FormFactor, Inc. Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-01-28 16:50:29.0

Tags: R&D, Investment, Call Transcript, Earnings, Formfactor Inc., Research & Development, Business Operations, Seeking Alpha

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. The Question-and-Answer Session will be conducted electronically. (Operator instructions) And we take our first question from Patrick Ho with Stifel Nicolaus. Please go ahead, sir.

Patrick Ho – Stifel Nicolaus

Thanks a lot. A couple of questions, first off, in terms of your 2009 CapEx, you mentioned it was going to be flat year-over-year. With a lot of your cost cutting and just some of the downsizing particularly in your Livermore facility, can you explain why CapEx isn't going down for you guys?

Jean Vernet

The CapEx we lined up for 2009 first of all is the number I gave is an indication which is not a fixed cost and we have the discretion to bring it down if appropriate, but it's going to be targeted on investment that relate to some new developments which hopefully will bring us some payback as well as some investment in Asia which are essential for deployment. But rest assured that this number will be closely monitored and will be adjusted appropriately if needed. We just give that indication as an anchor point for you guys to have a reference point.

Patrick Ho – Stifel Nicolaus

Okay, fair enough. In terms of your R&D investments as you look forward to 2009 in this type of constrained capital environment, I guess how do you determine where you're going to allocate your dollars towards what type of product development (ph) whether it goes into Memory, whether it goes into Logic, how are you allocating dollars towards these different products?

Mario Ruscev

Well, the way we allocate, we all realize that R&D, as the market goes this way that R&D becomes a pretty large burden. The way we choose our project (ph), what we did in fact we did cut our R&D by some and we did choose the projects that we felt were very important for our future in the really near to medium term. So we have a few priorities I would say. The first one is to accelerate our differentiation in DRAM. Next one is also to allow us to go and gain market share in markets like NAND Flash where we believe that our position is too weak and we need to be more present. And the other one is also to ensure us to grow much faster and grow faster in SoC business. And then we have some of new ideas for new projects which will come slightly after, but this is really the way we put our priorities. So really in a way we really try to optimize, but we don't manage it just a percentage of R&D.

 

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