Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Ladies and gentleman, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Mike Weinstein with J.P. Morgan.
Chris Pasquale – J.P. Morgan
This is Chris Pasquale here for Mike. Just to start off, obviously the macro environment is still very fluid. Can you just give us an update of what you’re seeing during the first few weeks of the year? Are things stabilizing or still getting worse, and how is the environment evolving internationally compared to the US?
Fred Moll
Let me answer the last part of that question first. We don’t have great visibility on the international scene, but I do believe that the changes we’ve seen relative to what we saw in Q4 are more moderate internationally, and so we don’t see a lot of change there in purchasing decisions, and with regard to what we’re seeing domestically, I’d be careful not to call it a rebound from Q4, but we have seen some concern in Q4 and a pullback in Q4 and some hesitancy to make purchasing decisions, and generally although people were hesitant in 2008, they remain serious about going forward with their purchasing decision on the Sensei System, so obviously nobody has too accurate a crystal ball on the rest of the year, but generally in Q1, our visibility is such as I emphasized in the call, and we’re reiterating guidance based on what we’re seeing.
Chris Pasquale – J.P. Morgan
Understanding that you’re not providing quarterly guidance at this point, where do you think expectations broadly should be for the first quarter? This is a business that ultimately you would expect some seasonality from, but obviously it’s still very early in the ramp.
Fred Moll
We’re in a little bit of unchartered territory, but if you sort of take that as a given, you look at generally what you see during the year in a capital equipment business, and as we’ve talked about before, historically it’s a little bit back-loaded, so how those two balance whether the environment recovers toward the back half of the year and you continue to see that seasonality with the backend loaded nature of a typical year on the capital equipment business, there’s a lot going on in the market. It’s really hard to tell, but I think it’s a little early to say. I can’t be too specific about it.
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