Some positive things for KLIC. Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), a semiconductor assembly subcontractor, has released orders for 148 Kulicke & Soffa Model 8020 wire bonders and 48 Model 1488 plus wire bonders, to be used for production of high lead count ball grid array devices, shipped during the September quarter to ASE's Kaohsiung, Taiwan, production facility.
Also, I suppose there are some similarities between ESI and Cognex who just reported earnings. Not much positive to go on. They talk about the advantage of reducing costs. They talk about a mandatory 2 week shut down in December. Do you think anything like that could be likely for ESI?
ESI sure did act quickly to realign their business once it became clear things were not going to recover quickly. I think you have to appreciate the difficulty of cutting staff and firmly keeping profit at the front of company goals.
Regards, Mark
Cognex Corporation Announces Third Quarter Results
Business Wire - October 21, 1998 08:25
NATICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1998--Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) today announced revenue for the third quarter ended October 4, 1998 of $24,659,000, compared to $43,936,000 reported in the third quarter of 1997. Net income for the third quarter ended October 4, 1998, before a charge for machine vision technologies purchased on July 28th, was $2,484,000, or $0.06 per diluted share. Net income for the comparable three-month period in 1997, before a non-recurring charge for the acquisition of Mayan Automation, Inc., was $13,107,000, or $0.29 per diluted share.
Results for the third quarter of 1998 include a pre-tax charge of $2,100,000 for in-process R&D associated with certain technologies purchased from Rockwell Automation's Allen-Bradley machine vision business on July 28th of this year. The charge reduced net income by $1,533,000, resulting in reported net income for the third quarter ended October 4, 1998 of $951,000, or $0.02 per diluted share.
Revenue for the nine months ended October 4, 1998 was $96,751,000 compared with $108,350,000 reported for the same nine-month period in 1997. For the nine months ended October 4, 1998, Cognex reported net income of $18,010,000, or $0.42 per diluted share, compared to $26,804,000, or $0.60 per diluted share, for the comparable period a year ago. Excluding both the charge for in-process R&D associated with purchased technologies in the third quarter of 1998 and the charge for the acquisition of Mayan Automation in the third quarter of 1997, net income for the nine months ended October 4, 1998 was $19,543,000, or $0.45 per diluted share, compared to $28,970,000, or $0.65 per diluted share, for the comparable period a year ago.
"The delays and cutbacks in capital equipment spending by manufacturers, primarily in the semiconductor and electronics industries, dramatically impacted our results for the third quarter. Our customers' lack of visibility and the high level of uncertainty regarding the timing of their business recovery continues to make the short-term outlook for these industries impossible to predict accurately," said Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Cognex's President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman. "We have taken actions to align our expenses to the lower level of customer demand, and I am pleased to say that the lower revenue for the third quarter was partially offset by the benefit of some of these actions." In September of 1998, the company announced a number of cost-containment measures including a restricted hiring plan to maintain the company's worldwide headcount at its current level, a mandatory two-week shutdown in December, and the elimination of all bonuses for 1998.
Dr. Shillman continued, "In spite of the current challenging environment, I believe that Cognex's established customer relationships, record number of new customers, breadth of machine vision technology, and strong, conservative balance sheet will enable the company to be in a stronger competitive position when the semiconductor and electronics industries recover." |
