Introduction
Herein we return our attention to the phenomenon of the rise of Intellectual Property (IP) in the world’s Electronics Industry, a segment of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) that Henke Associates began reporting on separately in 2003.
At the beginning, we covered eight (8) publicly-traded IP companies (called the "Group-of-8" or "G8"), as representative of the financial state of the nascent Electronics IP Industry. Subsequently, ARM absorbed Artisan Components in 2004; Mentor Graphics acquired LogicVision in 2009; and Synopsys bought Virage Logic in 2010. So nowadays, when we report on the Electronics IP Industry quarterly financials, the G5 listed below are included:
The Q2 2011 financial results of the G5 IP vendors were posted here on August 22, 2011, just at the beginning of a period of economic volatility that was precipitated by the US Government's debt ceiling debate in Washington DC and subsequent reduction of the USA’s credit rating by S&P from AAA to AA+.
The aforementioned continuing volatility in the economy was visible to anyone looking at the stock markets’ performances by the time of the posting of the Q3 2011 IP Industry Commentary on November 14, 2011. Below is a graph of the six months of the NASDAQ Composite leading up to November 14. Please note: (a) the relative stability of the Composite curve at just above the 2800 level for the initial months shown till late July 2011; (b) the steep plunge to below 2400 by mid-August 2011; (c) the relatively wild oscillations from mid-August 2011 through mid-November 2011; and (d) never closing at 2800 or above during the entire reporting period after mid-August 2011..
Indeed, it was not until January 25, 2012 that the NASDAQ Composite finally closed above 2800 again, rising at an average slope of over 41 points per week for the four weeks between January 20 and February 17, as the US economy began to show consistent improvement:
For the period between December 26, 2011 and February 16, 2012, the NASDAQ Composite index grew from 2590 to 2960 or 370 points in 33 trading days, averaging about 11 points gain every day the market was open.
G5 Electronics IP Vendor by Vendor Details – Q4 2011
As we did for Q3 2011, let’s first look at the individual performances of each member of the Group of Five (a.k.a. the G5) Electronics IP players for nominal Q4 2011. Then we’ll follow up with a summary of the by-now-familiar Tables of Revenues and Profits of the entire G5 for Q4 2011 (and the four quarters leading up to Q4 2011), as well as some graphs of previous year-by-year P&L’s.
On January 31 2012 ARM Holdings plc announced its unaudited financial results for Q4 2011 & full year ended December 31, 2011.
Progress on key growth drivers in Q4 2011
Growth in adoption of ARM® processor technology
- 25 processor licenses signed, including the first lead licenses for processors based on the new ARMv8-A architecture
- 9 Cortex™-A and 8 Cortex-M family processor licenses signed
- Many of the advanced processor licenses signed with companies developing smarter consumer electronics technology such as digital TVs, mobile computers and smart phones
Growth in shipments of chips based on ARM-processor technology
- 1.2 billion chips shipped into mobile phones and mobile computers, up 10% year-on-year
- 1.0 billion chips shipped into consumer and embedded digital devices, up 40% year-on-year
Growth in outsourcing of new technology
- Physical IP: 20nm royalty-bearing platform signed with major foundry and 3 Processor Optimization Pack (POP) licenses signed for Cortex-A series processors
- Mali™ Graphics: 5 Mali licenses signed for digital TV, mobile computing and smart phones
ARM Revenue in IFRS in Q4 2011 was 137.799 million pounds, up 20.93% year over year compared to 113.946 million pounds in Q4 2010.
ARM Revenue in IFRS in Q4 2011 was $217.722 million, up 21.94% year over year compared to Q4 2010 of $180.018 million.
ARM Net Income in IFRS in Q4 2011 was 33.074 million pounds, up 11.33% year over year compared to 29.709 million pounds in Q4 2010.
ARM Net Income in IFRS in Q4 2011 was $52.257 million, up 11.33% year over year compared to $46.940 million in Q4 2010.
Warren East, Chief Executive Officer, said:
"In Q4 and throughout 2011 ARM has seen strong licensing growth, driven by market-leading semiconductor companies increasing their commitment to ARM technology, and more new customers choosing ARM technology for the first time. We have also seen our royalty revenue continue to grow faster than industry revenues as the ARM Partnership gains share in our target markets.”
“2012 will bring exciting opportunities and challenges as ARM enters competitive new markets where we are well positioned to succeed with leading technology, an innovative business model and a thriving ecosystem of Partners. As our customers are designing more ARM technology into their widening product portfolios, ARM is investing in the development of new products. These products will drive further long-term growth in our revenues, profits and cash."
Revenue for the Year
ARM Revenue in IFRS for the full year 2011 was 491.826 million pounds, up 20.96 year over year compared to 406.595 million pounds for the full year 2010.
