Mosaid close to profit
By KEVIN BELL, Business Editor, Ottawa Sun
MOSAID Technologies Inc. cut its losses in its third quarter
and is looking forward to a slow recovery this year.
The semiconductor design and testing firm reported a net loss
yesterday of $148,000, 2cents a share, on revenue of $5.78
million. That compares to net earnings of $1.13 million, 15cents a
share, in same quarter last year.
Revenue was down by 38% from $9.26 million in the previous
third quarter.
But company officials say cost-cutting early last year and
improvement in the semiconductor industry should lead Mosaid
back to profitability soon.
"We feel that these results demonstrate progress in our recovery,"
president and CEO George Cwynar said.
"We also feel that we're seeing signs of a recovery in our
industry."
Cwynar said prices for DRAM (Dynamic Random Access
Memory) chips began to solidify last November. With a rapid
increase in the volume of chips being shipped, companies are
able to bring their costs in line with revenues.
"Mosaid's results have exhibited this same trend of improved
revenues and bottom line, quarter over quarter for the past three
quarters," he said.
Although this quarter's results are dramatically lower than last
year, it's still a significant improvement from a second-quarter
loss of $1.3 million.
Over the past three quarters, revenues have increased from $4.1
million to $5.8 million. The loss per share has moved from
75cents to 19cents and now to 2cents.
"That really means they got their costs in line," said Duncan
Stewart, an analyst who manages the Navigator Canadian
Technology Fund.
"I would say it's encouraging. They're doing what they're
supposed to do.
"A loss of 2cents -- that's peanuts. That's a rounding number.
They are at the break-even point," he said.
"This is good, reasonable management doing a turnaround the
hard way."
Stewart said Mosaid is caught in a cyclical business that is
showing clear signs of coming out of a prolonged slump.
"People aren't singing and dancing and blowing noise-makers, but
they're seeing things are improving," he said.
"If you can hang around long enough, you can hang on and make
buckets of money when things turn around."
Mosaid's shares closed at $5.95 yesterday on the Toronto Stock
Exchange, down by 5cents.
Although that's up substantially from the $4 range in December,
the company's share price is a long way from its 52-week high of
$15.
Stewart said the stock could eventually get to the $20 range, but
that probably wouldn't occur until around the second quarter of
2000.
Cwynar said the company expects to develop a significant stream
of revenue from licensing its intellectual property.
The company has about 50 patents that could be turned into
hard-earned cash.
On Jan. 14, Mosaid announced "a major milestone" deal with
Fujitsu, which entered a general patent licence with the company.
Earlier this week, Mosaid received a $6.2-million investment
from the Technology Partnerships Canada fund.
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