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News

7 March 2007

Kopin’s III-V revenue fell again in Q4/2006, but expects strong rebound in 2007

For fourth-quarter 2006, Kopin Corp of Taunton, MA, USA has reported revenue of $17.9m, within its guidance of $17.5-19.0m. This is up 15% on Q3’s $15.6m but down 28% on $24.9m a year ago.

CyberDisplay revenue was $8.9m, down 22% on $11.4m a year ago but up 57% on Q3’s $5.6m, driven by strong military shipments of ruggedized display modules for the US Army’s Thermal Weapons Sight (TWS-II) program.

III-V epiwafer revenue was $9m, down 33% on $13.5m a year ago and 10% on Q3’s $10m. “We believe III-V revenue declined slightly on a sequential basis as a result of an inventory correction in the market,” says president and CEO Dr John C.C. Fan.

For full-year 2006, revenue was $71.1m (down 21% on 2005’s $90.3m). This includes revenues for CyberDisplays of $27.2m (down 43% from $47.6m due to exiting the low-end camcorder business and a delay in the ramp of military systems). In contrast, revenues for III-V products were $43.9m (up 3% from $42.7m).

Although Kopin saw some lingering effects of the III-V inventory correction in January, the company begins the new year with “a strong tailwind of demand” as wireless circuit partners shift to Kopin’s newest-generation of InGaP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) structures for advanced wireless handsets, the firm says.

“We are beginning 2007 with solid momentum and our outlook for the year is favorable,” says Fan. For full-year 2007, Kopin expects revenue of $80-90m (up 12-27% on 2006), with the growth rate accelerating in the second half of the year. “We have established a number of milestones for the coming months, including the expansion of our III-V production capacity,” he adds.

“We are on schedule to increase HBT capacity by 50% over 2006 levels by qualifying our Taiwanese OEM and installing additional production tools at one of our Taunton, Massachusetts facilities,” Fan continues. “Some of our Taiwanese OEM’s systems already have been qualified. In Taunton, we have taken delivery of three new Aixtron ‘Integrated Concept Platform’ tools, the most advanced MOCVD production system available in terms of capacity and flexibility.”

* Kopin’s results are preliminary (until the firm files its Form 10-K for 2006), since they do not take into account adjustments that may be required in connection with the completion of its independent review of past stock option grant practices.

Visit: http://www.kopin.com