ARM Revenue in IFRS for the full year 2011 was $786.922 million, up 24.84% year over year compared to $630.322 million for the full year 2010. with 2011 benefitting by a +3.2% difference in fx rates in 2011 vs. 2010.
CEO Warren East predicted $763 million for a likely 2011 total revenue figure for ARM 3 months ago.
Net Income for the Year
ARM Net Income in IFRS for the full year 2011 was 112.642 million pounds, up 31.02% year over year compared to 85.974 million pounds for the full year 2010.
ARM Net Income in IFRS for the full year 2011 was $180.227 million, up 35.24% year over year compared to $133.259 million for the full year 2010, with 2011 again benefitting by a +3.2% difference in fx rates in 2011 vs. 2010.
Outlook for Q1 2012
ARM enters 2012 with a robust opportunity pipeline for licensing and a record order backlog, helped by new product introductions and new markets. In addition, market share gains in long-term growth sectors look set to continue as ARM Partners introduce new chips based on ARM technology. Given industry analysts are forecasting that semiconductor revenues declined about 10% sequentially in Q4 and given ARM's very strong license revenues in Q4, ARM expects group dollar revenues for the first quarter to be in-line with current market expectations of around $200 million.
ARM’s stock price has, however, been oscillating in the high 20’s since reaching the most recent peak of $31.21 on November 04, 2011. ARM stock closed at $27.75 on February 17, 2012 and $27.42 on February 27, 2012, but ARM’s stock price has not eclipsed its closing price of November 04, 2011 since then.
Outlook for Full Year 2012
For full-year 2012, the global macro-economic situation remains uncertain and is likely to influence consumer and enterprise spending, thereby potentially impacting semiconductor revenues and industry confidence. Assuming the macroeconomic situation does not deteriorate significantly, ARM expects group dollar revenues for the full-year to be at least in line with current market expectations of just over $860 million.
People Count
As of December 31, 2011, ARM had 2,116 full-time employees, a net increase of 227 since the start of the year, with 80% being engineers joining ARM's R&D teams. At the end of Q4 2011, the group had 870 employees based in the UK, 555 in the US, 246 in Continental Europe, 306 in India and 139 in the Asia Pacific region.
Assuming an average of 2002.5 employees for the year 2011, ARM enjoyed some $392,970 in revenue per employee for 2011.
Acquisitions
ARM Acquires Prolific, Inc.
ARM Acquires Prolific, Inc. - Enhancing Physical IP Library Development for Advanced Process Nodes
On October 31, 2011, ARM purchased the entire share capital of Prolific Inc. for $7.7 million in cash. This purchase has been accounted for as an acquisition. Prolific, a company based in Newark California, develops leading-edge IC design optimization software tools that significantly reduce development time and improve the performance of cell-based designs. The increasing complexity of 20nm and below process technologies is driving the need for automated layout optimization solutions. This acquisition augments ARM's strategy to provide innovative physical IP products that will enable the ARM partnership to continue to lead in the implementation of highly integrated, low-power system-on-chip solutions.
For these reasons, combined with the ability to hire the workforce of Prolific, including the founders and the management team, the Group paid a premium for the company giving rise to goodwill. All intangible assets were recognized at their fair values, with the residual excess over net assets being recognized as goodwill. All of the goodwill recognised is expected to be deductible for income tax purposes.
The following table summarizes the consideration and provisional fair values of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed as at 1 November 2011.
The consideration was all paid in cash. All transaction expenses incurred by ARM have been charged to the income statement.
A further $8.5 million is payable as an earn-out to the shareholders subject to them remaining in employment with ARM for up to five years and meeting certain performance criteria.
From the date of acquisition to December 31, 2011, the acquisition contributed $0.1 million in revenue and incurred a loss of $0.1 million. If Prolific had been consolidated from January 1, 2011, the consolidated income statement would have included $3.1 million of revenue and $1.5 million of pre-tax profit.
Other ARM acquisitions during the year 2011 have been previously described in EDA WEEKLY articles.
ARM self description
ARM designs the technology that lays at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM's comprehensive product offering includes 32-bit RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, video engines, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company's broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.
On January 31, 2012 CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA); (LSE: CVA), the leading licensor of silicon intellectual property (SIP) platform solutions and DSP cores for the mobile handset, portable and consumer electronics markets, announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2011.
Financial Highlights
- All-time high quarterly and annual revenue of $16.0 million and $60.2 million, up 22% and 34% year-over-year, respectively
- Record quarterly and annual royalty revenue of $10.2 million and $36.4 million, up 36% and 59% year-over-year, respectively
- Record shipment volumes of CEVA technology; More than 1 billion CEVA-powered units shipped in 2011
Fourth Quarter 2011
Total revenue for Q4 2011 was $15.952 million, which represents an increase of 22.46% compared to $13.026 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2010, and 7.44% better than just-prior Q3 2011 revenue of $14.847 million.
