Earnings Labs

Pixelworks, Inc. (PXLW)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 15, 2018

$5.80

-0.17%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Pixelworks, Incorporated Fourth Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. I will be your operator for today’s call. [Operator Instructions]. This conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Pixelworks' CFO, Mr. Steve Moore.

Steven Moore

Analyst

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today. With me on the call is Todd DeBonis, Pixelworks' 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 fourth quarter and fiscal year 2017. 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 belief as of today, Thursday, February 15, 2018 and we undertake no obligation to update any such statements to reflect 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, 2016 and subsequent SEC filings for description 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 discussions of certain measures and financial information in GAAP and non-GAAP terms, including gross margin, operating expenses, net income loss and net income loss per share. These non-GAAP measures exclude deferred revenue share value adjustment, inventory step-up and backlog amortization, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition and integration related costs, stock-based compensation expense, restructuring expenses, fair value adjustment on convertible debt conversion option, discount accretion on convertible debt fair value, extinguishment of convertible debt and a tax benefit related to tax reform. With the exception of stock-based compensation and the tax benefit related to tax reform, all of these adjusting items are related to the acquisition and integration of ViXS Systems. We use these non-GAAP measures internally to assess our operating performance. The company believes these non-GAAP measures provide a meaningful perspective on our core operating results and underlying 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 income loss and GAAP net income loss to adjusted EBITDA which provide additional details. With that said, I will now turn the call over to Todd for his opening remarks.

Todd DeBonis

Analyst

Thank you, Steve and good afternoon to everyone joining us on today's call. Beginning with an overview of our results, fourth quarter revenue was $18.4 million which present a high end of our $17.5 million to $18.5 million guidance. For the full year, we achieved consolidated revenue growth of 35%, which doesn’t include over $15 million in revenue contribution from End of Life products. And on a pure organic basis and also excluding any contribution from the EOL we delivered year-on-year growth of over 25% marking a transformational year of growth for Pixelworks. Fourth quarter gross margins of 56.9% was also on the top end of our guidance as we benefited from a richer product mix resulting from our previous streamlining of Pixelworks product portfolio as well as the increased contribution from high margin video delivery products. Operating expenses were in line with the expectation and fourth quarter EPS was above the midpoint of our guidance. Although the impact from the ViXS acquisition weighed on EPS in the back half of 2017, we achieved solid profitability for the full year on a non-GAAP basis. Importantly, we have now fully completed the integration of the video delivery business positioning us to deliver on our commitment of the acquisition being accretive in 2018. Also notable, I want to highlight that we generated $1.4 million in cash flow from operations in Q4 and over $12 million for the full year. Turning to commentary and highlights on our three end markets of projector, mobile and video delivery. First, in our projector business. Fourth quarter revenue reflected better than typical seasonality on a sequential basis, and grew approximately 5% over the prior year fourth quarter. When excluding the contribution from EOL our projector business grew over 38% year-on-year. As of yearend, we now believe the…

Steven Moore

Analyst

Thank you, Todd. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2017 was $18.4 million compared to $18.8 million in the third quarter and revenue of $16 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. The year-on-year increase in fourth quarter revenue reflects the combination of continued growth in our core digital projection business as well as the first full quarter of revenue contribution from the acquired ViXS business. The breakdown of revenue during the fourth quarter was as follows; revenue from digital projector was approximately $15.1 million, mobile revenue was approximately $420,000 and revenue from video delivery was $2.5 million. Additionally, we recorded approximately 400,000 of legacy TV monitor products sold. Non-GAAP gross profit margin was 56.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to 54.9% in the third quarter of 2017 and 53.6% in the fourth quarter of 2016, the sequential and year-over-year expansion in gross profit margin during the quarter was due to a favorable mix of revenue including increased revenue contribution from our high margin video delivery solutions. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $10.6 million in the fourth quarter 2017 compared to $8.9 million in the third quarter 2017 and $7.3 million in the year ago fourth quarter. This expected sequential increase in operating expenses reflected that we did not recognize an offset to R&D during the fourth quarter associated with our co-development project with a large projector customer. While in the third quarter we benefited from approximately $1.3 million in credits related to this project. Additionally, we incurred a full quarter of expenses related to the acquired video delivery business. Adjusted EBITDA was $778,000 for the fourth quarter 2017 compared to $2.3 million in the third quarter 2017 and $2.1 million in the fourth quarter 2016. Reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to GAAP net income loss may be found in…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Charlie Anderson with Dougherty & Company.

