PWAV mein Turnaround Kandidat für 2012

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 42.722.400 von onlythebest am 08.02.12 21:31:10Der 14. Feb. wird zum Tag der Wahrheit für PWAV. Q4 Zahlen werde miserabel ausfallen, jedoch der Ausblick sollte m.M. überraschen und einen Turnaround anheizen.
so long
only

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Powerwave-Technologies-bw-2003…

Das die Zahlen so schlecht ausfallen, damit habe ich nicht gerechnet.
Mal schauen wie die nächsten Zahl ausfallen. Mein Vertrauen ins Management ist nur noch begrenzt.
only

Powerwave Technologies (PWAV) Q4 2011 Earnings Call February 14, 2012 5:00 PM ET

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the fourth quarter 2011 Powerwave Technologies earnings call. [Operator instructions.] I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Tom Spaeth, Powerwave’s treasurer. Please proceed.

Tom Spaeth

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to Powerwave Technologies’ fourth quarter 2011 financial results conference call. I am Tom Spaeth, Powerwave's treasurer. Joining us on today's call will be Ron Buschur, president and chief executive officer, and Kevin Michaels, chief financial officer.

Before starting, I would like to point out that various remarks we make about future expectations, plans, and prospects for Powerwave, including, but not limited to, anticipated revenues and revenue growth rates; the split between operator and OEM sales; operating margins; gross profit margins; earnings per share levels; operating expense targets; cash flow projections; revenue composition; supply chain constraints and shortages; manufacturing levels; improvements in cost structure; future cost savings related to our cost reduction activities; the timing of restructuring actions and associated cost savings; our ability to reduce our use of cash; demand levels for the company's product lines, including demand for the company’s advanced technology products in government markets; projected growth in various markets including government, public safety, and defense; trends in the wireless infrastructure market, including adoption of 4G capabilities and increases in spending by North American operators on their networks; the timing of product deliveries and future orders; the company's ability to grow its core wireless business and enter into, and compete in, vertical markets for its products such as government and defense markets, the energy sector, and health and medical fields; common stock prices; the company's ability to resolve new product production issues; debt purchases; the success of new products and market acceptance in new vertical markets; expense levels; capital expenditure rates; inventory turns; tax rates; and days sales outstanding are all forward-looking statements, which are intended to qualify for the Safe Harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995.

These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause Powerwave's actual results to be materially different from those projected or implied. Some of the risks and uncertainties include our ability to accurately forecast and anticipate customer orders; our ability to increase sales and conserve cash; our reliance on a limited number of customers; our ability to control operating costs and conserve cash; our ability to realize anticipated cost savings and synergies; execute restructuring activities in a timely fashion without negatively impacting our business; the negative impact on demand for our products due to the macroeconomic environment; reduced demand due to industry consolidation among our major customers; delays or cancellations of wireless network capacity expansions and buildouts for both existing networks and new 4G networks; fluctuations in foreign currencies; the ability to accurately forecast cash flows and credit collections; the ability to enter into new markets for our products and solution; the impact of competitive products and pricing; economic and political conditions; and the loss of one or more significant customer accounts.

Please refer to our press release, Powerwave's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 2, 2011, our quarterly report our Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended October 2, 2011, and other filings, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information on factors which could cause our actual results to be different from those projected or implied.

In addition, on this call we will discuss non-GAAP financial information. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial information to our financial statements as prepared under GAAP is included in our press release dated today, which can be found at our website at powerwave.com and on Business Wire. The press release also has detailed information concerning several of the significant items impacting our results and we urge you to review that information.

Now I'm going to turn the call over to Kevin Michaels, Powerwave's chief financial officer.

Kevin Michaels

Thank you Tom. With all these risk factors in mind, I would like to start by reviewing our financial results, which are also summarized in our press release. Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2011 were $60.1 million, and we reported a GAAP net loss of $42.6 million, which equates to a basic loss per share of $1.34.

This includes a total of $1.3 million of net cash debt discount amortization and interest accretion expense related to certain of our outstanding convertible notes, $1.6 million of net cash pre-tax stock based compensation expense, and $4.7 million of restructuring expense in the quarter. All of these charges and amortization totaled approximately $7.6 million for the fourth quarter.

