Monolithic Power Systems - Q3 2023
October 30, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Welcome everyone to the MPS Q3 2023 earnings webinar. My name is Genevieve Cunningham, and I will be the moderator for this webinar. Joining me today are Michael Hsing, CEO and founder of MPS, and Bernie Blegen, EVP and CFO. In the course of today's webinar, we will make forward-looking statements and projections that involve risk and uncertainty, which could cause results to differ materially from management's current views and expectations.
Please refer to the safe harbor statement contained in the earnings release published today. Risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ are identified in the safe harbor statements contained in the Q3 earnings release and in our latest SEC filings, including our Form 10-K and our Form 10-Q, which are accessible through our website. MPS assumes no obligation to update the information provided on today's call.
We will be discussing gross margin, operating expense, operating income, other income, income before income taxes, net income, and earnings on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Tables that outline the reconciliation between the non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures are included in our Q3 2023 earnings release, which we have furnished to the SEC and is currently available on our website. I would also like to remind you that today's conference call is being webcast live over the Internet and will be available for replay on our website for one year, along with the earnings release filed with the SEC earlier today. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Bernie Blegen.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Thanks, Jen. MPS reported third quarter revenue of $474.9 million, 7.6% higher than the second quarter of 2023, and 4.1% lower than third quarter of 2022. Compared with Q2 2023, sales in enterprise data and storage and computing improved sequentially, while automotive, industrial, and communications revenue was lower.
Turning now to our third quarter 2023 revenue by market. In our enterprise data market, third quarter 2023 revenue of $98.9 million increased 106.2% from the second quarter of 2023, with sequential growth in both GPU and CPU program sales. Third quarter 2023 enterprise data revenue was up 31.4% year-over-year.
Enterprise data revenue represented 20.8% of MPS's third quarter 2023 revenue, compared with 15.2% in the third quarter of 2022. Storage and computing revenue of $129.5 million increased 3.9% from the second quarter of 2023. The sequential revenue improvement primarily reflected higher sales in commercial notebooks.
Third quarter 2023 storage and computing revenue was up 14.7% year-over-year. Storage and computing revenue represented 27.3% of MPS's third quarter 2023 revenue, compared with 22.8% in the third quarter of 2022. Third quarter consumer revenue of $62.4 million decreased 4.3% from the second quarter of 2023, as higher gaming and monitor sales were offset by declines in TV and home appliance revenue.
Third quarter 2023 consumer revenue was down 30.1% year-over-year. Consumer revenue represented 13.1% of MPS's third quarter 2023 revenue, compared with 18.0% in the third quarter of 2022. Third quarter 2023 communications revenue of $46.8 million was down 5.1% from the second quarter of 2023, primarily reflecting lower infrastructure sales.
Third quarter 2023 communications revenue was down 35.3% year-over-year. Communications revenue represented 9.9% of our total third quarter 2023 revenue, compared with 14.6% in the third quarter of 2022. Third quarter automotive revenue of $95.2 million decreased 8.8% from the second quarter of 2023, primarily due to lower ADAS and Digital Cockpit sales.
Third quarter 2023 revenue was up 9.3% year-over-year. Automotive revenue represented 20.0% of MPS's third quarter 2023 revenue, compared with 17.5% in the third quarter of 2022. Third quarter 2023 industrial revenue of $42.1 million decreased 15.3% from the second quarter of 2023 due to lower sales in security and industrial meter applications.
Third quarter 2023 industrial revenue was down 28.2% year-over-year. Industrial revenue represented 8.9% of our total third quarter 2023 revenue, compared with 11.9% in the third quarter of 2022. I would like to make some general comments about our business. In our previous earnings calls, we have noted customer ordering patterns were oscillating within the overall market.... This environment persisted through Q3.
We continue to see some orders getting delayed or amended by pull-in requests. This lack of short-term visibility continues to make forecasting beyond the next quarter difficult. However, as we said in our last call, our business fundamentals remain unchanged. Our design win pipeline and customer base expanded tremendously, particularly amongst Tier One accounts.
