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Technology Stocks : Micrel (MCRL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: not925 who wrote (239)	9/20/2002 9:26:39 AM
From: The Ox	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 268

Here's S+P's commentary on MCRL: Overview 28-AUG-02 We expect revenue to rise 8% in 2002, and to grow over 25% in 2003, as the economy comes back more decisively. The book-to-bill ratio is above 1.0, indicating a good probability of continued sequential revenue growth through 2002. However, order lead times remain short, and earnings visibility is limited. During the 2002 second quarter, the company introduced 22 new products for the networking, communication, and handheld device (cell phones, PDAs, etc.) markets. In July, directors authorized the repurchase of up to $40 million of common stock in 2002; a $20 million buyback plan announced in February 2002 has been fulfilled, resulting in the repurchase of more than 1 million common shares. Profit margins are improving from low levels. We project pro forma 2002 EPS of $0.02, with improvement to $0.25 seen for 2003. Valuation 28-AUG-02 The shares fell to a 52-week low in the summer, as most technology hardware markets experienced soft demand. We believe the computer market will show modest improvement in the second half of 2002, with a slower recovery for the communications market. Although the company's long-term prospects should improve as the cyclical semiconductor industry moves into an expansion cycle, we are taking a cautious view of the shares, in light of the fact that about 43% of sales come from communications markets. The company has low levels of long term debt, and is buying back shares, both positive factors. The shares, trading at about 3.9X tangible book value, are valued somewhat above those of most chip companies, but in line with those of other high-end analog chipmakers. We remain neutral on the stock until signs of growth in MCRL's end markets become more evident. Business Summary 28-AUG-02 Micrel (which also does business as Micrel Semiconductor) designs, manufactures and markets high-performance analog power integrated circuits (ICs) and mixed signal and digital integrated circuits. The company currently ships more than 1,400 standard products. It derived the majority of its product revenues in recent years (84% in 2001, up from 79% in 2000) from sales of standard analog ICs for power management. These analog power circuits are used in a wide variety of electronic products, including those in the communications, computer and industrial markets. A strategy focusing on standard products has allowed Micrel to address larger markets and broaden its customer base. In 2001, one customer, Galaxy, accounted for 11% of sales. In 2000, a distributor, Future Electronics, accounted for 10% of sales. In addition to standard products, Micrel manufactures custom analog and mixed-signal circuits, and provides wafer foundry services for a diverse range of customers that produce electronic systems for communications, consumer and military applications. Sales from custom and foundry products represented 16% of 2001 sales (21% of 2000 sales). Trends in the communications and computing markets have created increased demand for power analog circuits, which control, regulate, convert and route voltage and current in electronic systems. Demand for power analog circuits has been fueled by the growth of battery powered cellular telephones and computing devices, and the emergence of lower voltage microprocessors and Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) standards for peripheral devices. In May 2001, Micrel acquired Kendin Communications, a fabless designer of ICs for the communications and networking markets, in exchange for 6.1 million common shares (about $215 million). The addition of Kendin enabled entry into the ethernet market with switch products, as well as entry into the enterprise networking market. International markets offered some useful geographic diversification during the downturn in American communications equipment markets in 2001. Sales to North America accounted for 39% of sales in 2001 (58% in 2000), with the remainder coming from Asia 50% (32%), and Europe 10% (11%). The company produces most of its wafers at its own six-inch wafer fabrication plants in San Jose and Santa Clara, CA, and contracts out a small percentage of production to foundries. Almost all the company's long-lived assets are located in the U.S.

To: not925 who wrote (239)	10/1/2002 9:06:03 AM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 268

8:25AM Micrel upped to Buy at Adams Harkness on valuation finance.yahoo.com

To: not925 who wrote (239)	11/1/2002 1:00:50 PM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 268

Industry's Most Integrated ARM9(R)-based Gateway Solution Provides Multiple Fast Ethernet Ports for SOHO Broadband Friday November 1, 12:21 pm ET - First high-performance single-chip solution for SOHO gateway systems. - Integrated ARM922T CPU, 5-port Ethernet switch, PHYs and on-chip memory. - Interfaces enable combo wireline and wireless LAN router applications. biz.yahoo.com SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/-- The industry's most integrated high-performance SOHO gateway solution, the KS8695 chip and reference design package, is now available from Micrel Semiconductor (Nasdaq: MCRL), an industry leader in the design and manufacture of integrated circuits for the high-speed communications, power management and analog markets. The KS8695 is the latest addition to Micrel's Ethernet product family for small office/home office (SOHO) and residential gateway, networking, wireless LAN and fiber-to-the-home Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) applications. The device is a multi-port gateway-on-a-chip supported by software and tools to provide a complete hardware and software solution for ODM/OEM customers. With the introduction of the KS8695, Micrel is the first company to successfully integrate 5-port fast Ethernet transceivers, MACs, switch controller and on-chip frame buffer memory with a high-performance ARM922T core, offering a fully-optimized solution for the SOHO gateway market. "The fast-growing SOHO and home broadband gateway markets need highly-integrated SoC solutions that enable users to develop cost-competitive products. The KS8695 provides performance headroom for value-added differentiations such as Firewall, VPN or routing speed. The KS8695 aims for the sweet spot of the gateway markets with best-in-class feature set integration," said Dr. Tian Liou, vice president and general manager for Micrel-Kendin Operations. "Micrel-Kendin was the first to introduce an integrated 5-port Ethernet switch for the gateway market. Following on the heels of generations of switch and transceiver products and shipments of more than 70 million Fast Ethernet ports, the KS8695 represents a new plateau of integrated silicon solution for Micrel-Kendin. We expect it to enhance our market leadership by providing the user with the best price/performance value possible," Dr. Liou said. The KS8695 is a single-chip solution which integrates all the key components needed for a high-performance, low-cost, low-power multiple-Ethernet-port broadband gateway. The KS8695-based platform enables OEM/ODM customers to provide up to 6 times the routing performance of a typical existing gateway product. It offers the following features and benefits: A 166MHz 32-bit ARM922T® CPU core with a memory-management-unit (MMU). The high-performance CPU core provides a platform to deliver value-added differentiation such as Firewall, VPN or routing performance. The MMU is needed to run some embedded operating systems such as Linux or WinCE®. 5-port Ethernet managed switch, on-chip frame buffers and five low-power mixed-signal 10/100 transceivers for WAN port Internet sharing and LAN switching at wire speed. The WAN port connection supports xDSL, cable modem, wireless and fiber. All five transceivers support Auto MDI/MDIX to detect and support crossover cable. PCMCIA and MII interfaces for wireless LAN 802.11 and its variants (802.11b/a/g) to enable combo wireline and wireless LAN router products. A variety of hardware accelerations and optimizations to offload CPU utilization to enhance performance. Included are a protocol engine and three DMA engines with FIFO buffers. The protocol engine speeds up network protocol applications such as NAT, the most common SOHO gateway protocol for the Internet sharing. The DMA engines and FIFO buffers increase the data traffic efficiency among the WAN port, CPU, and LAN ports. Target Applications Typical applications include SOHO and residential gateway for broadband access sharing, firewall or VPN (Virtual Private Network) security appliance, and combo wireline and wireless LAN gateway. Additionally, the KS8695 can address VoIP gateway or Fiber-to-the-Home CPE applications.