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

To: 16yearcycle who wrote (3045)	10/19/2000 5:43:36 PM
From: Boplicity	Respond to of 3951

LOL. short JDSU. just kidding I think it's time to play the spread. Greg

To: 16yearcycle who wrote (3045)	10/19/2000 5:54:49 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3951

Part II Q&A: Q: Margin front. Obviously a terrific performance this What is future? A: Expect we can continue in mid 50s in the foreseeable future. Price trend we have seen is consistently in the 10% reduction per year. Q: What allows improvement? A: Mix. FO now 90% of revs --- a dramatic affect. Also volume efficiencies. Higher yields and flow-throughs. Q: Contract with Huawei – is there a different pricing competition and how did it play out? A: Similar to NA and Europe with several competitors for both pump lasers and AWGs. Systems are very similar. Q: InP will it be used as source laser development? A: Using it with pump lasers. Our primary focus. Both EDFA and Raman. As far as source lasers go we think the pump market is large and we’ll have our hands full. Longer term we’ll look at source market. Pump market are far in excess and fit us better than source market. Q: LU and PIRI, I believe was almost all revs for PIRI until buyout. Where did LU’s part go from Q2 to Q3. A: PIRI did well but as you indicated LU was largest customer. That provided new opportunities for us. We were able to diversify with several new customers because we were actually supply constrained. PIRI now has much broader base of customers. Rev-wise was flat to up. [Indicated they were flat b/ c of LU’s problems.] We expect great things from PIRI. Q: R&D, where headed? A: As a percent of sales, R&D will remain the same in Q4. Will expand into 8 or 9% range next year. Q: Lead times on pump products? A: Hasn’t gone up. Last quarter was very long. In Q2 we introduced planer package with is lower-profile, and ramped production in Q3 and under heavy demand now. Can’t handle all orders. It has extremely long lead time. On standard products lead time has been reduced. Around 4-weeks. Stage of conversion from set-screw package (phasing out) into new planer package which has better performance characteristics. Q: As you get bigger, your growth rate accelerates. I like that. Do you see slow-downs in any part of the company? A: We were a bit disappointed in PIRI. We’re seeing extremely good results across the product line. Products in high demand the customers are continuing to jump after our product line. Q: Scaling your company with integrity, in other words getting personnel and training, is this putting strain on SDL. A: Scaling going extremely well. Because of good people already in organization. I always hire the best people in the world. They are over-qualified today and can grow into what’s happening tomorrow. I teach a class in how to hire and how to maintain SDL culture. Results show it. Q: You can find the talent you need? A: Yes and the new people are of extremely high quality. Q: Comment on book to bill? A: We don’t give that number. It was way over one. Has been way over one for six straight quarters. Conclusion: Thanks for participating. This may be last call before merger is complete, and I want to thank everyone and I hope to continue to interact as a member of JDS Uniphase. <<<< Every analyst who asked a question congratulated the company on the great performance. There appear to be few concerns. PIRI's slower-than expected ramp due to LU was mitigated by sales to new customers and it sounds as though we can expect a lot more from that unit. (Note expansion plans in earlier post.) I'm thrilled and want to congratulate every employee for the fantastic performance. Generating $300,000 in revenues per-employee seems like a remarkable feat. I'm certainly in awe. Congratulations, everyone! Pat