Fourth quarter 2011 licensing revenue was $4.7 million, a 2% increase when compared to $4.6 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2010. Royalty revenue for the fourth quarter of 2011 was a record $10.2 million, an increase of 36% compared to $7.5 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2010. Revenue from services for the fourth quarter of 2011 was $1.1 million, an increase of 19% compared to $0.9 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2010.
GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2011 was $4.853 million, an increase of 15.36% over $4.207 million reported for the same period in 2010, and down 1.66% compared to sequential Q3 2011 net income of $4.935 million. GAAP diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2011 were $0.20, an increase of 11.1% compared to $0.18 for the fourth quarter of 2010, and even with Q3 2011 EPS.
Gideon Wertheizer, Chief Executive Officer of CEVA, stated, "During the fourth quarter we were able to drive meaningful growth and generate significant momentum throughout our operations, producing record-setting results. CEVA-powered cellular baseband processor shipments increased for the twelfth consecutive quarter and continued to drive growth for us in every segment of the wireless market, from low cost feature phones through to 4G LTE smart phones and tablets. We also continued our strategic expansion into new markets during the quarter with customer wins for smart TV and connectivity applications."
Mr. Wertheizer continued, "Looking back at a very successful 2011, we delivered on our two main strategic goals: driving strong growth of CEVA-powered baseband chipsets and extending our technology leadership in the DSP space. Our customers shipped more than 927 million CEVA-powered basebands during the year, and more than 1 billion CEVA-based chipsets overall. We introduced new DSP products for audio and imaging aimed to diversify our revenue beyond baseband. We remain ideally positioned to further benefit from ongoing market trends, specifically the evolution in cellular networks in both developed and emerging economies, the expansion of wireless connectivity in devices beyond handsets, as well as mass adoption and feature set enhancement of smart phones and other smart devices."
During the fourth quarter of 2011, the Company concluded seven new license agreements. Four of the agreements were for CEVA DSP cores, platforms, and software, two agreements were for CEVA SATA/SAS technology and one agreement was for CEVA Bluetooth technology. Target applications for customer deployment are TD-SCDMA baseband processors for handsets, smart TV for emerging markets, connectivity for smart phones and solid state drives. Geographically, two of the agreements signed were in the U.S. and five were in Asia.
Full Year 2011 Review
Total revenue for 2011 was $60.2 million, an increase of 34% compared to $44.9 million reported for 2010.
Royalty revenue for 2011 was a record high $36.4 million, representing an increase of 59% compared to $22.9 million reported for 2010. Licensing revenue for 2011 was $20.2 million, an increase of 10% compared to $18.4 million reported for 2010.
GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share for 2011 were $18.6 million and $0.77, respectively, an increase of 63% and 51%, respectively, compared to $11.4 million and $0.51 reported for 2010.
Yaniv Arieli, Chief Financial Officer of CEVA, stated, "We delivered another exceptionally strong set of earnings in the fourth quarter, underpinned by record high royalty revenues, which yielded strong GAAP and non-GAAP results.”
“On an annual basis, 2011 was a record-breaking year for CEVA across every financial metric and delivered earnings far in excess of our initial annual guidance. We concluded the year with a very strong balance sheet, which included cash and cash equivalent balances, marketable securities and long term bank deposits of approximately $165 million, up from $131 million at the end of 2010."
Latest News from CEVA
On February 21, 2012 CEVA, Inc. unveiled the CEVA-XC4000, a fully programmable low-power DSP architecture framework supporting the most demanding communication standards for cellular, Wi-Fi, DTV, white space, and more. Building upon its highly successful predecessors, the CEVA-XC4000 architecture is said to set a new milestone for power efficiency and utilizes an innovative instruction set to enable highly complex, software-based baseband processing which otherwise could only be accomplished with dedicated hardware. Illustrating this, the CEVA-XC4000 delivers a 5X performance improvement over the CEVA-XC323 DSP for LTE-A processing, while consuming 50% less power.
The CEVA-XC4000 architecture is offered in a series of six fully programmable DSP cores, offering modem developers a wide spectrum of performance capabilities while complying with the most stringent power constraints. By taking advantage of a unified development infrastructure composed of code-compatible cores, a set of optimized software libraries and a single tool chain, customers can significantly reduce software development costs while leveraging their software investment in future products.
“The CEVA-XC4000 redefines the concept of a ‘universal communication architecture’, enabling every conceivable advanced cellular, connectivity, DTV, white space and powerline communication standard to be efficiently supported by a single DSP architecture,” said Gideon Wertheizer, CEO of CEVA, said, “Incorporating new power management techniques, we were able to dramatically reduce the power consumption for high-performance software-based processing, paving the way for modem developers to exploit the flexibility, reusability and time-to-market advantages that a software-defined approach brings.”
