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spk01: Good day, and welcome to the Corvo Incorporated Q4 2021 conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Douglas DeLito, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
spk08: Thanks very much. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Corvo's fiscal 2021 fourth quarter earnings conference call. This call will include forward-looking statements that involve risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations. We encourage you to review the safe harbor statement contained in the earnings release published today, as well as the risk factors associated with our business in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, because these risk factors may affect our operations and financial results. In today's release and on today's call, we provide both GAAP and non-GAAP financial results. We provide this supplemental information to enable investors to perform additional comparisons of operating results and to analyze financial performance without the impact of certain non-cash expenses or other items that may obscure trends in our underlying performance. During our call, our comments and comparisons to income statement items will be based primarily on non-GAAP results. For complete reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to our earnings release issued earlier today, available on our website at corbo.com under Investors. Joining us today are Bob Bruggerworth, President and CEO, Mark Murphy, Chief Financial Officer, James Klein, President of Corbo's Infrastructure and Defense Products Group, and Eric Creviston, President of Corbo's Mobile Products Group, as well as other members of Corbo's management team. And with that, I'll turn it over to Bob.
spk05: Thanks, Doug, and welcome, everyone. Corvo concluded our fiscal 2021 with an exceptionally strong March quarter. Quarterly revenue, gross margin, and EPS were well above guidance. Outperformance was driven primarily by 5G smartphones and Wi-Fi 6 and 6E. Demand was broad-based across customers. and design activity suggests continued strength in fiscal 22, supported by multi-year trends in wired and wireless connectivity markets. In smartphones, the adoption of 5G is driving demand for higher value content. Device architectures are increasing in complexity as higher frequencies with wider bandwidths are added, transmit is introduced in the diversity path, MIMO architectures are adopted, and new receive path featuring carrier aggregation. This is placing a premium on Corvo's highly differentiated semiconductor technologies and enabling us to supply an expanding portfolio of products to industry leaders. For calendar 21, we expect 5G smartphones to double versus last year. Within these phones, we expect the RF content to increase $5 to $7 per phone when compared to 4G, including in the mid-tier. Turning to the March quarterly highlights, Corvo achieved record shipments of low, mid-high, and ultra-high band main path solutions and Wi-Fi 6E FEMs in support of leading Android OEMs. On the design front, we continue to expand our content opportunity with the leading Android OEMs by securing complete main path solutions and secondary transmit in the diversity path. In Ultra Wideband, Corvo was selected by a leading provider of consumer IoT products to integrate Ultra Wideband into a broad set of connected home devices. More customers are looking to add Ultra Wideband to their products to take advantage of its superior location accuracy, security, and latency compared to other wireless technologies. Customer interest in Corvo's ultra-wideband solutions has been robust, and we continue to see adoption in smartphones as the catalyst for an expanding ecosystem of connected devices that includes associated peripherals, automobiles, consumer and industrial IOT applications. Finally, in mobile, we're very pleased to have been honored by Samsung with the Best Quality Award recognizing Corvo's innovation and outstanding performance in support of their Galaxy product family. In IDP, Wi-Fi revenue, including Wi-Fi 6, was a record. The rate of adoption of Wi-Fi 6 is outpacing the adoption we experienced for Wi-Fi 5, and the rollout is forecasted to span multiple years across enterprise, retail, and service providers. Corvo is seeing a strong attach rate given the performance advantages we enable related to range, efficiency, signal integrity, and form factor. To that end, we recently secured the entire bill of materials in support of a major US MSO gateway. We also released multiple 5 gigahertz IFEMs that deliver improved band isolation and enhanced capacity and range in tri-band Wi-Fi 6 home mesh networks. In broadband, MSOs are increasing downstream and upstream data capabilities by upgrading to DOCSIS 3.1 infrastructure. During the quarter, we expanded shipments of DOCSIS 3.1 GaN power amplifiers to major US MSOs, offering greater efficiency, longer range, and increased bandwidth to maximize upstream and downstream data connectivity. In automotive, Corvo has for years been successful supporting the increased demand for in-vehicle infotainment. During that time, we've expanded our automotive portfolio and engaged with customers to enable the transition to connected car through cellular V to X. In the March quarter, these efforts helped to generate the first production orders for our cellular V to X front-end modules and bought coexistence filters to support the leading European automotive OEMs. Of note, Corvo's high-frequency block coexistence filters also enable the concurrent operation of cellular VDACs and Wi-Fi. In programmable power management, customer demand has been strong in support of two trends. First, the transition to solid-state drives is ongoing, primarily in laptops and gaming consoles. During the quarter, Corvo's programmable PMICs continue to support this transition with expanded shipments to and new engagements with multiple leading solid state drive providers. Second, the transition of brushless DC electric motors is accelerating, enhancing efficiency and a broad set of consumer products, including power tools and appliances. Corvo increased shipments of motor control solutions during the