Charlie Anderson

Analyst

Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. I think Todd you referenced in your script, the video delivery business you’re looking at 10 million run rate I think it was little bit higher previously. So wonder if you can just talk about what change happened there, and then also I wondered if you could revisit last quarter I think you talk about accelerating growth in 2019 and beyond. Is that still your view given some of the pickup you’ve seen mobile? I think you still expect the video delivery business to grow pretty good, so just an update on that? Then I’ve got a follow-up. Thanks.

Todd DeBonis

Analyst

So, first question regarding sort of level setting around the video delivery business. There’s sort of two variance. I mean, our view gone into this was probably closer to – we require a business that was at $12 million run rate that was going to grow, right. So you’re talking about a couple of million over the year. Where did that – where we seeing the weakness out of that $12 million at the starting point and there’s two areas, one is the legacy business which there are a lot of smaller customers, it was fairly high margin customers and they still are. And they are somewhat unpredictable but it was clear there was one large one in that group of customers that was sitting on quite a bit inventory that I did not know going into the deal. That was one of it. And then the second piece of it was the take rate on the 4K set-top boxes is starting to pick up, but it wasn't at the run rate that I had anticipated with the first product that we saw in Japan. So I think we’re seeing a little bit of weakness in both those areas at the starting point if you look at the main vectors that we were focused under an acquisition this still in place. I mean, its OTA streaming and then an expansion of these consumer products in Japan. And I stick with it at the very front end of that. The large customers that we acquired in the consumer space in Japan when we acquired the business was sharp, it still is sharp. The first project announced with the vicious the product line was started shipping I think in – I want to say mid 2017, so it was a fairly new product. And the thought process was that it was going to ramp quickly. It is ramp but it just not ramping as quickly as they thought. So that’s the area's office there. And then as far as your second question, do I still expect – if I still think were positioned for accelerated growth rate in 2019, I do.

Charlie Anderson

Analyst

Great. And then housekeeping question for Steve, I wonder if you could maybe just update on the status of the converts you guys acquired from Texas?

Steven Moore

Analyst

Sure. When we acquired the company, they had about approximately $5 million worth of U.S. convertible bonds. We had a small conversion in the fourth quarter, not worth mentioning but in January we have seen conversions of about $2.7 million out of that $5 million, and would expect that the remainder of about $2.3 million would either convert or be purchased back before the end of the quarter.

Charlie Anderson

Analyst

Got it. Okay. Thanks so much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Suji Desilva with Roth Capital.

Suji Desilva

Analyst · Roth Capital.

Hi, Todd, hi, Steve. Congrats on the progress of 2017. Steve, just the housekeeping question first, the inventory went up in 3Q and 4Q is that the projector business as well as balance sheet there?

Steven Moore

Analyst · Roth Capital.

The gross inventories actually came down and lot of that decline had to do with the step up of the inventory that we acquired from ViXS. So yes, it was automatic decrease. From a turn standpoint, that has more to do with the changes in revenue relative to that base.

Suji Desilva

Analyst · Roth Capital.

Okay. And then one housekeeping question where there revenues in the fourth quarter that with 400,000 of legacy TV product?

Steven Moore

Analyst · Roth Capital.

Yes. It was the OLED. We knew – we had this orders before we gave guidance so that was in our guidance. It was in a very high ASP which is also part of our higher margin guidance that we gave and in fact we had a number of things contributing to our good margin performance this quarter that was one of them.

Suji Desilva

Analyst · Roth Capital.

Okay. Great. And then couple of questions for Todd, on the business. Todd, you talking about timing of mobile revenues being mid 2018, does that presume the launches of the phones will be in a more second half holiday type launches or with some of the launches be a possibility for some of our customers to get going?

Steven Moore

Analyst · Roth Capital.

Telephones are out, I don’t like to talk too much about them, Suji, but I will say that with all those -- I mentioned 10 programs. Some of those programs are front half of the year. Some of them back of the year, some of them are launched in 2019 programs. So they’re all at various different stages of where they are in their cycle of development.

Suji Desilva

Analyst · Roth Capital.

Okay. That’s helpful. Lastly what metric should we watch for Pixelworks ViXS OTA growth? What would you suggest to be keeping an eye on to, note that is tacking in 2018 as an inflection trend?

Steven Moore

Analyst · Roth Capital.

