Robert A. Bruggeworth
Analyst · Brean Capital
Thanks, Doug, and welcome, everyone. In the September quarter, RFMD continued to benefit from the increasing global demand for mobile data. Revenue grew approximately 17% year-over-year to $362 million. Gross profit was $174 million. Operating income was $100 million, and earnings per share were $0.30. Each of these were company records, reflecting sharp focus and crisp execution by the RFMD team and supported by favorable market dynamics. Across the mobile data landscape, consumers are demanding more bandwidth to support their data-hungry applications. Carriers are requiring greater throughput from their available spectrum, and device manufacturers are seeking greater functionality within the same footprint, with a bias towards broader network coverage in global and superregional flagship devices. In each instance, RFMD solutions are a key enabling technology. Dating back to the transition from analog to digital cellular standards, every increase in the efficient delivery of mobile data has depended on some combination of increased RF content, increased RF functionality or increased RF performance. We've seen download speeds rocket from kilobits per second to tens of megabits per second. And over the next several years, our industry is targeting 1 gigabyte per second. These increases have come through either new modulation schemes or increasing bandwidth. New modulation schemes embed more data in the available spectrum to deliver substantial increases in throughput. However, the higher data density requires enhanced RF performance. Also, innovation cycles require years, and the implementation of every next-generation technology introduces new complexity and new challenges for the device manufacturers, base station manufacturers and network operators. Between these generational cycles, from analog to 2G, from 3G to 4G and from 4G to 5G, additional bandwidth can be added to boost throughput. But this brings new challenges for device manufacturers, base station manufacturers and network operators, creating new opportunities for suppliers of RF solutions. In each case, RFMD helped solve these challenges, reducing system complexity, shrinking product footprint, extending battery life and enabling more efficient delivery of mobile data. RFMD is a leading supplier of both multimode and discrete power amplifiers, and RFMD is helping to deploy innovative new technologies like carrier aggregation and transmit MIMO, which combine independent channels of bandwidth to achieve higher data rates and help operators to monetize their spectrum investments. RFMD is also pioneering the development of new RF power management schemes like envelope tracking, which tracks and adjusts the voltage delivered to the PA in realtime to optimize efficiency and extend battery life. Of note, we're very early in the deployment of these enabling technologies. Nearly half of the world's handsets today are still 2G and contain less than $1 of RF content. That's increasing to several dollars over a multiyear period as handsets move from 2G to 3G and from 3G to 4G. As I said earlier, mobile data is enabled in 2 ways. The shift to next-generation air standards delivers greater modulation, while the introduction of new bands and new technologies like carrier aggregation increases bandwidth. In both cases, RFMD is a primary enabler, and our growth opportunities are expanding significantly as our content per handset goes from dimes to dollars. Whether you look at smartphones, consumer premise equipment or network infrastructure, customers are seeking the advantages of scale and broad system-level expertise as well as comprehensive product and technology portfolios to optimize system performance and improve our efficiency. These dynamics are expanding our growth opportunities across markets, customers and products, enabling RFMD to capture increasing content in a broad set of products and further diversify our revenue base. In the markets served by our Multi-Market Products Group, we enjoyed broad-based sequential growth and diversification through product and technology leadership. We are supporting the deployment of wireless infrastructure in China and around the world, and we expect the upgrade of 4G networks to be a multiyear expansion. WiFi continues its healthy expansion in devices and equipment, and we are still very early in the adoption of 802.11ac. We are capturing incremental growth in automotive, home automation and other broadband connectivity applications comprising the Internet of Things. We are targeting multiple applications that leverage our advanced gallium nitride technology in networks, systems and devices. So from a very high level, RFMD is both a primary enabler and a primary beneficiary of the exploding demand for mobile data. As the industry moves to cloud-based platforms and we target download speeds of 1 gigabyte per second, these RF connections are growing in importance, and the RF TAM is expanding accordingly. RFMD is supplying our industry's leaders the products they need to differentiate their devices, and we are enjoying very favorable design activity. Our revenue drivers are large, multiyear opportunities, and we see sustainable, long-term, diversified growth across markets, customers and product categories. Looking into 2015 and beyond, we expect revenue growth greater than the industry and EPS growth well ahead of our revenue growth. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Dean.