To better serve CEVA-XC4000 customers, CEVA also announced complete reference architectures targeting complex communication standards, including LTE-A Rel-10 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac supporting up to 1.7 Gbps, in collaboration with CEVA-XCnet partners mimoOn and Antcor. These reference architectures are complemented with highly optimized software libraries for LTE-A and Wi-Fi.
Streamlined Software Development
The CEVA-XC4000 DSP architecture is supported by CEVA-Toolbox™, a complete software development environment, incorporating Vec-C™ compiler technology for advanced vector processors, enabling the entire architecture to be programmed in C-level. An integrated simulator provides accurate and efficient verification of the entire system including the memory sub-systems. In addition, CEVA-Toolbox includes libraries, a graphical debugger, and a complete optimization tool chain named CEVA Application Optimizer. The Application Optimizer enables automatic and manual optimization applied in the C source code.
For more information, visit www.ceva-dsp.com/CEVA-XC4000.html.
CEVA, Inc. self description
CEVA is the world's leading licensor of silicon intellectual property (SIP) DSP cores and platform solutions for the mobile handset, portable and consumer electronics markets. CEVA's IP portfolio includes comprehensive technologies for cellular baseband (2G / 3G / 4G), multimedia (HD video, Image Signal Processing (ISP) and HD audio), voice over packet (VoP), Bluetooth, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA). In 2011, CEVA's IP was shipped in over 1 billion devices, powering handsets from 7 out of the top 8 handset OEMs, including Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony and ZTE. Today, more than 40% of handsets shipped worldwide are powered by a CEVA DSP core. For more information, visit www.ceva-dsp.com. Follow CEVA on twitter at www.twitter.com/cevadsp.
On January 25, 2012 MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) reported consolidated financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2012 ended December 31, 2011. This period is Q4 2011 for EDA WEEKLY purposes. All financial results are reported in US GAAP unless otherwise noted.
Summary of Q4 2011 MIPS Financial Metrics
- Q4 2011 Revenue was $15.301 million, a quarter-to-quarter decrease of 11.13% from $17.217 million in Q3 2011.
- Licensee royalty units grew to 186 million units in Q4 2011, from 173 million units in the just previous quarter.
- Cash and investment balances ended the quarter at $110.7 million, representing an increase of $4.1 million from September 30, 2011
Revenue for Q4 2011 from royalties was $13.2 million, while license revenue was $2.1 million, for a total of $15.301 million. One year ago, revenue was for Q4 2010 was $21.856 million.
The Company's Q4 2011 GAAP net loss was $972,000 or $0.02 per share compared to just prior quarter's (Q3 2011) net income of $0.523 million. Q4 2010 earnings were $6.048 million.
"Business conditions continue to be challenging in the semiconductor market, especially in the digital home and networking areas that comprise the majority of our revenue. MIPS continues to make inroads into the fast-growing mobile market, having introduced the industry's first Android 4.0 'Ice Cream Sandwich' tablet, and adding a new mobile licensee this quarter. We have new processor cores coming to market this year for which we already have advance orders. In addition, we are actively assessing alternatives to unlock the value in our portfolio of 580+ patent properties worldwide," said CEO Sandeep Vij.
MIPS’ revenue in Q4 2011 was the 5th consecutive quarter of declining sales and the Company’s stock price fell on a similar slope throughout Q4 2011 (e.g. closing at $3.93 on December 19, 2011), especially as MIPs slipped into red ink for Q4 2011. Nevertheless, MIPS’ stock has enjoyed a resurgence since that low point and through mid-February has sported an upward slope greater than that of the NASDAQ itself, closing at $6.40 on February 17, 2012 (see second stock graph comparing MIPS to NASDAQ just below). However by February 27 MIPS’ stock closed at $5.96 (down 6.9% since February 17), while the NASDAQ Composite itself has hit a 10-day flat spot, nevertheless still inching up to $2966.16 (+0.49%) since February 17.
MIPS Technologies, Inc. self description
MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIPS) is a provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications. The MIPS architecture powers some of the world’s most popular products, including broadband devices from Linksys, DTVs and digital consumer devices from Sony, DVD recordable devices from Pioneer, digital set-top boxes from Motorola, network routers from Cisco, 32-bit microcontrollers from Microchip Technology and laser printers from Hewlett-Packard. Founded in 1998, MIPS Technologies is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices worldwide. For more information, contact (408) 530-5000 or visit
www.mips.com.
MIPS is a trademark or registered trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
On February 7, 2012 MoSys, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOSY) reported financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2011.
