YOKNEAM, Israel, February 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: EZCH), a leader in Ethernet network processors, today announced its results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2012.

Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Highlights:

• Annual revenues for 2012 of $54.7 million
• Fourth quarter revenues of $15.2 million
• Fourth quarter gross margin reached 83.2% on a GAAP basis and 83.7% on a non-GAAP basis
• Net income, on a GAAP basis, was $15.7 million for 2012 and $4.8 million for the fourth quarter
• Net income, on a non-GAAP basis, was $27.1 million for 2012 (49% of revenues) and $7.8 million for the fourth quarter (51% of revenues)
• Non-GAAP operating cash flow of $29.2 million for 2012 and $7.1 million for the fourth quarter
• Net cash at end of 2012 was $168.0 million  

Fourth Quarter 2012 Results:

Total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2012 were $15.2 million, an increase of 7% compared to $14.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, and an increase of 64% compared to $9.3 million in the third quarter of 2012.

Net income, on a GAAPbasis, for the fourth quarter of 2012 was $4.8 million, or $0.17 per share (diluted), compared to net loss of $6.0 million, which included a one-time charge due to early repayment of $9.9 million to the Israeli Office of Chief Scientist (OCS), or $0.22 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2011, and net income of $0.1 million, or $0.00 per share (diluted), in the third quarter of 2012.

Net income, on a non-GAAP basis, for the fourth quarter of 2012 was $7.8 million, or $0.26 per share (diluted), compared to non-GAAP net income of $6.3 million, or $0.22 per share (diluted), in the fourth quarter of 2011, and non-GAAP net income of $3.1 million, or $0.10 per share (diluted), in the third quarter of 2012.

Full Year 2012 Results:

Total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2012 were $54.7 million, a year-over-year decrease of 14% compared to $63.5 million in 2011.

Net income on a GAAP basis for 2012 was $15.7 million, or $0.54 per share (diluted), compared to net income of $7.9 million, or $0.28 per share (diluted), in 2011.

Net income on a non-GAAP basis for 2012 was $27.1 million or $0.92 per share (diluted), compared with non-GAAP net income of $31.0 million, or $1.09 per share (diluted), in 2011.

Cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities and deposits as of December 31, 2012, totaled $168.0 million, compared to $160.1 million as of September 30, 2012 and compared to $126.8 million as of December 31, 2011. Cash generated from operations was $7.1 million for the fourth quarter and $29.2 million for the year, cash used in investing activities was $0.2 million for the fourth quarter and $1.5 million for the year, cash provided by financing activities (resulting from the exercise of options) was $1.0 million for the fourth quarter and $12.9 million for the year and an additional $0.6 million increase resulted from unrealized gains in marketable securities during 2012.

Eli Fruchter, CEO of EZchip, commented, "2012 was another transition year for EZchip. First, we completed the transition to Cisco becoming our largest customer, with all revenues being royalty-based, thereby increasing our gross margins to 84% and maintaining our outstanding 49% net margin in line with the net margin we achieved in 2010 and 2011. Second, we transitioned to NP-4, which surpassed the NP-3 run rate in its first full production year, and became our largest revenue generator. Finally, we laid the foundation for the NPS line of network processors for smart networks that will target both next-generation edge routers and data centers, and we believe could double our total available market.

"Of our five major NP-4 customers, two are in production and two entered production at the end of the third quarter and have placed initial production orders. The fifth customer, Huawei, is also expected to enter production in the first quarter; however, it has not yet placed any production orders and we believe Huawei may proceed to offer a lower-end in-house solution in parallel to the high-end NP-4 solution. 

"Looking ahead, we believe that high-end NPUs, such as the NP-4, are required for high-end edge routers to be competitive. Therefore, based on the success of our customer products in the marketplace and the level of carriers' investment in Internet infrastructure, we believe NP-4 can significantly increase our revenues in the next few years. As for this year, we expect year-over-year growth in both Q1 and 2013, also when compared with 2011."

