Apple unveiled the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, as widely predicted, last night:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/09/10Apple-Announces-iPhone-5s-The-Most-Forward-Thinking-Smartphone-in-the-World.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/09/10Apple-Introduces-iPhone-5c-The-Most-Colorful-iPhone-Yet.html
The 5s contains the new A7 (64-bit) chip, with support for Open GL ES 3.0 - presumably this implies a PowerVR Series 6 Rogue GPU (not confirmed yet) which is obviously great news for IMG. The graphics are said to be 'up to 2X' performance of the iPhone 5 .
The 5c uses the A6 processor, with SGX 543MP3 GPU.
Availability is from 20th September, including China and also NTT DoCoMo of Japan . DoCoMo of late has been using Qualcomm, instead of Renesas, for its smartphones so IMG will obviously increase market share once again in Japan.
In other important news Broadcom last week announced it had acquired the LTE-related assets of Renesas, in order to not miss out in this rapidly expanding market and 'catch-up' with market-leader Qualcomm.
http://www.broadcom.com/press/release_987090413.php
This is a really big deal for IMG in my view.
Broadcom will immediately enter the market with the EOS2 dual core LTE chip (this is the Renesas MP5232 platform, using SGX 544MP graphics, already carrier-validated) and have multiple Tier 1 customers lined up, including Samsung . Ramp-up will be Q4 '13/Q1 '14 and a quad-core version is in-design for production late 2014.
Broadcom inherits Power VR Series 6 Rogue with this deal.
Broadcom are already a major customer for MIPS and are thought to be an Ensigma licensee also. This deal should further deepen and broaden the relationship with IMG.
It also removes some of the uncertainty around the loss of future royalty volume via ST/E, Renesas Mobile and TI (mobile).
The IMG interim-management statement is on the 17th September, with the AGM (live blogged again by Ken) 3 days later.
IMG
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Monday, 29 July 2013
Mediatek announces MT8135 ,using PowerVR Rogue
MediaTek Introduces Industry Leading Tablet SoC MT8135:
Thursday, 25 July 2013
Meeting with Sir Hossein Yassaie, Imagination CEO
A few weeks ago two well known, respected and knowledgeable long-term shareholders Dave Sweeney and Ronak (Roninja) had a meeting with Imagination CEO Sir Hossein Yassaie. What follows is a written report by Ronak ,which I certainly found to be very interesting and also reassuring.
Thanks to both of them for publishing their report on Imagineers Blog:
Meeting
Dave Sweeney and I had asked for an audience with IMG and were delighted to have an entire afternoon in KL including meeting with the CEO. This visit left us very happy in fact Dave has changed his mind and will be coming to this year’s AGM!!!
First impressions of the new HQ - imagination House is an awesome new building with an excellent fit out from reception through to the office space and open plan central space that doubles as meeting space and staff canteen downstairs. HQ will have great grounds with a canalside setting which is great for the employees, customers, visiting guests and shareholders.
On arrival we caught an early glimpse of HY welcoming other visitors (believe for a press interview).
We received a warm welcome from the fabulous Susi Barrett and were taken for a lovely lunch in the canteen - staff are well catered for ;)
Over the next 24 months the KL campus will be complete - circa 1100 will be based here and it will be quite a fitting centre. IMG have 20 offices and are a global outfit - Australia / NZ to California so a 24 hour operation.
Alex Voica (PR) joined us in the meeting room. He is a great guy, relatively new on the scene (1.5years @IMG) but was extremely knowledgable both in our time prior to meeting HY as well as a tour of the upgraded demo room. We commended him on the great blog he has transformed communication which is hugely appreciated.
The key meeting was a 90 min Q and A with the CEO: details follow (please note neither of us took notes so this account reflects what we recall - and hopefully does not misrepresent).
Relationships with key customers remain robust and strong with the key licenses firmly in-tact.
We got the strong impression that the relationship with key partners (such as Apple) continues to be long term and wide ranging and this is expected to continue despite rumors to the contrary. Clearly we will get further visibility of what we are in as new products launch and potential new markets are entered. We were sensitive to Apple's strict NDA restrictions , hence we did not push the questioning here , the response that relationships were 'as strong' as in the past was good enough for us! :-)
Intel unit contribution will grow substantially from from low 10s millions, to high 10s of millions and ultimately to multiple 100s millions overtime. Clearly this is important to note as Intel may use in-house in certain SoCs there are multiple programmes which include our ip. Remember Baytrail whilst not featuring our graphics includes our video decode and still contribute a decent royalty rate. Although not disclosed I would think Intel will be going Rogue. As process nodes get smaller the power / performance equation is not going to change and IMG are in the right place. We were given the impression that IMG will partake in the Android tablet market supplied by Intel and not just be involved with smartphones, many had discounted an IMG GPU in Intel based tablets, we were told that was not the case.
