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QuickLogic Corporation (QUIK)

Q4 2007 Earnings Call· Thu, Jan 31, 2008

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the QuickLogic Corporation fourth quarter year 2007 earnings conference call. Today’s conference is being recorded and will be available for playback beginning one hour after the completion of the call. To access the replay, please dial 719-457-0820 and enter the pass code. At this time for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the conference to Mr. E. Thomas Hart, Chairman, President and CEO for QuickLogic. Sir please go ahead.

E. Thomas Hart

Chairman

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today. Carl will take you through our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007 financial results and then I’ll share my perspective on our business. Finally, Carl will detail our guidance for the first quarter of 2008 then we’ll take questions.

Carl M. Mills

Management

Before I get started, I’d like to read a short Safe Harbor statement. During this call we will make statements that are forward-looking. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, exceeding expectations relating to revenue growth from our new products, statements pertaining to our ability to convert new design opportunities into customer activity, market acceptance of our customers’ products, the expect of our Customer Specific Standard Products or CSSPs on our expected results and our financial expectations for revenue, gross margin, profitability and cash. QuickLogic’s future results could differ materially from these statements. We refer you to the risk factors listed in our annual report on Form 10K, quarterly reports on Form 10Q and part of our press releases for a description of these and other risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. For your information this conference call is open to all and is being webcast live. It can be accessed from the Investor Relations area of QuickLogic website located at www.QuickLogic.com/Investors. We are going to discuss our fourth quarter financial results and then touch briefly on our annual results. Overall for the fourth quarter of 2007 on a non-GAAP basis our revenue of $10.7 million increased 19% sequentially and was at the high end of our guidance. Our new product revenue of $3.5 million increased $1.9 million compared with Q3. This 117% sequential growth was driven by CSSP sales to Asia-Pacific for the portable navigation market. A customer purchasing CSSPs in this market space accounted for 21% of our total revenue in Q4. As we mentioned on earlier calls, we introduced the concept of CSSPs in the first quarter of 2007. CSSPs are complete solutions which we design and implement for target customers on our [inaudible] platforms.…

E. Thomas Hart

Chairman

Well, what can I say? A good quarter if I do say so myself with total revenue up 19% over last quarter and up 39% compared to the same quarter last year. Yes, another growth quarter from an overall revenue perspective but the real story here is that new product revenue including Customer Specific Standard Products improved by almost 2.2 times over last quarter to almost 33% of total revenue. New product revenue was 19% of total revenue for the whole year. It’s also important to note that 73% of new product revenue in the quarter was shipped into Asia-Pac and Japan. This compares to 28% of revenue for the rest of our business. And now just to close out the picture on pASIC 1 and pASIC 2 they were only 5% of total revenue for the quarter and just less than 6% for the total year This is now the end of the story on p1 and p2 families. They were good for our customers and good for us. Quite frankly I’m tired of talking about the product transition and living it and I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about it. The real excitement here though at QuickLogic is coming from our future prospects which a future based squarely on this concept we call Customer Specific Standard Products, or CSSPs. Our CSSPs are aimed directly at the fastest growing segment of the semiconductor market, namely consumer electronics and more specifically at the portable battery-powered handheld products such as smart phones, portable media players, personal navigation devices and wide-band data cards. Some of you have asked just how big is this market? Well we believe the total available market, the TAM, exceeds several billion units a year. Yes, that’s a billion with a capital B. We believe our served available…

Carl M. Mills

Management

Now let’s turn to our non-GAAP guidance for the first quarter of 2008 and some comments on our business. As Tom mentioned, our CSSPs are resulting revenue with major customers in our target markets. These customers are embracing our value propositions. We expect our focus on these accounts to result in significant revenue as a result of the good design traction we are generating. The new sales talent we have attracted to QuickLogic is clearly having a positive impact on our success. We expect these new hires to generate increased new product revenue in our target markets in the second half of 2008. We have strong demand for the first quarter including high demand for end-of-life products and strong demand for certain packages of mature products. Our expectation is that total Q1 revenue will grow to $11.2 million plus or minus $200,000. In the first quarter we do expect a decrease in new product revenue which is mainly attributable to non-P&D customers. As a result, we are counting that new product revenue will be $2.4 million plus or minus $200,000. We expect a sequential improvement in gross margin. During Q4 we shifted relatively high-cost inventory to the P&D market and future shipments will be at lower cost. Based on the mix of products we expect to ship in the first quarter and prime cost reductions we are guiding that gross margin will be 57% plus or minus 2%. We expect a sequential increase in our R&D expenses of $600,000 to $800,000. As noted earlier we have worked with top-tier customers in our target markets to find future generations, ArcticLink solutions platforms. We are purchasing Associated Intellectual Property in the first quarter. We expect first quarter SG&A expenses to be up $400,000 to $600,000 sequentially due primarily to higher need for…