Conference Call

The Company will be hosting a conference call later today, February 13, 2013, at 10:00am ET, 7:00am PT, 3:00pm UK time and 5:00pm Israel time. On the call, management will review and discuss the results, and will be available to answer investor questions.

To participate through the live webcast, please access the investor relations section of the Company's web site at: http://www.ezchip.com/investor_relations.htm, at least 10 minutes before the conference call commences. If you would like to ask a question on the call, please contact the investor relations team for the telephone dial in numbers.

For those unable to listen to the live webcast, a replay of the webcast will be available the day after the call under the 'Investor Relations' section of the website.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information

In addition to disclosing financial results calculated in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), this release of operating results also contains non-GAAP financial measures, which EZchip believes are the principal indicators of the operating and financial performance of its business. The non-GAAP financial measures exclude the effects of stock-based compensation expenses recorded in accordance with FASB ASC 718, amortization of intangible assets, one-time charge due to early repayment of OCS grants and taxes on income.  Management believes the non-GAAP financial measures provided are useful to investors' understanding and assessment of the Company's on-going core operations and prospects for the future, as the charges eliminated are not part of the day-to-day business or reflective of the core operational activities of the Company.  Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures as a basis for strategic decisions, forecasting future results and evaluating the Company's current performance.  However, such measures should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for results prepared in accordance with GAAP.  Reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are provided in the schedules attached to this release.

About EZchip

EZchip is a fabless semiconductor company that provides Ethernet network processors for networking equipment. EZchip provides solutions that scale from a few to hundreds of Gigabits-per-second. EZchip's network processors provide great flexibility and high performance coupled with superior integration and power efficiency for a wide range of applications in carrier, cloud and data center network equipment.  For more information on our company, visit the web site at http://www.ezchip.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.  Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and may include financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, products and services, and statements regarding future performance.  These statements are only predictions based on EZchip's current expectations and projections about future events.  There are important factors that could cause EZchip's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.  Those factors include, but are not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, competitive products, product demand and market acceptance risks, customer order cancellations, reliance on key strategic alliances, fluctuations in operating results, delays in development of highly-complex products and other factors indicated in EZchip's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  For more details, refer to EZchip's SEC filings and the amendments thereto, including its Annual Report on Form 20-F filed on March 29, 2012 and its Current Reports on Form 6-K. EZchip undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or to changes in our expectations, except as may be required by law.

                                 EZchip Semiconductor Ltd.
                      Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
                   (U.S. Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
                                        (Unaudited)

                                 Three Months Ended                 Twelve Months Ended
                         ________________________________________________________________
                         December     September      December      December      December
                            31,           30,           31,           31,           31,
                           2012          2012          2011          2012          2011
                         ________     _________     _________     __________    _________

    Revenues            $ 15,207       $ 9,287      $ 14,269      $ 54,707      $ 63,457
    Cost of
    revenues               2,555         1,497         3,386         9,118        14,409
    Amortization
    of purchased
    technology                --            --            --            --           597
    Repayment of
    OCS grants                --            --         9,938            --         9,938
                         _________    _________     _________      _________    _________

    Gross profit          12,652         7,790           945        45,589        38,513
    Operating
    expenses:
    Research and
    development,
    net                    5,180         5,182         4,352        19,736        16,695
    Selling,
    general and
    administrative         3,220         3,047         3,097        12,634        12,059
                         _________    _________     _________      _________    _________
    Total
    operating                                                       32,370        28,754
    expenses               8,400         8,229         7,449

    Operating              4,252         (439)       (6,504)        13,219         9,759
    income (loss)
    Financial
    income, net              587           566           551         2,432         1,713
                         _________    _________     _________      _________    _________
    Income (loss)
    before taxes           4,839           127       (5,953)        15,651        11,472
                         =========    =========     =========      =========    =========