On a pro forma basis, excluding the restructuring charges, the debt-related charges, and the stock-based compensation expenses for the quarter, our pro forma net loss was $30 million, which equates to a pro forma net loss of $0.95 per share.

I do want to note that our per share amounts reflect the impact of the one for five reverse common stock split that was effective as of October 28, 2011. The total shares outstanding for the fourth quarter were approximately 31.7 million shares.

Now looking at our revenues on a geographic basis, our total Americas revenue for the fourth quarter was approximately $27.6 million, or 46% of revenue. Our total Asia-Pacific sales were approximately $17.5 million, or 29% of revenue, and total European and other international revenues were $15 million, or approximately 25% of revenue.

In the fourth quarter, antenna system product group sales totaled $24.7 million, or 41% of total revenue. Base station subsystem sales totaled $20.5 million, or 34% of revenue, and coverage solutions sales totaled $14.9 million, or 25% of revenue.

Our total 2G and 2.5G related sales were approximately $24.5 million, or 41% of revenue. 3G related sales were approximately $18.1 million, or 30% of revenue, and our 4G sales, which includes LTE, were approximately $17.5 million, or 29% of revenue.

In terms of our customer profile in the fourth quarter, total OEM sales accounted for approximately 31% of our total revenues, and direct and operator sales account for approximately 69%. Our largest customers for the fourth quarter included AT&T and Samsung, which account for approximately 19% and 15% of revenues for the quarter respectively.

Moving on to gross margins, on a GAAP basis, our total consolidated gross profit margin was a loss of 2.7% in the fourth quarter. In our press release, on page five, there is a table with a reconciliation of the various factors impacting our gross margin for the quarter.

On a pro forma basis, excluding stock compensation expense, which totaled $200,000, and restructuring and impairment charges, which totaled $3.2 million, our pro forma gross profit margin was 2.9%.

Next, a review of our operating expenses for the fourth quarter. Our sales and marketing expenses were $7 million, research and development expenses were $14.5 million, and G&A expenses were $11.1 million.

Our total operating expenses including $1.4 million of stock compensation expense and $1.5 million of restructuring and impairment charges, were $34.1 million for the quarter. On a pro forma basis, which excludes restructuring charges and stock compensation expense, our total operating expenses equaled approximately $31.1 million.

In terms of other income and expense, we recorded a total of approximately $5.3 million of other expense in the fourth quarter of 2011. Included in other expense is approximately $1.3 million of noncash debt discount amortization expense and interest accretion associated with our 2.75% convertible senior subordinated notes due 2041.

In addition, during the quarter we recognized a net foreign currency translation loss of approximately $1.4 million, which was due primarily to the stronger Chinese currency. This loss is also included in other expense.

On a pro forma basis, excluding the debt-related amortization interest accretion for the quarter, our net other expense was $4 million. For the fourth quarter we incurred a tax provision of approximately $1.6 million.

While we continue to evaluate our future tax rate based upon our diverse international operations, we currently estimate that our effective worldwide tax rate will be between approximately 15% to 20% for 2012. I want to stress that this estimate will fluctuate based upon our actual results.

Next, I’ll review our balance sheet. Total cash at January 1, 2012 was approximately $70.3 million, of which $6.2 million is restricted cash. Total cash increased $23.7 million from the balance at the end of the third quarter.

For the fourth quarter, our cash flow from operations was a use of approximately $11.4 million, which is an improvement of over $14 million from the approximately $26 million used in operations in the third quarter of 2011. For the fourth quarter, our total capital spending was approximately $1.9 million in the quarter.

As Ron will discuss, we are finalizing our new restructuring plan and will move to implement it as quickly as possible. We expect to achieve significant reductions in our operating costs during this year, and significantly reduce our use of cash during 2012 as we move forward with implementing our new restructuring plan.

For the fourth quarter, our net inventory was $88.6 million. Our total net accounts receivable was $96.8 million. During the quarter we completed the sales and lease back of our corporate headquarters facility in Santa Ana, California. We received net proceeds from that transaction of $49.1 million and entered into a 15-year lease of the facility.

Now I’d like to turn the call over Ron Buschur, Powerwave’s president and chief executive officer.

Ron Buschur

Thank you Kevin, and good afternoon everyone. Before I get started reviewing the Q4 results, I’d like to state that I am very disappointed with the results for the fourth quarter. We are taking the steps necessary to drive both future revenues and to assure that we maintain the appropriate cost structure during this difficult global economic environment.