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

This quarter I’d like to thank all of our employees and especially our operations team who responded to the challenge of supplying a tier-one customer with five times the unit volume that we supplied in Q3. Actually we shipped over twice as many units this past quarter as we’ve shipped in any quarter in the last three years. Great job team! On February 11th, we’ll be presenting at Security Research Associates Fourth Annual Winter Technology Conference in San Francisco. I hope you can join us. Our annual meeting of stockholders is scheduled for 10:00 am on April 22nd, 2008 and as a result, our first quarter earnings conference is scheduled for Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 2:30 pm Pacific Standard Time. Now let’s open up the call for questions.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) We’ll take our first question today from Edwin Mok, Needham & Company. Edwin Mok – Needham & Company: I’ve got a question regarding the quarter, I saw that your mature product actually declined sequentially a little bit. Can you maybe break it down and tell me which product sell less in that quarter?

Carl M. Mills

Management

Sequentially, Edwin, we had a slight decrease in our pASIC 3 business actually which was not fully offset by gross in our [inaudible] business. Edwin Mok – Needham & Company: You mentioned that first quarter you expect that group to be a little bit stronger, can you break it down? Is it a rebound case through your other product expect to have higher sales?

Carl M. Mills

Management

Yeah, we expect slightly higher growth in both mature and end-of-life products. Edwin Mok – Needham & Company: In the end-of-life products you guys still showed some growth last quarter. How do I visualize that going forward? Do you guys have some kind of guidance of when you expect those to basically complete fade away?

Carl M. Mills

Management

We think they’ll continue to be an important part of our revenue through the first half, but not be significant in Q3 and thereafter. Edwin Mok – Needham & Company: On your new product, did you recognize any revenue from ArcticLinks? And, how do you guys visualize that new product ranking throughout 08?

Carl M. Mills

Management

We have a smart phone PDA company that’s using ArticLink in a platform from which they want to spin multiple products and that was part of our revenue in Q3 and Q4. So we think that that’s a great example of somebody using a platform design to enable multiple products. We look forward to more designs like that hitting production. Edwin Mok – Needham & Company: One thing that you guys mentioned, this GPS alternative which sounds like it was a great opportunity for you guys. But it was not reported as a consumer product in your end markets and I was just curious where it was reported? And, are you guys working with that specific company on other platforms as well?

Carl M. Mills

Management

Well, just to let you know we’re going to re-spin our market segments and we’ll have new market segment data in our 10K and you’ll see we’ll break out the consumer piece then, but it’s showing up in instrumentation and test today. Edwin Mok – Needham & Company: Regarding the customer platform, are you guys working with them?

Carl M. Mills

Management

Yes, we continue to get new design opportunities at that customer. Edwin Mok – Needham & Company: One final question and I’ll leave the questions for others but, in terms of new design, how many new designs are you guys working on right now? And, I imagine that part has increased from the third to fourth quarter and how much was that increase from the third to the fourth quarter?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

We really haven’t shared that kind of metric with the public in the past, Edwin and the reason, quite frankly, is because there’s such a broad variance in terms of what working with means, where you are in the sales process, or where you are in the design process. We haven’t really felt that that’s been meaningful in the past. We track that pipeline rigorously internally. By the way, we’ve recently brought up www.SalesForce.com and have every opportunity that we’re working on in the field in that system and it’s reviewed with our sales guys every Monday. But we don’t share that with the outside world. Edwin Mok – Needham & Company: Maybe a different way to ask it then, besides the GPS product and also the smart phone product that you guys talked about before, any new product you guys can share with us? That would be great.

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

I don’t think we’ve talked about the WiFi storage product, specifically a product that uses WiFi for productivity to be able to give you basically a hard disk drive. There’s already a product that was announced quite a while ago in the market you may be aware of called [DAVE ICGate]. We’re not in that first product, but we are working with guys who are building those products and I would expect in the next several quarters you’ll see products introduced in the market with us in that solution or to implement solutions in that product.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Next, we’ll hear from Paul McWilliams, Inning Research. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: You made a comment in there, if I copied it down right, that 2008 would be a good growth year. Did I understand that correctly?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Yes, you did. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: Oh good. So we’re envisioning growth year-over-year for 2008?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: I remember, I was there.

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Yeah, so was I. Our plans are that 2008 will be our revenue will increase over 2007, yes. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: Very good, very good. I see the cards stacked appropriately. You mentioned in your press release that your growth in CSSP was due to what I took as a GPS design. Did I take that correctly?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

No, not really. It’s a platform, so there’s multiple products. It is with one customer. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: Would that be a tier-one customer?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

It is. In fact, we commented that it was a tier-one. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: Okay. Do you see the design that they’re using in that platform proliferating throughout the rest of their product line?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Well, it already has and actually now it’s moving onto other products. The challenge here is that we’re under pretty strict NDA with these guys and so they don’t like their suppliers, just like Apple as an example, they don’t like their suppliers talking about what they’re doing with them and this guy doesn’t either. So, it’s difficult for us to talk about specific plans with this customer. I can just tell you that this is not one product and it’s not one section of their product offering, it’s across a broad range of products and we’re seeing more and more of their products embrace us in different applications. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: The PDA design that you have, did that drive any revenue yet? Or when do you see that kicking in?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

It has driven some revenue. We see the real revenue though coming in late Q1, Q2 of this year. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: Okay. The GPS would probably ramp towards late Q1 maybe?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Jesus. It ramped like hell in Q4. How big a ramp do you want? Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: I want more.

