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News Article

Kopin Reports 145 Percent Increase in Third-Quarter Revenue

Source: Kopin

Net Income Reaches Record $4.1 million

Taunton, MA. Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN), a leading developer and manufacturer of gallium arsenide (GaAs) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) products and miniature flat panel displays, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2000. Financial highlights for the period included:

--Revenue increased 145 percent to $23,830,731 compared to $9,736,281 for the same period in 1999.

--Product revenue increased 153 percent to $23,279,680 in the third quarter from $9,191,188 for the same period a year ago.

--Net income of $4,191,281 or $0.06 per fully diluted share, increased from a net loss of $353,785, or $0.03 per fully diluted share, in the third quarter of 1999.

--Revenue from GaAs products increased 133 percent to $17,930,268 from $7,702,000 for the third quarter of 1999.

--CyberDisplay revenue increased 259 percent to $5,349,412 from $1,489,188 for the third quarter of 1999. For the nine months ended September 30, 2000, revenue was $68.0 million compared with $25.1 million for the same period last year, an increase of 171 percent. Net income for the most recent nine-month period was $10.3 million, or $0.15 per share, versus a net loss of $1,395, or $0.00 per share, for the same period a year earlier.

Revenue from gallium arsenide products rose 167 percent to $53.9 million from $20.2 million for the year-ago period. Revenue from CyberDisplay products increased 368 percent to $13.1 million for the nine months ending September 30, 2000 compared with $2.8 million for the same nine-month period one year earlier.

"We enjoyed substantial year-over-year gains in both our GaAs and CyberDisplay businesses, and our nine-month revenues and earnings surpass 1998 and 1999 combined," said Dr. John C.C. Fan, Kopin s president and chief executive officer. "Despite softness in the wireless handset market and the difficulty of a couple suppliers in keeping up with our aggressive CyberDisplay production schedule, which made the third quarter challenging, we were still able to deliver record profits."

In its GaAs business, Kopin continued to see strong demand in the third quarter from partners such as Nortel Networks, for transistors that are incorporated into their high-speed OC-192 SONET chipsets. "We remain bullish about the long-term outlook for both the wireless and optical markets, and are confident that we are well-positioned to capitalize on their future growth," continued Fan.

During the third quarter, Kopin announced the formation of its Optical Communication Products Group, which will focus on developing new technologies and products for emerging broadband telecom applications. In September, Kopin named Dr. Hong Choi to chief technology officer. Dr. Choi, who spent 17 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology s Lincoln Laboratory, is spearheading new market opportunities across both the GaAs and CyberDisplay businesses. Under Dr. Choi s direction, Kopin plans to augment the success of its fiber-optics business with next generation optoelectronic manufacturing capabilities to take advantage of emerging uses of optical devices for communications applications.

As part of that effort, Kopin this week announced the acquisition of privately held Super Epitaxial Products, Inc. (SEP), a leader in the research and development of materials and devices. "As a cornerstone of our plans to broaden the scope of Kopin s optical communications business, SEP dovetails with our GaAs technology and wafer manufacturing capabilities," Dr. Fan said.

Financial highlights for the period included: CyberDisplay Highlights

Just one year after beginning commercial production of the product, during the third quarter of 2000 Kopin shipped its one-millionth CyberDisplay. "Opportunities for our CyberDisplay have never been more expansive," Dr. Fan said. "Our partnership announcement this week with ACCESS Co. of Japan, to package our CyberDisplay with ACCESS NetFront software is just one example of those opportunities. Our collaboration is the first of its kind to use small format, high resolution displays to create video-enabled Web-browsing capabilities in portable electronic devices including 3G wireless phones. ACCESS NetFront Software is the current platform used in NTT DoCoMo i-mode phones in Japan.

Business Outlook

Commenting on the outlook for Kopin s GaAs business, Dr. Fan said, "The transition to new technologies and products in wireless made our third quarter challenging. While we expect that gallium arsenide revenue in the fourth quarter of 2000 will be even with the third quarter, industry projections and our own discussions with customers suggest that we will see growth resume again in the first quarter of 2001. "To accommodate that growth, we continue to move ahead with our gallium arsenide expansion," Dr. Fan continued. "We expect that our new fab in Taunton will be up and running by the end of the current quarter. This new fab will provide highly scalable production capacity that should allow us to reduce lead times and deliver a predictable supply.

Concluded Fan, "Our aggressive ramp-up schedule for CyberDisplay has put significant stress on our suppliers. We are working with our suppliers to resolve the production issues. We are forecasting flat revenue until they catch up."

Third-quarter Conference Call

Kopin will provide a live audio Webcast of its third-quarter conference call for investors at 5:00 p.m today. Investors who want to hear the call should log on to the investor relations section of Kopin s Web site, www.kopin.com, at least 15 minutes prior to the event s broadcast. Then, follow the instructions provided to assure that the necessary audio applications are downloaded and installed. The call will be available on the investor relations section for one week. After that, investors can access an archived version of the call on Kopin s Web site.

About Kopin

Kopin Corporation is a leading manufacturer of gallium arsenide (GaAs) transistor products and miniature flat panel displays for wireless communications and portable consumer electronics. The Company s GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors are used to produce power amplifier circuits for wireless telephone handsets and gigabit circuits for fiber optic and Internet data transmission. Kopin s CyberDisplay family of ultra-small, high density imaging devices is designed for ultra-portable products including camcorders, digital cameras and wireless handsets. Kopin s Web site is located at www.kopin.com.

Statements in this news release about Kopin Corporation s third-quarter 2000 financial results and the Company s expectations for future growth may be considered "forward-looking" statements under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect future results. Among these risk factors are general economic and business conditions and growth in the flat panel display and gallium arsenide integrated circuit and materials industries, the impact of competitive products and pricing, availability of third-party components, availability of integrated circuit fabrication facilities, cost and yields associated with production of the Company s CyberDisplay imaging devices and HBT transistor wafers, loss of significant customers, acceptance of the Company s products, continuation of strategic relationships and other risk factors and cautionary statements listed from time to time in the Company s periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the Company s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999.

Contact: Kopin Corporation Richard Sneider Tel: 508 824-6696 rsneider@kopin.com or Sharon Merrill Associates, Inc. Scott Solomon Tel: 617 542-5300 ssolomon@InvestorRelations.com

 

Kopin Corporation
Richard Sneider
Tel: 508 824-6696
rsneider@kopin.com
or
Sharon Merrill Associates, Inc.
Scott Solomon
Tel: 617 542-5300
ssolomon@InvestorRelations.com
 
E-mail: ssolomon@InvestorRelations.com
Web site: http://www.kopin.com
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