SiTime Corporation (NASDAQ:SITM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Art Chadwick: Yes. So Quinn, on the expense side, we are going, to hire a few of their folks in India and a few other locations, but it’s not significant OpEx. So, whatever revenue and gross margins, we do drive, that will cover the OpEx. So I basically guided that from a non-GAAP operating income standpoint is essentially neutral next year. And we’re suggesting folks not really changed their expectations or their models for 2024. Because it will take time to get these design wins and then, for those to ramp over time. Aura will continue as a company, absolutely. For the next few years, the products that they will continue to develop are part of this deal, and we will have complete ownership of the technology associated, with those products.

We will absorb them into our technology and we take complete control, of management of those products going forward. So in the future, if Aura were to cease to exist, I don’t believe that’s going to be the case. We are – totally self-sufficient with that technology. And to add to that, one of the things – I think of it as a two-step, we get to start selling clocks as is, maybe three-step – clocks as is. Then we get to add either virtually, or literally our MEMS oscillator technology just like we have in Cascade. Our current shipping product into it. And then the third is, we get to use this technology and build something that’s, even greater as we go forward. So all three of these are going, to come to bear – on spooling our roadmap.

Quinn Bolton: Got it. And then just sort of outside your largest customer, it sounds like you are starting, to see a better order environment. Just wondering, I know orders have been pretty choppy and generally at low levels, over the past couple of quarters, but could you describe, the order trends that you’ve seen, sort of through the third quarter into the fourth quarter? Have they improved? Is that what’s given you sort of this confidence in the pretty substantial growth rates, you’re talking about for comms enterprise, industrial and the A&D segments? Thank you.

Art Chadwick: Yes. So clearly, we’ve seen an uptick. We mentioned in our commentary, we’ve seen an uptick in end user demand. So that is a piece of it. It is still a little choppy. Some days, our order rates are great by our standards. And some days, they’re not as great. So, it is still a little bit choppy out there. But clearly, the order rate has increased. That’s what’s driving this sequential increase in those market segments that I described. And we are very confident in our Q4 guidance. So, that says something about how we’re seeing changes in the market here. And part of it, I’ll add to this, is that we’ve had this inventory issue all year. And as customers work through their inventory, and get back to more normalized order levels, that helps improve sales, and we’re seeing some of that also.

Quinn Bolton: Great. Thank you.

Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Suji Desilva of ROTH MKM. Your line is now open.

Suji Desilva: Hi, Rajesh, and Art best of luck on your transition here and Beth, welcome to the team.

Art Chadwick: Thank you, Suji.

Suji Desilva: So Art, you talked in prior calls this year about an under shipping number of about $30 million this year. Is that still a good number, to think about as a baseline going into ’24, to model growth off of? Just understanding if that inventory digestion, kind of works back in next year?

Art Chadwick: Yes. Again, those are not hard numbers, because it has to do with the information we get from the subcontractors and how much “excess inventory” they have. But it’s in that ballpark, $30 million to $40 million of under-commitment, I think, this year is in ballpark.

Suji Desilva: Okay. Great. And then my other question on the Aura acquisition. You guys seem to have known about this company for a while, and it seems like it’s going, to kind of accelerate the adoption of oscillators along with clocks in data center and comms. Why not do this transaction earlier? Why the timing of doing it now and no pun intended?