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Well so do I. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: Let me try to word this question to where it’s a good question to answer. How many CSSP platform designs did you have active in Q4?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

I don’t know. I can tell you that the bulk of the revenue came out of a relatively small number. We’ve got a hell of a lot more in process, but the bulk of the revenue we’ve seen to date have come out of a relatively small number of CSSPs. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: Do you have a number that you could envision of the number of platforms that will be active in production in either Q1 or Q2 or some point in time in the future?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

I’d rather not answer that off the top of my head. We have a model that we’ve looked at to forecast to get our arms around revenue or to get an outlook on what revenue potential could be from these opportunities. And so, yeah we know how many platforms and products we expect out of the tier-one guys, the tier-two guys and the various market segments of PPS or a PND, portable media players, smart phones. But we haven’t shared that with the outside world. But if you look at the TAM and the SAM for those segments, the smart phone/PDA is huge from a unit volume perspective and from a product proliferation perspective compared with all of the other segments. So we’ve got a lot of focus on that as you’d expect. Paul McWilliams – Inning Technology Research: Oh, I bet. One last one, and I do appreciate you guys reiterating your target operating model and that’s at $25 million a quarter, I trust. When do you think you might hit that?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Can’t do that. Can’t do that. But, We’re betting on the fact that it’s going to be in my lifetime.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) We’ll now take a follow-up question from Edwin Mok, Needham & Company.

Edwin Mok

Analyst

You mentioned that there was a part of your revenue for last quarter that comes from previously written down product. How much does that help your gross margin for this fourth quarter? Needham & Company: You mentioned that there was a part of your revenue for last quarter that comes from previously written down product. How much does that help your gross margin for this fourth quarter?

Carl M. Mills

Management

6.5% of revenue.

Edwin Mok

Analyst

6.5%. And, you expect to see some of that in the first quarter as well? Needham & Company: 6.5%. And, you expect to see some of that in the first quarter as well?

Carl M. Mills

Management

It won’t be as high in Q1. It’ll be probably more to our historic levels. There was a big pop that went out the door in Q4.

Edwin Mok

Analyst

So that 57% gross margin guidance has already factored in although it’s a much smaller contribution there, right? Is that correct? Needham & Company: So that 57% gross margin guidance has already factored in although it’s a much smaller contribution there, right? Is that correct?

Carl M. Mills

Management

Correct. Absolutely right.

Edwin Mok

Analyst

Another housekeeping question, you mentioned that R&D expense basically rose less than expected, but you expect R&D expense to increase $600,000 to $800,000. Is that the same IP investment that you guys were planning that you guys basically pushed out for fourth quarter last quarter? Needham & Company: Another housekeeping question, you mentioned that R&D expense basically rose less than expected, but you expect R&D expense to increase $600,000 to $800,000. Is that the same IP investment that you guys were planning that you guys basically pushed out for fourth quarter last quarter?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Not exactly, but it’s close.

Carl M. Mills

Management

What we came up with in the quarter was a much more cost-effective design which didn’t take the exact same set of IP, but we’ve pulled the trigger on that IP this quarter so that those expenses will go up this quarter.

Edwin Mok

Analyst

So this quarter at least you guys expect that expense to come in? Needham & Company: So this quarter at least you guys expect that expense to come in?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Correct.

Edwin Mok

Analyst

Finally, Tom, you mentioned pASIC 1 and 2 is only 5% of your – I think you said 5% of your revenue. I just want to verify that and also do you guys expect to see any revenue in the first half of this year? Needham & Company: Finally, Tom, you mentioned pASIC 1 and 2 is only 5% of your – I think you said 5% of your revenue. I just want to verify that and also do you guys expect to see any revenue in the first half of this year?

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Edwin, I said that was end of story. I’m not going to talk about pASIC, Edwin.

Edwin Mok

Analyst

That’s a good way to answer that. Needham & Company: That’s a good way to answer that.

Operator

Operator

I see no further questions at this time, gentlemen. I’ll turn the conference back over to you for any additional or closing comments.

E. Thomas Hart

Operator

Okay. Well thank you for your interest in QuickLogic. We believe CSSPs are our future and we’re working very hard to make us be a significant business of lasting value. Thanks for your patience and sticking with us. Take care.

Operator

Operator

That does conclude today’s QuickLogic fourth quarter year 2007 earnings release conference. I thank you all for joining us.