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Technology Stocks : SDL, Inc. [Nasdaq: SDLI] -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OWN STOCK who wrote (2990)	10/18/2000 4:19:35 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3951

NEWP has stellar numbers: For the 2000 third quarter, net income was $8.2 million, or 25 cents per diluted share, up 306 percent from $2.0 million, or 7 cents per diluted share a year ago. Sales for the 2000 third quarter rose 87 percent to $66.6 million from $35.5 million in the third quarter of 1999. I'll listen to CC and report later. Pat

To: OWN STOCK who wrote (2990)	10/18/2000 5:56:53 PM
From: pat mudge	Respond to of 3951

[Missed first 5 min. b/c my speaker had come unplugged. :/] domestic up 95% Eur up 37% CDN up 194% Asia up 5% (I think that was the figure, someone correct me if I heard wrong) 43.0 % GMs SG&A --- 20.8% Fiber optic component market sees strong investment activity DSOs y/y down from 74 to 65 CEO comments: Fiber optics and semi-conductor growth. Percentage of overall sales: 44% f.o 23% semis Optical group reflects build-to designs F.O. strength --- 47% of sales from this market; very close to our 50% goal set a year or so ago. More than double sales in this segment from a year ago. 25% more laser weld and 23% motor-align systems shipped. 4X last years’ quarter. Current quarter will be more than all of last year. Unique Equipment acquisition closed in the quarter. Advanced automation assembly solutions. Quantities being forecasted for 2001 to 2003 justify installing integrated, automated systems. Have increased 3X sq. footage for fiber optics. Personnel in F.O. have increased to 277 from 103 in one year. Est. further doubling of space in early 2001. Could not finish negotiations for Metalurgical company (?) b/c of intellectual property issues. Revenues never factored in. Q&A: Q: Congrats. . . backlog? Any concerns re: shipping on time? A: $100M today. Rapidly accelerating capability. Not falling behind on commitments. Order stream strong. Q: AMS (?) A: Currently in pilot-build stage. Shipping late this year to initial customers. Full shipments in Q1. Revenues in Q1. Q: F.O business, have you had to turn away orders? A: Not that I’m aware of. We clearly have a lead-time that’s been extended. Now 12 to 14 weeks for non-standard systems. Q: Optics service org. being set up. Can you elaborate on what that’s about? A: Developments in packaging? We’ve been evaluating that. Specifically for sub-contracting. Don’t know profit model for that business b/c there’s no precedent. We now supply some services to those who buy our equipment. Q: Backlog for laser-weld and auto-align and 88-test systems? A: We don’t break it out. Greater than 50M backlog on fiber optics side. Q: Automation efforts, any others? A: Three areas of product or system development: low-end market that’s not automated at all. AMS is off current laser-weld program. Others are still manually loaded. There’s a need for more integrated solutions. Next few years you’ll see examples of that. Q: In FO revenues, was customer base concentrated, or diversified? A: No one over 10%. A number approached high single-digits. It’s pretty balanced. Lgst customer is less than 5% of sales. Q: Concern re capital spending, when will capacity catch up with demand? A: I can’t answer that. Our current position is that we’re displacing non-automated systems. Such a low saturation rate, it is going to be a long while before that happens. No time-table, but it’s a ways out. Q: Growth, and adding manufacturing space, are you adding space to meet your model or how much buffer are you putting in? Also managing supply chain, please comment. A: Facilities and personnel, re: doubling square footage. That will be in a new building with room to grow. We’ll use half the space and give us growing room. As for supply chain issues, in a lot of ways we’re our own supplier. We need some components. We’re managing that supply chain very well. We’re placing bets on inventory levels so we can meet needs. Q: Affect of Euro? A: .9 on sales and .7 on orders. Q: Test and process? A: 7M in standardized products, and 24M in larger-scale test and measurement. Q: shipped 75% of last quarters’ backlog? Can we use that this Q? A: 28M of orders are scheduled out over 12 months; so not really shippable in next Q. Q: What are lead-times on shipping high-end systems? A: Booking into first Q. 14-16 week range right now. It will come down as capacity comes on. That’s where capacity expansion is happening. Q: Will you combine weld and auto-align in one unit? A: Now they have to be manually loaded. As you drive for faster throughput, you need this automated. Also integrating testing. Q: Any technology you’re lacking to do that? A: We’re quite capable with what we have. We’re always looking for new methods. Q: Better explanation of acquisition that didn’t close? A: Synergy was combination of their software with ours for single-modal measurement for small geometry parts. For systems in fiber optics area. Q: NEWP in future with MEMs devices? A: Already involved in all sorts of MEMs technology. Most of our tech focuses on test and packaging. MEMs is typically in switches where there are a lot of fibers. This fits in with our systems. Q: 2001 by quarter, any seasonality? A: We expect 2001 to start to unfold like 2000. Last several quarters we haven’t experienced seasonality. Primary markets are very strong, so will see less and less of that seasonality. Q: Ramp and how back-end loaded? A: Steady increase throughout the year. Can’t quantify it now. Q: Margins on FO and semi? A: Can’t at this stage. Q: BtoB for co as whole and fo division? A: 1.6 at end of Sept. 1.55 for fiber optics. Q: Competition in F.O sector? A: Depends on product. Test and measurement, we compete with several. We compete very well. We differ as we move into manufacturing environment. A lot of test systems can test 10s of devices. Fits with high-volume mfg environment. Assembly systems: Unique adds a lot for robotic part handling. Staffed on packaging design side. We compete with customers’ internal resources. Q: ASPs? A: Run in 300 to 400 range for auto-weld, laser guide in 150 to 250 range? Q: Any pressure? A: No, not a lot of pressure right now. As the market matures we may see that happen, but that’s not happening now. Q: Headcount? A: 1200 for entire co. Q: Spoke with JDSU and they said they were involved in double ordering, can you comment? A: No comment. Q: Divisional revenues? Total revenues versus last year? Semiconductor revenues? A: Will be different from market revenues: ISPD --- $40M F.O --- $24.5M Metallurgy --- $1.6M Fiber optics were over $31M, so there is contribution from other segments. We’re becoming partners with some of our customers. Our outlook today is positive. Business is strong. Looking at 2001 as very good year. Q: On semiconductor business, is there concentration of OEMs? A: 5 or 6 that constitution large customers. Q: Do you take orders and ship in same quarter? A: Yes, in some segments we do.