7 March 2011

Smart-phone demand drives 34% III-V revenue growth for Kopin in 2010

Kopin Corp of Taunton, MA, USA has reported revenue of $120.4m for 2010 (at the low end of guidance of $120–130m, but up 5% on 2009’s $114.7m). This was driven by $62.2m for III-V heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) epiwafers (up 34% on 2009’s $46.5m), since revenue for CyberDisplay LCDs (used in mobile applications, military thermal weapons sights and wearable computers) fell 15% from 2009’s $68.2m to $58.2m.

For fourth-quarter 2010, revenue was $33.1m (roughly level with $33m a year ago but up 5% on $31.6m in Q3). This included CyberDisplay revenue of $18m (level on a year ago but up 20% on $15m in Q3) and III-V revenue of $15.1m (roughly level on $15m a year ago but down 9% on $16.6m in Q3).

Reflecting an increase in sales of higher-margin products, gross margin has risen from 30.8% a year ago and 32.3% in Q3 to 34.6%. This contributed to full-year gross margin rising slightly from 29.7% for 2009 to 29.9%.

Net income was $4.7m, down from $5.3m a year ago but up on $1.4m in Q3. In 2010 cash generated from operating activities was $15.1m and capital expenditure was $17.2m while $6.7m was used for the repurchase of stock. Cash and marketable securities totaled $111m at the end of 2010, compared with $114.5m at the end of 2009.

“The strong demand for smartphones expected in 2011, as well as the increasing complexity of the front-end components required for high voice and data speeds necessary to efficiently operate these devices, are significant trends that favor our proprietary III-V technology,” says president & CEO Dr John C.C. Fan. “Consequently, we expect 2011 to be another year of solid revenue growth for our III-V products,” he adds.

“While we continue to expect the US Army’s Thermal Weapons Sight program to contribute materially to our display revenue in 2011, we do have some reservations about the federal budget deficit impact,” cautions Fan. “We also expect our commercial display sales to grow.”

For full-year 2011, Kopin expects to continue to grow and to generate total revenue of $130–140m (up 8–16% on 2010).

See related items:

Kopin’s III-V growth slows in Q3 to 4.4%

Smartphone demand drives 54% year-on-year growth in Kopin’s III-V revenue in Q2

Kopin’s III-V revenue more than doubles year-on-year in Q1

Kopin reports record Q4 revenue, up 13% year-on-year

Tags: Kopin

Visit: www.kopin.com

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