Mediatek will reveal Rogue SoCs in the near future. Arm may have some lower-end slots but Imagination continues to have multiple design-wins in key slots and should continue to see strong volume. What we have seen so far in the mobile space is a mere fraction of what will be possible and what high end will be capable of as we move forward.
Amazon are viewed as a real fan of PowerVR and are keen to continue the relationship already established. The industry players have been changing so immediate resolution might not be forthcoming in the near term but regardless we would expect continued design-wins and volume at Amazon through partners.
License target for 2013/4 was reaffirmed circa £40m (incl. MIPS) is what I'm looking for.
Royalty unit guidance will going forward be combined to include MIPS. Progress to 1bn by 2016 for non-MIPS will still be mentioned but IMG are now a multi billion unit company in the making.
Negativity around IMG is sometimes being propagated by competitors: IMG do not fight dirty they have relations where it matters and the market is big enough for a few key players. Reading too much into articles does not reflect the business reality such as one company hiring a small team GPU engineers does not imply any changes to the business relationship. We bought up issues about our concerns on PR issues and we were satisfied that the CEO had taken these on board and that they were addressable. We were happy with his comments and also the fact that IMG was a delivery focused company and would not waste energy in entering into attacking competition.
IMG do however intend to go on the PR offensive , correcting misnomers and cheats when and where they occur, they will pay particular attention to the results of benchmarking SOCs ensuring that they more accurately reflect IMG's superiority in power consumption ( MIPS and GPU) but perhaps more importantly the GPU performance /power consumption superiority of series6 v competitors which IMG are totally confident about, IMG still believe that its Rogue technology is materially ahead of competitions.
On the share price front, HY stressed the strong support of IMG's major institutional supporters for their long term business plan and managements total focus being to deliver shareholder return by continuing to create a valuable business and delivering sustainable results over the medium to long term. Short-term fluctuations and market variabilities should not be confused with the focus and overall plan that is being followed.
MIPS is viewed as a real credible alternative CPU architecture by the industry and we were given the impression over time MIPS will add many multiples to the $100m spent on the acquisition which was viewed as a good deal even after the Ceva "chess-match". Many stakeholders from semiconductor companies to industry drivers such as Google want MIPS to succeed as no one would want to be tied to a monopolistic CPU vendor scenario and natural unhealthy control that could give a specific player. Clearly Google appear to have been highly supportive of this acquisition. Having John Hennessey MIPS chief architect and now Stanford University President who is passionate about MIPS and believes in a level-playing field for processors, sitting on the Google board is certainly helpful. Hossein Yassaie and John Hennessy have met multiple times to share updates on MIPS future direction and other relevant topics. In fact Google was mentioned a number of times by the CEO in various contexts suggesting that the relationship between us is obviously very strong.
Technologically MIPS is a real credible offering, with an efficient "true RISC" architecture, in the three key metrics of perf, power and area. Additionally the 64-bit architecture it provides is mature and therefore architecturally better positioned than say ARM who have only recently moved to 64-bit. Of course IMG is addressing certain gaps in MIPS offerings and had embarked on delivery a strong roadmap for the future. HY reiterated the target of aiming to secure around 25% of addressable CPU IP license market design-ins within 5 years. There is real interest in MIPS and so much familiarity with the technology where it matters in senior engineering circles and management boards there is high optimism. Customers who would have continued their transition to ARM or exclusively would have stayed with ARM are now confident about the stability and future and roadmap of MIPS within IMG. Cavium for instance were going down the Arm route before there recent license. MIPS will take some time to really grow and contribute but will be very important revenue and value generator. HY suggested that the financial market has not yet fully understood/appreciated the strategic importance and real long-term value of MIPS but that is natural in this complex technological market and time will correct that.
Samsung mobile relationship is strong, as evidenced by use of Clovertrail+. Samsung LSI will continue to multi-source so IMG expect to be in more SoCs but clearly have ARM to compete with. Samsung LSI are probably only 30% of Samsung mobile. As TI move away I would expect share between Intel (us) and Qualcomm.
Series 6 / XT update was that we are in the licenses that matter but do not expect to go far in terms of breadth of license base at this stage, by this we mean the stated number of partners ( currently more than 10) is not likely to be 20 anytime soon.Seems like the industry is currently converging on a number of main players in the mobile SoC space - I would possibly read these as Apple, Mediatek, Intel as the main drivers of volume. LG have been first to market with Series 6 in TV with their H13 SoC. We can deduce there will be an M13 (???) SoC in development for use in handsets at some point, this could be very profitable and Dave had lost hope of a Smartphone SOC from LG , we were reassured that was not going to happen, Dave very pleased. The likes of Allwinner, Actions Semi and Rockchip are also considered as contributors and whether these are potential candidates for series 6/XT is something to look into / wait for.
