Metrowerks Announces Results for the Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Ended
July 31, 1998
AUSTIN, Texas-August 20, 1998 – Metrowerks Inc. (NASDAQ: MTWKF,
TSE/ME:MWK), a leading provider of software development tools for desktop
and embedded systems, today announced its results of operations for the
fourth quarter (Q4FYJuly98) and year ended July 31, 1998.
Revenues for Q4FYJuly98 totaled $5.1 million compared to revenues in
Q4FYJuly97 of $6.2 million. Product sales for Q4FYJuly98 were $4.9 million,
or 97% of total sales, compared to product sales of $5.0 million in
Q4FYJuly97, or 80% of total sales. Revenues from the embedded market
represented 56% of revenues for Q4FYJuly98 compared to 35% for Q4FYJuly97.
The Company recorded a net loss of $2.0 million ($0.15 per share) for
Q4FYJuly98 compared to a net loss of $3.2 million ($0.25 per share) in
Q3FYJuly98. In Q4FY July 97, the company recorded net income of $155,000
($0.01 per share).
Revenues for the year ended July 31, 1998 totaled $19.1 million, an
increase of 4% over revenues for the year ended July 31,1997 of $18.3
million. The Company recorded a net loss for the year ended July 31, 1998
of $5.9 million ($0.48 per share) compared to a net loss of $6.0 million
($0.52 per share) for the year ended July 31, 1997. The Company had a cash
balance of $7.1 million at July 31, 1998.
The quarterly and annual results for 1997 are audited while the quarterly
and annual results for 1998 are unaudited. The Company does not anticipate
any changes for the audited Fiscal 1998 results.
Business Highlights
In Q4FYJuly98, Metrowerks made significant progress in penetrating its key
target markets: telecom/datacom and the consumer embedded market.
* Significant telecom/datacom sales in Q4FYJuly98 included major sales to
Newbridge Networks for use across their TDM Division, for their Test &
Measurement Group and for Cambrian Systems Corporation, a Newbridge
affiliate.
* In Q4, Metrowerks also made a significant follow-on sale to its most
important telecom customer to date, AG Communications Systems, a subsidiary
of Lucent Technologies.
In Q4FYJuly98, Metrowerks entered into its second licensing arrangement
whereby Metrowerks has granted a specific platform vendor exclusive license
and distribution rights to certain tools at a guaranteed minimum annual
rate. CodeWarrior was also chosen as the official tool chain for Nintendo
64 by Nintendo Japan, with CodeWarrior for Nintendo 64 expected to ship in
Q1FYJuly99.
The Company reorganized its sales team effective August 1, 1998 to focus on
the significant OEM opportunities that exist for its CodeWarrior line of
products. Mr. David Perkins, formerly SVP Business Development & Sales, is
now SVP, OEM Licensing. Mr. Don Lindsay was promoted to VP, North American
Sales. Mr. Harald Lotz was hired to a new position, VP International Sales
and will join the company September 1, 1998. Mr. James Walker moves from VP
Operations to VP Inside Sales. This expanded sales team will be able to
focus their selling efforts immediately on the number of new or updated
CodeWarrior products that have been developed through the Company’s heavy
investments in R&D, especially those made during the past two years.
In Q1FYJuly99, Metrowerks expects to begin shipping five new products
including CodeWarrior for VxWorks, CodeWarrior for Nintendo 64, CodeWarrior
for V8xx, Discover Programming for Motorola DSP and Solaris-hosted Java
tools. In addition, the company will ship new versions of existing products
including CodeWarrior Professional Release 4, CodeWarrior for PlayStation
Release 5 and CodeWarrior for PowerPC Release 4.
Also in Q1FyJuly99, Metrowerks expects to begin shipping a new product,
Metrowerks IMPACT, which is the result of an acquisition of the TracePoint
performance analysis tools technology from Digital Equipment Corporation.
Initially, Metrowerks IMPACT will include profiling and code coverage tools
for Windows x/86, while subsequent product releases will be ported to
embedded platforms.
“It’s clear that the strategic changes in our product line over the past
two years have consumed a significant amount of our energy and capital,”
said Jean Belanger, Metrowerks’ CEO and Chairman. “To be successful, we
needed to deploy a wide range of products which we have finally done. The
adoption of CodeWarrior by several established companies in the embedded
market is validating this deployment. With high quality products and a
restructured sales force, we are now in a position to execute on our sales
strategy.”
This release, other than historical financial information, may consist of
forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These
statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. For
instance, factors which could cause results to differ from future events
include the state of the Mac OS tools market, the timing of product
deliveries, competitive pricing actions and marketing programs, among
others. Additional information on these and other factors which could
affect the Company’s financial results are included in the Company’s 1997
annual report to shareholders and most recent quarterly reports on file
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
(Earnings Table can be accessed at http://www.metrowerks.com/finance/)
About Metrowerks Founded in 1985, Metrowerks develops, markets and supports
CodeWarrior software development solutions for a number of operating
systems targeting the most popular microprocessors. Intended for use for
embedded systems or desktop computers, the cross-platform compilers support
C, C++, Java, and Object Pascal, and allow programmers to build
applications for a number of different target platforms, all from one
unique Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior
products are used by more than 100,000 registered users in 75 countries.