Earnings Labs

Pixelworks, Inc. (PXLW)

Q1 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Apr 25, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Pixelworks Incorporated’s first quarter 2013 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. At the conclusion of today’s conference call, instructions will be given for the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, today, Thursday, April 25th, 2013. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Steve Moore.

Steve Moore

Management

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. This is Steve Moore, Chief Financial Officer of Pixelworks. With me today is Bruce Walicek, President and CEO. The purpose of today’s conference call is to supplement the information provided in our press release issued earlier today announcing the company’s financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that various remarks we make on this call, including those about our projected future financial results, economic and market trends and our competitive position constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements and all other statements made on this call that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. All forward-looking statements are based on the company’s state as of today, Thursday, April 25th, 2013 and we undertake no obligation to update any such statements in respect to events or circumstances occurring after today. Please refer to today’s press release, our annual report on form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, and please see SEC files for descriptions of factors that could cause forward-looking statements to differ materially from actual results. Additionally, the company’s press release and management’s statements during this conference call will include discussion of certain measures and financial information in GAAP and non-GAAP terms including gross margin, operating expenses, net loss and net loss per share. These non-GAAP measure include – exclude stock-based compensation expense and additional amortization of the pre-paid royalty. We use these non-GAAP measures internally to sense our operating performance. The company believes these non-GAAP measures provide a meaningful prospective on our core operating results and underlining cash flow dynamics, but we caution investors to consider these measures in addition to, not as a substitute for, nor superior to the company’s consolidated financial results as presented in accordance with GAAP. Included in the company’s press release are definitions and reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP net loss and GAAP net loss to projected EBITDA which provide additional details. Bruce will begin today’s call with a strategic update on the business. Afterwards, I will review our Q1 financial results and discuss our outlook for the second quarter of 2013.

Bruce Walicek

Management

Thanks, Steve. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join us today. Q1 2013 was clearly a disappointing quarter as revenues of 8.3 million came in below the range of guidance provided in our Q4 2012 conference call. The quarter was impacted by worse-than-normal seasonality due to a difficult demand environment, prolonging a severe inventory correction centered predominately in Japan, combined with an IP deal pushing out to Q2. All other non-GAAP metrics came in within the range of guidance with OpEx below the range as we continue to focus on tight expense control and cash preservation measures; although all book-to-bills is great than one, reflecting an improving environment as customers recover and work through their inventory overhang. During the quarter, we made significant progress with our co-development project to develop a high-integrated next-generation chip that will result in significant revenue and market share gain\ in 2014 and we are on track to execute and deliver our next crucial milestone in Q2. Additionally, regarding our IP licensing business, we exited the quarter with the most robust licensing pipeline that we have seen to date for Pixelworks’ technology, which now validates the growing importance of our portfolio, advanced video display processing techniques. In our PA Series product line, the large screen display applications, in Q1, we entered into the PA168 Video Display Processor, which is targeted for Ultra HD 4Kx2K applications. And after successful demonstrations, customers are in development for the new 4Kx2K models for 2013 and we will begin mass production shipments to Tier 1 OEMs this quarter and expect volume production to build during the second half of 2013. The PA168 is designed to meet the performance environments of new high-resolution 4Kx2K screens and handle the most demanding and difficult video processing problems to create…

Steve Moore

Management

Thank you, Bruce. Revenue from the first quarter 2013 was 8.3 million compared to 13.69 in the fourth quarter of 2012 and 14.3 million in the year-ago quarter. As Bruce mentioned, revenue declined in the quarter due to worse-than typical seasonality as a result of weaker-than-expected demand at Japanese customers. Revenue was further impacted by a push out in licensing revenue that we expected to be recognized in the first quarter. What screwed up our first quarter revenue by market was 66% [inaudible] projection, 16% TV and panel and 18% embedded video display. Licensing revenue was negligible during the quarter compared to approximately 2.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenues from digital projection was down 4 million sequentially to approximately 5.5 million in Q1 as key customers, specifically in Japan, continued to eject inventories to low levels to meet the demand. Revenue from TV and panel was down approximately 900,000 sequentially to 1.3 million in Q1 primarily due to seasonality’s impact on end-market demand and product transition to Ultra High Definition Televisions. Embedded video display revenue in Q1 was approximately 1.5 million. Non-GAAP gross profit margin was 49.7% in the first quarter compared to 49.9% in the previous quarter and 55.7% in the first quarter of 2012. The decline in gross profit margin from the previous quarter was largely due to reduced fixed cost absorption offset by favorable product mix during the first quarter of 2013. Gross profit in the first quarter of 2012 was positively effective by the recognition of approximately 2.1 million in [inaudible]. Non-GAAP operating expenses were 8.9 million in the first quarter as we continued to be committed to strict expense management. This compares to 9.2 million in the prior quarter and 8.6 million in Q1 2012. We continue to expect that we will complete all…

Operator

Operator

(Operator instructions). And your first question today is from the line of Krishna Shankar with ROTH Capital Partners.

Krishna Shankar - ROTH Capital Partners

Analyst

Yes, on the revenue outlook for Q2, the sequential growth, is that driven by, you know, an entity in inventory correction in Japan? Can you talk about the relative trajectory of growth in the projector versus the TV business going into Q2?

Steve Moore

Management

We do expect our projector companies to return to a more normal pattern in Q2. They’ve driven down inventories pretty dramatically over the last couple of quarters and we do expect to see, and are seeing the pattern of purchase orders coming in in a more normal sense. On the television side, the larger ramp for 168, we expect to be in the second half of the year.

Krishna Shankar - ROTH Capital Partners

Analyst

Okay. And then you expect the IP licensing deal that got pushed out, that will likely close in Q2 you think?

Steve Moore

Management

We certainly do expect it to close in Q2.

Krishna Shankar - ROTH Capital Partners

Analyst

Okay. And then you announced you had a number of design wins for the 4Kx2K TV platforms. Will that be driving the bulk of the revenues in the TV business in the second half of this year or can you give us a sense for what – how the TV business might shape up going into the second half?

Bruce Walicek

Management

The 168, Kris, this is Bruce. The 168 will be a big component of that, although we’re continuing to see good demand for our 136 series of video processors as well.

Krishna Shankar - ROTH Capital Partners

Analyst

Okay. And then, Bruce, you talked about some upcoming, I guess highlights in the announcements at Computex. Can you elaborate a little more on the technology platform that you were showing at Computex for addressing display technology in various screens?

Bruce Walicek

Management

Yes. We’re planning for key customers and partners on demoing our technology for improving the displays of all screens and we showed a little bit of that at CES, at least some early results at CES and I think we’ll show robust results and demos at Computex here in June.

Krishna Shankar - ROTH Capital Partners

Analyst

Great. Thank you and good luck.

Bruce Walicek

Management

Thanks Krishna.

Operator

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question-and-answer portion as there are no further calls in the queue. I’d like to turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks they’d like to make.

Bruce Walicek

Management

Thank you for joining us today and we’ll look forward to talking to you on our Q2 2013 conference call. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for your participation today. This does conclude our presentation and you may now disconnect. Have a great day.