TI and Renesas have been commented on in the recent analyst conference call so I can only currently see these as automotive and industrial players going forward.
With regards to benchmarks expect some new stuff in the power/performance space from IMG in the future. The Anandtech Adreno 330 article was discussed, clearly what this points to is competition hotting up but Rogue is imminent and will be a game changer. Qualcomm are a licensee and we should see the display ip and subsequently UCC feature in SoCs adding to volume. IMG have a very positive relationship with Qualcomm
UCC licensing is the next area to watch. Adding Toshiba as a licensee is evidence that Ensigma business is growing and HY expects unit volume to ramp in the near future and add to the diversifying revenue base.
Caustic/Ray Tracing looks peerless and clearly disruptive but is still a few years out. Target markets range from TV, tablet to console and eventually mobile. IMG appear unchallenged in this space and whilst there are no visible rivals IMG need to capitalise. Licensable ip is what IMG are working towards and we can expect news in that direction as we go into 2014.
On the Pure front investment in the flow cloud offerings and the wifi speakers have been developed to not only generate a future new revenue stream for IMG but also path-find licensable IP. Pure is a core part of IMG and should be viewed as such. UK digital switch off will generate further forward visibility. In-car such as the link with Halfords should help. There could be many opportunities opened for licensing. There appears genuine optimism about PURE , the 7digital connection was discussed and referred to as the 'warehouse' of a music catalogue sitting behind the PURE cloud platform , IMG own 18% of 7digital and have Richard Smith as a non -exec director ( not as a finance director as some have reported).
Many observers would not have failed to noticed Sir HY being very vocal in publicising the need for UK PLC to take engineering and the technology industry more seriously. Areas such as the NHS could be transformed by better partnerships with UK technology industry. HY was heavily involved in the ESCO report. He is known at senior government levels and the rationale he transmits can only be beneficial for the future for IMG, the industry, and UK job prospects.
Toumaz has huge potential and the frontier acquisition should have more immediate benefit whilst the healthcare business gets going over the medium to long term. HY visited the California hospital where the sensing plasters were successfully trialled.
After the meeting we walked across to Pure and were delighted to be introduced to Andy Davies (Pure) and Pete Downton (director of Flow and Cloud services). We were given a brief presentation during which it was mentioned that the major music labels in particular Universal are more than happy dealing with IMG as being an IP company they can rely on a long term close relationship as Music rights are tied to the DNA of IP , All the appropriate 'players' are on board the offering from PURE
We were given a demo of the current Jongo range as well as a new product. The flow technology ecosystem and software has had heavy investment and it works! This is available for licensing. Pure is actively entering the Sonus market which was a $500 million turnover market last year far larger than the current DAB market. Pure are very confident about their sound quality , build and price point ( lower than Sonus).
The feedback from major retailers here in the UK and more importantly in the US has been extremely positive, and although advertising expenses will be restricted , the PoS ( point of sales) structure will be very positive. PURE expect a very strong International launch of the new multi room products ( including a very strong presence in the top US consumer electronic retail stores and backed with the FlowCloud platform, the PURE connect App a very strong licensing proposition that is creating a lot of interest with major OEM's).
Pure also has at least 3 new wireless multi-room speaker including possible SoundBar products in the pipeline in addition to the present offerings and we saw them and listened to a couple of them. Onkyo /Dolby have been involved in the new products.these products are likely to be launched at IFA in September and have been very well received by retailers, the look AND sound (demo on Dark side of the moon) was...SPLENDID :-)
Ultimately this market is viewed as rapidly growing but, clearly selling the speakers will be the acid test! Potentially this could be a game change for Pure from a revenue perspective and hopefully lead onto medium term profitability.remember its not just about the 'physical' products its about the licensing potential , imagine if Sony Panasonic Etc etc license the multi room technology ( incredibly difficult apparently) utilise the PURE CONNECT App , backed by Pure's flow and Cloud , that's one very very serious global proposition.
On reflection we should emphasise that all the IMG staff seem totally motivated to deliver and are very impressive individually and collectively
Finally thanks to Susi for hosting us, to Sir HY for his time and also the staff we met were all so very accommodating and we could read the enthusiasm they have for our company - as fundamentals improve eventually so will the SP - those FTSE 100 ambitions remain a firm goal! Equally, our enthusiasm and faith fully was restored, optimism has increased that they can deliver the investor returns and once again total respect to HY and all IMG's excellent committed staff.
p.s. Sir HY was at Windsor to meet Her Majesty and was officially “Knighted” on Friday 19th July and we are genuinely delighted for him and his family, a truly deserved honour
END
---
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
Apple Q3, and other things
Apple released Q3 earnings last night. For IMG, the relevant numbers were:
iPhones: 31.2m
iPad 14.6m
iPods (all) 4.5m
iPod Touch is usually around 50% of the total iPods, so gives a total 'IMG volume' for the quarter of around 48m (some Apple TV also).
