Icron reports first quarter 2008 Results
BURNABY, B.C. April 29th, 2008-
Icron Technologies Corporation (TSX Venture: IT), the developers
of ExtremeUSB, today released financial results for the first
quarter ending March 31, 2008.
Highlights:
• Revenues of $2,201,017, an increase of 8.0% over Q1
2007;
• Unit volume increased approx 33%, however the revenue
increase was not realized due to product mix and exchange
rate changes from 2007 to 2008 for same period.
• Posted an increase in product margins to 48.4% from
47.6% in Q1 2007 and 44.1% in the fourth quarter of 2007.
• Posted a net loss for Q1 2008 of $105,744, as compared
to a net income $150,441 in the same period of 2007, mainly
as a result of increased R&D spending.
• R&D spending increased to $766,102 during the
quarter, an increase of $345,929 or 82% over the first quarter
of 2007.
• The company ended the quarter with cash balance of
$3,260,060 and increased working capital to $5,552,008, an
improvement of $65,375 over 2007.
• Announced collaboration with Design of Systems on
Silicon S.A.,(DS2) a leading supplier of solutions for Power
Line Communications (PLC) and showed a demonstration of interactive
PC to TV application at 2008 (CES) Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas.
• The company participated in the HD-PLC Alliance Showcase
at 2008 CES, demonstrating USB over PLC solutions.
• The company announces Next Generation USB 2.0 Cat
5 extender solution, providing twice the distance at half
the cost of previous solutions.
Management's Comments:
“In the first quarter of 2008, we were pleased with
the growth of our traditional business on a year over year
basis. We have continued to grow the company’s revenues
and volumes based on our traditional products, which we have
been selling in the market, relatively unchanged for the past
few years.” commented Robert Eisses, President &
CEO. “2008 is really a transition year for Icron, as
we start to roll out a series of lower cost, and more flexible
implementations of ExtremeUSB based solutions, including finished
products, ASICs and IP Cores able to be implemented over a
variety of wired, fiber optic, wireless and power line technologies.
We are very excited about this next phase of growth for Icron
as we start to see the benefits of the last 18 months of increased
research and development expenditures and effort. The first
product resulting from these efforts is our recently announced
Next Generation USB 2.0 Cat 5 Extender, which offers twice
the distance at half the price of previous USB 2.0 extenders.”
The company is confident that the focus on enhancing USB
connectivity continues to offer significant opportunity to
increase shareholder value, as it continues to offer new and
unique ways to extend or bridge USB via its ExtremeUSB technology.
A recent report by market analyst firm In-Stat reported that
the universal serial bus (USB) saw continued worldwide success
in 2007, with more than 2.6 billion devices shipping in the
PC, PC peripheral, consumer electronics (CE), communications,
and automotive segments. USB's future is expected to maintain
its rise, with close to four billion devices expected to ship
in 2012.
Financials:
Revenue amounted to $2,201,017 for the three months ended
March 31, 2008, compared to $2,038,876 in the same period
of 2007, an increase of 8.0%. It should be highlighted that
the increase in the value of the Canadian dollar had a significant
impact on the Company’s revenue. Using the average exchange
rates from the first quarter of 2007 revenue for the first
quarter of 2008 would have been in excess of $2,560,000 representing
a 26.0% growth year over year.
USB 1.1 sales were flat during the quarter as they increased
1.5%, to $1,246,898 from the $1,228,476 recorded in the first
quarter of 2007. This slight increase can be attributed to
strong sales of the company’s core product lines which
were offset by lower sales of the company’s Rover product
lines. Sales of USB 2.0 products increased by 15.2% to $755,409
from the $655,700 reported in the same period of the prior
year.
Gross margin amounted to $1,065,607 in the first quarter
of 2008, compared to $971,269 in the first quarter of 2007.
Our gross margin percentage increased to 48.4% for the three
months ended March 31, 2008, compared to 47.6% in the same
period of 2007. The increase in margin is mainly attributable
to higher sales of royalties and license agreements, which
increased to $153,003 in the first quarter of 2008, compared
to $62,488 in the same period of 2007.
Largely as a result of our significant increase in research
and development spending, our net loss amounted to $105,744
or $0.00 per share, in the three months ended March 31, 2008,
compared to net earnings of $150,441, or $0.01, in the same
period of 2007.
For complete financials please visit www.sedar.com
or www.icron.com.
Conference Call / Web-cast:
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008, 4:30 PM ET, 1:30 PM PST
Icron Technologies will host a conference call to discuss
the company's quarterly financial results on Tuesday, April
29th, 2008 at 4:30PM EST, 1:30PM PST. Participants are asked
to call (800) 590 1870 or (416) 644 3422 (Toronto).
The conference will also be broadcast live over the Internet
and archived through the following link
http://www.newswire.ca/en/webcast/viewEvent.cgi?eventID=2265560
Click on this link or copy to your web browser to listen online.
About Icron Technologies Corp www.icron.com
Icron Technologies Corporation’s patented ExtremeUSB® technology extends the range of USB in wired environments and enables wireless USB over any RF technology. ExtremeUSB is the only USB-IF compliant extension solution and is deployed globally in a wide range of applications including: industrial automation, medical device, aerospace, KVM and computer networking. ExtremeUSB technology is available in a variety of formats including technology licenses, OEM modules, developer kits, as well as branded and private-label products.
Icron is a publicly traded corporation and trades under the symbol "IT" on the TSX Venture Exchange. For more information on the company and its products, please visit www.icron.com.
Contact Information
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Except for statements of historical
fact, all statements in this news release -- including, without
limitation, statements regarding financial estimates and future
plans and objectives of Icron -- are forward-looking statements
that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be
no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate;
actual results and future events could differ materially from
those anticipated in such statements.
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