We believe that we have the cash resources available to manage through this restructuring period as well as focus on our current market as well as new vertical markets. We are focused on capturing long term value that our shareholders deserve, as well as providing superior wireless connectivity in multiple vertical markets within our comprehensive intellectual property portfolio.

Our business continues to be impacted by several factors, including slow spending in most of our markets, including the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. In addition, we have seen further slowdown in our OEM customers. We do believe that North America will see a rebound in sales with our major network operator customers as they begin to move forward with their deployment plans and site buildouts.

In addition, we now believe that we’re seeing a fundamental change in the OEM market, which we believe will result in further consolidation among the major OEMs. The OEMs continue to drive pricing pressures suppliers within this chain to gain market share and compete globally with Asian OEMs. We believe this consolidation will make some of our products more like a commodity with these OEM customers.

So with that in mind, we intend to position and sell our products, solutions, and technologies into other vertical markets, with large integrators and customers who will allow Powerwave to offer them a complete solution. At the same time, we can earn a reasonable profit for companies like ours, who have leading edge technologies and solutions.

In order to protect your investments in Powerwave and ensure that we are positioned to compete and leverage this technology and other vertical markets, and also for the long term corporate perspective, we are finalizing a new restructuring plan. The goal for this plan will be to further lower our operating breakeven targets to around $70 million for a quarterly revenue and significantly reduce our operating expenses, thereby conserving our cash resources.

Our plan is to quickly further reduce our manufacturing cost structure in order to reduce the significant variances and absorption issues that you can see in our results. We are implementing additional operational expense reductions to drive a more cost-effective operating model going forward. This will generate a significant amount of cash when our business rebounds.

We currently expect our new restructuring plan will be implemented over the next two to three quarters, with a significant amount implemented during the first half of this year. For operating expenses, we are targeting to get to a quarterly rate around the low 20s, including noncash compensation expenses, by the end of the year.

We are taking these actions to ensure that we are well-positioned to capitalize on the growth in our business once our customers start driving the improvements in coverage and capacity for wireless networks that we believe will shift to 4G and this will continue to drive additional demand.

In addition, we are focusing on our advanced technology and solutions, which lead the industry as well as utilizing this technology and solutions in multiple vertical markets. This will allow us to meet our long term strategy of customer diversification, market diversification, as well as driving our business to higher margin solution sales.

We will need to, and we will continue, to grow our core business. Our core wireless business is very important to us. I want to note we have a very strong technology portfolio of product solutions that we believe are the best in the industry.

We believe much of our traditional wireless telecom markets are not properly valuing this type of technology, and that’s why we have focused on expanding into additional market segments such as government sectors globally, the energy sector, and the health and medical fields. We believe that we can generate true solutions utilizing all of our strong patent portfolio and superior technology as well as our engineering resources globally.

We believe that our expertise and solutions and advanced technologies are superior to what is currently being used and developed in these new vertical markets by the competition. In addition, in these new vertical market segments, we do not have the same level of competition from the Asian composite that we see in our traditional commercial market.

We have already seen some initial success in these new market segments, such as we have recorded initial sales of our RMDUs to the Department of Defense. We have also recorded the first sale and initial trial units for our advanced Picocell products with a major government integrator as well as an agency within the United States government.

To provide you with some information in regard to our advanced technology, our Picocell product, it offers both LTE and wifi capability, and has its own operating baseband capability that can be utilized in either a public or private network, up to 1,000 users.

This product has been performing well in multiple trials, and comparing it against our competitors, we believe it has been performing very well, with several government entities globally. We believe the multiple government agencies will move forward with this advanced technology faster than the commercial telecom markets.

In addition, we have a very high level of interest from these agencies for several of our other advanced products such as our active antenna array products, our self-configuring private network, and our ICC programmable filter.

We believe these market opportunities for Powerwave in these new vertical markets are very large and in the range of $7-10 billion, and are highly profitable. In summary, I continue to be very excited about the prospects for our business over the next few years. The demand for wireless data is exploding, as seen by exponential growth in the use of smartphones utilizing voice, video, and data.