Additionally, we continue to innovate and have a strong design win pipeline, which positions us well for future growth. Moving now to a few comments on gross margin. GAAP gross margin was 55.5%, 60 basis points lower than the second quarter of 2023, and 320 basis points lower than the third quarter of 2022. Our GAAP operating income was approximately $135.6 million, compared to $112.3 million reported in the second quarter of 2023.
Non-GAAP gross margin for the third quarter of 2023 was 55.7%, down 80 basis points from the gross margin reported for the second quarter of 2023. The quarter-to-quarter decrease in both GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin is attributed largely to an unfavorable product mix.
Our non-GAAP operating income was $167.8 million, compared to $153.1 million reported in the second quarter of 2023. Let us review our operating expenses. Our GAAP operating expenses were $128 million in the third quarter of 2023, compared with $135.4 million in the second quarter of 2023.
Our non-GAAP third quarter 2023 operating expenses were approximately $96.6 million, essentially flat with what we saw in each of the first two quarters of 2023. The differences between non-GAAP operating expenses and GAAP operating expenses for the quarters discussed here are primarily stock compensation expense and income or loss on an unfunded deferred compensation plan.
For the third quarter of 2023, stock compensation expense, including approximately $1 million charged cost of goods sold, was $33.6 million, compared with $38 million recorded in the second quarter of 2023.
Switching to bottom line, third quarter 2023 GAAP net income was $121.2 million, or $2.48 per fully diluted share, compared with $99.5 million, or $2.04 per share in the second quarter of 2023.
Third quarter 2023 non-GAAP net income was $150.3 million, or $3.08 per fully diluted share, compared with $137.5 million, or $2.82 per fully diluted share in the second quarter of 2023. Fully diluted shares outstanding at the end of Q3 2023 were 48.8 million. Now let us look at the balance sheet.
Cash, cash equivalents, and investments were $1.04 billion at the end of third quarter 2023, compared with $941.1 million at the end of the second quarter of 2023. For the quarter, MPS generated operating cash flow of approximately $175.9 million, compared with Q2 2023 operating cash flow of $90.2 million.
Accounts receivable at the end of the third quarter of 2023 were $185.8 million, representing 36 days of sales outstanding, which is 1 day higher than the 35 days reported at the end of the second quarter of 2023.
Our internal inventories at the end of the third quarter of 2023 were $397.3 million, down from $427.4 million at the end of the second quarter of 2023. Days in inventory were 171 days at the end of the third quarter of 2023, which was 30 days lower than at the end of the second quarter of 2023.
Comparing current inventory levels with the following quarter's projected revenue, you can see days in inventory decreased to 180 days at the end of the third quarter of 2023 from 184 days at the end of the second quarter of 2023. I would now like to turn to our outlook for the fourth quarter of 2023.
We are forecasting Q4 revenue in the range of $442 million - $462 million. GAAP gross margin in the range of 55.2% - 55.8%. Non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 55.4% - 56%. Total stock compensation expense in the range of $32.2 million - $34.2 million, including approximately $1 million that would be charged to cost of goods sold.
GAAP operating expenses between $127.1 million - $131.1 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses in the range of $95.9 million - $97.9 million. This estimate excludes stock compensation expense, but includes litigation expense.
Interest and other income in the range from $4.1 million - $4.5 million before foreign exchange gains or losses. Fully diluted shares in the range of 48.7 million - 49.1 million shares. We are also pleased to announce that our board of directors has approved a share buyback program for up to $640 million over the next three years, with the goal of offsetting future dilution.
In conclusion, while we expect visibility to remain limited in the short term, which was the same as last quarter, we continue to execute on the long-term strategy. I will now open the webinar up for questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, Bernie. Analysts, I would now like to begin our Q&A session. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please click on the participant's icon on the menu bar and then click the Raise Hand button. Our first question is from Quinn Bolton of Needham. Quinn, your line is now open.
Quinn Bolton (Senior Analyst)
Hi, Michael and Bernie, congratulations on the results and the outlook in a tough market. I guess, Bernie, Michael, the enterprise data business, very strong quarter on quarter. Wondering if you could just, you know, give us some thoughts as you look into next year, how you see the GPU business.
