CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

20 August 2009

Financial News

Mentor Graphics Reports Fiscal Second Quarter Results

Mentor Graphics Corporation announced results for the fiscal second quarter 2010, ending July 31, 2009. For the quarter, the company reported revenues of $182.6 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of $.02, and a GAAP loss per share of $.22. Bookings for the quarter rose 15% over the prior fiscal second quarter.

“The quarter’s strong bookings performance was driven by new customers and new products. Though the business climate is still difficult, we did see strong sequential increases in consulting and distributor bookings during the quarter, both signs we take as indicators of an improving customer environment,” said Walden C. Rhines, CEO and chairman of Mentor Graphics. “The company continues to build its strength in new markets, expanding its electronic system level design (ESL) and low-power product offerings during the quarter. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) inclusion of a full Mentor low-power implementation flow in their Reference Flow 10.0 further strengthens the company’s position in the physical implementation market.”

During the quarter, Mentor released a new version of its Catapult® C synthesis tool enabling full chip synthesis, including control logic, and better power management. The company also released its PADS® 9.0 printed circuit board flow which incorporated new collaboration, manufacturing and analysis tools. At the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in July, Mentor advanced its full system low-power strategy by launching its VistaTM platform which enables engineers to model power early in the design cycle. Also at DAC, Mentor and its partners detailed the company’s multi-operating system, multi-core embedded system strategy featuring Linux, Android, and Nucleus® operating systems. On Tuesday, the company closed its acquisition of LogicVision announced during the second quarter. The acquisition strengthens the company’s position in the design-for-test market by combining LogicVision’s strength in built-in-self-test (BIST) with the company’s strength in automated test pattern generation (ATPG) and embedded test pattern compression technology.

“With a tight rein on costs and the beginnings of an improving economic climate, the company performed better than we were confident to predict,” said Gregory K. Hinckley, president of Mentor Graphics. “The contract renewals we had in the quarter were at similar levels to their previous contract values, which was an improvement from the first quarter’s renewal rates. And despite acquisitions, headcount and operating expenses are down from a year ago, as the company continued to attack costs like travel, facilities and outside services.”

Outlook

For the third quarter fiscal 2010, the company expects revenue of about $183 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of about $.01 and a GAAP loss per share of about $.19.

Adoption of FASB Staff Position APB 14-1

During the first quarter of fiscal 2010, Mentor Graphics adopted FASB Staff Position No. APB 14-1, “Accounting for Convertible Debt Instruments That May Be Settled in Cash upon Conversion (Including Partial Cash Settlement)” (FSP APB 14-1). FSP APB 14-1 requires retroactive application to all prior periods reported. Accordingly, we have adjusted the applicable prior period balance sheets, statements of operations including net income (loss) per share, and statements of cash flows to reflect the adjusted balance of the convertible notes and related items, and to record the amortization of the discount on the convertible notes as a non-cash interest expense. A reconciliation of our adjusted Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of January 31, 2009, our adjusted Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations, and our adjusted Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the three and six months ended July 31, 2008 to their original filings is available in the unabridged press release.

Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Mentor Graphics management evaluates and makes operating decisions using various performance measures. In addition to our GAAP results, we also consider adjusted gross margin, operating margin and net income (loss), which we refer to as non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin, and net income (loss), respectively. These non-GAAP measures are derived from the revenues of our product, maintenance, and services business operations and the costs directly related to the generation of those revenues, such as cost of revenue, research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses, that management considers in evaluating our ongoing core operating performance. These non-GAAP measures exclude amortization of intangible assets, in-process research and development, special charges, equity plan-related compensation expenses and charges, interest expense attributable to net retirement premiums or discounts on the early retirement of debt and associated debt issuance costs, interest expense associated with the amortization of debt discount on convertible debt recorded under FSB APB 14-1, impairment of cost method investments, and the equity in income or losses of unconsolidated entities, which management does not consider reflective of our core operating business.

Identified intangible assets consist primarily of purchased technology, backlog, trade names, customer relationships, and employment agreements. In periods prior to the adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 141 (revised 2007), “Business Combinations,” in-process research and development charges represented products in development that had not reached technological feasibility at the time of acquisition. Special charges primarily consist of costs incurred for employee terminations due to a reduction of personnel resources driven by modifications of business strategy or business emphasis. Special charges may also include expenses incurred related to potential acquisitions, excess facility costs, asset-related charges, post-acquisition rebalance costs and restructuring costs, including severance and benefits. Equity plan-related compensation expenses represent the fair value of all share-based payments to employees, including grants of employee stock options, as required under SFAS No. 123 (revised 2004), “Share-Based Payment” (SFAS 123R). For purposes of comparability across other periods and against other companies in our industry, non-GAAP net income (loss) is adjusted by the amount of additional taxes or tax benefit that we would accrue using a normalized effective tax rate applied to the non-GAAP results.

Management excludes from our non-GAAP measures certain recurring items to facilitate its review of the comparability of our core operating performance on a period-to-period basis because such items are not related to our ongoing core operating performance as viewed by management. Management considers our core operating performance to be that which can be affected by our managers in any particular period through their management of the resources that affect our underlying revenue and profit generating operations during that period. Management uses this view of our operating performance for purposes of comparison with our business plan and individual operating budgets and allocation of resources. Additionally, when evaluating potential acquisitions, management excludes the items described above from its consideration of target performance and valuation. More specifically, management adjusts for the excluded items for the following reasons:

•  Amortization charges for our intangible assets are inconsistent in amount and frequency and are significantly impacted by the timing and magnitude of our acquisition transactions. We therefore consider our operating results without these charges when evaluating our core performance. Generally, the most significant impact to inter-period comparability of our net income (loss) is in the first twelve months following an acquisition.