We believe that we are targeting the new vertical markets that will offer us the best potential for a long term basis for our shareholders and allow us to leverage the industry’s best advanced technology and solutions. In the near term, we will take the necessary actions necessary to rightsize the company in order to significantly reduce our breakeven targets and restructure Powerwave to be positioned to generate future profits on a lower revenue base.

At the same time, we believe this restructuring will assure our success in the wireless telecom market as well as position Powerwave to become a critical supplier to large government integrators and government agencies globally, while starting to supply other solutions to other vertical markets.

Now I’d like to turn the call over to the operator and address any questions that you may have.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions.] And our first question comes from the line of Mike Walkley with Canaccord. Go ahead.

Michael Walkley – Canaccord

Kevin, just in terms of the gross margin structure, are you guys targeting $70 million as your breakeven level? And if so, what is the gross margin level around that area, or what kind of revenue do you need to get back to mid-20 gross margins, maybe asked another way?

Kevin Michaels

I think part of our restructuring plan, we believe we can bring at that kind of low revenue rate our gross margins up to those levels and potentially a little bit higher depending on the mix. So the key thing we’re doing here is really on the restructuring side we’re trying to take out a lot of costs. Right now obviously at this low revenue rate we have a lot of absorption issues and cost issues and variance issues, so as we restructure our manufacturing side, we believe we can simply bring back the margins in that model.

Michael Walkley – Canaccord

So that takes two to three quarters you think, just to work through that restructuring on the…

Kevin Michaels

Yeah, we think it will happen over the next couple of quarters, so we think we’ll see some improvement as we go through the year. We’re targeting to get it all done by the end of the year.

Michael Walkley – Canaccord

And then just in terms of your revenue visibility, I know it’s probably tough here in the first quarter, but with your targeted markets, how large can government become over time? What’s a realistic kind of run rate maybe exiting 2012, and rate to get there? And then as you look at your North America market with the carrier business expectations with LTE builds at Sprint and AT&T, just how do you think that business transpires over the course of the year?

Ron Buschur

Mike, we think that looking at AT&T and Verizon and Sprint that the first quarter as you know is traditionally always a little slower, but we see that there’s plans that are being put in place, and are being deployed pretty rapidly here. So we’re expecting to see a nice pickup in the second quarter as we go into Q3. We think that they’ll be on track to their buildout plans.

Looking at the government sector, and the size of the market that we hope to be able to achieve this year, we’re targeting a target internally for around 10% of our revenue to be derived from the government sales. So we’re somewhat bullish on that government sales this year and some of the opportunities we currently have in the pipeline and certainly some of the sales that we’ve already made to these agencies globally. And we’re not necessarily just focused on the North America government marketplace as well. It’s foreign government sales.

Michael Walkley – Canaccord

And just building on that Ron, Europe was down again. Was that just more due to moving away from the OEMs? Or is that carrier business still pretty weak? And how do you see that market developing?

Ron Buschur

Well, I think part of it was obviously the OEM strategy that we have. We’re not abandoning the OEM market. We still have several good OEM customers that buy our products and solutions. But we understand their need to be able to compete globally as well. So I think that had an impact on some of the sales that we had seen, and then there is obviously a lot of concern still in the European market from a financial perspective that has slowed down some of the spend. And we’ve seen it in Western Europe as well as Eastern Europe, but certainly Russia was impacted this last quarter.

Michael Walkley – Canaccord

One more question and I’ll pass it on. Kevin, just on the balance sheet, inventory was a little higher than our expectations. Do you think, as we move into the March quarter, there’s still some more working capital to squeeze to get closer to a breakeven cash flow in Q1?

Kevin Michaels

There certainly are working capital opportunities for us. We’re trying to drive there, and hopefully we do it in Q1. We hope we can get there by Q2. But as you can see, obviously inventory ended a little higher. Obviously the revenue number was less than we expected, and we ended up with some additional inventory. But we do believe we can move that stuff out here as we go through this year and we free up some more working capital.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Steve O’Brien with JP Morgan. Go ahead.

Steve O'Brien – JPMorgan

First off, on the new target structure, trying to make sure I got the numbers right. Breakeven at $70 million and revenue with low $20s operating expense, you’d need to be at about a 30% gross margin there, right? To break even?

Ron Buschur

That’s pretty close, yes.