    Taxes on
    income                    --           --            --             --       (3,530)
    Net income
    (loss)               $ 4,839         $ 127     $ (5,953)      $ 15,651       $ 7,942
    Net income
    (loss) per
    share:
    Basic                 $ 0.17        $ 0.00      $ (0.22)        $ 0.56        $ 0.30
    Diluted               $ 0.17        $ 0.00      $ (0.22)        $ 0.54        $ 0.28
    Weighted
    average shares
    used in per
    share
    calculation:
    Basic             28,233,299    28,119,713    27,015,478    27,981,243    26,681,749
    Diluted           28,869,499    28,748,784    27,015,478    28,842,408    28,001,428
                      __________    __________    __________    __________    __________

                                 EZchip Semiconductor Ltd.
                        Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures
                   (U.S. Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
                                        (Unaudited)

                                   Three Months Ended                Twelve Months Ended
                          ________________________________________________________________
                          December     September      December      December      December
                             31,           30,           31,           31,           31,
                            2012          2012          2011          2012          2011
                          _________    _________      _________     _________     _________

    GAAP gross
    profit              $ 12,652       $ 7,790         $ 945      $ 45,589      $ 38,513
    Stock-based
    compensation              74            73            73           298           359
    Amortization
    of purchased
    technology                --            --            --            --           597
    Repayment of
    OCS grants*               --            --         9,938            --         9,938

    Non-GAAP gross
    profit              $ 12,726       $ 7,863      $ 10,956      $ 45,887      $ 49,407
                         _________      _________    _________      _________     _________

    GAAP gross
    profit as
    percentage of
    revenues               83.2%         83.9%          6.6%         83.3%         60.7%
    Non-GAAP gross
    profit as
    percentage of
    revenues               83.7%         84.7%         76.8%         83.9%         77.9%
                         _________      __________   _________      _________     _________

    GAAP operating
    expenses             $ 8,400       $ 8,229       $ 7,449      $ 32,370      $ 28,754
    Stock-based
    compensation:
    Research and
    development          (1,563)       (1,557)       (1,094)       (6,026)       (4,446)
    Selling,
    general and
    administrative       (1,265)       (1,249)       (1,051)       (4,874)       (3,801)
    Amortization
    of intangible
    assets
    Selling,
    general and
    administrative          (51)          (51)          (95)         (204)         (380)

    Non-GAAP
    operating
    expenses             $ 5,521       $ 5,372       $ 5,209      $ 21,266      $ 20,127
                         _________     _________     _________    _________     _________

    GAAP operating
    income (loss)        $ 4,252       $ (439)     $ (6,504)      $ 13,219       $ 9,759

    Non-GAAP
    operating
    income               $ 7,205       $ 2,491       $ 5,747      $ 24,621      $ 29,280
                         _________     _________     _________    _________     _________

    GAAP net
    income (loss)        $ 4,839         $ 127     $ (5,953)      $ 15,651       $ 7,942
    Stock-based
    compensation           2,902         2,879         2,218        11,198         8,606
    Amortization
    of purchased
    intangible
    assets                    51            51            95           204           977
    Repayment of
    OCS grants*               --            --         9,938            --         9,938
    Taxes on
    income**                  --            --            --            --         3,530
                         _________     _________     _________    _________     _________
    Non-GAAP net
    income               $ 7,792       $ 3,057       $ 6,298      $ 27,053      $ 30,993
                         _________     _________     _________    _________     _________

    Non-GAAP net
    income per
    share -
    Diluted               $ 0.26        $ 0.10        $ 0.22        $ 0.92        $ 1.09
    Non-GAAP
    weighted
    average shares
    - Diluted***      29,634,765    29,588,230    28,605,559    29,473,851    28,432,175

* During December 2011 we made a one-time early payment of $9.9 million to the Israeli Office of Chief Scientist, representing the full balance of the contingent liability related to the NP-4 and NPA grants received. Upon making this payment, we have eliminated all future royalty obligations related to our anticipated NP-4 and NPA revenues and saved the associated future interest payments related to such obligations. This amount was excluded from the non-GAAP statements of operations as it represents future royalty obligations.

** Taxes on income represent the non-cash utilization of a deferred tax asset with respect to the Company's estimate of its accumulated taxable income in accordance with FASB ASC 740. During 2011, EZchip Technologies, the Company's main subsidiary completed the utilization of the deferred tax asset, and started to enjoy the ten year period of exemption from Israeli corporate taxes due to benefits provided pursuant to its Israeli approved and privileged enterprise programs.