The iPhone number was around 5m more than analysts were expecting, they have been expecting Apple to show the same high-end slowdown evident with the likes of Samsung (Galaxy S4) and HTC . Some analysts (eg. Liberium) used this expectation of Apple iPhone slowdown to reduce royalty volume predictions for IMG. They have been proved incorrect.
Conference call is here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1566012-apple-inc-aapl-ceo-discusses-f3q-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single
There was the usual stuff about 'new amazing products' to come in the fall and across 2014. People are expecting more than just a refresh of iPhones/iPads etc. this time round.
Other things
1. Yesterday IMG suffered a huge (10%+) fall in SP on large volume . This followed a PR from Samsung LSI revealing the next iteration of Samsung Exynos 5 Octa (5420) would come with a Mali T-628 (6 core). This news was hardly unexpected, given that the majority of Samsung LSI's Exynos design teams use Mali, whilst only one team uses PowerVR (to my knowledge). However, bear-side analysts and also the media portrayed it as a 'switch' back to Mali and a loss for PowerVR. The shorters dived in and the result was brutal for IMG's already fragile SP.
In fact, volumes for Exynos Octa are fairly small, whilst Samsung LSI itself accounts for only around 30% of Samsung Mobile volumes (Qualcomm are the no.1 supplier to Samsung Mobile).
Fortuitously for ARM the Samsung LSI pr came out just in time for ARM Q2 results to give it a nice mention (coincidental ?) in the statement. Also worth mentioning the prominence given to Mali in the Samsung LSI pr for Exynos 5420, whilst Imagination was not even mentioned when the original 5410 Exynos was released (at CES 2013).
This is the 2nd time that a Samsung LSI pr has resulted in +10% SP loss for IMG (1st time was back at MWC some years back - IMGers will remember it well). Not good.
2. Mediatek Q2 results are out next week (Friday) - Q1 and Q2 have been all IMG (MT 6589 done very well) but we can expect Q3 and Q4 to be shared with Mali - MT 6572, 6582 (feature phones) and almost certainly MT6592 (octo-core) will be released, using Mali 400 and Mali 450 it seems (low end GPUs) for now. MT6588 (Power VR) will also be released.
The MT8135 featuring Rogue graphics will also be released (for tablets) and it is hoped that when the likes of Anand get hold of product, it should be a 'game-changer' as HY puts it. It needs to show obvious and large performance and power advantages over the current king (Adreno 330) and the latest Mali cores.
iPhones: 31.2m
iPad 14.6m
iPods (all) 4.5m
iPod Touch is usually around 50% of the total iPods, so gives a total 'IMG volume' for the quarter of around 48m (some Apple TV also).
The iPhone number was around 5m more than analysts were expecting, they have been expecting Apple to show the same high-end slowdown evident with the likes of Samsung (Galaxy S4) and HTC . Some analysts (eg. Liberium) used this expectation of Apple iPhone slowdown to reduce royalty volume predictions for IMG. They have been proved incorrect.
Conference call is here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1566012-apple-inc-aapl-ceo-discusses-f3q-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single
There was the usual stuff about 'new amazing products' to come in the fall and across 2014. People are expecting more than just a refresh of iPhones/iPads etc. this time round.
Other things
1. Yesterday IMG suffered a huge (10%+) fall in SP on large volume . This followed a PR from Samsung LSI revealing the next iteration of Samsung Exynos 5 Octa (5420) would come with a Mali T-628 (6 core). This news was hardly unexpected, given that the majority of Samsung LSI's Exynos design teams use Mali, whilst only one team uses PowerVR (to my knowledge). However, bear-side analysts and also the media portrayed it as a 'switch' back to Mali and a loss for PowerVR. The shorters dived in and the result was brutal for IMG's already fragile SP.
In fact, volumes for Exynos Octa are fairly small, whilst Samsung LSI itself accounts for only around 30% of Samsung Mobile volumes (Qualcomm are the no.1 supplier to Samsung Mobile).
Fortuitously for ARM the Samsung LSI pr came out just in time for ARM Q2 results to give it a nice mention (coincidental ?) in the statement. Also worth mentioning the prominence given to Mali in the Samsung LSI pr for Exynos 5420, whilst Imagination was not even mentioned when the original 5410 Exynos was released (at CES 2013).
This is the 2nd time that a Samsung LSI pr has resulted in +10% SP loss for IMG (1st time was back at MWC some years back - IMGers will remember it well). Not good.