Steve O'Brien – JPMorgan

And so you think that the business in the near term could be above $70 million in terms of quarterly revenue?

Ron Buschur

Well, that’s certainly our expectations, but we’re structuring the company to make sure that we can return some profitability back to our shareholders. But more importantly, we can make sure that we position the company for what we believe is still the growth that’s in this core business that we have in the wireless space, and then focus the efforts on the other vertical markets that will help us with our gross margins across the board and give us a better blend.

Steve O'Brien – JPMorgan

Your comments, Ron, on OEMs pushing to commoditize a product, the converse would seem to imply that the carriers may be satisfied with the commodity substitutes. Is that the case? Are you being displaced at carriers where historically Powerwave sold a good amount of product? And if so, why do you think that there’s an opportunity for revenue to scale up from $60 million, where it is in the fourth quarter?

Ron Buschur

That’s a fair question. First of all, no, we don’t think that we are losing any of the market share with the operators. To the contrary, we actually have been fairly consistent, and several of our OEM customers have approved to pull more of our products through to the end operator customer. I’m really focused on more of some of the filter products and some of the solutions that go into their integrated products in their vertical integration strategy that they have. And we’ve talked about this over the past, outsourced a lot of the components around filters and RF conditioning to some of the Asia suppliers and that is a very difficult pricing model to focus on. But we’re pleased with what we see as far as the operator sales for our antennas and our advanced products.

Kevin Michaels

And Steve, just to be clear, while we certainly are taking restructuring actions and trying to lower our breakevens and lower our cost structure, we do expect longer term that the business will improve, that demand will improve with the various operators. We think, as Ron said, we have a strong position with the operator customer base, and we do expect to see revenues higher than these current low levels. We do feel that as we go through this year and the latter half of the year we feel pretty good that there should be much stronger revenues here.

Steve O'Brien – JPMorgan

In terms of current mix, do you believe that products that are potentially becoming commoditized are a small percentage of the current revenue? Or what percentage do you think they contribute currently?

Ron Buschur

No, they are a small percentage of the current revenue forecast on our annual operating plan and restructuring that we have of the company to bring the breakeven down to $70 million a quarter. These same filters and some of these advanced solutions that we have sold from an RF conditioning standpoint are still utilized in our repeater products. They’re utilized in some of our DAS solutions, as well as our active array and our Picocell. They’re just products that we typically had sold to some of the OEMs who were utilizing that in their base station solutions.

Steve O'Brien – JPMorgan

Gotcha. I think I heard a comment about the intellectual property or patent portfolio. Are you looking at efforts there to potentially monetize that? I saw there was a lawsuit in the December quarter, but are those efforts kind of exploratory? Or is that something that…

Ron Buschur

No, absolutely, Steve. We have over 735 patents, 400 that are pending at different stages. We do have a suit that we have filed with a Taiwanese company who we believe is infringing on our intellectual property. And we have some other discussions in place to where some large integrators and some OEM customers are interested in licensing some of the technology that we have developed in some of our future solution sets.

Steve O'Brien – JPMorgan

So do you think it would be more of a licensing model than an outright sale?

Ron Buschur

Well, that’s what we’re looking at at this point, but as discussions evolve, you never know what comes out of those discussions. But right now, we believe that they’re interested in licensing some of the technology that we developed, and the solutions.

Steve O'Brien – JPMorgan

And then if I could, do you have an expectation for cash burn in the near term. It definitely sounds like a couple quarters of more work, right, before the cost structure will be in line with the new target levels?

Ron Buschur

You know, we’re not giving a straight forecast on that, but we’re trying to drive it down as low as possible, so we think it would stay below the level that we had in this last quarter. And if we can get some working capital help, maybe we can drive it even lower. So that’s what we’re driving for.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Peter Misek with Jefferies. Go ahead.

Jason North - Jefferies

Hi, this is Jason North for Peter. The first question, for the new verticals you’re targeting outside of governments, when do you expect those to ramp? And how are you approaching that? Is it mainly directly, or indirect sales?

Ron Buschur

Well, the vertical market we focused on initially, Jason, as I said, was the government, and that’s something that we expect to see throughout the year. The other sectors, we’re going to be taking those on indirectly through some large companies who already have a fundamental solution set that we think we can leverage our technology into that provides them the wireless connectivity that they need. That’s really focused more toward the Q3 timeframe that we’re going to start seeing some acceptance of those products in that space.