Fourth Quarter and Year 2011 Highlights
- Reported full year 2011 revenue of $14.1 million;
- Increased fourth quarter revenue to $5.2 million, up 30% over the prior year period;
- Raised $35 million through a patent sale, ending the year with total cash and investments of $58 million;
- Announced and demonstrated interoperability of the Bandwidth Engine ® integrated circuit (IC) family with SerDes from Avago Technologies and with FPGA devices from Altera Corporation and Xilinx, Inc.;
- Established new distribution channel partnerships for the Bandwidth Engine IC in China and Japan;
- Achieved first design wins for the Bandwidth Engine IC; and
- Achieved ISO 9001:2008 certification.
Management Commentary
"During the fourth quarter, we significantly strengthened our cash position through the $35 million sale of a portion of our memory technology patent portfolio. We are very pleased to have completed this transaction, which provides us with ample funding to advance the development of our Bandwidth Engine IC business, said Len Perham, MoSys' President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are now well positioned to focus on executing our strategy to become an IP-rich fabless semiconductor company.”
"In addition to the patent sale, fourth quarter financial results reflected a strong increase in revenue driven by completion of milestones on IP licensing projects, as well as ongoing royalty revenue. In the coming quarters, our primary focus will be to drive demand and achieve additional design wins for our Bandwidth Engine IC family.”
"From a technology perspective, in 2012, we will also continue to focus on R&D activities for our Bandwidth Engine product roadmap, while closely managing our operating costs. MoSys recently earned ISO 9001:2008 certification for its IC operations, which is a significant step toward achieving enterprise-grade quality and furthering its evolution as an IP-rich fabless semiconductor company,” concluded Mr. Perham.
Fourth Quarter Results
Total net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2011 was $5.169 million, compared with $2.107 million reported in the third quarter of 2011 and $3.968 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Fourth quarter 2011 total revenue included licensing revenue of $2.7 million, compared with $0.8 million for the previous quarter and $1.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2010. Fourth quarter 2011 royalty revenue was $2.5 million, compared with $1.4 million in the previous quarter and $2.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2010.
Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2011 was 66%, compared with 83% in the third quarter of 2011 and 81% for the fourth quarter of 2010. The sequential decrease in gross margin was due to higher costs associated with the increased license revenue.
Total operating expenses on a GAAP basis for the fourth quarter of 2011 were a net gain of $26.5 million, which was attributable to a one-time gain of $35.6 million from the Company's sale of memory technology patents. Operating expenses also included $9.1 million in R&D and SG&A expense. Total operating expenses also included $0.7 million of amortization of intangible assets and $1.0 million of stock-based compensation expense. Fourth quarter 2011 R&D and SG&A total operating expenses of $9.1 million compared with $8.6 million in the previous quarter and $8.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2010.
GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2011 was $29.800 million, or $0.75 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $6.868 million, or ($0.18) per share, in the previous quarter and a net loss of $5.771 million, or ($0.17) per share, for the fourth quarter of 2010. Earnings per share on a GAAP basis for the fourth quarter of 2011 were computed using approximately 39.8 million weighted diluted shares.
Cash and investments totaled $58.0 million as of December 31, 2011, which included the $35 million in cash proceeds from the Company's December 2011 patent sale.
Full Year 2011 Results
Total revenue for 2011 was $14.107 million, compared with $15.568 million for fiscal 2010. Net income for 2011 was $11.256 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, based on approximately 40.4 million weighted shares, compared with a net loss of $23.062 million, or ($0.72) per share, in 2010. Earnings per share for the full year 2011 were computed using approximately 40.4 million weighted diluted shares.
Recent News – New VP Marketing
On February 24, 2012 MoSys announced the appointment of John Monson as Vice President of Marketing. Monson will be responsible for all product marketing and will play a significant role in the strategic direction of the company. Monson will report directly to Len Perham, MoSys' President and Chief Executive Officer.
"John joins MoSys with extensive experience in the semiconductor industry and a proven track record for strategically targeting markets, defining products and successfully bringing those products into the marketplace, said Perham. "I am excited to have John on board and look forward to his support driving MoSys down the path to being an IP-rich fabless semiconductor company in 2012 and beyond.”
Monson has more than 20 years of experience in engineering, marketing and sales with leading edge technology companies. Most recently, he was vice president of marketing for Mellanox Technologies where he was responsible for worldwide marketing and the implementation of marketing initiatives designed to expand penetration in key markets. Prior to Mellanox, he was vice president of marketing and business development for Inphi Corporation where he managed the EDC/PhyOptik business line. Further, he was vice president of sales and marketing for Scintera Networks with responsibility for strategy, product marketing and business development. His background also includes eight years at PMC-Sierra in executive and senior management positions in marketing and sales where he was instrumental in establishing PMC in the market and enabling the company's growth. Prior to joining PMC-Sierra, he spent seven years at Lucent Technologies where he served in strategic sales and product marketing positions in Lucent's mass storage and wireless product lines. Previously, he was the strategic marketing manager at Honeywell Solid State Electronics Center and held engineering and marketing positions at VTC Incorporated.