Specifically, do you see expansion of that customer list driving strength in GPUs? And then a question on CPU. You said CPU was up in the third quarter. Wondering if you are finally starting to see some strength in the Sapphire Rapids and general side of that business. And then I have a follow-up question. Thank you.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
At this time, as Bernie said earlier, these markets are very much oscillating, and, the net, you see it way down from the last, from this quarter's, from last year, year-over-year, we are still down.
Okay. AI, these are power modules, and we are ramping up as a result of growth in this year, and, a slight growth from the last year. Okay, that is mainly due to AI. Also in the prior quarters, and autos, and we see as a very lumpy business, as a lumpy for ADAS ramping up.
All of these, we believe that will happen in a ramping up in the next year, not only from ADAS and also, as you mentioned, about on the general CPU and in the server side. And I might as well mention all the other ones.
We still have a lot of greenfield products that have not really ramped up yet, and many, many projects gets delayed, and this year, pushing to next year. And we do not want to give a very clear forecast that we still do not know yet, but sometime in the next years, we believe that they will start to ramping up and all these are greenfield products. That is my summary for the near terms business.
Quinn Bolton (Senior Analyst)
Okay. Thank you, Michael. I guess a follow-up question. Bernie, I think in the script you mentioned some pushouts, some pull-ins or expedites. I think the pull-ins or expedites, you know, may be newer given just the overall challenging industry. Were the pull-ins specific to certain customers or end markets, or are you starting to see pull-in requests across multiple end markets? Thank you.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Quinn, I think what we are experiencing here is a unique business cycle, and that right now, our end customers are unwilling to commit beyond a fairly narrow window of you know, expecting lead times within you know, under 10 weeks for delivery. So that makes, as we said earlier in the comments, the predictability really hard to call right now.
But I think as Michael just said, that when we look at our design win pipeline, it's strong, and we are confident that we are in a good position to capture you know, share and growth as the market recovers. But right now, we are still in a level of unpredictability.
Quinn Bolton (Senior Analyst)
Okay. Thank you, Bernie.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
He is talking about which segments-
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Oh, I am sorry, which segments?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Which segments, and if we look at it as rough surveys, it's actually across the entire product segment, including consumers. Some of the products, okay, they need pull it in very quick-
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yeah.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
As Bernie said, the lead time is very, very short, and we do not have those products, okay. It pretty much across the board. Other than AI, we really plan ahead from the beginning of the year, and we had anticipated all the ramp up and even for the next few quarters.
Quinn Bolton (Senior Analyst)
Got it. Okay, thank you.
Operator (participant)
Our next question is from Tore Svanberg of Stifel. Tore, your line is now open.
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Yes, thank you, Michael, Bernie, and congratulations on that $1 billion cash balance. First question is on the Q4 outlook. I know you typically do not guide by segment, but can you just talk about directionally where you expect each segment to trend in Q4?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Yeah, Q4 is still down. Q4 is still down for, like, quite a bit from Q3, okay? And, pretty much everything is expected, okay, maybe not autos, okay, and, autos probably go sideways or maybe slightly up, okay? And, it's slightly up, and then, and also the, the AI powers, and that is still, continuously to ramp up.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yeah, I think that when you look at the broader market, we are experiencing a lot of the weakness in demand that many of our peer companies are. And what makes us differentiated is the AI boost we are experiencing.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Pretty much AI and auto, and everything else is pretty much muted. Yeah.
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Very good. And as my follow-up, maybe related to the previous question on enterprise data and AI, you know, just wondering if you are having a visibility on the sustainable growth here. There's obviously, you know, one big partner that is ramping right now, but, you know, it looks like there's some other processor companies that are going to be catching up next year.
If you could give us any color on, especially enterprise data segment for 2024, that would be really helpful.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Or I can tell you overall what, how the MPS strategy is. Like, MPS strategy is always take the, get the best - we provide the best performance. When the volume gets higher and requirements lowers, okay, we do not chase those low-end group, the low-end segment. I see MPS is still in the forefront, in terms of provide best efficiencies and the lowest generating heat, and like, smallest areas. We are still the leading will be next year and the year after. All these products are in development with our customers and with the leading-edge providers in the AI GPU space.