quarter, supporting multiple major consumer brands. In defense applications, the shift to higher frequencies the adoption of phased array radar, and the proliferation of GAN are among the trends supporting demand for Corvo's products. For radar applications, we released a reconfigurable dual-band GAN power amplifier mimic for the S and X bands, enabling more compact next-generation radar systems. Over 30 million miles away, the successful landing of NASA's JPL Mars Perseverance rover was supported by our components integrated into the rover's descent radar. In infrastructure, we continued to ramp shipments during the quarter to a base station OEM in support of U.S. C-band massive MIMO deployments, and we captured initial design wins for massive MIMO deployments in Canada, Japan, and Korea. Corvo brings decades of technology leadership and wireless infrastructure and we are leveraging the full breadth of our GaN power and small signal portfolio to support OEMs on upcoming 5G deployments. We have strong customer engagements, we are investing in critical enabling technologies, and design activity remains robust. We see tremendous opportunity in 5G infrastructure globally over the next four to five years as deployments continue to roll out. After the quarter closed, we received an emergency use authorization from the FDA for our Omnia COVID-19 rapid antigen test, which leverages high-frequency BOS sensors for high sensitivity and specificity. Corvo began efforts to use BOS sensors to develop diagnostic test solutions in 2013 in a manner similar to how we leveraged our BOS filters to achieve superior frequency selectivity in RF applications. Now with the authorization from the FDA, we are preparing to scale production to help support ongoing public health efforts. To that end, CURVA was awarded a contract with the National Institutes of Health through the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, or RADx, initiative. With $24 million, From the Biological Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, the award is helping to advance the production and market launch of our Omnia diagnostic test platform. Also after the quarter closed, Corvo acquired NextInput, a pioneer in the emerging field of force-sensing solutions for the next generation of human-machine interface. NextInput will be part of the mobile products providing MEMS-based sensors in innovative products for customers in existing and new markets. They have shipped tens of millions of MEMS-based sensor solutions to leading manufacturers of smartphones, wearables, automobiles, and other applications. We see multiple opportunities for their solutions to augment or displace capacitive touch and mechanical buttons with smaller, more reliable, and airtight solutions that are applicable to any surface, including glass, polycarbonate, aluminum, and carbon fiber. We welcome the next input team to the Corvo family, and we are excited to expand our technology portfolio and accelerate the deployment of the technology to our broad customer base and new markets. Before handing the call over to Mark, I want to acknowledge the entire Corvo team for their commitment to supporting our customers and keeping the world connected. Corvo is enabling multi-year upgrade cycles in existing markets and introducing disruptive technologies, including ultra-wideband, RF-based biotechnology testing, and MEMS-based solutions. We expect broad-based end-market demand for our products and another year of strong financial results. And with that, I'll hand the call over to Mark.
spk09: Thanks, Bob, and good afternoon, everyone. Corvo's revenue for the fiscal 21 fourth quarter was $1,073,000,000, $33,000,000 above the midpoint of our guidance and up 36%, or $285,000,000 versus last year. Mobile products revenue of $808,000,000 was up 45% year-over-year on the growth of higher content 5G smartphones. Infrastructure and defense products revenue of $265 million was up 14% versus last year, led principally by robust Wi-Fi demand. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 21, we delivered our third consecutive quarter of gross margin over 50%. Non-GAAP gross margin was 52.6%, and above our guidance as less favorable mix was more than offset by better than expected price, manufacturing costs, and inventory charges. Non-GAAP operating expenses in the fourth quarter were $207 million, or 19.3% of sales, and in line with expectations. Sequential and year-over-year increases in OpEx were driven by technology and product development expenses associated with recent acquisitions and other key growth programs. Non-GAAP net income in the fourth quarter was $315 million, and diluted earnings per share of $2.74 was 32 cents above the midpoint of our guidance. Cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter was $403 million, and CapEx was $77 million, in line with our expectations. CapEx for the year was $187 million and below 5% of sales. During the quarter, free cash flow was $325 million and we repurchased $175 million of shares. On the balance sheet, cash increased to $1.4 billion and debt remained unchanged at approximately $1.7 billion. Our leverage remains low, our revolver is untapped, and we have no material near-term maturities. In April, S&P upgraded our credit rating to investment grade, reflecting the steps we've taken to profitably grow the business and maintain a strong balance sheet. Before turning to the outlook, I will comment briefly on the past year. Corporate's full-year fiscal 21 performance realized what was envisioned at the time of the merger. To create an enterprise best able to serve customers' technology and product needs when connectivity trends accelerated, and as product performance requirements increased. Corvo's commitment to R&D, active portfolio management, sustained productivity, and capital discipline positioned us to serve our customers' needs, expand supply chain partner opportunities, and improve financial results. In fiscal 21, Corvo delivered revenue over $4 billion, non-GAAP gross margin over 52%, non-GAAP operating margin over 32%, and free cash flow over $1.1 billion. Corvo's free cash flow has increased fivefold over the past four years. We are committed to build on this and are investing and executing to do so. Now, turning to our current quarter outlook, we expect revenue between $1.65 billion and $1.95 billion. Non-GAAP gross margin of approximately 50%. