Saifun Semiconductors (SFUN)

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Saifun reports 160% revenue growth to $78.5 million for 2005

15.2.06 | 13:36 By Omri Cohen

Saifun Semiconductors (Nasdaq:SFUN) today reported nearly 160% revenue growth for 2005 compared with the year before, to $78.5 million. Its net for the year reached $44.5 million, or 36 per fully diluted share, while in the previous year it had lost $37.9 million.

Also, Saifun formally announced that shareholders will be selling some stock in a secondary offering to the public.

Saifun specializes in developing intellectual property solutions for the nonvolatile memory market (flash). It makes a living by selling licenses to its technology to flash chip makers, in multi-annual contracts.

For the fourth quarter 2005 the company reported revenues of $16.7 million, down 7% from the previous quarter but up 77% from the parallel quarter of 2004.

The company, run by Dr. Boaz Eitan, reported fourth-quarter net profit of $8.6 million, or 15 cents per share, down 20% from the $10.8 million netted in the third quarter. Analysts covering Saifun had expected higher earnings per share, of 23 cents.
In the last quarter of 2004, Saifun had lost $24.4 million, but that had been due in no small part to a capital loss on selling its shares in a joint venture to Infineon.

Saifun's proprietary NROM technology doubled the number of bits that could be stored in each memory cell, enabling manufacturers to double the storage capacity of their memory devices. That technology dates from the late 1990s. Two months ago Saifun revealed a new technology, Quad NROM, which enables chipmakers to store four bits in each unit instead of two, and to lower their production costs. The flash chips are widely used in mobile electronic devices from smart phones to cameras to mobile memories (such as DiskOnKey) and MP3 players.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/683261.html

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