2. Mediatek Q2 results are out next week (Friday) - Q1 and Q2 have been all IMG (MT 6589 done very well) but we can expect Q3 and Q4 to be shared with Mali - MT 6572, 6582 (feature phones) and almost certainly MT6592 (octo-core) will be released, using Mali 400 and Mali 450 it seems (low end GPUs) for now. MT6588 (Power VR) will also be released.
The MT8135 featuring Rogue graphics will also be released (for tablets) and it is hoped that when the likes of Anand get hold of product, it should be a 'game-changer' as HY puts it. It needs to show obvious and large performance and power advantages over the current king (Adreno 330) and the latest Mali cores.
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Imagination updates MIPS Roadmap
After mentioning it in the annual results rns, a few days ago Imagination gave further details on the 'Warrior' MIPS Series 5 nex-gen CPU cores.
IMG hopes to win 25% of new CPU designs in 5 years time. Fair to say most in the financial and technology sectors are highly sceptical about this venture (as reflected in the SP), we will see....
MIPS Aptiv generation updated; new 32/64-bit MIPS ‘Warrior’ generation added to roadmap
IMG hopes to win 25% of new CPU designs in 5 years time. Fair to say most in the financial and technology sectors are highly sceptical about this venture (as reflected in the SP), we will see....
MIPS Aptiv generation updated; new 32/64-bit MIPS ‘Warrior’ generation added to roadmap
London, UK – 26 June, 2013 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L), a leading multimedia, processor, communications and cloud technologies company, announces new details about its current and future MIPS CPU portfolio.
Imagination has updated its current portfolio of MIPS Aptiv cores, extending each of the Aptiv families with new core configurations. In addition, later this year Imagination will start rolling out an entire generation of new MIPS CPUs, including 32-bit and 64-bit cores. The new MIPS Series5 generation of CPU cores, codenamed ‘Warrior,’ will incorporate new architectural features and provide best-in-class performance and efficiency for a wide range of applications.
New in MIPS Aptiv
Imagination has extended the award-winning MIPS Aptiv generation of cores, adding a very small-footprint single-core version to the interAptiv family and a floating point version to the microAptiv family. The high-performance proAptiv, multi-threaded interAptiv and compact microAptiv families of cores, are all available in refined, validated configurations offering industry-leading low power and efficiency for today’s designs.
· The proAptiv family comes in configurations from single through to six-core versions with optional hardware floating point.
· The interAptiv family includes hardware multi-threading and now comes in single-, dual- and quad-core configurations with optional floating point. The new single-core version of interAptiv removes the extra logic associated with multi-core coherency and L2 cache controller, providing a highly-efficient, multi-threaded single-core processor.
· The microAptiv family is available in versions targeting microcontrollers and deeply embedded processors, and now incorporates an optional hardware floating point unit for applications including electric metering and motor control.
MIPS Roadmap
Imagination will introduce next-generation MIPS ‘Warrior’ cores later this year. Details of the cores are already being shared with key MIPS customers.
The ‘Warrior’ generation of cores will include 32-bit and 64-bit variants with a focus on superior performance efficiency across the high-end, mid-range and entry-level/microcontroller CPUs. These cores are based on the heritage of MIPS, the industry’s most efficient RISC architecture, targeted to deliver the best performance and lowest power consumption in a given silicon area.
Building on the true 32-bit and 64-bit instruction set compatibility of MIPS, ‘Warrior’ cores will provide binary compatibility from the entry-level to the high-end. 64-bit ‘Warrior’ cores have no need for excess ‘baggage’ to execute legacy 32-bit code, and the broad range of tools and applications built for the 64-bit MIPS architecture over the past 20+ years will seamlessly work with ‘Warrior’ cores.
Key ‘Warrior’ features will include:
· Hardware virtualization across the entire range of cores, providing compelling benefits for applications from compute-intense enterprise environments to energy efficient mobile platforms
· MIPS hardware multi-threading technology, enabling better overall throughput, quality of service (QoS), and power/performance efficiency in select ‘Warrior’ cores
· Imagination’s unique, extensible and highly scalable security framework for applications including content protection on mobile devices, secure networking protocols and payment services
· MIPS SIMD architecture (MSA), built on instructions designed to be easily supported within high-level languages such as C or OpenCL for fast and simple development of new code, as well as leverage of existing code
· A consistent and comprehensive toolchain across the ‘Warrior’ series for fast, easy development and debugging
MIPS – the choice in CPU IP
Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination, says: “The industry is longing for a choice in the CPU market, and we are making MIPS a clear and superior alternative. We have an outstanding range of cores available today and that will be complemented by our forthcoming ‘Warrior’ cores, which will provide levels of performance, efficiency and functionality that go beyond other offerings in the market.
