JMAR Technologies Reports First Quarter Results; Sales Rise 56
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- May 13, 1999--
-Shipment Delays, Growth-Related Investments and Asian Problems
Result in First Loss in 12 Consecutive Quarters-
JMAR Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:JMAR), a growing provider of
precision micro-technology products, today announced its results for
the first quarter ended March 31, 1999.
Revenues increased 56% to $6,695,465 from $4,300,079 in the same
period a year ago. The Company reported a net loss of $593,405, or
$0.03 per share, compared to a net profit of $18,083, or $0.00 per
share, in the first quarter of fiscal 1998.
Commenting on the period's results, JMAR's Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer John S. Martinez, Ph.D. said, "The first quarter was
clearly a mixed bag. The sharp improvement in sales to the highest
level for any first quarter in the company's history was chiefly
attributable to sustained growth by JMAR Semiconductor and expanded
contract activity in our X-ray lithography development program."
"Unfortunately, those gains were offset by a series of events,
some planned and another unforeseen, that combined to interrupt nearly
three years of unbroken quarterly profitability," Dr. Martinez
continued. "For example, we continued to invest heavily to accelerate
the time-to-market for several new high-performance products for the
microelectronics marketplace. This was in line with historic
investment levels, as our product development expenditures, including
that portion of customer-funded efforts directly attributable to the
commercialization of JMAR's proprietary technologies, have averaged 23
percent of revenues over the last five years and were 28 percent of
revenues in the first quarter of 1999. Additionally, payroll costs
increased as we brought on-board several senior technical specialists
and managers to direct and help speed our new precision instrument,
laser and X-ray products to market," he said.
"Concurrent with these necessary investments, we experienced a
decline in first quarter shipments of our precision instrument
products reflecting decreased demand from Asian markets and
unanticipated requests from certain customers to reschedule shipments
until later in 1999. While we were disappointed by the drop in
precision equipment sales, we expect to process most of the shipments
that have been delayed before the end of the year. We are already
seeing a positive trend emerge in new order bookings that makes us
optimistic about prospects for the remainder of the year."
Dr. Martinez added, "Looking past the numbers, the quarter was
one of significant technical and operational achievements. We
experienced rapid growth in our fabless semiconductor products and
processes business where, pursuant to contract orders, we are
expanding our customers' semiconductor production capabilities while
also preparing an exciting new proprietary chip technology for entry
into the marketplace. During the quarter we also reached several very
important milestones in our X-ray source (PXS) development program.
These critical accomplishments set the stage for major
lithography-related demonstrations within the next few months, as well
as for feasibility demonstrations of a number of exciting
non-lithography applications in the microelectronics, manufacturing,
medical and biotechnology fields. Once fully deployed in the
marketplace our PXS technology will provide manufacturers and
researchers with compact, much lower-cost X-ray source alternatives to
the sychrotrons in use today."
"Beyond showing the potential of our X-ray source technology to
dramatically expand JMAR's sales opportunities in the years ahead, we
expect such demonstrations to also highlight our continued progress in
positioning JMAR as the premier supplier of affordable "work horse"
soft X-ray sources for manufacturing, metrology, and research
facilities worldwide," he said.
"Overall, the outlook for JMAR remains very positive in all our
operating areas," Dr. Martinez emphasized. "Business at JMAR
Semiconductor is strong and continuing to grow, and we are hopeful of
being able to introduce new proprietary chip technology before
year-end that will create additional market opportunities for us. JMAR
Research continues to make major strides in adapting our X-ray and
Britelight(TM)technologies to a range of high-potential market needs.
Finally, JMAR Precision Systems is making excellent progress in
upgrading several of its most popular video-based measurement systems
to offer greater product throughput, thereby making them even more
valuable to an industry where the ability to rapidly manufacture
increasingly smaller objects with no compromise in precision remains a
driving force."
"While our first quarter sales were the highest first quarter in
our history, they nonetheless were well below our original plan for
the reasons stated," Dr. Martinez concluded." We expect to make up
some, but not all, of that shortfall during the next three quarters.
Accordingly, although we expect 1999 to be our fifth consecutive year
of profitability, we have revised our sales revenue forecast for the
year slightly downward from the $34 million that we previously
announced."
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