“The current economic outlook has delayed the typical contract renewal pattern we had been seeing. Customers are now more typically waiting until the quarter of contract expiration to renew. One of the consequences of this pattern is that we see greater strength going into fiscal 2010,” said Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics. “Even in this tougher environment, renewals in our top ten contracts in the quarter increased 35% over their previous contract value primarily due to adoption of new capabilities, like design for manufacturing, that were just emerging three years ago when the contracts were created.”
During the quarter, the company released a parallelized version of its Olympus-SOC™ place and route solution, significantly improving completion times for design closure, analysis and optimization. The company also introduced Calibre® equation-based design rule checking (DRC), allowing customers to embed complex design-for-manufacturing checks directly into their DRC runs.
“Cost control measures begun earlier in the year, as well as the weakening of the Euro and the strengthening of the Yen, have benefited the company,” said Gregory K. Hinckley, president of Mentor Graphics. “In addition to the $26 million in cost reductions that we will deliver over the course of fiscal 2009, we see an additional $30 million in expense savings that we can deliver in fiscal 2010. We continue to look carefully at all of our business investments in light of the current environment.”
GUIDANCE
For the fiscal fourth quarter ending January 31st, 2009, the company now expects revenues of about $270 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of approximately $.55, and GAAP earnings per share of about $.65. GAAP earnings in the fiscal fourth quarter will be relatively stronger as a portion of the tax provision recorded in the fiscal third quarter is recaptured. For fiscal 2009 the company expects full year revenues of approximately $815 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of about $0.40 and a GAAP loss per share of approximately $.65.
For fiscal first quarter 2010 ending April 30, 2009, the company initially expects revenues of $200 to $210 million, non-GAAP earnings per share between $.05 and $.10, and a GAAP loss per share between $.01 and $.06.
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 purchased and other identified intangible assets, in-process research and development, special charges, equity plan-related compensation expenses and charges, and gains which management does not consider reflective of our core operating business.
Purchased and other identified intangible assets consist primarily of purchased technology, backlog, trade names, customer relationships, and employment agreements. In-process research and development charges represent products in development that had not reached technological feasibility at the time of acquisition. Special charges primarily consist of post-acquisition rebalance costs including severance and benefits, excess facilities, and asset-related charges, and also include strategic reallocations or reductions of personnel resources. 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 Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 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.
During the nine months ended October 31, 2007, we excluded $452 thousand of interest expense attributable to net retirement premiums and write-offs of debt issuance costs. The amounts were expensed in connection with the refinancing or repurchase of certain convertible debt. The amounts were excluded as management does not consider these transactions a part of its core operating performance. There were no debt repurchases during the nine months ended October 31, 2008.
During the nine months ended October 31, 2008, we excluded $1,088
thousand of equity in losses of unconsolidated entities. The amounts
represent our equity in the losses of a common stock investment
accounted for under the equity method. The amounts were excluded as
management does not consider these transactions a part of its core
operating performance. We had no equity in unconsolidated entities
during the nine months ended October 31, 2007.
