Credence Systems Reports Results for Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2000
Story Filed: Tuesday, November 28, 2000 5:45 PM EST
FREMONT, Calif., Nov 28, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Credence Systems Corporation (Nasdaq NMS:CMOS) today reported results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended October 31, 2000. Net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000 were $220.2 million, an increase of 175 percent from net sales of $80.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999. Net sales were up $16.2 million sequentially or 8 percent from the company's record third fiscal quarter of 2000. Included in the results of the company's fourth quarter is a $3.5 million charge associated with the acquisition of in-process research and development ("IPR&D") for Modulation Instruments, Inc. and NewMillennia Solutions, Inc. There is no tax benefit associated with this charge because IPR&D is not deductible for tax purposes. Excluding these IPR&D charges, the company's pro-forma net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000 was $52.5 million or $0.96 per diluted share. Total pro-forma net income for fiscal 2000 before IPR&D charges stood at $152.2 million or $2.87 per diluted share.
The net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000 including the IPR&D charge was $49.0 million or $0.89 per diluted share, compared to net income of $8.1 million during the fourth fiscal quarter of 1999, or $0.18 per diluted share. The net income for fiscal 2000 was $140.4 million or $2.65 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $0.8 million or $0.02 per diluted share for fiscal 1999.
Dr. Graham Siddall, Credence's president and chief executive officer said, "We concluded the fiscal year with a record quarter that brought our year-on-year growth to 245%. Our bookings of $222 million represented a book-to-bill of slightly over 1.0, which compares favorably with the recent estimates from SEMI of 0.81 for the Test and Assembly sector in October 2000."
Dr. Siddall continued "In the current uncertain industry environment, there are concerns that some of these orders could be pushed out. In view of this uncertainty we estimate revenue will be sequentially down in the first quarter of fiscal 2001."
Credence's executive vice president and chief financial officer, Mr. Dennis P. Wolf, said, "Our operating performance continued to be strong in the fourth quarter with gross margins at 60.9 percent and operating margins before the IPR&D charges of 34.7 percent. The amortization of purchased intangibles for the quarter amounted to $4.9 million before tax or $0.06 per diluted share after tax. The pro-forma results for the company without this charge was an operating margin of 36.9 percent. The operating margin was the highest in our history as we recorded more income in this fiscal quarter than in any previous full year in our history. We also increased our commitment to the alternative approaches to next generation, high-performance test techniques with the acquisition of NewMillennia Solutions, Inc. NMS' current test solutions are targeting Rambus RDRAM memory and module test, RAC-based ASIC's, core logic chip sets, and graphics devices. In addition, we purchased our three-story office and manufacturing facility and approximately 30 acres of land in Hillsboro, Oregon during the quarter. The total purchase price was approximately $31.5 million and replaces a 15-year lease already in place."
Dr. Siddall, also said, "with our growth in fiscal year 2000 we have gained market share in the non-DRAM sector. We have also introduced more new products than in any previous year. The acquisition of three new companies is designed to broaden our current and future product offerings. The net result is to bring us closer to our goal of becoming No. 2 in the non-DRAM ATE industry. These results would not have been possible without the support of our customers and the hard work and dedication of our employees."
Credence Systems Corporation will be conducting their conference call today, November 29th, 2000 at 3 p.m. pacific time. You may either listen to the call by phone, 888/391-0107, or by web cast at www.credence.com
Credence Systems Corporation is a leader in the manufacture of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the worldwide semiconductor industry. Credence offers a wide range of products with test capabilities for digital, mixed-signal, and non-volatile memory semiconductors. Utilizing its proprietary CMOS technologies, Credence products are designed to meet the strict time-to-market and cost-of-ownership requirements of its customers.
Headquartered in Fremont, California, the company maintains advanced production and design facilities in Hillsboro, Oregon. Credence, an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer, is listed on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol CMOS.
Statements in this release that are forward looking and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from the future performance suggested in this release. Such factors include, but are not limited to, economic and currency instability in the Asia Pacific region, reliance on sales in Taiwan for a significant portion of our net sales, fluctuation in customer demand, timing and volume of orders and shipments, competition and pricing pressures, reliability and quality issues, the Company's ability to complete the development of its new products, product mix, overhead absorption, cyclicality and downturns in the semiconductor industry, continued dependence on "turns" orders to achieve revenue objectives, the Company's ability to have an appropriate amount of production capacity in a timely manner, the timing of new technology, product introductions, the risk of early obsolescence, integration of acquired businesses, and the Company's ability to control expenses.
Further, the Company operates in an industry sector where securities values are highly volatile and are influenced by economic and other factors beyond the Company's control. Reference is made to the discussion of risk factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q. Any projections in this release are based on limited information currently available to the Company, which is subject to change. Although any such projections and the factors influencing them will likely change, the Company will not necessarily update the information, since the Company is only to provide guidance at certain points during the year. Actual events or results could differ materially and no reader of this release should assume later in the quarter that the information provided today is still valid. Such information speaks only as of the date of this release. |
