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1996-02-28
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12/09/95
Acorn Computer Group - Interim Statement
Chairman's statement
Financial results
Group turnover was £19.4m (1994: £23.7m), 18% less than the turnover in the
same period in 1994. After taking into account the effect of destocking by
dealers, sales to end customers were down by 11%, reflecting in particular
the continuing cost constraints on primary schools' budgets. Gross margins
suffered from competitive pressures, falling from 32% to 24%. Although
operating costs in Acorn Computers' traditional personal computer business
were some 8.5% lower than in the same period in 1994, this was insufficient,
given the decline in turnover and gross margins, to return the business to
profitability and ACL incurred a loss on continuing operations of £3.4m
(1994: £1.8m) before exceptional items. With an operating loss of £1.6m in
Online Media as expected, the group made an overall operating loss on
continuing operations of £5.0m (1994: £2.2m) before exceptional items.
Exceptional items have been charged in respect of redundancy (£0.6m), the
closure of Acorn Computers GmbH (£0.5m), a stock writedown of £1.2m on some
product lines and an additional warranty provision of £0.4m.
The group's share of the profit before tax of Advanced RISC Machines for the
period is £0.6m (1994: £0.5m), reflecting the continued success and
development of that business.
Net interest costs for the period amounted to £0.2m (1994: £0.3m),
reflecting the level of borrowings prior to the receipt in April of the
proceeds of the rights issue.
The net proceeds of the rights issue, amounting to £17.1m, have been applied
to eliminate the group's bank overdrafts, which stood at £8.5m at 31
December 1994, including £2.1m in respect of Online Media. The balance of
the rights issue proceeds has been absorbed by continuing investment in
Online Media in the first half of this year (£2.4m) and by ACL (£3.7m), with
the group retaining net cash of £2.5m at 2 July 1995. The group also
retains its bank facilities of £15 million.
The overall loss before tax for the period was £7.6m (1994: £2.0m) and after
tax was £7.8m (1994: £2.1m). No dividend is payable.
Acorn Computers Limited ("ACL")
On 10 June 1995 Acorn announced that the traditional personal computer
business of ACL was experiencing difficult trading conditions and on 28 July
it was announced that David Lee, formerly Director of Finance and
Administration at Olivetti UK Limited, was replacing Sam Wauchope as group
managing director.
The Board of Acorn has now concluded a strategic review of the position and
prospects of ACL in its core educational marketplace. In the light of
shortening product life cycles and the competitive price pressures
experienced in the last six months, the Board has concluded that the
carrying value of some product lines requires downward revision and that a
restructuring and repositioning of ACL's activities is necessary to allow it
to envisage a return to profitable trading.
The restructuring comprises the following elements:
• ACL's education offering will be strengthened through the formation of a
new operating division, Acorn Education, whose mission will be to build
progressively on ACL's market leadership and strong brand reputation and to
reduce ACL's dependence on hardware sales by providing schools with an
increasing range of value added products and services including networking,
systems integration and software, covering both industry standard and
proprietary hardware platforms.
• ACL's product range has been repositioned more competitively following
price reductions of between 18% and 25% and ACL has taken action to preserve
sales margins by the introduction of direct sales into education via
telesales, a direct sales force and a network of appointed agents. This
also brings ACL closer to its customers and in particular to the key
purchasing decision-makers.
• ACL's research and development team will form the core of a new operating
division, Applied Risc Technologies, a profit centre which will seek
opportunities with OEMs outside the educational market to exploit Acorn's
expertise in silicon integration, software and hardware design based
predominantly around the ARM microprocessor, while continuing to support
ACL's existing and future educational product range.
• Staff levels in the UK have today been reduced by 56 people, generating
annualised cost savings estimated at £1.4m and allowing the business to
lower its breakeven point. Further cost reductions are being undertaken in
Australia and New Zealand.
• ACL's loss making German operations have been closed. These operations
are disclosed as discontinued in the profit and loss account.
Online Media
Acorn's Online Media division, established in July 1994 and dedicated to the
development of products and services for the emerging interactive multimedia
market, has made substantial progress in the first half of 1995.
Highlights include:
• Online Media's core product, the digital set-top box, has progressed from
an early prototype based largely on ACL desktop computer components to a
much more advanced product which has been cost-engineered around the
custom-designed ARM7500 microprocessor. This second generation set-top box
is completing its development cycle and the third generation product is
already in the design stage.
• In February, Phase I of the Cambridge interactive television trial was
successfully completed and Phase II was launched. In March, ICL joined the
trial and one of its large video servers was connected to the system. The
Service Nursery was also launched which offers external companies an
opportunity to understand the provision of services for interactive TV.
National Westminster Bank and Tesco were amongst the first companies to sign
up and the trial is becoming an excellent promotional vehicle for the work
of Online Media.
• In June Online Media was awarded a contract to supply digital set-top
boxes to the Lightspan Partnership Inc (backed by Comcast, Microsoft and
TCI) which will be distributing them to schools and homes around the USA
combined with its educational programmes. This contract represents Online
Media's first significant entry into the USA multimedia market and is
expected to generate substantial revenues.
• Other trials are being announced that use Online Media products. Viewcall
has publicly launched a home shopping service served across the standard
telephone network that uses the set-top box and Online Media has also
secured the supply contract for the trial being organised by DEC for
Westminster Cable, a subsidiary of BT.
There have been recent indications that the technological and commercial
challenges posed by the introduction of digital interactive TV are such that
the major telecommunications providers in both Europe and the US are moving
more slowly than predicted towards large scale commercial trials. One of
the major challenges now facing Online Media is to capitalise on its
technological lead by working with partners who recognise the benefit of
ARM-based designs in this area and who see the improved time to market
opportunity arising from licensing designs or components from Online Media.
Advanced RISC Machines ("ARM")
ARM continued to grow during the first half of 1995, with sales at £4.2m up
47% over the corresponding period in 1994. In line with the investment plan
of the company, staff numbers doubled from the end of June 1994 and the
company maintained its profitability.
Major announcements in the first half of 1995 included:
• A joint development agreement with Digital Equipment Corporation to
develop the StrongARM family of high performance microprocessors
• The launch of the ARM7TDMI (Thumb) Architecture
• A new licence agreement with ES2 (European Silicon Structures)
Today ARM is announcing the licence of the ARM7TDMI (Thumb) core to NEC, on
of the world's largest semiconductor companies, as well as the launch of the
ARM Tools 2.0 toolkit and development products from leading global tools
vendors.
Outlook
ACL clearly faces a challenging period. The Board believes that the
initiatives announced today ensure that ACL is equipped to meet these
challenges.
Both Online Media and ARM are progressing well and the Board has high hopes
for the continuing success of these two innovative businesses in the years
to come.
E PIOL Chairman
12 September 1995