“As we share Imagination’s comprehensive, market-leading MIPS core roadmap with customers worldwide, we are receiving an overwhelmingly positive response. With MIPS, we are creating a solution that a wide range of customers can benefit from and commit to for the long term, across applications ranging from tiny embedded devices to 64-bit many-core products for networking and beyond. We are confident that as we roll out the technologies on our MIPS roadmap, we will change the landscape for CPU IP.”
Says J. Scott Gardner, senior analyst, The Linley Group / Microprocessor Report: “The MIPS Aptiv CPU core portfolio was named the ‘Best Processor IP of 2012’ in The Linley Group’s annual Analysts’ Choice Awards, as a broad portfolio spanning virtually every processor category. The MIPS ‘Warrior’ generation is designed to include an even greater range of functionality to address rapidly changing markets. If Imagination does as great a job with the new MIPS generation as it has done with PowerVR GPUs, then the industry will have another strong player in the CPU IP space.”
Since completing the MIPS acquisition earlier this year, Imagination has completed integration of its CPU engineering teams, nearly doubling the resources working on leading-edge MIPS CPU development. The company is deploying significant investments in MIPS development, including tools, compilers, debuggers, operating systems, software and more. Imagination is developing the MIPS presence in key segments such as mobile by continuing to grow the MIPS ecosystem, and by exploiting open operating systems and emerging trends toward architecture neutrality and portability.
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Imagination Technologies Full Year Results 2012/13
IMG today announced FY results:
Strong unit shipments resulting in 49% growth in royalty revenue; organisation strengthened for next stage of growth
Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE: IMG, “Imagination”, “the Group”), a leading multimedia, communications and processor technology company, today announces results for the year to 30 April 2013.
The Group’s partners shipped 700m units consisting of 535m (2012: 325m) from Imagination excluding MIPS Technologies, Inc. (MIPS) and 165m from MIPS in the 12 weeks since the business was acquired on 7 February 2013.
Financial Highlights
The Group’s partners shipped 700m units consisting of 535m (2012: 325m) from Imagination excluding MIPS Technologies, Inc. (MIPS) and 165m from MIPS in the 12 weeks since the business was acquired on 7 February 2013.
Financial Highlights
- Group revenue up 19% to £151.5m (2012: £127.5m) including £8.2m from MIPS*
- Technology revenue increased 28% to £125.7m (2012: £98.2m)
- Royalty revenue up 49% to £95.1m (2012: £63.8m) including £5.6m from MIPS*
- Licensing revenue of £29.1m (2012: £34.4m) including £2.6m from MIPS*
- Pure revenues of £25.8m (2012: £29.3m)
- Technology revenue increased 28% to £125.7m (2012: £98.2m)
- Adjusted pre-tax profit** of £34.3m (2012: £36.8m)
- Reported pre-tax profit of £12.2m (2012: £28.5m)
- Adjusted earnings per share** 9.4p (2012: 10.1p restated***)
- Reported earnings per share 2.4p (2012: 8.0p restated***)
- Net cash balance of £45.6m (2012: £60.7m)
- Net cash included £56.3m held to settle MIPS patent sale tax liability – paid on 14 June 2013
* Reflects revenues from 7 February 2013 to 30 April 2013
** The reconciliation from reported results to adjusted results is set out in Note 3.
*** See note 6.
** The reconciliation from reported results to adjusted results is set out in Note 3.
*** See note 6.
Business Highlights
Technology business
Royalties and design wins
- Partner chips shipped 535m units, excluding MIPS (2012: 325m), up 65% - saw substantial growth in H2 to 298m units (H2 2012: 202m)
- Mobile phone and tablet markets grew very significantly, TV/STB rapidly accelerating with other segments showing steady growth
- Momentum maintained in chip design win growth with 158 active partner chips (2012: 136); 84 in production (2012: 60)
- Average royalty rate (excluding MIPS) maintained in H2 despite significant volume ramp-up and strong lower-end handset demand, as high end devices market continues to show good growth
- Next generation graphics products - Series6 (‘Rogue’) - now shipping
Licensing
- As announced in our trading update on 2 May 2013 licensing was influenced by transitory market changes and regional consolidations impacting on customer base and timing of deal closure
- Many new and extended agreements with existing partners including Allwinner, Greenplug, Intel, LG, MediaTek, Realtek, Renesas, Samsung, ST, ST-Ericsson, TI and Toumaz
- Several new partners added including Entropic, Ineda, Metaio and Socle
- Over 20 important customer engagements involving around 35 silicon IP (intellectual property) core licenses
- Including graphics, video, vision, broadcast/connectivity and processor silicon IP cores, as well as V.VoIP (video and voice over IP) technologies
- Continued active pipeline of prospects across all IP families – multimedia, processor, communications and cloud technologies
Acquisition of MIPS
- Acquisition for $100m in cash - completed on 7 February 2013
- Accelerates Group’s presence in the substantial and growing CPU/processor IP market
- Expands IMG’s broad range of SoC IP
- 165m units shipped since deal completed
- Revenue of £8.2m since 7 February 2013, generating a profit of £1m - synergies exceeding prior expectations
Pure business
- As previously announced the UK and some export markets continue to be tough in the short-term
- On-going DAB adoption worldwide and growing demand for connected audio
- Continued strategic development and pathfinding role
- Focus on development of technologies for digital broadcast, cloud connected devices for home audio streaming and automation
- New Pure wireless streaming products including Jongo family launched
Hossein Yassaie, Imagination’s Chief Executive said:
“Last year marked a number of key strategic developments by Imagination. We saw a notable jump in unit shipments and we also implemented a programme of significant investment in technologies, people and infrastructure to support our five year growth programme.