Specifically, and that is a huge market, and we do not want to take all of them. To your other part of the question is general market, right? Okay, general market, other segments CPUs, and you remember the VR13, we didn't have a lot of design wins, and again, but we had, we piled up a lot of inventory during the VR 13.5s cycle, and okay, it became a serendipity, and again, we have a few project design win and the other supply couldn't ship, but we shipped a lot. That is where you see the server data center growth.
That is because of that. For next years, and, we, we were told to get ready to, to have those projects ramping up rapidly, right?
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yes. Okay.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
When these markets are ready, ramping up, MPS is there.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Tore, you hit on a couple of very good points that, as far as the AI GPU opportunity, we are very well positioned, both for the near term in 2024, but more importantly, longer term. And as Michael just emphasized, there is a differentiated market there, and we want to stay at the high end of that market.
We have always been aware that there would be competitors entering this space, and that is how we are differentiating ourselves. And then as far as the CPU and GPU markets, what we are preparing to do is to manage the uptick in demand that we are anticipating, by building that inventory during the next couple of quarters.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
That is why I, I forgot about that. So while I try to make a point, I want to-- and MPS doesn't want to be known as an AI power company, okay? We want to focus on the diversified growth, and we do have a lot of greenfield products still haven't realized yet.
These are cross-segment and also in a, in a consumer side, in the last years, and because the last couple of years, because the shortages, we neglected, and that will, in the last half years, we develop a, a low, low-cost product, and we introduce the market. You will see the growth. Because of very short-term, short design cycle, you will see revenue from... from next year.
All the other product, like industrials, auto, automotive, and in the trucking inverters and the chargers and also ADAS, these will ramping up. So we want to achieve a very diversified growth, not only on the AI side.
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Great color, and good job with the buyback. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Our next question is from Ross Seymore of Deutsche Bank. Ross, your line is now open.
Ross Seymore (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Hi, guys. Can you hear me?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Yeah.
Ross Seymore (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Perfect.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Hi, Ross.
Ross Seymore (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Hi there, guys. So I guess the question I have is, I do not know if cyclicality or seasonality is carrying the day, but the last couple of quarters, you have talked about weakness. You are not unique in that, but the fourth quarter, you seem to be guiding pretty much back to a seasonal drop. If I look to the first quarter, is that something that you would expect to continue, or is visibility just too limited to really comment on that quite yet?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
The numbers reflect the seasonal, but the reality is, it just happened that way, okay? We can't call it seasonal. There's a fast-changing market. It's very difficult for us to forecast, that is difficult, okay? Unfortunately, we have a lot of capacities, but these are capacity with still the lead time is still shorter than our production cycles, okay? We have to get ready just, okay.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Ross, you bring up a really good point is that if we look at the outlook for Q4, portion of that is how competitive we were at going after the notebook market. The Q4, we are experiencing a little bit of a decline as those are seasonal sales. When we look at Q1, Michael said it best, there isn't a lot of visibility.
As we look at this cycle, we believe that next year is really back-half weighted. And so I would probably indicate that we will have a more conservative profile as we look at the first half of 2024.
Ross Seymore (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Got it.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Also, I forgot to mention about it, and we talked about it at the beginning of the year. We will be aggressive on price and especially in the widget across the board. Then we have a new product in the consumer segment come out and already came out.
Also, in the notebook area, we pretty much have a large market share in the commercial side. In the beginning of the year we were starting to become very aggressive on pricing. Now, fourth quarter, you see it in our notebook size start to gain more shares in the consumer side.
Ross Seymore (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Got it. Thanks for that. As my one follow-up, I wanted to just tip it over to the gross margin side of things. You mentioned, Bernie, in your script, that you were at the low end of your guidance because of mix.