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $2.45 in the bid point of our guidance. Our June quarter revenue outlook reflects sustained and broad-based customer demand driven by multi-year technology upgrade cycles. In mobile, demand for 5G is adding RF complexity and driving higher content. We forecast mobile revenue in the current quarter to be approximately $810 million at the midpoint, or up 73% year over year. In IDP, we project revenue of approximately $270 million in the current quarter, sustained by Wi-Fi 6 demand and other markets. Our June quarter gross margin guide is approximately 50%, reflecting seasonal patterns and less favorable mix. That is up 140 basis points versus last year on higher volumes, active portfolio management and pricing, and continuous productivity efforts. We expect our June quarter gross margin to be the lowest gross margin quarter of the year. Non-GAAP operating expenses are projected to increase in the June quarter to around $214 million on added labor and other development expenses associated with recent acquisitions, and key growth programs. At the midpoint of our June quarter guidance, operating margin is forecast to be over 30% for the fourth consecutive quarter. We project our current quarter and full year non-GAAP tax rate to be between 9% and 10%. Capital expenditures will remain around $70 million in the June quarter, as we work to intersect projected demand and support long-term supply agreements with multiple customers. For our full year fiscal 22, we forecast approximately 15% revenue growth on an increase in smartphone volumes in the range of 5 to 10%, a doubling of 5G handsets, sustained Wi-Fi demand, and growth in other markets, including power management and defense. We project full year gross margin to be approximately 52%. We expect OpEx to increase sequentially through the year and remain below 20% of sales for the full year. This level of OpEx is in line with what we laid out years ago and supports Corvo's ongoing product and technology leadership in existing markets while funding investment in newer areas such as UWB, biosensors, power management, and MEMS. We forecast other expense to drop slightly on lower interest expense but remain above $60 million. We see CapEx around 5% of sales, so up on an absolute basis as we add capacity to intersect known and high confidence opportunities. We expect free cash flow to grow year over year modestly due to slightly higher CapEx and working capital build. Based on our strong free cash flow performance in fiscal year 21 and our fiscal year 22 outlook, along with our substantial balance sheet capacity and other factors, the Board of Directors has authorized a $2 billion share repurchase program. Amidst the pandemic, the Corvo team executed well in serving customers and advancing technologies critical to a more connected world. Entering fiscal 22, we are well positioned to continue delivering premium technology to an expanding set of customers in 5G, Wi-Fi, IoT, defense, power management, and other markets. In closing, I'd like to join Bob in thanking Coralville employees again for their contributions over this past year. Now I'll turn the call back over to the operator for questions.
spk01: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 now. And in order to accommodate everyone's questions, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you have found that your question has already been answered, please press star two. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now. We'll pause for a brief moment to allow everyone the opportunity to enter the queue for questions. And we'll take our first question from Blaine Curtis of Barclays.
spk07: Thanks for your question and nice results. I want to ask you on IDP, You mentioned many, many positive drivers. You know, I think the business is kind of flattish here. Just kind of curious if there's any areas that are going the other way for you, and I guess do you expect that to reverse as you move through fiscal 22?
spk03: Yeah, thanks, Blaine. I mean, we certainly have had a great positive year as we exited the year and grew. 38%, mainly driven by really strong demand in wireless infrastructure, but also a great year in Wi-Fi with consecutive double-digit growth quarters. And both defense and power management also having really strong years. So, you know, I'm really pleased with the results of our physical 2021. We've been pretty public about the slowdown in the wireless infrastructure business in the back half of last year. And we certainly see that continuing as we go through the first half of this year. We think it'll start to pick up in the back half of next year as deployments in China start. And then certainly we expect CBAN to start to roll out in the United States as we get into the back half of the year. So, you know, overall, I would expect base station to start to pick up a bit. But I think if you look at, you know, full year for IADP, base station will actually probably be down a bit. And we'll see significant growth in some of the other markets.
spk07: Thanks. And maybe just to follow up to that, Mark gave the fiscal outlook to the top line. Do you think IDP can grow this fiscal year?
spk09: Yeah, Blaine, I'll take that one. Yeah, based on the guidance I gave, you'll – you'll see that we are expecting IDP to grow, and it'll be in the lower end of the range that James typically gets. He gets 10% to 15% per year, and we'll be in the lower end of that range given the dynamics James mentioned. We expect to see, you know, a lackluster infrastructure build out in the first half, and we're expecting that to pick up in the second half. But we're also seeing, you know, in his business, just great opportunities to continue in Wi-Fi. Power management is growing strongly. The defense business is strong and durable. So still a great year for his business ahead of us. Thanks, Christian.
spk05: Thanks, Blaine.
spk01: Thank you. And we will take our next question from Bill Peterson of J.P. Morgan.
