affect our DSOs -- have affect our DSOs. We remain comfortable with the quality of our accounts receivable rating, having experienced very limited bad debt expense. As a reminder, we only recognize revenue on a sell-through basis and as such, we're not subject to revenue fluctuations caused by changes in distributor inventory levels. Our in-house inventory at the end of the quarter was $9.9 million, up approximately $1 million compared to $8.9 million in the previous quarter and up approximately $1.8 million versus the $8.1 million at the end of 2011. Our inventory turns declined 3.9x in the fourth quarter compared 4.7x in the third quarter, and improved relative to the 3.5x at the end of 2011. We continue to elect to build inventory of new products to support upside opportunities, primarily in cable and hybrid TVs. That leaves me to our guidance. We are pleased to note that we expect revenue in the first quarter of '13 to increase approximately 5% to 10% sequentially to $26 million to $27 million. [indiscernible] to this range, we expect our cable revenues to increase on a quarter-on-quarter basis by approximately 7% to 10%, with growth across all applications, but more so in DOCSIS 3.0 data and voice modems and cable DTA. In our terrestrial applications, we anticipate revenues to be flat to up 5% on a quarter-over-quarter basis with growth, if any, arriving from sales of our hybrid TV tuners. Recent feedback from our larger customers in the cable and data modem application indicate that the dynamics behind our customers drawing down their inventories in the fourth quarter of 2012 have largely passed. Although bookings continue to lag somewhat relative to recent quarters, we entered -- as we entered the quarter, we registered strong bookings for our cable customers. We are also encouraged by the increased activity in the TV business for our new hybrid TV solutions, which being more of a turns business continues to be difficult to predict accurately with any given quarter. We expect GAAP to non-GAAP gross profit percentage to be approximately 61% for the first quarter. Our gross profit percentage forecast could vary somewhat depending on product mix and other factors, in particular, the relative contribution of cable and terrestrial applications. We continue to fund strategic development programs targeted at delivering attractive top line growth in 2013 and beyond, with a focus on increasing the operating leverage of the business. We expect Q1 2013 GAAP operating expenses to be flat relative to the prior quarter at around $20 million, with normal seasonal payroll-related step ups that are further impacted by recent U.S. payroll tax rate changes. Our stepped up payroll-related expenses, include the fourth quarter effect of our incremental Q4 hires and anticipated Q1 hiring. These step ups will be partially offset by a lack of R&D tape-outs expense in the quarter and an anticipated step down in expenses related to the Silicon Labs patent litigation. We expect that Q1 2013 non-GAAP operating expenses will also be relatively flat at $15 million, with payroll associated increases, again, offset by a lack of any expense to R&D 40 nanometer tape-out operating expenses during the quarter. So in summary, we are pleased to report that despite delivering slightly lower-than-projected revenues in Q4, we realized significant gross margin upside of 200 basis points. OpEx came in on target and we were able to deliver another quarter of positive operating cash flow. More importantly, our guidance for Q1 2013, revenues growing by 5% to 10% over the prior quarter, signals optimism regarding the resumption of product cycle driven top line growth. With that, I'd like now to open the call to questions. Operator?