I was a little surprised that enterprise data, you know, more than doubled sequentially, but yet you pointed to mix. Could you just talk a little bit about what's going on? What, what mix were you referring to? Because I think, whether correctly or incorrectly, at least I assume that enterprise data would be an accretive gross margin category.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Sure.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Well, the notebook, consumer notebook margin is very low, okay? But it's easier money to be made, okay?
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Michael is exactly right, that we have been aggressive on pricing across the board. While that isn't called out specifically as a contributing factor to the lower gross margin, it is reflected in the overall mix, notwithstanding the impact of the GPU and AI business.
Ross Seymore (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Has that pricing dynamic, is that starting to normalize from here, or is that an incremental headwind that we should consider going forward?
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
I believe that as the market begins to stabilize, that we will return to a more normal profile, as far as pricing. Again, a very specific point to make here is that most of our customers are attracted, and we secure design wins because of our innovation, as opposed to pricing alone. So I believe that as the market stabilizes, sometime in 2024, that we will probably return to a more normal pricing environment as well.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
We just get product mix effects, right? But also there are additional capacities, okay, and capacity utilizations, and out of China, and it also adds a lot of capacity costs, okay, for us. So it is a mix of all of them, not only the product mix.
Ross Seymore (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Thank you.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Okay. Yeah.
Operator (participant)
Our next question is from Rick Schafer of Oppenheimer. Rick, your line is now open.
Rick Schafer (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Let me add my congratulations. If I could follow up, just one more question on enterprise data. You know, you mentioned your greenfield product lineup for next year, I think a couple times on the call, and one of those that really stands out is the silicon carbide power isolation module you guys are working on, and I know that is for a couple of different end markets.
I was hoping you could give some color around the engagements you are seeing right now with the CSPs, you know, so in data center, maybe a sense of timing of when those initial revenues would start showing up in the model.
My bigger question is really: do you view power isolation as a TAM expander for your existing enterprise data franchise? Thanks.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Let me answer your first part, silicon carbide. Thanks for reminding me this. I almost forgot. Yeah, we released the product, and first revenue we will see sometime next year, so okay, would be in the solar inverters. And the green energies have a lot of demand, the products that we design for those market segments.
We will start to ramp, and also in automotive, and these are not specifically for traction inverters, for these drivers, okay? We do power management. And we will see those products develop and ramping up much later, okay.
These are clearly in the end. There's a void in the market. No other company produces that a product, and it became very unique. So I have a very good confidence in by two, and then second half of the next year, the year after, so okay, we will see a lot of new revenue come from that segment. What's the second question? Second part of it?
Rick Schafer (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Within CSP, the full rack power that I know you guys have discussed, is there any color you could give around how you view that? Is that a TAM expander, you know, for your enterprise data segment?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
The hyperscalers?
Hyperscaler is now you guys know this better than we do. We just only provide the power, okay? For the CPU side, GPU side, as we said earlier, so, okay, VR14, we expect to have a grow a lot more bigger shares.
Or if you refer to silicon carbide, and that, that we will develop those product, those are power supplies, and again, these are plug and play power supply, and these are large modules, and that will ramping. I do not have a timeframe, so, okay, probably in towards the very end of the next year, the 2025.
Rick Schafer (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Okay. Thanks a lot for that color, Michael. And you know, I guess maybe if I could try one more swipe at Ross's question on gross margin.
Bernie, if you can give us any rule of thumb, and I understand it's a mixed issue, and I hear everything you are saying about the current pricing environment, but as we look to things normalizing, say, in the second half of next year, say, you get back to, you know, to your $2 billion or better run rate, should we be thinking gross margin at that level should be back tilting towards the high 50s% again, at that a run rate?
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
I would not be too quick to jump to the high 50s in the near term here. I think that what we have said previously is that we expect for the next few quarters to stay within our model, you know, targeting about 56%, ±50 basis points. As we look at the second half of next year, as things stabilize and we get a better mix, then we should see return to having incremental improvement.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
I excuse you, so okay, and I did look at the non-GAAP details, and again, we spent a lot of capacity and from a these are strategically not mistake. And we do see a lot of growth from in the next couple of years. I believe these are capacity the utilization has taken effect on the gross margins. I do not know what's the how many what's the percentage? I do not know. So okay, maybe Bernie can answer you later. Okay.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
On the capacity, and I will take this topic on because it's an important one as we look ahead, as we talked about a year ago, as far as developing new relationships with fab partners, particularly in Taiwan and Singapore, as we not only stand capacity in advance of you know, a future upswing in demand, but also to diversify you know, by geography.
