News

13 November 2008

 

Rubicon announces $15m stock repurchase program

Rubicon Technology Inc of Franklin Park, IL, USA, which makes sapphire substrates and products for the LED, RFIC, semiconductor and optical industries, says that its board of directors has authorized a stock repurchase program to purchase up to $15m of common stock over a period of two years.

The program authorizes the firm to repurchase shares of its common stock in the open market at times and prices considered appropriate by the company, depending on prevailing market conditions and other corporate considerations. Rubicon currently has 21,279,692 common shares outstanding.

“The stock repurchase program is a reflection of the company’s strong financial position and ongoing commitment to increasing shareholder value,” says CEO Raja Parvez. “We believe that, at current price levels, Rubicon’s shares are an attractive investment, and our repurchase program reflects our continuing confidence in our market position and prospects for the future,” he adds.

At the end of October, Rubicon reported third-quarter 2008 revenue up just 2% to $11.8m (down on original guidance of $12.5m). This followed nearly $7m of order push-outs (from 2008 into first-half 2009) for silicon-on-sapphire (SoS) by RF communications IC maker Peregrine Semiconductor Corp of San Diego, CA, USA as well as for small-diameter (2”) wafers by LED-making customers (due to the slowdown in handheld device and small-display markets). Q4/2008 guidance was also lowered from $8-8.5m to just $4-6m. At that time, Rubicon also said that it saw very positive signs of the LED industry moving to larger-diameter substrates.

See related items:

Rubicon slashes Q4 revenue guidance; expects loss

Peregrine cuts off sapphire deliveries due to falling consumer electronics demand

Sapphire substrate market to grow at 21% to $400m by 2012

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