spk12: Yeah, nice job on the quarterly execution and guide, and thanks for giving the color on the full year. Just wanted to come back to infrastructure. It sounds like most of this may be more related to the market delay timing, maybe perhaps of China build-outs, but I guess just try to understand, you know, the competitors of your businesses. Is it just really that it's just a delay in the market, or is it mixed as it relates to more macro versus massive MIMO? Any color you can give on why we're sort of slow to start our gates in infrastructure.
spk03: Yeah, thanks, Bill. I mean, definitely the market has slowed down. I think it's been pretty public across many of our customers and our competitors as we've seen these deployments and tenders delay in China. The other thing that's happened a bit is mix. And again, we've talked about that over the last couple of quarters as the mix has shifted a little bit from 64-element arrays to more macro-based stations and more 32-element arrays. Now, that said, you know, I am very happy with the portfolio that we have. We continue to invest in the technology in both in the GAN side for power and in the small signal side. So, you know, I'm happy where we are, and I think we continue to make progress there. And we're in the very early stages. So this is just beginning. We've had one year in China. We're just starting really in the U.S. and the rest of the world. So this is going to be a multi-year trend. I think we're positioned very, very well with the portfolio we have. And, of course, we're obviously not going to sit still. We're going to continue to drive that business forward and invest in technology and make sure that we're able to do what we did last year with the early rollouts in China.
spk12: Thanks for that. And then maybe for Eric, you know, the mobile growth has implied, I guess, to be faster than the 50% based off of, you know, James is coming in a bit less. So within that growth outlook, where do you see the most growth coming from? Is it, you know, with these sort of full main path wins in the Android camp? Is it further, I mean, including further adoption of the dual transmit? You know, UWE, where do you see what's driving the most growth within your business in this fiscal year, I guess, at a high level?
spk04: Right. Well, certainly in the near term and currently where we are today, the full main path solutions are just getting a lot of traction. That brings a lot of dollar content with it, especially as we look in the future and see all the new bands coming and so forth. But also just all of our complexity around the antenna, it comes with all of that as well, right? As complexity goes, there's a lot more antenna tuning and antenna flexing and so forth. So that's still a strong market for us. And Wi-Fi as well. The 6 and 6E rollout has been really, really good for us. So Wi-Fi has been growing at one of the faster clips of all of our product groups as well. UWB, a lot of excitement about that for sure. Lots of design activity across all the verticals. We announced the design of the consumer IoT space, which is pretty big for us. It's going to drive growth second half of the year. And so it's going to be picking up throughout the year. It's not driving the growth now, given its scale, but as we exit the year, it'll be a bigger contributor. Thanks for that.
spk01: Thank you. And we will take our next question from Carl Ackerman of Cohen.
spk11: Yes, thank you, gentlemen. Mark, if I could start with you first. I think your prior directional outlook for June contemplated supply constraints. And it would seem that supply constraints were lower than you anticipated between you and China Hance at OEMs. Is there a way to quantify the amount of revenue that may be pushed into the second half of this calendar year, given the supply constraints you've seen so far today?
spk09: Yeah, Carl, I'm not going to add any more to the current guidance. It's our best view, considering the constraints we have and what we believe we can deliver and work with customers. Part of the benefit we had in the fourth quarter was just the tremendous jobs the ops team has done and then the work we've done with customers to expedite product to them. So we were able to both produce more product and get them more product. And you see that come in a number of forms. We had more favorable absorption. We had some better pricing. Our inventory charges were actually lower than we thought. So a number of positives, again, in the fourth quarter, just showing how well we're serving the market and working with our customers closely. So it gives us a lot of confidence in the next couple quarters that Demand is very firm, which is why I felt comfortable giving a preliminary full-year view. And we'll just continue to do what we've been doing and managing our inventories closely, watching the channel. Both of those are very healthy, and the behavior from customers suggests that it's long-term demand, and they're looking to partner with us more closely.
spk11: I appreciate that. Maybe if I could, then, as my follow-up, you know, you spoke about the full year outlook for Fiscal 22, and so I really appreciate that. You also spoke about the growing opportunity within mobile in Fiscal 22 with regard to the full main path solutions. And so, you know, in that context, you know, last call, you indicated that your cost basis on your integrated modules is not where you'd like them to be today, but I was hoping you could discuss what progress you've made on improving factory efficiencies or outsourcing initiatives that may drive improved yields from here as we think about that progression toward sustained low to mid-50s gross margins. Thank you.
