MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTSI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And we’ve been working with major OEMs to support the growth of this part of our business.

C.J. Muse: Very helpful. I guess, maybe a broader cyclical question. You talked about book-to-bill almost to 1 versus .5 last quarter. Turns normalizing. It looks like backlog somewhere close to $300 million, still strong. Are you suggesting that we’re nearing the bottom for the totality of your business? Or might it take a few more quarters for telecom to bottom?

Steve Daly: So we try not to call the bottoms, let’s say, because we really don’t know. And what we can say based on where we are today that for a year-over-year comparison, two of our three markets will be up, I&D will be up, Data Center will be up, and Telecom will be down somewhere between 20% and 25%. And as I highlighted in my comments that the inbound new business, and has been quite weak this year, for Telecom. We do expect at some point that will turn. We see certainly great opportunities in the SATCOM market with the deployment of a wide range of different satellite platforms, which we believe can provide certainly near-term growth opportunities. But it’s very difficult for us to say sort of where the bottom is and what might happen 3 or 6 months from now.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question coming from the line of Tore Svanberg with Stifel. Your line is open.

Tore Svanberg: Yes. Thank you. Good morning, and congrats on the order turnaround here. Steve, you talked about being able to support InfiniBand and Ethernet. You also said that for next quarter, it sounds like most of the growth is going to come from PAM4. So does that mean InfiniBand is kind of further out. If you could just add any color, that’d be great.

Steve Daly: Yes, so most of our — I would say more than 50% of our Data Center revenue over the past few quarters has been PAM4 related. And so we see that trend continuing as we go into the — our fiscal ’24. So I would certainly highlight that point. The other point I would make, frankly, is that InfiniBand and Ethernet are both PAM4.

Tore Svanberg: Perfect. Thank you. And as a follow-up, you mentioned China revenue 16%. Is that predominantly pawn at this point? Or do you still have some base station business there? Just trying to understand regionally where the risks are and so on and so forth with that 16% revenue?

Steve Daly: Well, I would say there’s been a broad decrease in our China based business. It’s primarily on the optical side and 5G related. And so I would say that’s the area that’s the weakest. Areas where we see support would certainly be in some parts of — some 5G networks we are supporting at a low-level. But there’s no doubt that this year is going to be a down year for our China business. And as it starts to come back, it will be — it will come back primarily due to the recovery from our Data Center and Optical customers.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question coming from the line of Karl Ackerman with BNP Paribas. Your line is open.

Karl Ackerman: Yes, thank you. Good morning. I wanted to follow-up on Data Center for a second. I just wanted to confirm, are you suggesting that Data Center is up year-over-year in the fiscal fourth quarter, or for fiscal 2023 as a whole? And I have a follow-up.

Steve Daly: Sure. So from a Data Center point of view, going into Q4, it would be up certainly quarter-over-quarter significantly, as well as year-over-year. I would say very strong double-digit quarter-over-quarter and high-single-digit year-over-year. And just to highlight that color of our Data Center revenue has shifted quite a bit this fiscal year. The first half strength predominantly came from shipping backlog that was constrained in fiscal ’22 due to supply issues. And we cleared out a lot of that backlog in the first half. Then in Q3, we effectively hit an air gap where there was very little demand on what I would consider a base business to the inventory issues. And now what we’re starting to see is growth and demand for our higher data rate products for 400 and 100G that is just starting to kick in. So when you add all of that up, what you ultimately get is growth year-over-year, and growth quarter-over-quarter for the fourth quarter.

Karl Ackerman: Yes. Thanks for that. I guess, is there anything to read into your prepared remarks on slowing sales in China? Is the reduction due to general market malaise [ph] in 5G infrastructure as you just call it out? Or are you seeing competitive pressures there? Can you just clarify on that, that would be very helpful. Thank you.