*** In calculating diluted non-GAAP net income per share, the diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding excludes
the effects of stock-based compensation expenses in accordance with FASB ASC 718.

                            EZchip Semiconductor Ltd.
           Selected Condensed Consolidated Cash Flow Data on a Non-GAAP
                                      Basis
                           (U.S. Dollars in thousands)
                                   (Unaudited)

                            Three Months Ended            Twelve Months Ended
                     _________________________________________________________
                     December    September    December    December    December
                       31,          30,         31,         31,         31,
                       2012        2012         2011        2012        2011
                     _________   _________    _________   _________   _________

    Cash flows
    from
    operating
    activities:
    Net income
    (loss)            $ 4,839        $ 127    $ (5,953)    $ 15,651     $ 7,942
    Adjustments
    to reconcile
    net income
    (loss) to net
    cash provided
    by operating
    activities:
    Repayment of
    OCS grants*            --           --       9,938           --       9,938
    Depreciation
    and
    amortization          183          178         163          661       1,227
    Decrease
    (increase) in
    trade and
    other
    receivables,
    net                (1,878)       2,991       1,113        1,870        (621)
    Decrease
    (increase) in
    inventory             948          521         259        1,265      (1,266)
    Decrease in
    deferred tax
    asset                  --           --          --           --       3,513
    Increase
    (decrease) in
    trade
    payables and
    other accrued
    liabilities,
    net                   138         (585)      1,213       (1,400)       (494)
    Stock-based
    compensation
                        2,902        2,879       2,218       11,198       8,606
    Net cash
    provided by
    operating          _________    _________   _________   _________    _________
    activities          7,132        6,111       8,951       29,245      28,845
                       _________    _________   _________   _________    _________

    Cash flows
    from
    investing
    activities:
    Purchase of
    property and       _________    _________   _________   _________    _________
    equipment            (239)         (95)        (97)      (1,008)       (411)
    Purchase of        _________    _________   _________   _________    _________
    technology
                           --           --        (500)        (500)       (500)
    Net cash used
    in investing
    activities           (239)         (95)       (597)      (1,508)       (911)

    Cash flows
    from
    financing
    activities:
    Proceeds from
    exercise of
    options
                        1,027           96         711       12,890       8,082
    Net cash
    provided by
    financing          _________   _________   _________   _________    _________
    activities          1,027           96         711       12,890       8,082
                       _________   _________   _________   _________    _________

    Repayment of
    OCS grants*            --           --      (9,938)          --      (9,938)
    Unrealized
    gain (loss)
    on marketable
    securities,
    net                   (33)         205           6          571        (618)
                       _________   _________   _________   __________   _________

    Increase
    (decrease) in
    cash, cash
    equivalents,
    marketable
    securities
    and deposits
                        7,887        6,317        (867)      41,198      25,460
    Cash, cash
    equivalents,
    marketable
    securities
    and deposits
    at the
    beginning of
    the period        160,081      153,764     127,637      126,770     101,310
    Cash, cash
    equivalents,
    marketable
    securities
    and deposits
    at the end of
    the period      _________    _________   __________   _________   _________
                    $ 167,968    $ 160,081   $ 126,770    $ 167,968   $ 126,770
                    =========    =========   ==========   =========   =========

* During December 2011 we made a one-time early payment of $9.9 million to the Israeli Office of Chief Scientist, representing the full balance of the contingent liability related to the NP-4 and NPA grants received. Upon making this payment, we have eliminated all future royalty obligations related to our anticipated NP-4 and NPA revenues and saved the associated future interest payments related to such obligations. This amount was excluded from the non-GAAP operating cash flow as it represents future royalty obligations.

Contact:
Ehud Helft / Kenny Green
CCG Investor Relations
[email protected]
Tel: (US) +1-646-201-9246

SOURCE EZchip Semiconductor Ltd