Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Current Issue

News

WILSONVILLE, OR -- Mentor Graphics reported record revenues of $214.9 million for its fourth quarter on strong demand for its IC verification and newer printed circuit board design tools. GAAP net income was $15.8 million, up $2.8 million.

"We saw significant momentum from our newer, emerging products as we received significant orders in cabling, embedded software, high speed board design and coverage-driven verification," chairman and CEO Wally Rhines said in a press release.

For the quarter bookings rose 35%. All regions performed well with Japan and Pacific Rim bookings up over 100%, Europe up 45% and North America up 15% over a year ago. Bookings were up 20% for the year.

Revenue by region was 40% North America, 30% Europe, 15% Japan and 15% Pacific Rim.

The company took one-time charges of $4.9 million, primarily for acquisitions and restructuring.

Pro forma gross margins were down slightly, to 86.7%.

"While we see no sign of an upturn for the overall EDA industry, we note that Mentor and other companies like us with young product lines continue to perform well in this environment," said Greg Hinckley, president.

The firm's book-to-bill is at its highest level since 1996 and backlogs are at their highest point since 2000.

Separately, Mentor guided for Q1 sales of $177 million and 2005 revenue growth of 7%, to $760 million.

BANNOCKBURN, IL - The December 90-day moving average shipments of all types of circuit boards rose 8.7% year-on-year, according to the latest poll of U.S. PCB fabricators. Bookings shot up 30.6%, a sharp rebound from November.

The domestic book-to-bill ratio was 1.04, up 0.08 from November. November was marked the first time the indicator had dropped below 1.0 since April 2003, said IPC, which tracks the data.

The ratio is based on data collected by IPC from rigid and flex producers and is calculated by dividing three months worth of orders by sales. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising demand.

Separately, the ratios were 0.93 for rigid PCBs and 1.41 for flexible circuits.

Rigid boards, estimated by IPC to make up 82% of all domestic PCBs, actually slid in December, with shipments falling 1.3% and bookings down 6.1%. Flex sales grew 32%, and bookings rose - no typo - 274%.

For the year rigid shipments rose 16%, bookings 6.6%. Flexible shipments grew 67.4% and bookings were up 104.3%.

For the year, shipments rose 26.5% while bookings jumped 25.4%. For the month, shipments rose 1.6% and bookings 73.4% vs. November.

Flex sales include some value-added services in addition to the bare flex circuits.

In a statement, IPC cautioned that month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects.