My notes...
It’s a sad commentary that the operator introducing the Rambus cc is a better speaker than Bob…
Bob sounds like he ran to the cc and is trying to catch his breath…
I can picture him sitting on the throne and then looking at his watch and being like – oh shit (pun intended), the conference call is starting…
Disclosures (no one listens to those)
Harold Hughes – rolled up sleeves, great progress
Patent licensing - NEC, Elpida, Renasanc (5 more years), and one year deal with one company (not named) to give them more time to re-negotiate (Hitachi or Toshiba???)
Dead air…
XDR traction – selected by big electronics company to be named publicly soon
Teradici selected XDR too
Increasing momentum (Harold said Elixe is wrong and that XDR is not a niche product)
More traction – talking about PCI-Express
(when will traction become dollars)
Litigation – today – first days of Hynix trial (unclean hands trial will last two weeks)
With this out of the way, this will allow Rambus to argue the merits of the technology
Action at FTC is still pending – appeal will be resolved in the next quarter or two (maybe)
Took 3 weeks for the latest Rambus motion to be posted on FTC site (Harold doesn’t know why) – the motion to reopen by Rambus “powerful”
Believe they are helped by Samsung guilty plea
October 31st to address protective order on DOJ evidence
7 projects running and been asked to do more – Rambus in high demand
Back to Bob
Finance crap already stated in press release
Total cash down 83 million because 84 million used to repurchase bonds
Total rev. was 36 million which exceeded mgmt’s expectations
SDRAM and DDR revenue were down 28% sequentially (loss from Samsung and other factors)
Without Intel payments, SDRAM and DDR represent 44% of revenue
License and license renewals – still in active discussions
120 million in royalties last year
78% of last years royalties are under contract this year
Flex IO and XDR explain most of contract revenue increase
Operating expenses excluding litigation were down 5% over last quarter
4rth Quarter guidance
Revs 39-43 mill
Operating costs 33-37 mill
Litigation most difficult to predict range of 9-12 mill for Q4
Net interest and other income 2.5-3.5 mill
Tax rate 37-39%
Upcoming events – open trading on Nov 15th open Nasdaq followed by analyst day
Questions:
AG Edwards Color on royalty form PCI express
Answer: Bob won’t talk about it – they are not material from PCI
WR Hambrecht Clarification on one year renewal - Mgmt can’t comment on who it is (Amir mentioned Toshiba)
XDR royalty question – ramp up toward end of the year?
Bob says: Playstation 3 is first to market – Q1 06 for Playstation launch
First significant product
Talks with Intel???? (good question)
Harold can’t comment.
Litigation question answered by Bob Kramer (who is that???)
Hambrecht wants to know about timing of unclean hands verdict…
Mike Crawford question:
NANFlash – does Rambus have IP here?
Harold says it’s a memory interface that Rambus provides for this – Rambus will add value over the years here
E-mail questions:
Highly dependent on 4 customers – when will they get a more diversified revenue base?
Hughes gives the generic, rehearsed answer here…
AG Edwards again: more color on PCI licensee and project
Fiber channel interface – more opportunity on the contract side – no significant royalty on that in the future
Michael Cohen from Pacific:
Asked about 10/31/05 AT hearing and FTC motion to reopen
Bob Kramer says – we can’t talk about it (Where is Danforth – did he take his options and run?)
Can the FTC view the DOJ documents even if the protective order isn’t lifted – maybe is the answer
Hynix conclude in June 2006
Micron later that year
Q1 or Q2 2006 for action in AT case
Another question: Performance based bonus plan instead of stock options???
Hughes says “hell yeah – we have one” and we have the stock options and the compensation board is going to keep both of them (goddam money grubbers)