Jason North - Jefferies

And then for Q1, you mentioned that there’s going to be typical seasonal weakness. Will some of the ramps here in the US be able to offset that for you? Should we just broadly expect kind of typical seasonal weakness here in Q1 for revenues?

Ron Buschur

I think right now for what we see, and obviously you have similar input from others, we think that it’s going to be the typical seasonal weakness that you see. But we believe that when you look at it from a go-forward basis, from where we exited Q4, we don’t think that it’s obviously going to be any worse than that type of level of performance. We expect to see some improvement.

Jason North - Jefferies

So some improvement despite the seasonal weakness is what you’re saying?

Ron Buschur

Yes, compared to what we had just posted in Q4.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Arun Seshadri with Credit Suisse. Go ahead.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

I just want to make sure I understood that last comment. So do you expect Q1 basically revenue performance to be higher than the $60 million? Is that what you’re implying?

Ron Buschur

That’s correct.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

And you’re not able to provide a clean forecast, but you expect it to be higher. Got it. Understood. And that is in spite of the last three years, I think, Q1 has generally been down about 20% from Q4, or in that vicinity, 17-20%? But you feel like there’s been enough of a revenue leakage that you can basically grow in Q1? Is that right?

Kevin Michaels

Yes, that’s right. And the thing to point out, though, if you’re looking at past periods, typically the fourth quarter has always been our strongest quarter. So given the falloff we had in the fourth quarter, I think typical patterns probably don’t apply.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

And then on your overall restructuring plan, can you walk us through how you came up with trying to get to breakeven at the $70 million level? Why $70 million?

Ron Buschur

Well, just looking at the visibility that we have in our current business, and what we project the current AOP for 2012 to be, if we assume that this last quarter, Q4, was the low point, and based on what we see as far as our product demand here in Q1, we feel very comfortable if we sized the business to around a $70 million rate that we should be able, at the end of the year, return some profitability back to our shareholders.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

So is it too much of a stretch to say that you expect Q1 could be in that $70 million vicinity?

Kevin Michaels

I think we’re not trying to give a detailed forecast, and I think our message is, as Ron said, we do believe the first quarter will be better than the fourth quarter was, and we think we’ll see some growth throughout the year. And we’ll just leave it at that.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

Okay, fair. And then as far as the cost savings that you’ve already actioned that will show up in the Q4 numbers, how much cost have you taken out prior to the new restructuring plan, and how much of it was in the numbers for Q4?

Kevin Michaels

I think recognized in Q4 was about half of the restructuring. The benefits was about half of what we initiated in the fourth quarter that we had previously talked about, so we expect to see some further improvements. Doing nothing else, we’d see some further improvements here in the first quarter coming through that, and now obviously we’re implementing an additional plan, starting here in this quarter, and that will drive much further. That will get to our ultimate goals that we have there.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

So in terms of operating expenditure, it looks like Q4 versus Q3 was roughly down around $2 million, so is that the half that you’re referring to? Or is there additional manufacturing?

Kevin Michaels

Yeah, that was the half, so we probably would have another $1-2 million reduction doing nothing else in the first quarter. Although the revenue fell off, we’re working on taking some costs out of the manufacturing side. So those activities are still going on, and additional ones will go on. So we should eventually see some benefits coming in the gross margins.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

So based on your thoughts on revenue, at what point do you think you can return to cash flow breakeven?

Kevin Michaels

Well, hopefully the first half of this year. In one of these quarters. Some of it will depend on the working capital, but clearly our goal is to try to get there as soon as possible. So hopefully by the middle of the year.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

So you’re attempting for Q1, but exiting Q2 on a run rate basis on a sort of worst case basis.

Kevin Michaels

Yes, I think we’ll have some small use of cash in Q1, and by Q2 we should be exiting. Hopefully, that’s our target, to exit there. So it will depend on the working capital usages. It will fluctuate around depending on that.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

And what was working capital use in Q4?

Kevin Michaels

In Q4 our total cash from operations we used about $11 million.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

And that’s inclusive of capex, or exclusive?

Kevin Michaels

That was excluding capex.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

And capital expenditure for the quarter? I’m sorry, I may have missed it if you’ve already given it out.