As an inducement material to Monson's employment, in accordance with NASDAQ Stock Market Rule 5635(c)(4), the company has granted him a stock option to purchase 175,000 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $3.92 per share, which equals the closing price of a share of MoSys common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market on February 23, 2012.
MoSys, Inc. self description
MoSys, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOSY) is a provider of high-performance networking memory solutions and high-speed, multi-protocol serial interface intellectual property (SerDes IP). MoSys' leading edge Bandwidth Engine ® ICs combine the company's patented 1T-SRAM ® high-density memory with its SerDes IP and are initially targeted at providing breakthroughs in bandwidth and access performance in next generation networking systems. MoSys' SerDes IP and DDR3 PHYs support a wide range of data rates across a variety of standards, while its 1T-SRAM memory cores provide a combination of high-density, low-power consumption, high-speed and low cost advantages for high-performance applications. MoSys is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. More information is available on MoSys' website at www.mosys.com.
MoSys, 1T-SRAM and Bandwidth Engine are registered trademarks of MoSys, Inc. in the US and/or other countries. The MoSys logo is a trademark of MoSys, Inc. All other marks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
On January 26, 2012 Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBS), calling itself one of the world's premier technology licensing companies, reported financial results for the fourth quarter and for the Full Year, both ending December 31, 2011.
Q4 & Annual 2011 Business and Financial Highlights
- Quarterly revenue of $83.4 million
- Annual revenue of $312.4 million
- Fourth quarter GAAP diluted loss per share of $0.26
- Annual GAAP diluted loss per share of $0.39
- Signed five-year patent license agreement with Broadcom Corporation and settled all outstanding claims, including resolution of past use of Rambus' patented innovations
GAAP Financial Results:
Revenue for Q4 2011 was $83.355 million, down 17% sequentially from Q3 2011 primarily due to recognition of various one-time royalty revenues during the third quarter of 2011 from licensing agreements with Freescale and a major smart phone and tablet manufacturer. As compared to Q4 2010, revenue was down 8.32% primarily due to a one-time recognition of royalty revenue during the fourth quarter of 2010 from a licensing agreement with Elpida.
Revenue for the year 2011 was $312.61 million, down 3.41% compared to last year, primarily due to the one-time recognition of royalty revenue from the settlement agreement signed with Samsung in 2010, which was partially offset by the revenue recognized from licensing agreements with NVIDIA, Broadcom, Freescale and a major smart phone and tablet manufacturer in 2011.
Total operating costs and expenses for Q4 2011 were $101.5 million, which included general litigation expenses of $16.8 million, $6.5 million of stock-based compensation expenses, $13.5 million for previous stock-based compensation restatement and related legal expenses, and retention bonuses and amortization expenses related to the acquisition of Cryptography Research Inc., or CRI, of $13.1 million. This is compared to total operating costs and expenses for the third quarter of 2011 of $89.5 million, which included general litigation expenses of $23.5 million, $7.2 million of stock-based compensation expenses, $0.8 million for previous stock-based compensation restatement and related legal expenses, and deal costs, retention bonuses and amortization expenses related to the acquisition of CRI of $12.7 million. Total operating costs and expenses in the fourth quarter of 2010 were $48.0 million, which included general litigation expenses of $5.8 million, $7.3 million of stock-based compensation expenses, $0.8 million for previous stock-based compensation restatement and related legal expenses, and gain from the Samsung settlement of $10.3 million.
Total operating costs and expenses for the year 2011 were $313.9 million, which included a $6.2 million gain related to the Samsung settlement, $28.0 million of stock-based compensation expenses, $16.2 million for previous stock-based compensation restatement and related legal expenses, and deal costs, retention bonuses and amortization expenses related to the acquisition of CRI of $34.2 million. This is compared to total operating costs and expenses of $96.5 million for the same period of 2010, which included a $126.8 million gain related to the Samsung settlement, $30.5 million of stock-based compensation expenses and $4.2 million for previous stock-based compensation restatement and related legal expenses. General litigation expenses for the year ended December 31, 2011 were $61.0 million as compared to $22.7 million for the same period in 2010.
Net loss for Q4 2011 was $28.716 million as compared to net income of $0.5 million in the third quarter of 2011 and net income of $33.084 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. Diluted net loss per share for the fourth quarter of 2011 was $0.26 as compared to net income per share of $0.00 in the third quarter of 2011 and net income per share of $0.29 in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Net loss for the year 2011 was $43.033 million as compared to net income of $150.917 million for 2010.