spk09: I guess, Carl, if the question is, what are we doing to sustain margin? First of all, it's a very complicated question. equation, right, on all the things that go into making the gross margin. I think what I'd like to do is just start with our fiscal 22 guide is for margins to hold up. Let's start with the fact that in fiscal year 21, we increased gross margin over 400 basis points versus fiscal year 20. So I'd say sustaining at these levels is pretty good. And I think you've got to remember that some things will go against us in 22 that went with us in 21. Notably, the pricing environment is very firm now, and that is likely to loosen a bit. It'll still be healthy, we believe, but will not be as tight as it is at the moment. We believe our inventory charges, you know, we have to assume they'll kind of pick back up to normal levels. And we've got to remember just how hard this stuff is that we do. So, you know, I can go on and on. Now there's plenty of good that's going on to offset the bad in fiscal 22. I mean, we're continuing to drive productivity. The portfolio management continues. utilization. We've got some room and we'll continue to invest as we need to, but keep that utilization high. All the things we've talked about over the years. And so as a result, we have a view now that we can sustain margin at these levels. Of course, over time, Carl, we've said we aspire to expand our gross margins. And I think it runs through the same things we've been doing. We'll continue to be a technology leader, allows us to do the hardest parts. We'll pick to play with customers with those hardest parts where our value get recognized. Productivity is as good as it's ever been in the company and we're driving even more there. And then we're just going to be very circumspect about any capital build. So we're optimistic that over time, there'll be some opportunity.
spk01: Thank you. And we'll take our next question from Craig Hattenbach of Morgan Stanley.
spk10: Yes, thanks. Just to follow up on ultra-wideband, just can you talk about the breadth of design activity? And then is there a way to think about it over the next year or two of kind of a revenue level that would be kind of reasonable to reach for that technology?
spk04: Sure, Craig. Yeah, this is Eric. The design activity is really, really broad. You know, it was very, very good that we completed the 7Hugs acquisition and brought the entire software stack, which really enables us to work across a very broad array of applications. So engaged with multiple mobile handset providers, of course, to leverage that channel. But then also all the things that talk to the mobile phone, like the consumer IoT devices, of course, and also automotive, and then just a bunch of industrial IoT sort of applications around robotics and AR, VR, and navigation indoors, and those sorts of applications. So really broad, but the team's done a great job of doing all of this with a unified hardware and a unified software stack for the most part with very few variations. So tremendous productivity coming out of that organization to cover such a broad number of verticals. And, you know, in terms of the outlook for it, you know, we said before we believe we can get it to a couple hundred million dollar revenue business within a few years. Nothing has changed there by any means, and we're super excited about the opportunities it's bringing in.
spk10: Great. And then as a follow-up for James, I mean, to be able to grow IDP at the low end of 10% to 15%, even with roughly a quarter of the business down, I know you talked about this Wi-Fi strength and programmable power, but any other context in terms of, you know, some of that growth to drive the 10%, even with the infrastructure headwind?
spk03: Yeah, and I'll lead off with those ones that we spoke about. I mean, we're seeing very strong demand in Wi-Fi 6, and And, you know, Mark and Bob both hit that in their prepared remarks. And so we've got a performance advantage there, and I think customers are seeing that, and we've been able to scale that business very significantly. On top of that, we've got 6E just coming right on the heels of Wi-Fi 6. And so we're releasing products into 6E, and we also have our first production orders in 6E. So that'll confirm. continue to sort of lay our own growth there. Power management, great trends there. It continues to grow well up into the double digits and has done that quarter after quarter, so it's been a very nice acquisition for us as a company. And, you know, defense as well. We've got, again, nice trends inside the defense business. Now, on top of that, the automotive business is really starting to kick in as we go into this year. And cable TV has also started to grow our broadband business because of deployment of DOCSIS 3.1. So a lot of growth drivers that we have inside the business. As you said, diversification is working for us. It's helping us offset some of the market challenges that we're seeing with the rollout of infrastructure in China.
spk01: Thank you. And we will move to our next question from Vivek Arya of Bank of America.
spk00: Thanks for taking my question. For my first question, very impressive performance on the gross margin side for the last two quarters, almost, right? You beat expectations by almost 200 basis points. But now when I look at your June guide, you're essentially guiding to flattish mobile and IDP sales. So Mark, I'm curious, what specifically about mix will drive gross margins are down by 250 basis points. And what I would really like to understand is why is there so much variability between your initial outlook versus what you have reported? And should we assume your gross margin outlook this time is also conservative, like it has been the last two quarters?
spk09: Yeah, I think we're... We do our best, Vivek, to forecast very complicated business. And I think our forecast history as far as our ability to meet commitments is clear. I think we've had 17 quarters or so. It depends on what you do with the hurricane in Florida several years ago as to whether that's ruined the streak or not. But we do our best to give a good read. But there's a lot of things in the mix any given quarter. And so what's most important to us is can we forecast it well and meet commitments? And I think you can argue that we're kind of missing it on the high side, but I'd say that we have it in control and can continue to improve the business because we know what's going on. The second thing is it's indisputable at this point that all the work we've been doing has led to a higher quantum. So we've increased gross margin, particularly over the past year, and had stabilized it before. So the R&D investment and portfolio management, productivity, and reducing capital intensity, it's all paying off. To your point, we continue to work on growing the business in the right areas, and working on our cost curves, and picking and choosing where we're going to compete and bring the most value to customers. And over time, we think that the variability that we have will moderate. As it relates to the June quarter, we are down. And I said actually that we'd be down in the 49s. And the drivers are the same. We assume that price will moderate somewhat sequentially. We do have some product mix effects. And then we have some favorability from, in this case, the March quarter that's not going to repeat. We had some favorable absorption in the factories, and then we had some inventory effects that we have to assume we might return to normal levels on inventory charges. So that explains the sequential decline. I'll finish my comments with it. Remember, that's an increase versus the soft guidance I gave you before. So our view has actually improved on the quarter. We're driving more productivity than we thought. We have a little bit better price than we thought because the market's still very firm. And then there are a number of other factors. But listen, we're pleased to guide a 50% number, and we have confidence in that result.