Kevin Michaels

I think it was about $1.9 million or $1.8 million, right around there. A little bit under $2 million.

Arun Seshadri - Credit Suisse

So it would be around $14 million including the capex, in terms of the cash burn for the quarter, correct?

Kevin Michaels

Yeah, right around there.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Matt [Swope] with Gleacher. Go ahead.

Matt [Swope] - Gleacher

Can we go back to the question of market share as it relates to the last two quarters? Do you think a loss of market share is a contributing factor to what’s gone on here?

Ron Buschur

No, we don’t, Matt. We’ve looked at it and we go back and it’s pretty clear when you look at the percent of our sales that typically take place in North America with the major network operators. And you have those discussions with them, and we’ve had those discussions with them regarding when they expect to see an uptick in are you buying current products and solutions from our competitors, because that’s something clearly we want to have visibility into as well. And they clearly identify that no one is seeing increased sales in that area.

So no, we don’t believe that we’ve lost market share there. And the other piece, when we look at the rollouts that are publicly noted, and we go through the different vendors that supply and support these buildouts around North America, none of them are on an aggressive ramp as well building out any of these sites or cities. So we feel pretty good about that. We have the right products, the right solutions. We’ve got to continue to focus on meeting the needs of the customers as they ramp, and I think we’re going to see that here in the next three quarters as we go into 2012 and I think we’re positioned well for that.

Matt [Swope] - Gleacher

I think you mentioned North America both times specifically there. Would those comments you just made apply to the rest of the world as well?

Ron Buschur

Well, when you look at the slowness that took place, we had a pretty aggressive growth rate last year if you look at what we did in the Middle East prior to some of the unrest that’s taken place. So I don’t really think one could even draw that conclusion, that there’s a loss there, or something that’s changed. And Russia and that region has been very strong for us, and that customer base in that region was very clear in their concerns about the value of the ruble during that period of time.

So I don’t think there’s a concern in that market space. And Europe has been slow, and I don’t think there’s a market share loss or gain there. There’s just not a lot of activity now. We’re expecting to see that improve as we get into Q2 and Q3 because many of the operators are talking about building out some of those LTE networks there.

And the A-Pac region, we have historically had very good success with our OEM partners who have been pulling those products and solutions through from an antenna perspective, remote radio head, and multicarrier amplifiers in those marketplaces, and we expect that to continue.

Matt [Swope] - Gleacher

And somebody earlier asked about some of the North American operators. Would Clearwire also be an opportunity as they go through their buildout in 2012?

Ron Buschur

They would, Matt, and that’s certainly an opportunity for us that would be possibly upside compared to what we’re currently looking at just from the standpoint of some of the uncertainty around that spectrum and the use of it.

Matt [Swope] - Gleacher

And just moving to the cash side, how much is currently available on your revolving credit facility?

Kevin Michaels

The total credit facility is $30 million.

Matt [Swope] - Gleacher

And is all that available today?

Kevin Michaels

I don’t have what it is as of today. Off the top of my head I’m not sure of the exact number at the year end. It will be in our 10-K, which will be filed next week.

Matt [Swope] - Gleacher

Do you see scenarios where you would draw on that to help with liquidity over the first half of the year?

Kevin Michaels

We don’t think we need to. Our plans show we don’t need it. We’ll maintain it. We haven’t used that line since we’ve had it, so it’s obviously a safety net there. And we’re in compliance with all our covenants, so we’ll see.

Matt [Swope] - Gleacher

The bonds have obviously taken a hit during the recent quarters. Would it make sense from a capturing of discount and reducing total debt to use some of your liquidity, whether it be cash or revolver, to buy back some bonds in the open market?

Kevin Michaels

I don’t want to comment on that. That’s a thing obviously down the road we’ll continue to look at. Those are options open to us, but we don’t want to speculate on that right now.

Matt [Swope] - Gleacher

And just one last one. You were talking about capex a minute ago. Just for 2012, do you have a rough estimate of what capex can be?

Kevin Michaels

It will probably run around the levels we’ve been. It usually runs between $1 million and $2 million a quarter. So I would guess, for the year, like $5 million to $8 million, somewhere in that kind of range.

Ron Buschur

Thank you for joining us today, and your continued interest in Powerwave Technologies. We look forward to sharing with you our results in the first quarter of 2012.