Today it’s definitely an early adopter. I called it the hobbyist market. I mean, there’s a intent group of people that really do not want to pay for their either cable satellite and they still want their free broadcast TVs or television stations. And so there off and they are the ones driving the sales, but I think what incrementally or with the inflection will come is when you have a large OTT streaming service provider that has chose not to pay the retrans fees and bundle the regional broadcast, but instead offers their OTT streaming in conjunction with OTA free channels. And I think that’s when you’ll see a broader user base, when you see integrated software so that we have an EPG and a user guide, you will get the seamless look of both you’re free over the air channels and you pay channels that you choose to pay for. And I think once those types of solutions hit the market then there’ll be -- it will go beyond the hobbyist. It will start to hit more of a general populace. And I think then that’s when you see the growth rates.

Suji Desilva

Analyst · Roth Capital.

Okay, great. Thanks for the color, Todd. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Richard Shannon with Craig-Hallum.

Richard Shannon

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions as well. I guess, some of the question on the quarterly guide, any sense if you give us of the split up between the buckets there, if you maybe describe kind of sequentially and how would you describe those sequential changes in the first quarter relative to seasonality?

Todd DeBonis

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

We don’t – we’re not going to break out the components of revenue in our guidance, but we certainly, we already discussed starting from a lower base on the video delivery products. The decline in projector its consistent with our traditional declines, I think perhaps at the higher end over a number of years, but still within the range that we seen in the past, and that mostly as I think you understand driven by most of our projector customers are Japanese and Japan this is the year end so their inventories at the end of the year are depressed, leading into Q2 where their re-inventory or rebuilding inventories to a more normal run rate.

Richard Shannon

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

Okay. Fair enough. Question for you, Todd, I wonder to one of the earlier questions regarding OTA, you said you think the market is going to become less of the hobbyist to more mainstream once OTT providers integrate OTA in there. Are you seeing any real work being done development and potentially market and market development to make that a reality anytime in the foreseeable future? And if so can you maybe suggest exactly what’s going on and what kind timeframe to look further?

Todd DeBonis

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

Yes. We’re actively engaged in programs today and no, I can't comment on it.

Richard Shannon

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

Okay. But I guess not a surprising, but I’ll forward to more comment there in future. Let’s see, I guess one last question from me and I’ll jump out of line. You mentioned in your press release and remarks win with a reference design related to streaming service for HDR. Can you just describe to what extent you think this reference design will help drive design towards that and get some sort of enhanced reputation or preferred marketing access by using that reference design versus going at traditional fashion?

Todd DeBonis

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

Well, it’s definitely healthy. And it’s helping today on some of the programs that I mentioned earlier that we’re engaged in. And it’s a large stream service provider, somebody that spent the great deal of money on their own content or acquiring content, and has an initiative to get a high quality version of that content to mobile users. And the way that they can ensure that a mobile user sees their high-quality content as it was meant to be seen, is to actually qualify each phone model and then they whitelisted. And so, when that phone if it’s been whitelisted when it goes on to that video stream website, it will have access to mobile HDR content that non-whitelisted phones would not get access to, right. And that’s basically they just don’t make the content available if your phone is not going to display it in the manner it should be. And that’s how they control the experience of their consumer, right. And what we’re able to do we convince this streaming provider through a diligent effort and many demonstrations of with both LCD technology and OLED technology that we could as long this screen itself either LCD or OLED met certain criteria in conjunction with our display processing capability we would meet their what they viewed was a minimum criteria to be whitelisted. And so we went through several exercises. We proved our point. They agreed with us. And effectively they will support us as we go market, our offering to the phone manufacturers. So if the phone manufacturers care about either bundling that particular video streaming service provider’s path or they just think its compelling in the aftermarket, it helps us with our marketing effort, definitely.

Richard Shannon

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

Okay. That’s helpful. I think it’s all the questions from me. I’ll jump out the line guys. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And that concludes the question and answer session for today. I’d like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing remarks.

Todd DeBonis

Analyst

So, I’d actually prepared remark today, usually, I'd wing it. But so going into 2018, we believe that Pixelworks is well-positioned to participate in the rapidly developing highly disruptive markets of high-quality content delivery and multi-device consumption. We believe that these markets are in their infancy and will rapidly expand over the next three to five years. This management will continue to balance the best interest of all our stakeholders while investing an opportunity that position Pixelworks to achieve sustainable long-term growth. Our leveraged resource model is working well and we are focused on executing the strategy we put in place last year. On a final note someone asked me the other day if I was still having fun pixel works. I think I speak for the entire team when saying that we are having a blast. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today conference. This does concludes the program and you may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.