spk00: Thanks, Mark. Very helpful. And my follow-up for Bob or Eric is, When I look at the implied guidance on the mobile side for the next fiscal year, like 17%, 18% or so year on year, given you want to grow double-digit and IDP, that suggests about the same growth or somewhat of a deceleration from last year. And given the doubling of 5G smartphones, I'm curious, why can't you grow faster in mobile? And the real underlying question in that is, What are your views about the competitive landscape? Because if the industry is so supply constrained, I'm surprised to hear you talk about, you know, loosening of price unless you think something about the competitive landscape could change. So just give us some more color about, you know, the competitive landscape and why you think pricing would start to loosen up if the industry is so supply constrained right now. Thank you.
spk04: Vivek, this is Eric. I'll take a stab at it. So first of all, in terms of the growth, you know, first of all, 5G doubling year over year is an additional 250 million phones on top of the 250 from last year, right? So in terms of growth rate, it's, you know, approximately the same, right? And, you know, so that's, you know, so we're saying growth consistent with last year being able to sustain at this level is good. We have other growth drivers coming on top of that as well. But, of course, as we enter the year, we take a relatively conservative look. I think it's still a pretty strong guide for the year. In terms of pricing, you know, I think in terms of loosening, all Mark was indicating is that, you know, we've had very firm pricing in the March quarter, extremely tight market. We're going to continue to, you know, to push the price curve while maintaining, of course, relationships and design strength that we have. Mark indicated long-term agreements with customers are coming into play, which is great for us and for customers. It's just an incredibly constructive environment for building a long-term business that's profitable for us and helps our customers make a lot of money too because of the advanced technology. So I think it's a very constructive, positive environment. We're not indicating anything about weakening pricing necessarily. Okay.
spk05: The only thing I'd add, Vivek, is if you look at some of the other companies that do play in our space and see what they've got in quarter over quarter, I think we're starting out on a much stronger foot than they are. And we'll see how well we deal with the constraints that both Mark and Eric have talked about, and we'll see how much of that we can capture. I also think we're one of the few that gave you some of your outlook as well. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you. And we'll take our next question from Gary Mobley. of Wells Fargo.
spk12: Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask about the Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E product cycles. You mentioned, I believe a minute ago, double-digit percent sequential increases as you finished up, you know, the second half of the fiscal year. And, you know, you mentioned as well Wi-Fi 6E just really starting to ramp up now. So my question to you, James, is How material now is this Wi-Fi 6 and 6E product cycle maybe measured in, you know, absolute dollar terms, percentage of IDP revenue, or, you know, how it ranks relative to prior Wi-Fi cycles?
spk03: Well, I'm not going to obviously scale the revenue down at the individual areas, but, you know, what I will say is we're early in, and we, you know, Mark talked about that. We've We've probably only seen about a 15% or so adoption in Wi-Fi 6 and very, very early in 6E. So I think those kind of growth rates that we're talking about are something that we do expect to continue to accelerate as we go through the adoption curve. It's probably going to take another three or four years for Wi-Fi 6 to build out. And we're already working on 7. So I think this is a business that will continue to drive. you know, as far as overall size of IDP is, you know, I've talked about many times, I love the diversification of the business and we're going to ebb and flow a bit. And so, you know, that kind of guidance that I constantly give of these businesses all being about a quarter of the size, I think as you average through a long, you know, long cycle, it stays pretty much in that span.
spk12: Okay. I appreciate that, James. It's my follow-up for Mark. I We appreciate the fact you haven't filed your 10-K yet, but can you share with us the specifics on any greater than 10% customers for the year?
spk09: Yeah, Gary, I would just say that we normally don't give much detail on that, and you'll see the full year numbers in the K. We had one full year as we look at it now. We had a number of 10% customers in the fourth quarter and another one that was actually very close and approaching 10. So very good diversified revenue in the quarter.
spk01: Thank you. And we'll take our next question from Edward Schneider of Charter Equity Research.
spk06: James, so China's moving from MIMO, which is what they built out in the urban environment, I think everybody knows now, to suburban and rural, to macro. Why should we believe there should be any rebound in demand for anywhere close to what you saw originally for GAN, given that you're going from 64 to macros or much smaller cells, and then in the same kind of spirit of things? The Chinese built out an industrial policy from the government. The U.S. doesn't do that at all. The U.S. carriers have to show an ROI for their build-out, which calls into question how many MIMO stations they'll actually deploy, given the relatively modest improvements you get in performance versus the incredibly higher cost for this. I know it's slowing down now. You guys have forecasted that, and that's actually happening now. But if I'm looking out to the end of this year, why are you confident that you'll see a big rebound? And it will be in China, or is it in C-band in the United States? Is it mostly MIMO or just building out anything? Thanks. And I have a follow-up.
