Altera Announces Fourth Quarter Results

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 23, 2014 -- Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) today announced fourth quarter sales of $454.4 million, up 2 percent from the third quarter of 2013 and up 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012. Fourth quarter net income was $98.9 million, $0.31 per diluted share, compared with net income of $119.4 million, $0.37 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2013 and $120.8 million, $0.37 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Cash flow from operating activities in 2013 was $590.2 million. Altera repurchased 4.4 million shares of its common stock during the quarter at a cost of $140.8 million.

Altera's board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share, to be paid on March 3, 2014 to stockholders of record on February 10, 2014.

"Sales growth exceeded our expectations as a diverse blend of end markets grew sequentially. Once again, our new products were the quarter's growth drivers, with double digit growth, led by our 28 nm FPGAs," said John Daane, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board. "In the first quarter we will begin shipping our 20 nm mid-range Arria 10 devices, which deliver performance that exceeds that of our 28 nm high-end devices and can deliver up to 40 percent lower power consumption than our previous mid-range FPGA. With the fourth quarter release of Quartus II software Arria 10 edition, we became the first and today remain the only major FPGA vendor with fully available development software for a 20 nm FPGA family."

Several recent accomplishments mark the company's continuing progress:

• With release of Altera's Quartus II Software Arria^® 10 Edition, Altera became the first FPGA supplier to offer full publicly available software support for a 20 nm FPGA. This release supports Arria 10 mid-range FPGAs and provides customers access to dramatic improvements in performance, power and system cost. Based on TSMC 20 nm process technology, Arria 10 FPGAs and SoCs effectively reinvent the mid-range FPGA and SoC category by simultaneously delivering a 15 percent performance gain over current high-end FPGAs and up to 40 percent lower power than previous mid-range devices. Customers can start developing Arria 10 FPGA- and SoC-based systems today using the familiar and proven Quartus II design environment with the fastest compile times in the industry. Arria 10 FPGAs and SoCs are optimized for systems that require high-performance features while being constrained by strict cost and power budgets. These mid-range devices leverage an advanced 20 nm process and include features tailored to address the requirements of a variety of end markets, including communications, broadcast, and computer and storage.
• Altera received the Huawei 2013 Excellent Core Partner Award for outstanding support, high-quality standards and FPGA product innovation. The Huawei Excellent Core Partner Award is a distinguished recognition for companies that consistently deliver the highest performance and quality products that meet Huawei's highly specialized requirements. Altera was the only major programmable logic company to win an Excellent Core Partner Award at Huawei's 2013 Core Partner Convention, which was held in November. During 2013, Huawei delivered multiple wireline, wireless and enterprise infrastructure solutions to its customers based on Altera's 28 nm portfolio of products, ranging from the high-end Stratix^® V to the low-cost Cyclone^® V families of FPGAs. Telecommunications providers worldwide deploy Huawei's communications infrastructure offerings to upgrade their network architectures for the performance and capacity needed to handle the bandwidth expansion driven by the proliferation of internet-connected devices.
• As the recipient of the Best Technical Support Award from ZTE, Altera has been recognized as a ZTE technical supplier who delivered the best technical support in 2013. ZTE holds an annual event in Shenzhen, China, to affirm and recognize the key role its suppliers play in growing the company's position as one of the world's leading innovators in the telecommunications equipment and networking industry. Altera's technologies, including FPGAs, CPLDs and power products, are used in ZTE's wireless, wireline and cloud computing offerings. ZTE's telecommunications equipment is used by the world's largest service providers.

Product Category Description

• New Products include the Stratix^® V, Stratix IV, Arria^® V, Arria II, Cyclone^® V, Cyclone IV, MAX^® V, HardCopy^® IV devices and Enpirion PowerSoCs.
• Mainstream Products include the Stratix III, Cyclone III, MAX II and HardCopy III devices.
• Mature and Other Products include the Stratix II, Stratix, Arria GX, Cyclone II, Cyclone, Classic™, MAX 3000A, MAX 7000, MAX 7000A, MAX 7000B, MAX 7000S, MAX 9000, HardCopy II, HardCopy, FLEX^® series, APEX™ series, Mercury™, Excalibur™ devices, configuration and other devices, intellectual property cores, and software and other tools.

Business Outlook for the First Quarter 2014

Note (1): Other Income/ Expense, Net includes Interest income and other and Interest expense in our consolidated statements of comprehensive income.

Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call

A conference call will be held today at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the quarter's results and management's current business outlook. The web cast and subsequent replay will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.altera.com. A telephonic replay of the call may be accessed later in the day by calling (719) 457-0820 and referencing confirmation code 258712. The telephonic replay will be available for two weeks following the live call.

About Altera

Altera® programmable solutions enable designers of electronic systems to rapidly and cost effectively innovate, differentiate and win in their markets. Altera offers FPGAs, SoCs, CPLDs, ASICs and complementary technologies, such as power management, to provide high-value solutions to customers worldwide.