ESS Technology Updates Guidance for 3rd Quarter
Wednesday September 24, 7:01 am ET
Revenue and Earnings to Exceed Earlier Expectations
FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ESS Technology (Nasdaq: ESST - News), a leading supplier of silicon solutions for digital audio, video and imaging consumer electronics, today provided an update regarding its third quarter guidance. Both revenues and profits are expected to be stronger than anticipated due to strong demand in all of the company's product lines and market share gains.
ESS Technology stated that third quarter revenues will be between $44 and $48 million compared to the company's earlier guidance of $37 to $41 million; this represents growth of 42% to 55% over results for the second quarter of 2003.
Net income per diluted share is also expected to improve by approximately $0.05 compared to the company's previous guidance. On a GAAP basis, the company expects a net loss of between $(0.13) and $(0.08) per diluted share, compared to earlier guidance of $(0.18) to $(0.13) per diluted share. Pro forma, or non-GAAP net income is anticipated to be between $(0.03) and $0.02 per diluted share, compared to the Company's previous guidance of $(0.08) to $(0.03) per diluted share.
Non-GAAP per-share results exclude the effects of amortization of intangible assets, in-process research and development expenses, investment gains or losses, and related tax effects. The vast majority of the difference between Non-GAAP and GAAP net income per diluted share is expected to be attributable to amortization of intangible assets and in-process research and development expenses
Commenting on the quarter's updated guidance, Robert Blair, president and CEO of ESS Technology said, "ESS Technology continues to see strong demand for digital entertainment products, both for the current quarter and throughout the balance of 2003. We are particularly excited about the market's acceptance and our many new design wins for our new Vibratto-II and Vibratto-S DVD products. We expect that our Vibratto II product family will be our largest selling DVD product by Q4 of this year as we continue to expand our DVD market share. Additionally, ESS continues to increase its share of the growing VCD market worldwide. This market is estimated to grow to over 65 million units this year and ESS believes it is the leading supplier to this market with an estimated 75% share."
Mr. Blair continued, "we believe 2004 will be an even stronger year for ESS as our new products and design wins worldwide continue to ramp. These products include our Vibratto-II DVD system-on-a-chip, our Vibratto-S MPEG4/DivX decoder, our Visba4 family of VCD products and our Vantage MPEG encoder family of products. Our Visba4 family of VCD products combine servo, RF and MPEG decoding to serve the growing VCD market throughout Asia, and our Vantage MPEG encoder family of products enables consumer entertainment products that digitally record television programs, movies and music onto DVD-recordable and/or hard-drives. Additionally, we expect our new digital imaging products to grow in 2004 and enable ESS to become a leading player in this fast-growing consumer digital entertainment market."
"Looking forward, we believe that ESS will continue to be the leader in the digital video markets and will become a leader in the fast-growing digital imaging market. We believe that the growth of both the video and imaging markets, the increasing ASPs for our new products, plus our multiple design wins in the emerging recordable video market will enable ESS to grow in the 4th quarter of this year and in 2004. We invite our investors to join our earnings conference call on October 29th for more details about our business," Mr. Blair concluded.
ESS Technology will report its third quarter 2003 results on Wednesday, October 29 after the close of market. At that time, the company will provide guidance for the fourth quarter of 2003.
About ESS Technology
ESS Technology, Inc., is a leading supplier of high-performance feature-rich chips, for the rapidly expanding DVD, digital imaging and digital entertainment markets. The company is also a leading provider of solutions for applications in the growing consumer entertainment market. ESS provides advanced products that enable the emergence of digital home systems that deliver and manage entertainment and information in the home.
ESS, headquartered in Fremont, California, has R&D, sales, and technical support offices worldwide. ESS Technology's common stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol "ESST." ESS Technology's web site address is: esstech.com .
The matters discussed in this news release include certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the timely availability and acceptance of ESS's new products, the possible reduction of consumer spending occasioned by general economic conditions, the dependence on continued growth in demand for consumer multimedia products, the possible reduction of consumer spending occasioned by terrorist activity and armed conflict, difficulties inherent in integrating acquired businesses with ESS, the impact of competitive products and pricing, and the other risks detailed from time to time in the SEC reports of ESS, including the reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K (if any) which we incorporate by reference. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Source: ESS Technology, Inc. |