spk02: Yeah, thanks, Ed.
spk03: So we didn't talk about a large rebound. We said that it would start to accelerate as we get into the back half and that U.S. deployments will start to pick up. I do believe that the overall market, as we look at it this year, will be down. and in sort of those single digits of addressable market. And that sort of has everything into play. That has deployments in U.S. and the configurations that our customers are telling us about and deployments in China and, of course, the rest of the world. Going forward, though, there are a tremendous amount of base stations still to be deployed. And the China deployments during the first year were relatively low. So I do see just tremendous content pickups for us as we go through this five-year deployment. It's important to add to know that, you know, if you go back to 4G, a 64-element array is still about a 10x content pickup for us. You know, a 32-element array is not a little bit more than half of that. So these are big, big content gains for us in the business. And so it's really a content story. And as you play that out in deployments around the world, it continues to be a growth business for us. And, of course, GAN is a new technology for us. We couldn't access the power amplifiers as we went through the 4G cycle, and now we've got great products and great technology that allow us to address that whole segment.
spk06: Great. And then, Eric, if I could. So you have long said that you would enter the transmit diversity path, as it made sense for your filter business, specifically with regard to BAW. And it sounds like you've done that. Congratulations. But does that limit you? I mean, this would be like an N77 Wi-Fi combination for a coexist, or are all the sub-6 bands open to your solutions? Are you cherry-picking on that? And then if I could also, on the ultra-wide band, it looks increasingly like, you know, Apple's got their own solution doing their phone. NXP's taking a lot of the handset side of the business and the Android solution. And is it fair assumption to say DecaWave is really going to be focused mostly on the other side of it, the IoT side of it, all the devices that talk to the handsets? I mean, other than Google, should we expect to see you much in the Android handset side with UWB? Thanks.
spk04: Sure. We'll take those in order. So starting with the transmit and the diversity path, yeah, that's a rapidly growing space for us. As you indicated, we had forecasted it would be. um and it's it's not by any means limited to the the uh the content we have today today is relatively kind of discrete uh you know placements uh and going forward we'll see complete uh what we call dual connect modules more and more going from the upper tier down and in the dual connect modules we have a complete you know transmit and receive path for the bands that that they do transmit on right and those bands are uh are throughout the mid and high band frequencies we'll say so So it's a great growing category. Again, we're going to bring ball filters to it. We're going to bring integration to it, best-in-class gas PAs, and everything we have in the main path. So that's a great new category for us. And, of course, supported by, you know, just more bandwidth in the uplink and, you know, trying to get, you know, more video through the networks and higher data rates and so forth. That's really what's driving that, as we've been talking about for years, actually. On UWB, I think when you say you're seeing NXP primarily in Android houses, that's kind of a legacy comment, which I acknowledge. Obviously, Decway wasn't in a position to really address the mobile market, and that's why they took the path they did. As Corvo, though, of course, we're targeting the mobile market directly. And to your point, that is Android, as of the current state of play, at least. Apple's doing their own, but we expect that we will be engaged and represented in production in the Android ecosystem, not just in all the accessories, but also in the mobile part themselves. There's really no part of the UWB ecosystem that we feel like we can't address, and we are addressing.
spk01: Thank you. And we will take our next question from Toshia Hari of Goldman Sachs.
spk13: Hi, guys. Thanks so much for taking the question and congrats on the strong results. Mark or maybe Eric, I had a multi-part question on long-term supply agreements. You both spoke to this in your prepared remarks. But curious, are you signing long-term agreements both in mobile and IDP or is it primarily IDP? I guess that's part one. And then part two, just for context, Roughly what percentage of your future revenue will be tied to long-term supply agreements? Are we talking, you know, 5%, 10%? Is it 25%? Just a rough ballpark number would be helpful. And then I guess most importantly, how should we think about the level of commitment on the part of your customers in terms of both volume and pricing? And I ask the question because historically, maybe not specific to Corvo, but in the industry broadly, you know, the suppliers would have to be committed to a long-term agreement, but the customers always have the flexibility to push or cancel purchases. So just curious how the contracts are constructed.
spk09: Thank you. Maybe I could start and then Eric take it or Bob. So First of all, I don't think we want to give a number at this point on percent because there's a lot in flight. A lot's been done and a lot is still in flight. So I think that's a number that we would be changing and just is not practical at this point to give it. The second thing I would mention is that the nature of the agreements we get and so forth is going to determine the level of investment we make and shape our capex decision so that's another you know they're intertwined you know to Vivek's earlier question on gross margin and what we want to do here going forward we're working to strike deals that would be best for our customers and best to maintain stability in our business so we can invest for our customers And so I would leave it at that, Eric or Bob.
