Rubicon reports dip in Q2 revenue
Rubicon Technology, a provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, optical and semiconductor industries, has reported financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2016.
Q2 revenue was $3.5 million, $0.8 million lower than the prior quarter, primarily as a result of a temporary reduction of wafer orders. Revenue from wafer sales in Q2 was $1.8 million as compared with $2.3 million in the prior quarter.
The company says it is continuing to work on re-focusing its business on the optical sapphire market. Continued progress was reported on its two new technologies, LANCE large window growth and SapphirEX coating technologies (patents pending), which are expected to allow it to introduce new products into the optical sapphire market.
Rubicon also continues to work with developers of other new applications for sapphire outside of the traditional LED and mobile device markets.
CEO Bill Weissman said: "Given the excess capacity of sapphire serving the LED substrate and mobile device markets, we are placing more emphasis on the optical and industrial sapphire markets where we feel we have a greater competitive advantage. In addition, the company is reviewing a variety of alternatives with a goal of providing greater value to our stockholders. "
Q2 loss per share was $0.31 as compared with a loss per share of $0.28 in the prior quarter. The second quarter loss per share was impacted by increased proxy solicitation costs related to the contested director election, which added approximately $0.04 to the loss per share in the second quarter.
Cash was affected by building a higher consignment inventory for a key wafer customer in response to higher volume orders for the third quarter. In addition timing of receivables collections and payment on the settlement of securities litigation affected cash flow.
During the quarter the company took additional actions to reduce operating costs which it anticipates will positively impact cash flow.
