looks good
Catalyst Semiconductor Q4'00 Net Profits Up 544% as Revenues Raise 111% vs. Q4'99 -- Earnings Per Share $0.24
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 22, 2000--Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. (OTCBB:CATS - news) today announced its financial results for the fiscal year and quarter ended April 30, 2000.
Revenues for the fourth quarter were $17.1 million, up 111% from $8.1 million in the fourth quarter a year ago. Net profit for the quarter was $4.9 million or $0.24 per diluted share, up 544% from a net profit of $0.9 million or $0.05 per diluted share in the fourth quarter a year ago. On a sequential quarterly basis, revenue was up 37% compared to $12.5 million and net profit increased 113% from $2.3 million in the third fiscal quarter.
Revenues for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2000 were $49.5 million compared with revenues of $32.0 million in fiscal year 1999. Net profit for the fiscal year was $10.0 million or $0.50 per diluted share, compared with a profit of $0.2 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the previous fiscal year. The Company has recorded a total of $1.2 million of non-recurring credits in the first and second quarters of fiscal 2000. Excluding such non-recurring credits, the Company would have reported a net profit of $8.8 million or $0.44 per diluted share for fiscal 2000.
Radu Vanco, President and Chief Executive Officer said, ``Over the last few quarters we operated in an environment characterized by substantially increased demand while supply was limited due to fab capacity constraints. In the last few months, we have seen this situation intensifying in our market segment. Bookings for certain products were very strong while the average selling prices have continued to increase through the current quarter. Over the past two quarters we have worked with Oki, our primary foundry, and Xfab, our new foundry based in Lubbock, Texas, to address this situation. During the fourth quarter we made the first shipments from a second fab at Oki which is dedicated to Flash products. Last month we also made the first volume shipments from Xfab. We expect the impact of this progress to show in the quarter just commenced.''
``During the quarter, we also made the first shipments of our new high density 64K and 128K EEPROM product family with high speed, Motorola compatible SPI bus interface'', continued Vanco. ``The SPI interface enables fast data transfer on a serial bus, a critical requirement for larger memories in many applications. In addition, while continuing to focus on developing our core Flash/EEPROM business, over the last few months we have received and shipped the first orders of our new programmable micro-controller supervisory product family. These circuits combine in the same package programmable reset control and watchdog timer functions with a serial EEPROM. They are intended to provide superior functionality, data security, reduced board space and reduced cost to our customers. In this way, we are taking the first strides in expanding our product offerings into the growing $3 billion market for power management products with the objective of leveraging our technology to offer the advantages of programmability, flexibility, shorter lead-time and reduced cost. While we do not expect these new products to contribute significant revenues in the short term, we think they represent an important strategic opening for the Company.''
The Company also announced that is in the process of applying for NASDAQ relisting. Vanco said, ``We know there are many shareholders who are anxiously waiting to see the Company return to the NASDAQ market and we are taking the necessary steps.''
Founded in 1985, Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc., is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. The Company designs and markets a broad range of programmable products including Flash Memories, Serial and Parallel EEPROMs, programmable Mixed Signal and Micro-controller Supervisory circuits. Catalyst products are used in telecommunications, networking systems, computation, industrial and consumer markets driven by the Internet revolution. Typical applications include modems, network cards, PC BIOS, DIMM modules, cellular telephones, digital satellite box receivers, set-top boxes and Internet routers. Catalyst's Quality Management System is ISO 9001 certified. Additional information may be obtained visiting Company's web-site at www.catsemi.com. |