Those investments are you know, adding to our overall cost profile more in the R&D side than in gross margin, specifically today. That capacity will become available here, just as we see the second half of next year starting to
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Well, these are for future.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yeah.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
China is on the-
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yeah.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
But the capacity that we expanded from a year ago is now utilized again.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yeah. No, yeah. Okay.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
For the test equipment.
Rick Schafer (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Okay. Thanks for all the color, guys.
Operator (participant)
Our next question comes from William Stein of Truist. William, your line is now open.
William Stein (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thanks for taking my question. I am hoping, you know, Michael, you talked about traction in design wins, you know, that will, that will turn into revenue over the next, you know, several quarters and years. It sounds like you have been very busy with these, as you always are.
Often, that means you can see what's coming a little earlier in terms of where the revenue might shift, in terms of end markets and products and that thing. So when you think about the bigger design wins, either the bigger volume runners or the bigger ASP drivers, is there a shift either in end markets or in mix, let us say, for modules or motion control or things like that?
Any other shifts in the revenue mix that we should expect because of these design wins that have yet to ramp?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Thanks for reminding me the motion. I forgot about that. Okay. We do have a lot of design wins in the motion side, too. We look at it, and the beauty is, I can't call it specifically, really across the board.
That means we have our biggest customers, like 4 or 5%, maybe slightly higher, out of this year, okay? All the other customers, a few thousand customers and a few thousand products around, I do not know how many market segments, okay. They are very healthy, in terms of the design win activities. Okay, so all of them will turn into revenues.
I can give you some bigger segments, and okay, and not many people talking about it, and it's like a, what is it? a USB-C.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Right.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
And a USB PD.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
PD.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
I believe this will be huge revenues, okay, and a growth. MPS has a lot more content in versus a USB PD versus the USB, what is it? USB-
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Earlier versions.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Yeah, earlier versions, like a B.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yeah.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Type B, okay, now it's type C. And some of them in auto will be cannibalized, and for USB type, it's a B type products. Okay, and but C is a much higher content, and that is in auto. And in the consumer side, it's totally new. And USB type B, B type is a we have- is a very low, is like consumer side.
Now they are converting to USB C, and that would be a lot broader applications. And it's based on because all unifies a plus, and especially European countries and drive that standards, and it's a migrate to, to anywhere. Because they have a clear mandate when to switch it.
I believe even Apple's for the next version of the phone will be USB-C. And, we see MPS has a lot of opportunities, a lot of growth. So other than that, battery management, and that will ramp in 2014s, and lot of different applications from-
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
2024.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
2024. These are from a power tool to garden tools and from all kinds of other things, okay. Those are already designed products, and okay, will ramp in the next 12-24 months or less than 6-24 months, I guess. Yeah.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
In addition, just to repeat, as far as the opportunities that we talked about in both green energy and clean energy as well as in DDR5, there's a large number of products that are expected to ramp here very quickly for us.
William Stein (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Great. If I can ask one follow-up? The inventory decline sequentially surprised us a bit. Perhaps this was always your plan, but if it wasn't, can you describe what happened here? Perhaps a customer came in with more demand for something, or, or, or maybe you decided mid-quarter to reduce production. Maybe just set me straight on this issue.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
We reduced overall inventories, and starting the beginning of the year, that is probably reflects that.
William Stein (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Yes.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
It doesn't mean we will keep that, keep that low, okay? We will boost it up a little more.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
What we have done is we have said that we have a range of inventory that we want to operate within between 180-200 days. What you have seen is that, we did reduce wafer starts about nine months or three quarters ago, and that is now being reflected in our balance sheet today.
As we anticipate the demand for all of the opportunities that we see possible for 2024, we are beginning to ramp inventory, and as Michael said, we have the capacity available to take advantage of that.