Diluted net loss per share for the year 2011 was $0.39 as compared to net income per share of $1.30 for 2010.
Other Recent Financial Highlights:
Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities as of December 31, 2011 were $289.5 million, a decrease of approximately $3.3 million from September 30, 2011. During the fourth quarter of 2011, the Company paid $10.9 million related to the settlement in the matter captioned Stuart J. Steele, et al. v. Rambus Inc., et al., related to stock option grants that were not correctly dated or accounted for prior to 2006, settling the claims against it and the individual defendants.
During the fourth quarter of 2011 and the year ended 2011, the Company recorded an income tax provision of approximately $4.3 million and $17.3 million, respectively. As the Company continues to maintain a full valuation allowance against its U.S. deferred tax assets, the Company's tax provision consists of primarily withholding taxes and current state and foreign taxes.
Huge Drop Off in RMBS Stock Value in mid-November 2011
In the second Rambus stock graph below, the huge negative swing in RMBS stock value in mid-November 2011 is obvious. EDA WEEKLY readers will recall that the cause was actually reported here last quarter under a paragraph entitled, "Very Late Breaking News," as follows:
Rambus shares fell over 60% in value today.
Rambus investors were dealt this heavy blow on Wednesday November 16, 2011, after a court in San Francisco denied Rambus a win in Rambus' big price-fixing case against Micron and Hynix. After two months of deliberation, a jury found that Micron and Hynix were not guilty of price fixing or anti-competitive behavior. Rambus’s stock plunged almost $11 per share once the news was announced.
This was a major defeat for Rambus. Investors had apparently estimated that had it won the case, Rambus might have been able to collect anywhere from $300 million to as much as $4 billion.
Then we saw this later News
SEOUL | Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:26am EST
Feb 16 (Reuters) - South Korean chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor Inc said on Thursday that a U.S. court has rejected an antitrust claim filed against it by Rambus Inc .
The ruling by the Superior Court of the State of California follows a jury rejection in November of claims by Rambus in a $4 billion antitrust lawsuit against Hynix and U.S. peer Micron Technology Inc.
Hynix said Rambus could appeal the ruling within 60 days.
On February 3, 2012, Reuters had reported that Micron CEO Steve Appleton had died in a small plane crash.
Other Post – Q4 2011 Rambus News
On 02/06/2012 Rambus announced it had acquired privately-held Unity Semiconductor, a memory technology company, for an aggregate of $35 million in cash. As part of this acquisition, Unity team members have joined Rambus to continue developing next-generation non-volatile memory. Rambus says that this acquisition will expand the breadth of Rambus’ breakthrough memory technologies and will open up new markets for licensing. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the acquisition and it has closed.
“At Rambus, we are creating disruptive technologies to enable future electronic products,” said Sharon Holt, senior vice president and general manager of the Semiconductor Business Group at Rambus. “With the addition of Unity, we can develop non-volatile memory solutions that will advance semiconductor scaling beyond the limits of today’s NAND technology. This will enable new memory architectures that help meet ever-increasing consumer demands.”
“Rambus provides our team the perfect environment to continue the technology development of non-volatile memory cells and architectures,” said David Eggleston, president and chief executive officer at Unity Semiconductor. “Our comprehensive set of design, process and device solutions will complement Rambus’ existing strong technology portfolio and system capabilities.”
Unity has developed a novel solid state memory technology intended to replace NAND in the growing non-volatile memory market. With nine years of development history, Unity’s memory technology, CMOx™, has been designed to accelerate the commercialization of the Terabit generation of non-volatile memories. Devices using CMOx™ cell technology are expected to achieve higher density, faster performance, lower manufacturing costs and greater data reliability than NAND Flash.
On 02/08/2012 Rambus said it had signed a patent license agreement with NVIDIA.
The agreement covers the use of Rambus patented innovations in a broad range of integrated circuit (IC) products offered by NVIDIA. In addition, the two companies have settled all outstanding claims, including resolution of past use of Rambus’ patented devices. The term of this agreement is five years; other details are confidential.
“This is an important license agreement as it settles our differences and allows us to move forward with NVIDIA, the leader in visual and parallel computing,” said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus. “Looking forward, we have the opportunity to focus on developing solutions in concert with our licensees to help bring compelling, unique products to market.”
Rambus Inc. self description
Rambus is one of the world's premier technology licensing companies. As a company of inventors, Rambus focuses on the development of technologies that enrich the end-user experience of electronic systems. Additional information is available at
www.rambus.com
The Electronics IP G5 Results for Calendar Q4 2011
We have just completed our first look at the individual performances of each member of the Group of Five (a.k.a. the G5) Electronics IP players for nominal Q4 2011.