“In particular, the MIPS integration is progressing very well and customer reaction to the acquisition and the technology roadmap has been very positive.
“We have established leading positions in two of the fastest growing global markets – smartphones and tablets. In smartphones we are on course to maintain strong market share, whilst we provide the technology for many of the leading tablets.
“We are also well positioned to address the growing requirement for the existing and emerging categories of devices for home entertainment, digital health, automotive, security and utilities markets whilst meeting their ever-expanding range of communication needs.
“We have started the year well and are on course to see over 650m units (excluding MIPS) shipped in the current financial year - another significant step towards our 1bn unit shipment target in 2016."
“In particular, the MIPS integration is progressing very well and customer reaction to the acquisition and the technology roadmap has been very positive.
“We have established leading positions in two of the fastest growing global markets – smartphones and tablets. In smartphones we are on course to maintain strong market share, whilst we provide the technology for many of the leading tablets.
“We are also well positioned to address the growing requirement for the existing and emerging categories of devices for home entertainment, digital health, automotive, security and utilities markets whilst meeting their ever-expanding range of communication needs.
“We have started the year well and are on course to see over 650m units (excluding MIPS) shipped in the current financial year - another significant step towards our 1bn unit shipment target in 2016."
Full, more detailed statement is here:
Presentation Slides :
The financials were no surprise given the IMS last month, so the focus was on the outlook mainly. I'll post CC notes later, but here are some of the more interesting parts of the rns:
'Among the key agreements, there were significant new licenses or extensions with existing partners,including Allwinner, Greenplug, Intel, LG, MediaTek, Realtek, Renesas, Samsung, ST, ST-Ericsson, TI,Toumaz and continuation of a number of long-term subscription license arrangements with certain key partners'
Comparing this list to the H1 list, it appears LG, Samsung, Intel and STM signed new agreements in H2 - either extensions (most likely) or new licenses. Would be interesting to have more detail on the Samsung/LG licenses for obvious reasons.
'It is appropriate to clarify two areas of partnerships. Firstly we continue to have a strong and on-going partnership with Intel Corp, who are also a significant shareholder. As is normal we cannot provide specific details on various projects but we can confirm that we have many existing and future projects on-going with Intel and expect this partnership to result in growing and significant volume shipment across many markets now and in the future. Also Intel’s recent success at Samsung with devices incorporating our technologies is a significant development indicating that the mobile market is opening up to other processor architectures. With respect to TI we expect their transition out of the mobile segment to both take some time and for the partnership to strongly continue in the new areas of focus for TI which we believe will be of significant value to Imagination. Additionally our other partners active in the mobile segment are indeed extending their business to support some of the opportunities TI leaves open as it transitions its business.'
Important given that Intel Baytrail will use in-house graphics and analysts writing off future volume from TI.
'There have been many significant product announcements in mobile phone and tablet segments during the period and we are aware of several other important products from key OEMs that we expect to be launched in the very near future in these and other segments. The Group has continued to see momentum in design wins for its PowerVR graphics technology across Series5/5XT and Series6. The Group’s new generation technology, Series6, has once again been acknowledged by many key partners as the market leader and has already secured over 20 committed SoCs. Several of our partners and our own prototype chips reached silicon and have demonstrated very strong characteristics in performance and power. Independent industry reports have confirmed that our technology has significant competitive advantages in these key metrics. We saw the first Series6 based product in the form of the latest LG smart TV and we expect to see several other end-user products using this technology to begin shipping in volume during the current calendar year.'
Important to say these things given the perception that Rogue products are late 'out of the gate' and clearly Qualcomm doing great things with Snapdragon 800/Adreno 330 - Rogue'd products need to firmly re-affirm IMG as the leading edge GPU provider
'In TV and STB market areas we are now seeing accelerated progress with smart TV’s from LG and Sony starting shipment recently, with others to follow.'
Market share should increase with new Mediatek cores and also ramp up of MStar using IMG. Toshiba etc. down the line.