•  In-process research and development charges are largely disregarded as acquisition decisions are made since they often result in charges that vary significantly in size and amount. Management excludes these charges when evaluating the impact of an acquisition transaction and our ongoing performance.

•  Special charges are incurred based on the particular facts and circumstances of acquisition and restructuring decisions and can vary in size and frequency. These charges are not ordinarily included in our annual operating plan and related budget due the unpredictability of economic trends and the rapidly changing technology and competitive environment in our industry. We therefore exclude them when evaluating our managers' performance internally.

•  We view equity plan-related compensation as a key element of our employee retention and long-term incentives, not as an expense that we use in evaluating core operations in any given period. Management also believes this information is useful to investors to compare our performance to the performance of other companies in our industry who present non-GAAP results adjusted to exclude stock compensation expense.

•  Interest expense attributable to net retirement premiums or discounts on the early retirement of debt, the write-off of associated debt issuance costs and the amortization of the debt discount on convertible debt were excluded. Management does not consider these charges as a part of our core operating performance. The early retirement of debt and the associated debt issuance costs is not included in our annual operating plan and related budget due to unpredictability of market conditions which could facilitate an early retirement of debt. We consider the amortization of the debt discount on convertible debt recorded under FSP APB 14-1 not to be a direct cost of operations. We also believe this presentation is more useful to investors in comparing our performance to the performance of other companies in our industry who present non-GAAP results adjusted to exclude such items.

•  Impairment of cost method investments can occur when the fair value of the investment is less than its cost. This can occur when there is a significant deterioration in the investee’s earnings performance, significant adverse changes in the general market conditions of the industry in which the investee operates, or indications that the investee may no longer be able to conduct business. These charges are inconsistent in amount and frequency. We therefore consider our operating results without these charges when evaluating our core performance.

•  Equity in income or losses of unconsolidated subsidiaries represents the net income (losses) in an investment accounted for under the equity method. The amounts represent our equity in the net income (losses) of a common stock investment. The carrying amount of our investment is adjusted for our share of earnings or losses of the investee. The amounts were excluded as we do not influence or control the results of operations for these investments and management does not consider this activity a part of our core operating performance.

•  Income tax expense (benefit) is adjusted by the amount of additional tax expense or benefit that we would accrue if we used non-GAAP results instead of GAAP results in the calculation of our tax liability, taking into consideration our long-term tax structure. We use a normalized effective tax rate of 17%, which reflects the weighted average tax rate applicable under the various tax jurisdictions in which we operate. This non-GAAP weighted average tax rate is subject to change over time for various reasons, including changes in the geographic business mix and changes in statutory tax rates. Our GAAP tax rate for the six months ended July 31, 2009 is (28%), after the consideration of discrete items. Without discrete items of $(3,530) thousand, our GAAP tax rate is (41%). Inclusive of discrete items, our full fiscal year 2010 GAAP tax rate is projected to be (34%). The GAAP tax rate considers certain mandatory and other non-scalable tax costs which may adversely or beneficially affect our tax rate depending upon our level of profitability in various jurisdictions.

In certain instances our GAAP results of operations may not be profitable when our corresponding non-GAAP results are profitable or vice versa. The number of shares on which our non-GAAP EPS is calculated may therefore differ from the GAAP presentation due to the anti-dilutive effect of stock options in a loss situation.

Non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin, and net income (loss) are supplemental measures of our performance that are not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP. Moreover, they should not be considered as an alternative to any performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP, or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. We present non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin, and net income (loss) because we consider them to be important supplemental measures of our operating performance and profitability trends, and because we believe they give investors useful information on period-to-period performance as evaluated by management. Non-GAAP net income (loss) also facilitates comparison with other companies in our industry, which use similar financial measures to supplement their GAAP results. Non-GAAP net income (loss) has limitations as an analytical tool, and therefore should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. In the future we expect to continue to incur expenses similar to the non-GAAP adjustments described above and exclusion of these items in our non-GAAP presentation should not be construed as an inference that these costs are unusual, infrequent or non-recurring. Some of the limitations in relying on non-GAAP net income (loss) are:

•  Amortization of intangibles represents the loss in value as the technology in our industry evolves, is advanced, or is replaced over time. The expense associated with this loss in value is not included in the non-GAAP net income (loss) presentation and therefore does not reflect the full economic effect of the ongoing cost of maintaining our current technological position in our competitive industry, which is addressed through our research and development program.

•  We regularly engage in acquisition and assimilation activities as part of our ongoing business and regularly evaluate our businesses to determine whether any operations should be eliminated or curtailed. We therefore will continue to experience special charges on a regular basis. These costs also directly impact our available funds.

•  We perform impairment analyses on cost method investments when triggering events occur and adjust the carrying value of assets when we determine it to be necessary. Impairment charges could therefore be incurred in any period.

•  Our stock option and stock purchase plans are important components of our incentive compensation arrangements and will be reflected as expenses in our GAAP results under SFAS 123R.

•  Our income tax expense (benefit) will be ultimately based on our GAAP taxable income and actual tax rates in effect, which often differ significantly from the 17% rate assumed in our non-GAAP presentation.

•  Other companies, including other companies in our industry, calculate non-GAAP net income (loss) differently than we do, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

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