Mentor Graphics announces Q4 results

Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq:MENT) announced record revenues of $214.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2004 driven by record bookings for the quarter. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter on a pro forma basis were $.39, and on a GAAP basis were $.20.

"Mentor's growth in a sluggish EDA environment is being driven by the successful proliferation of our younger product portfolio including the Calibre(R) and Scalable Verification(TM) tools, and newer printed circuit board design tools. Seven of the top ten deals in the quarter were renewals with an aggregate bookings increase of 40% over the prior deals, on comparable terms, including contract length. Customers need, and are willing to pay for, new products that solve their problems," said Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics. "Furthermore, we saw significant momentum from our newer, emerging products as we received significant orders in cabling, embedded software, high speed board design, and coverage-driven verification."

Book-to-bill reached its highest level since 1996 and backlog reached a level not seen since year 2000. Bookings rose over 35% for the quarter, and 20% for the year. All regions performed well with Japan and Pacific Rim bookings up over 100%, Europe up 45%, and North America up 15% over the year ago quarter. All three product platforms grew during the quarter, with Scalable Verification almost doubling and Integrated System Design up 45%. Calibre Design to Silicon was up 5% over an extremely strong fourth quarter of 2003.

Revenue by region for the quarter was 40% North America, 30% Europe, 15% Japan, and 15% Pacific Rim. By product platform, revenue was 35% Scalable Verification, 30% Calibre Design to Silicon, 20% Integrated System Design and 15% New and Emerging products.

Special charges of $4.9 million were primarily acquisition and restructuring related.