News Article
Automation Slow Down
Cimetrix announces 2008 year end financial results
Cimetrix, a provider of factory automation and equipment control software solutions for the semiconductor, photovoltaic, and electronics industries, has reported financial results for the year ended December 31, 2008. The total revenues for 2008 decreased 35% year-over-year to $4,143,000 from $6,389,000. The Company reported a net loss of $1,744,000, or ($0.05) per basic and diluted share in 2008, compared to a net loss of $1,309,000, or ($0.04) per basic and diluted share in 2007. Fourth quarter 2008 revenues were $784,000, compared with fourth quarter 2007 revenues of $1,582,000, and third quarter 2008 revenues of $1,008,000.
"The global economic crisis has created a dramatic decline in demand for semiconductors and electronics, leading to unprecedented low levels of factory utilization worldwide. With little to no need for factories to increase capacity, our software license revenue associated with the shipment of new capital equipment declined significantly during 2008. As a result, Cimetrix saw its first decrease in annual revenues since 2002," said Bob Reback, president and CEO.
Mr. Reback added, "We acted early and decisively to lower our operating costs based on the challenging economic conditions. In addition, we restructured our long-term debt, renewed our bank line of credit for another year and, with the support of our shareholders, raised additional cash to improve our balance sheet. With these strategic financial decisions along with our early investment in the growing solar photovoltaic (PV) industry, we are confident that we will emerge stronger and well positioned when the economy recovers."
The company is seeing success in the solar photovoltaic (PV) market. The PV manufacturing community has begun to adopt industry wide equipment communications standards in an effort to improve efficiencies. Cimetrix has been a part of this standard development and has already been working to provide factory automation solutions to many semiconductor equipment manufacturers that include PV in their product mix. Positioned as the industry leader in SEMI standards based software products, the Company expects to see continued growth in this market as the new standard is adopted.
Industry analysts do not expect the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industries to recover from the global recession this year. With investment in capital equipment at a virtual standstill, Cimetrix anticipates a significant decline in runtime revenue. However, by investing in new technology and solutions, the Company has been able to assist a number of larger semiconductor 300mm customers develop new equipment models that should contribute to future revenues when the economy recovers. Alternatively, the outlook in the related solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry is projected to have solid year-over-year growth as governments worldwide continue incentives for renewable energy. With a number of leading solar-PV reference accounts and active participation in the SEMI PV Group standards committees, Cimetrix is well positioned as a leading supplier of software solutions for the photovoltaic (PV) industry.
"The global economic crisis has created a dramatic decline in demand for semiconductors and electronics, leading to unprecedented low levels of factory utilization worldwide. With little to no need for factories to increase capacity, our software license revenue associated with the shipment of new capital equipment declined significantly during 2008. As a result, Cimetrix saw its first decrease in annual revenues since 2002," said Bob Reback, president and CEO.
Mr. Reback added, "We acted early and decisively to lower our operating costs based on the challenging economic conditions. In addition, we restructured our long-term debt, renewed our bank line of credit for another year and, with the support of our shareholders, raised additional cash to improve our balance sheet. With these strategic financial decisions along with our early investment in the growing solar photovoltaic (PV) industry, we are confident that we will emerge stronger and well positioned when the economy recovers."
The company is seeing success in the solar photovoltaic (PV) market. The PV manufacturing community has begun to adopt industry wide equipment communications standards in an effort to improve efficiencies. Cimetrix has been a part of this standard development and has already been working to provide factory automation solutions to many semiconductor equipment manufacturers that include PV in their product mix. Positioned as the industry leader in SEMI standards based software products, the Company expects to see continued growth in this market as the new standard is adopted.
Industry analysts do not expect the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industries to recover from the global recession this year. With investment in capital equipment at a virtual standstill, Cimetrix anticipates a significant decline in runtime revenue. However, by investing in new technology and solutions, the Company has been able to assist a number of larger semiconductor 300mm customers develop new equipment models that should contribute to future revenues when the economy recovers. Alternatively, the outlook in the related solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry is projected to have solid year-over-year growth as governments worldwide continue incentives for renewable energy. With a number of leading solar-PV reference accounts and active participation in the SEMI PV Group standards committees, Cimetrix is well positioned as a leading supplier of software solutions for the photovoltaic (PV) industry.
