Altera Reports Second Quarter Results
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jul 23, 2001 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR chart, msgs) today announced pro forma second quarter earnings per diluted share
of $0.09, down from the $0.23 per share in the second quarter of 2000, but exceeding First Call consensus estimates of $0.08 per share. Second quarter pro forma income
was $36.0 million versus $98.3 million net income in the prior year's second quarter. The company's second quarter pro forma income excludes the effects of the previously
announced $127 million pre-tax charge for inventory write downs and restructuring actions taken in the second quarter and a $20 million patent litigation settlement
payment. Including these non-recurring items, second quarter net loss was $89.2 million, or $0.23 per diluted share.
Second quarter sales of $215.3 million were down 25% from the previous quarter and down 37% from the same period last year, consistent with prior guidance.
Excluding March transactions that settled in April, Altera repurchased 1.15 million shares of its common stock during the quarter at a cost of $28.9 million. Altera ended the
quarter with $833.0 million of cash.
"Despite the difficult industry downturn, Altera's 64% gross margin and tight expense controls yielded a 17% return on sales on a pro forma basis, and we continue to
outpace the industry in new product introductions," said John Daane, president and CEO. "This quarter we shipped the industry's first PLD with an embedded
microprocessor--an ARM(R)-based Excalibur(TM) device. We also shipped our first APEX(TM) II device, which sets new standards for PLD performance. Our design-win
momentum continues to build as the value of this quarter's design wins for our APEX, Mercury(TM), and MAX(TM) 7000B families more than doubled from year-end levels."
Altera continued to enhance its leadership position in system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) solutions:
-- The first member of the ARM-based Excalibur device family
began shipping, becoming the industry's first PLD with an
embedded hard core processor. This new device joins Altera's
Nios(TM) embedded processor core, the industry's only
available soft-core processor optimized specifically for a
PLD. The Nios soft core, introduced a year ago as the first of
the company's Excalibur offerings, is winning new designs for
Altera. Altera has sold 1,700 Excalibur Development Kits
featuring the Nios processor, including several corporate
licensing agreements with major customers, making it the de
facto industry standard. Altera's Excalibur solutions, which
enable system integration on a single programmable chip by
combining programmable logic, peripherals, and memory with
embedded processors, are opening an attractive new market for
Altera.
-- The APEX II device family began shipping in the quarter. The
APEX II family offers many industry-first capabilities that
enable the family to be used in data path applications
previously beyond the reach of programmable logic. Featuring
unmatched 1-Gbps True-LVDS(TM) performance and supporting a
wide range of I/O standards, APEX II density and performance
expands Altera's ability to support high-speed applications.
Using the PLD industry's only all-copper interconnect
technology with a 0.15-(mu) process geometry, APEX II devices
are allowing Altera product solutions to be increasingly used
as a high-performance alternative to application-specific
integrated circuits (ASICs) and application-specific standard
products (ASSPs).
-- The Quartus(R) II software, Altera's top-performing
development system, has been further strengthened with the
introduction of version 1.1, which provides new design
methodologies to streamline customers' design processes.
Included in these methodologies is Altera's proprietary
LogicLock(TM) incremental design methodology, which allows
designers to preserve fMAX performance at the block level and
offers an ideal environment for both complex intellectual
property (IP) designs and team-based design. The Quartus II
version 1.1 software also supports the APEX II device family
and provides 25% compile time advantages over competing PLD
development software.
-- Demonstrating Altera's commitment to creating broader and more
strategic relationships with its customers, Altera has teamed
with two industry leaders to provide enhanced access to
Altera's advanced technology. Nortel Networks and Altera have
signed a long-term strategic agreement that addresses
cooperation on future products, technology, and research and
development. In addition, Motorola has named Altera as the
preferred supplier of programmable logic devices for the
design and development of Motorola's "Beyond 3G" network
solution. Altera will place dedicated technical resources at
Motorola's research labs to fully leverage the power of
Altera's SOPC solutions.
Conference Call and Quarterly Update:
A conference call will be held today at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time to discuss the quarter's results and management's business outlook. A webcast and subsequent
replay will be available on the company's web site, altera.com. A telephonic replay of the call may be accessed later in the day by calling (719) 457-0820 and
referencing confirmation code 258712. |
