C. S. Lo
Analyst · Pacific Crest Securities
Thank you, Christopher. And thank you, everyone, for joining today's call. Before we begin with the financial results and outlook for 2015, I would like to highlight the successes that we had in 2014. During last year, we significantly increased the average selling prices for the Retail Business Unit, with our Nighthawk line of routers and our entry into the Cable Gateway segment in U.S. retail. We rapidly expanded our online presence, particularly at Amazon.com worldwide. We continued to excel in the switching market. We expanded our LTE footprint into new accounts and into retail. We continued to expand within Asia-Pacific region. First, we returned a compelling amount of capital to shareholders. We will look to build on all these successes in the year ahead. On the other hand, we are faced with stiff headwinds in the service provider wireline business due to the reduction of wireline investment amongst service providers. We are adjusting our strategy for the coming quarters by focusing more on the LTE side of the business as well as a limited but strategic set of wireline customers, where we believe we can add the most value. We'll discuss this in more detail in a moment. NETGEAR's net revenue was $1.39 billion for the full year of 2014, which is up 1.7% compared to full year 2013 revenues. For the fourth quarter of 2014, NETGEAR net revenue was $353.2 million, which is down 1% on a year-over-year basis and flat on a sequential basis. Non-GAAP EPS for the full year 2014 was $2.54. Non-GAAP diluted EPS for the fourth quarter of 2014 was $0.65, which is up 10.2% year-over-year. For a full reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please refer to the fourth quarter and full year 2014 earnings press release. During the fourth quarter, net revenue for the Americas was $194.7 million, down 7.9% year-over-year and slightly up quarter-over-quarter. It was a very successful holiday season for the Retail Business Unit, but the Service Provider Business Unit suffered from the overall contraction in service provider CapEx spending that will, believe me, persist throughout 2015. Europe, the Middle East and Africa, or EMEA, net revenue was $106.2 million, which is up 6.3% year-over-year and down 2% quarter-over-quarter. While the depreciation of all European currencies created challenges for this region, we are pleased with the strength that each of the 3 business units demonstrated against our EMEA competition. Our Asia-Pacific or APAC's net revenue was $52.3 million, which is up 15.3% from the prior year's comparable quarter and up 2.5% quarter-over-quarter. This was a record net revenue quarter for APAC. Our high-end router sales continue to do well in this region where we have successfully built upon our market position as the premium home networking brand available in retail. On the commercial side, we have been successful with solution sales in all of the Asia-Pacific countries. In Q4, we maintained a high level of shipments with $6.6 million units shipped. We also introduced 24 new products during the quarter. As always, sales channel's development is a key focus for the company as our sales channel remains a critical strategic asset. By the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, our products were sold in approximately 44,000 retail outlets around the world, and our number of value-added resellers stands at approximately 36,000. Now let's turn to our review of the fourth quarter results for our 3 business units: retail, commercial and service provider. For the Retail Business Unit or RBU, net revenue came in at $147.9 million, which is up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis and up 12.6% sequentially. The fourth quarter of 2014 was a record-breaking quarter for the Retail Business Unit in terms of net revenue, and we are very pleased with RBU's performance during the holiday season. With the introduction of our Arlo cameras in Q1, we look forward to further grow from RBU in 2015. RBU's strength continues to be driven by our Nighthawk routers and cable gateways in Q4. The Nighthawk line of 802.11ac routers was a hit with consumers during the holiday season. Additionally, NETGEAR has successfully established itself as a leader in the retail cable gateway market in the United States. This market has been growing very rapidly as consumers are increasingly purchasing the cable gateways from retail to avoid the costly monthly rental fees charged by service providers as well as gain improved home WiFi performance. We plan to continue to expand these 2 product lines in the coming quarters. If you attended our Analyst Day in November of last year, then you are already familiar with Arlo, our smart home brand. Arlo is NETGEAR's new product line for bringing the Internet of Things into the home. We have kicked off the product line with the Arlo smart home security camera, the world's first 100% wire-free, indoor and outdoor, high-definition, day-and-night vision, IP camera for home monitoring. Unlike other home IP cameras on the market, it is battery-operated and weatherproof, meaning, that it can be placed anywhere inside or outside the house without being constrained by the availability of power outlets. Our Arlo cameras are currently available on Amazon.com in the U.S. and in a very limited set of North American retailers. We plan to rapidly expand Arlo's distribution in North America and worldwide in the coming quarters. The Commercial Business Unit or CBU generated net revenue of $79.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, which is up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis and up 10.3% sequentially. The market demand of our 10Gig and PoE switches continue to be robust. With the January introduction of the M6100 series of chassis switch on the high end and the revolutionary Click Switches on the low end, we believe our momentum in switching is strong heading into 2015. The Click Switch is a simple yet innovative piece of hardware that allows for easy, flexible switch mounting and reduced wire clutter, with a star at our CES exhibition floor in January. For our Service Provider Business Unit, or SPBU, net revenue came in at $125.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2014. This is down 13.6% year-over-year and down 16.1% on a sequential basis. As stated in our prior earnings call, we had expected service provider revenues to decline due to CapEx spending weakness at certain major service providers in both North American and Europe. As you all know, in addition to reduced CapEx spending, the service provider industry is going through a period of consolidation, which has affected and will likely continue to affect SPBU's performance. Looking at 2015, our service provider customers have indicated that purchase constraints will further deteriorate throughout the year and that this deterioration will not be temporary. We have chosen to pass on a certain unprofitable wireline business deals that do not fit with the financial discipline that we have at NETGEAR. Service providers are going through a transition as they appear to be reducing wireline investments but continuing to invest in wireless. We are adjusting our R&D and sales coverage accordingly. For our Service Provider Business Unit, we expect the revenue decline to continue in the current quarter and believe SPBU may settle at the $100 million to $105 million per quarter level for the rest of the year. Given SPBU's reduced revenue outlook for 2015 and to keep our costs in line with SPBU revenue, we are taking definitive steps to resize the cost structure of this business unit and concentrate the remaining resources on LTE and long-term and profitable accounts. I'd like to highlight that the 4G LTE business continues to represent our largest growth opportunity in the Service Provider Business Unit. Meanwhile, we will redeploy the cost savings and reinvest that over the next few quarters on growth opportunities for both RBU and CBU. We will continue to add resources in these areas to maintain our technology and channel leadership. In summary, while 2015 is going to be a transition year for the Service Provider Business Unit, we believe that the Retail Business Unit and Commercial Business Unit have exciting and profitable opportunities in front of us. RBU stands to benefit from the continued introduction and the wider adoption of new 802.11ac technology as well as the accelerated penetration of home monitoring and automation products into consumers' homes. The Commercial Business Unit, our most profitable business unit, will continue to provide unique solutions in switching, wireless LAN and storage to the underserved SMB verticals, specifically, health care, hospitality and K-12 schools. I will now turn the call over to Christine for further commentary on our financials for the quarter.