Mentor Graphics Reports Fiscal First Quarter Results

CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

28 May 2010

Financial News

Mentor Graphics Reports Fiscal First Quarter Results

Mentor Graphics Corporation announced results for the fiscal first quarter ending April 30, 2010. For the fiscal first quarter, the company reported revenues of $180.6 million, a non-GAAP loss per share of $.02, and a GAAP loss per share of $.22.

“While the quarter’s bookings were lower than last year due to the concentration of scheduled renewals in the second half of this year, the renewals that did occur in the first quarter were very strong, growing 25% from their prior contract values for the renewals within our top ten contracts,” said Walden C. Rhines, CEO and chairman of Mentor Graphics. “Leading indicators that we have historically tracked were also very positive: support reinstatements grew 70%; our base business, orders less than $1 million typically from smaller customers, grew 20% over the year ago quarter; and consulting and training bookings grew 25% over last year.”

During the quarter, the company extended its customer partnerships with three significant new relationships. Mentor joined the Nano2012 program led by STMicroelectronics, in partnership with the French government, to develop leading-edge technologies for 32nm and below processes. Freescale Semiconductor named Mentor Graphics its commercial Linux strategic partner. NetLogic Microsystems entered into a strategic collaboration with Mentor Graphics to provide multi-core multi-threaded Linux for their processors.

“Despite two sizeable acquisitions in the last year, our operating expense is still down on an absolute basis year on year. We expect our continued strong emphasis on cost controls, as well as an improving foreign exchange environment, particularly the Euro, positions us well for the year,” said Gregory K. Hinckley, president of Mentor Graphics. “This fifth consecutive quarter of meeting or beating guidance, given our transparent real-time financial model, gives us confidence that the recovery is continuing.”

During the quarter, Mentor strengthened its offerings to the DO-254 market with a joint announcement of a product flow with The MathWorks, extensions to Mentor’s HDL Designer product to support DO-254 coding standards, and a new product, the ReqTracer™ tool, that helps automate requirements capture. The company’s Mechanical Analysis Division launched FloTHERM® IC for semiconductor package thermal characterization and design. Mentor launched 3D electromagnetic analysis for its HyperLynx® printed circuit board product line. The company completed its previously announced acquisition of Valor Computerized Systems which offers PCB manufacturing software and also acquired technology that provides on-demand electrical schematics for automobile dealerships. In early May, Mentor launched its Calibre® InRoute software which fully integrates its Calibre tools into its Olympus-SOC™ place and route environment. This allows designers to invoke Calibre verification and design-for-manufacturing tools from within the place and route environment to verify and improve designs much faster, significantly speeding time to design closure.

In April, the Valor® MSS Software suite won the Circuits Assembly New Product Introduction Award and the 2010 Surface Mount Technology Vision Award. Design News granted FloEFD™ mechanical analysis technology its Golden Mousetrap Award for Best Product. In February, the International Engineering Consortium honored HyperLynx Power Integrity with its annual Design Vision Award in the System Modeling and Simulation Tool Category. Additionally, Mentor’s Dr. Vladimir Székely received the Dennis Gabor Award for Innovation, the country of Hungary’s highest technical honor.

Outlook

For the fiscal second quarter ending July 31, 2010, the company expects revenues of about $180 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of break-even to a loss of $.05, and GAAP loss per share of $.17 to $.22. For the full fiscal year 2011 the company expects revenues of $870 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of $.60 to $.65 and GAAP earnings per share of $.10 to $.15.

Fiscal Year Definition

Mentor Graphics fiscal year runs from February 1 to January 31. The fiscal year is dated by the calendar year in which the fiscal year ends. As a result, the first three fiscal quarters of any fiscal year will be dated with the next calendar year, rather than the current calendar year.

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, net income (loss), and earnings (loss) per share which we refer to as non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin, net income (loss), and earnings (loss) per share, 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, 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, impairment of long-lived assets, 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. 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, abandonment of in-process research and development acquired in an acquisition, 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. 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 tax expense or 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 excluded as they 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.
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 excluded as they 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 are 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 do not consider the amortization of the debt discount on convertible debt 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 earnings or losses of unconsolidated subsidiaries, with the exception of our investment in Frontline P.C.B. Solutions Limited Partnership, 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 are excluded as we do not control the results of operations for these investments, we do not participate in regular and periodic operating activities and management does not consider these businesses a part of our core operating performance.
In connection with the Company’s acquisition of Valor on March 18, 2010, we also acquired Valor’s 50% interest in a joint venture, Frontline P.C.B. Solutions Limited Partnership (“Frontline”). We report our equity in the earnings or losses of Frontline within operating income. We actively participate in regular and periodic activities such as budgeting, business planning, marketing and direction of research and development projects. Accordingly, we do not exclude our share of Frontline’s earnings or losses from our non-GAAP results as management considers the joint venture to be core to our 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 jurisdictions in which we operate. This non-GAAP tax rate eliminates the effects of non-recurring and period specific items which are often attributable to acquisition decisions and can vary in size and frequency and considers our US loss carryforwards that have not been previously benefited. This 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 three months ended April 30, 2010 is (13)%, after the consideration of period specific items. Without period specific items of $353 thousand, our GAAP tax rate is (11)%. Our full fiscal year 2011 GAAP tax rate, inclusive of period specific items, is projected to be 57%. 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 earnings per share 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.
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.

For the unabridged press release that contains financial tables please click here.

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