Promised thereafter was a summary of the by-now-familiar Tables of Revenues and Profits of the entire G5, this time of course for Q4 2011 (and the four quarters leading up to Q4 2011), as well as some graphs of previous year-by-year P&L’s.
What follows, fulfils that promise!
First to Table 1 and the G5 IP Revenue Sum for Q4 2011:
$337.50 million! The largest revenue number in Table 1, but not by much: just 3.3% more than the just-prior Q3 2011 G5 total and a weak 9% better than last year’s Q4. The sequential G5 increase this year was thanks to double-digit percentage growth in revenue from both ARM and CEVA, and to triple-digit percentage improvement from Mosys, to make up for still another revenue shortfall from MIPS and a huge 17% revenue decline by Rambus compared to Q3 2011.
ARM continues to set the pace in a world of its own, and this quarter CeVA’s performance is noteworthy as well, passing MIPS in revenue in Q4 2011 for the number 3 slot among the G5 IP players, as predicted here last quarter.
Despite Rambus’ 17% sequential revenue shortfall in Q4, its revenue again placed Rambus second only to ARM, and at $83+ million, Rambus’ revenue is greater than the sum of the bottom three.
The revenue distinction among the five IP vendors continues, with two dominant vendors and three runners up. ARM’s strength is once more on display, with Rambus’ sinusoidal revenue still number two. While the business models of each these two vendors are dramatically different, together that “odd couple” again in Q4 2011 took more than seven-eighths of the IP revenue Sum, leaving less than an eighth to divide among the bottom three companies.
When one considers both Tables 1 and 2, ARM’s financials are indeed remarkable and serve as a model for all the G5 IP companies (or even for EDA and MCAD/MCAE vendors). Table 2 (below) reveals (a) that ARM’s net income again exceeded $50 million in Q4 2011, and (b) that ARM sports all black numbers across the top row of Table 2. Moreover, the bar graph labeled “ARMH Graph I” shows that 2011 is not a new phenomenon:
Notice that Table 1 columns far above calculate the percentage of one quarter over the other, as labeled, whereas in Table 2 just above, the relevant columns provide the numerical dollar differences in earnings between two different quarters as labeled.
Overall, Table 2 still shows lots of red; indeed, this time Table 2 regressed to 33.3% of the 42 entries in the IP G5 earnings table appearing in red font for this 4th quarter of 2011. The IP earnings table in Q2 2011 showed 35.7%% red numbers, and Q3 2011 improved to 28.6% red numbers.
Table 2 above also demonstrates Rambus’ oscillations. Rambus’ business model simply marches to the beat of a different drummer; look at RAMBUS (USD) Graph V below:
The remaining three Google Finance graphs of would also appear to match the current 2011 personalities of the IP vendors each represents:
About the Writer:
Since 1996, Dr. Russ Henke has been active as president of HENKE ASSOCIATES, a San Francisco Bay Area high-tech business & management consulting firm. The number of client companies served by Henke Associates during those years now numbers close to fifty and counting. Engagement lengths have varied from a few weeks up to ten years and beyond.
During his previous corporate career, Henke operated sequentially on "both sides" of MCAE/MCAD and EDA, as a user and as a vendor. He's a veteran corporate executive from Cincinnati Milacron (Research Scientist), SDRC (President & COO), Schlumberger Applicon (Executive VP), Gould Electronics (President & General Manager), ATP (Chairman and CEO), and Mentor Graphics (VP & General Manager).
Henke is a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and served on the SME International Board of Directors. Henke was also a board member of SDRC, PDA, ATP, and the MacNeal Schwendler Corporation, and he currently serves on the board of Stottler Henke Associates, Inc.
Henke is also a member of the IEEE and a Life Fellow of ASME International. In April 2006, Dr. Henke received the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from the CAD Society, presented by CAD Society president Jeff Rowe at COFES2006 in Scottsdale, AZ. In February 2007, Henke became affiliated with Cyon Research's select group of experts on business and technology issues as a Senior Analyst. This Cyon Research connection aids and supplements Henke's ongoing, independent consulting practice (HENKE ASSOCIATES). Dr. Henke is also a contributing editor of the EDACafé EDA WEEKLY, and he has published EDA WEEKLY articles every four weeks since November 2009; URL's available.
Since May 2003 HENKE ASSOCIATES has also published a total of one-hundred (100) independent COMMENTARY articles on MCAD, PLM, EDA and Electronics IP on IBSystems' MCADCafé and EDACafé.
Further information on HENKE ASSOCIATES, and URL's for past Commentaries and EDA WEEKLIES, are available at
http://www.henkeassociates.net.
March 31, 2012 will mark the 16th Anniversary of the founding of HENKE ASSOCIATES.