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Am LTE Boom sollte PWAV auch mit partizipieren..
so long
only

The New, New Thing for the wireless industry—much faster wireless connections called "long term evolution," or LTE—promises just as many headaches as breakthroughs.

Apple's (ticker: AAPL) unveiling last week of a new iPad with LTE cements its importance. LTE is branded as a kind of 4G service.

Verizon Communications' (VZ) wireless unit has been the leading proponent in the U.S., but one day it is expected to be deployed by just about every phone company around the globe.

For consumers, it's fast, really fast.

LTE's "theoretical maximum" speed, as nerds put it, is 300 million bits per second. That's as fast as the fastest WiFi networks in homes and offices.

The telephone companies are happy because LTE not only moves units of phones, but also lets carriers squeeze more bits out of each hertz, the fundamental unit of measurement of wireless spectrum.

"It's the closest thing we've seen to a win-win in telecom," says Craig Mathias, principal with wireless consultancy Farpoint Group; what benefits the phone company has sometimes come at the expense of what consumers want.

LTE already has deepened the disparity among U.S. carriers.

Verizon and AT&T (T) are far ahead of others. Verizon has the ability to serve 200 million U.S. citizens in various markets across the country with LTE, versus 75 million for AT&T. Sprint-Nextel (S) is just getting started.

"To the extent people realize LTE is a faster download, it will be a competitive advantage," says Piper Jaffray's Chris Larsen, as will the breadth of the LTE coverage.

LTE "should help Verizon continue to capture the lion's share of new smartphone subscribers, and potentially a much higher share of tablet subscribers," says Davenport & Co.'s Drake Johnstone.

For Verizon and AT&T, the benefits nevertheless are not clear cut.

For one thing, LTE is just at the beginning of the road.

"It's a big, shiny, empty network at this point," says Jennifer Fritzsche, who follows Verizon for Wells Fargo.

As that service fills up, it will require increasing capital investments.

A recent report by Cisco Systems (CSCO) said that while LTE and other 4G connections are only 0.2% of all mobile connections, they generate 6% of the traffic.

Moreover, the true payoff only comes if customers are satisfied, not disappointed. And that will depend on how expectations are managed.

Times have changed since the very first iPhone was introduced in 2007, when Apple reportedly demanded that any carrier selling the phone provide unlimited monthly data subscriptions. Both AT&T and Verizon now cap how much you can use.

The problem is that with fancy gadgets such as the new iPad and, presumably, the next iPhone, users will bump up against the reality that faster speeds just let them blow through their contracts quicker.

"Any customer who succumbs to the temptation to download a movie on their iPad via LTE will soon learn the error of their ways," with a fat phone bill, says Craig Moffett, who follows the phone companies for Bernstein Research.

As a result, Farpoint's Mathias expects more interest in what's called "WiFi offloading," where customers are bumped from LTE onto the nearest WiFi network.

That could mean opportunity for WiFi network operators such as Boingo Wireless (WIFI) and iPass (IPAS). Ditto for WiFi equipment vendors like Aruba Networks (ARUN) and Meru Networks (MERU). Chip vendors Broadcom (BRCM) and Qualcomm (QCOM) are already touting their parts for higher-speed versions of WiFi, called 802.11ac.

Charttechnisch verläuft die 200 DMA bei 6.49, mal schauen wie schnell wir dort sind..
so long only

http://www.bullseyestox.com/pwav-stock-hitting-scanners


Powerwave Technologies, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets end-to-end wireless solutions for wireless communications networks worldwide. It offers antennas, boosters, combiners, cabinets, shelters, filters, radio frequency power amplifiers, remote radio head transceivers, repeaters, tower-mounted amplifiers, and coverage solutions to improve coverage, capacity, and data speed in cellular, PCS, 3G, and 4G wireless communications networks.

Unless you were hiding under a rock today, you obviously saw the beautiful chart on $PWAV. This runaway stock technically broke its 50 day moving average today and could be headed toward its 200 day moving average which is a number that day traders and swing traders are drooling about. The 200 day moving average is $6.49 which represents a 300% move from current levels.

The big question on the minds of the stock market geniuses is Can this stock continue its amazing move? Take a look at the chart and form your opinion