Here's the fine print...
First Quarter Sales Increase 8% Annually & Flat Sequentially
San Jose, Calif., April 15, 1998--Altera Corporation (Nasdaq: ALTR) today reported that first quarter sales of $157.2 million were up 8% over the same period last year, and flat from the previous quarter.
Net income for the first quarter was $35.1 million, flat from the first quarter of 1997 excluding the cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle, and down 4% from the previous quarter. First
quarter earnings include a charge of $1.8 million, $0.02 per share, representing the Company's equity in the loss of WaferTech. WaferTech is a joint venture in the development stage with TSMC and other
partners to manufacture wafers in a state-of-the-art facility in Camas, Washington. First quarter earnings per share, on a diluted basis, were $0.37, up $0.01 from the same period last year excluding the cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle, and down $0.01 from the prior quarter. Excluding WaferTech results, diluted earnings per share were $0.38, flat from the prior quarter.
Altera added $35.5 million of cash to its balance sheet during the quarter, after the repurchase of 540,000 shares for $17.0 million and routine capital expenditures of $5.2 million.
Rodney Smith, President & CEO stated, "The financial results for the quarter met our expectations. Sales growth was strong in Europe, with a 10% sequential gain, but this was offset by declines in the Japan and Asia/Pacific regions.
"New products showed continued strong sales growth. New product sales increased 20% sequentially and 212% as compared to the same quarter a year ago. New products now account for a third of our total
sales, and in the quarter new product revenue growth fully offset the expected decline in mature and mainstream products. Our new product revenue base is now sufficiently large to contribute meaningfully to
sales growth."
Mr. Smith continued, "In March, we announced our FLEX 10KE family of high-performance, high-density programmable logic devices. This family will be produced on a 0.25-micron process and will offer
significant cost reductions, dual-port RAM, and 66 MHz performance necessary to support advanced communications applications. First shipments are expected in June of this year."
Mr. Smith concluded, "Implementation of intellectual property cores, or megafunctions, is critical in exploiting the capabilities of high-density programmable logic. As the pioneer in programmable logic
intellectual property, Altera continues to expand its offering of functional logic cores for such applications as bus interfaces, microperipherals, and digital signal processing. During the first quarter, Altera expanded its megafunction offerings with two PCI bus solutions, a telecommunications tone generator core, and an
IEEE 1394 bus interface."
This press release contains "forward looking statements" which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements are
generally written in the future tense and/or are preceded by words such as "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "projects," or "intends". Investors are cautioned that all forward looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty, including without limitation the risk that future performance is dependent on market acceptance of and demand for the Company's new products, development of technology and manufacturing capabilities, and third-party wafer suppliers meeting the Company's wafer requirements. Please refer to the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, copies of which are available from the Company without charge, for further information.
Fax on Demand
Copies of Altera's announcement are available from its fax-on-demand service. In the U.S. and Canada to request a copy call 1-800-789-ALTR. International users can dial their local International Access Code
followed by 1-408-894-0466. More information can be obtained on the world-wide web at altera.com.
Altera Corporation, founded in 1983, is a world-wide leader in high-performance, high-density programmable logic devices and associated computer aided engineering (CAE) logic development tools.
Programmable logic devices are semiconductor chips that offer on-site programmability to customers. The chips are programmed with tools that run on personal computers or engineering workstations. User
benefits include ease of use, lower risk, and fast time-to-market. The Company offers the broadest line of CMOS programmable logic devices that address high-speed, high-density, and lower power applications.
Altera products serve a broad range of market areas, including telecommunications, data communications, computers, and industrial applications. Altera common stock is traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market using the symbol ALTR.
EDITOR CONTACT:
Thomas J. Nicoletti, Vice President, Investor Relations
Altera Corporation
San Jose, CA
(408) 544-7707 |