'SoC design wins are the driver for future partner chip shipments and royalty revenue growth. Strong continuing momentum saw new partner SoC design wins (excluding MIPS) increase to 158 (net of obsolescence) (2011: 136). Clearly the design win momentum was maintained despite the fluctuation in licensing revenue. Of these, 84 are shipping or beginning to ship, with the balance still in design. The latter will be the driver for significant further royalty revenue growth.These committed devices are continuing to diversify across Imagination’s partners and key market segments.
With respect to end-user products there have been important launches from several key players in the last few months, particularly in phone, tablet and TV/STB segments. We expect to see further major product launches from other key OEMs, including high profile devices from leading OEMs and for these to span across mobile, tablet and TV/STB segments. There are other notable design wins in China that will further drive our strong position in the tablet market overall.'
'As previously explained the revenue from licensing deal closure was behind plan during the second half due to regional issues and certain customers changing course in the short-term.'
Much better (and logical/credible) explanation of the licensing shortfall. IMG learning.
Best of all, not a hint of 'lumpiness' in the entire RNS !
IMG ended the day up 19p (reversing initial drop) on volume of >3m shares, hopefully a sign of sentiment change.
'As previously explained the revenue from licensing deal closure was behind plan during the second half due to regional issues and certain customers changing course in the short-term.'
Much better (and logical/credible) explanation of the licensing shortfall. IMG learning.
Best of all, not a hint of 'lumpiness' in the entire RNS !
IMG ended the day up 19p (reversing initial drop) on volume of >3m shares, hopefully a sign of sentiment change.
END
Monday, 17 June 2013
Imagination signs license agreement with Cavium for Imagination’s latest MIPSr5 architecture
A couple of days before the full year results, IMG put out its first MIPS rns license agreement with Cavium Inc.
Cavium’s New OCTEON III family of processors feature latest Imagination Technologies MIPSr5 architecture
Imagination Technologies (IMG.L), a leading multimedia, processor, communications and cloud technologies company, today announced that long-time MIPS licensee Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications and cloud infrastructure, has licensed and incorporated the latest Release 5 MIPS architecture (MIPSr5) features, including hardware virtualization, in all members of its ultra-high-performance 1 – 48 core OCTEON® III family of products.
Jim Whittaker, EVP, Processor Group, Imagination, says: “With MIPS, Cavium has created some of the industry’s highest performance and most advanced 64-bit multi-core processors for networking, wireless and storage. We’re now working even more closely with Cavium to take MIPS, the industry’s most successful and widely deployed 64-bit architecture, to even higher levels of performance and innovation. Imagination’s ownership of MIPS has significantly increased the level of investment in, and support for, MIPS CPU IP core development across the entire range of 32-bit and 64-bit solutions, with a focus on hardware, software, tools and ecosystem. We are delighted that Cavium has reaffirmed its commitment to MIPS as a result.”
M. Raghib Hussain, corporate VP/GM and CTO, Cavium, says: “The MIPSr5 architecture enhancements from Imagination combined with Cavium’s in-house design expertise will help create the most advanced MIPS 64-bit processor in the industry and will serve to further extend our leadership in the network infrastructure market.”
For more than 20 years, the 64-bit MIPS64 architecture has powered some of the industry’s most innovative networking and communications products, supported by a broad and mature infrastructure and ecosystem. The MIPS64 architecture is already at the heart of a wide range of Cavium’s OCTEON processors, and now will also power Cavium’s OCTEON III family of 1 – 48 core processors that deliver over 100Gbps of application performance per chip, and provide among the highest compute power of any standards-based communications processor chip with 120GHz of 64-bit compute processing per chip.
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
Imagination signs license agreement with Toshiba
At the recent IMS CC (ie. the one with the illogical statement and irate analysts) the CEO HY pointed to imminent agreements with new partners which were 'significant and strategic' in nature. The first of the new partners were revealed today , household name Toshiba (an existing MIPS licensee):
Imagination signs license agreement with Toshiba for range of Imagination’s technologies
Imagination Technologies (LSE: IMG.L), a leading multimedia, processor, communications and cloud technologies company, reports that it has signed a license agreement with Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) for a range of technologies from Imagination’s Ensigma connectivity and PowerVR graphics and video families.
Toshiba will deploy the technologies in a range of connected SoC (system on chip) devices targeting several consumer electronics markets.
Under the terms of its licensing arrangements, Imagination receives license fees and royalty revenues on shipment of SoCs incorporating Imagination's IP.
END
Well done IMG.
Clearly a big license win, which ideally should have closed in FY 13, but instead gets FY 14 off to a good start. Hopefully we'll get more new significant partners announced shortly.
HY has been in the press quite a bit of late , such as this article in the Telegraph;
The target is 20-30% of new CPU design wins (excl. PC) within 5 years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)