spk05: The only thing I'd add, Toshi, is they are for both business units. And to Mark's point, they're growing. And clearly, there are a lot more confidence in the outlook because of them than we had in any of the years before. We did have some smaller long-term agreements, but it is a growing part of our portfolio. And we think it's a very good thing, and so do our customers. I think that's the really important part, as Mark pointed out.
spk13: That's great. And then a quick follow-up, a simple one on next input. You guys talked about the rationale in your prepared remarks. I think that was pretty clear. But can you speak to some of the financial implications, how much you're paying, the revenue accretion, the margin profile vis-a-vis the corporate average? Thank you.
spk09: Yeah. So, Shia, just on the dollars, you'll see a subsequent event note in the K, and this was over $150 million today. closer to 175, actually. So you'll see that in the K as a subsequent event. It's accretive pretty quickly, like within the first few quarters of our ownership. And the gross margin profile is favorable to the company. And given the scale, of course, the operating margin is weaker just because of the optics. But it's certainly a business we're excited about and investing in. going to be investing heavily in.
spk01: Thank you. And we will take our next question from Chris Cascio of Raymond James.
spk12: Yes, thank you. I guess my question is about the seasonality that's implied in the mobile business based on what you've guided. And it would appear that the seasonality is more muted than we've seen in years past. First, is that interpretation correct? And if so, why is that the case? Is it, you know, perhaps a function of your business, the geographic nature of the business now being different than when it is in the past? Is it that, you know, some business was pulled forward into the first half of the year? Could you give us some more color on that, please?
spk04: Yeah, this is Eric. I'll be happy to talk to that. I mean, you know, the fact is we are in a supply-constrained environment. So, you know, customers would – you know, would be happy to get more potentially. But, you know, we're working through our supply chain and growing its capability throughout the year. And so it's not a typical demand profile that you might see. This is really a function of how much we can get out right now.
spk09: Maybe just to talk to the full-year guy I gave as well, yeah, a couple of things to add. One is keep in mind this is a first look. And the first half of the view is obviously a lot clearer, Chris, than the back half. And I think that's just the nature of providing a high-level view. There are obviously a lot of positive factors going into the year. Demand is firm. It's more of a supply-constrained environment. and the growth drivers in the business are intact with the near-term exception of infrastructure, as we've discussed. You've got the economic recoveries underway, but we know how quickly that can turn. And then there's just pockets of supply chain risk, which we're managing very well, but acknowledging that they're there. So I just want that to be clear in this initial look. The second thing on the guide is just talking about maybe giving a bit of shape to it and specifically September. Yeah, September quarter looks firm as well. Expect revenue to be up, you know, probably around 50 million or so sequentially versus our June guide. The gross margin we see increasing, you know, being between 51, 52%. So, increasing 100, 150 basis points, probably closer to 150 basis points as we see it now. And we'll give more, oh, and one last thing, OpEx we see going up about $10 million sequentially. And again, that's, you know, some salary increases plus the addition of next input and then just increased investments in our other growth opportunities and recent acquisitions. We'll get more color through the quarter or on our next earnings call.
spk12: All right. It's very helpful. I'm glad we got that in before the call ended as well. But just to follow up, if it sounds like supply constraints are a factor that potentially could affect the revenue as you go through the year, could you give us some sense of, you know, of getting more supply out there. And I guess the trick is getting the supply out in time for your customers' launch schedules.
spk05: Chris, this is Bob, and obviously quite challenging to even define that. I think we've given you a pretty good view, as Mark's already outlined, somewhat of a profile of the year along with what we're thinking for the year. It is dynamic, and collectively we all spend a lot of time with our customers working through their other constraints so that they can complete their bill of materials. So there's a lot of churn in our business as we, you know, they figure out what they can get from certain suppliers, we adjust what we can make, and there's just a tremendous amount going on out there. And, you know, to really size that and let you know dollar-wise would be quite, not really useful in my mind, because if we could produce more, they may not want it because they can't get it from someone else. So, you know, we gave you what we believe is an unconstrained view of, excuse me, a different way, a constrained view of what we think we can get and support along with what our customers can get. And we're in almost daily communications with them. So I feel good about the outlook that Mark's provided.
spk09: Oh, and just one, I need to make one correction, Chris. I made a mistake here and just want to make sure it's clear before the call's up. Our actual sequential will be you know, up between 100 and 150, actually, going June to September. So just, you know, not 50, as I mentioned, but between 100 and 150. So I'm sorry about that. And hopefully that clears that up.
spk01: Thank you. And this concludes today's question and answer session. I would now like to turn it over to management for any closing remarks.
spk05: Thank you for joining us this evening. Cuervo will be presenting at multiple investor conferences in the coming weeks, and we invite you to listen in.
spk02: Thanks again, and have a good night.
spk01: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's teleconference. You may now disconnect.
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