Rick Schafer (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Thanks, guys.
Operator (participant)
Our next question is from Matt Ramsay of Cowen. Matt, your line is now open.
Matt Ramsay (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, guys. Michael, I wanted to dig into the automotive market a bit and understand the drivers of the business over the next several quarters. I think you guys have some very exciting new content with one of the leading EV OEMs in the States, and obviously some really good content with a number of folks in Asia.
If you could try to help us break down what your expectations are for the drivers of your automotive business over the next, I do not know, six, nine months, relative to some, I would say, fluctuations in unit expectations from some key customers, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
These type of products is not like a consumer. It's like a half years, and it can design you out, okay? It took us a year, okay, it took us a years and it took us, at least 12 months to work with our customers, the major suppliers, and, okay, to put in a system to, and make a production worthy and working. That is a long effort. Frankly, I really do not really care, so as long as you win those socket or you win those projects, the revenue will come. When is the next three months or next nine months? I do not really know.
Okay, we thought the last year, mid to middle of this year, we start to ramp, but it didn't. Okay, but I think it's next year, sometimes that we will see more and more ADAS and also the traction, the new traction, new type of traction vehicles. And so that is pretty much just as everybody else expected, okay, you all these products, we are ramping up. Okay, we will come, we will go with it. Okay.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
If I can just add to that, a lot of the customers that are picking up on design wins are skewed more heavily to EVs that are inviting new technology platforms. And that market has slowed in unit volumes observed, but the exciting part of this story is that we see that new platform launches for those customers are in position to ramp in the first half of next year, and we are seeing a proliferation or a broadening of those technologies going into more traditional internal combustion or IC brands.
I think that the automotive market, while it's difficult to time, that our positioning is very secure.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Okay, that is a good point. Then the ADAS. They start to ramp as we were told the beginning of the year and at the end of the years, and now we were told the next years. But all of these are new, are new for us, and the Digital Cockpit and also ADAS. So now they tell us in early next year.
Matt Ramsay (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Got it.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
I do not know I can believe or not.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
We will see. [crosstalk]
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
We will see.
Matt Ramsay (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you, guys. I guess my follow-up question, it's not, the most strategically important part of your business, but I think it has a lot of different benefits, is the consumer market in Asia. Bernie used the cookie jar analogy a number of times over the years. And the consumer market got down to a small enough percentage of your revenue.
I think there was an intention to potentially really lean in and try to regrow that business, both from a revenue perspective and also gives you a lot of flexibilities around growth and margins. And maybe the demand environment is not there today to really lean in and regrow that.
I just wanted to do a pulse check on the strategy. That is still the intention, to regrow that business as a percentage of revenue, and you feel like you have the product portfolio to go and do that?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
The strategy is correct, okay? It's demand in the last quarter. I said that. It's dropped to unhealthy positions, okay, way too low. And, there's a lot of money to be made, and margins maybe lower, but it helped the EPS a lot. So the second question is whether we have enough products. Okay, we did a lot of them, and again, in the last half years. Other ones we will release in the next couple of quarters, and well, next quarter also, and those will turn into revenues in the half year to nine months' time.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
We remain committed to the consumer marketplace as part of our diversification.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Absolutely.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Okay.
Matt Ramsay (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you, guys. Have a good afternoon. Appreciate it.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
All right. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Our next question is from Tore Svanberg of Stifel. Tore, your line is now open.
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Yes, thank you. I just had two quick follow-ups. First of all, on the buyback, from a size perspective, something that is quite large, and we do not have much history with the company, in regards to a size like that.
How should we think about the, I guess, philosophy with the buyback? You mentioned to offset dilution, but are you going to be opportunistic, or are you like some other companies where you will buy the stock regardless of the price? Just trying to understand some of the dynamics there.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
I would like to comment on that very quickly, is that, when we looked at, doing the buyback, we were demonstrating confidence in our free cash flow, over the next, three-year window. And, the goal here, is to offset dilution, that, that will naturally occur during that period of time.
We are going to apply a go-to-market strategy that is both opportunistic but also programmatic. We do not have a timetable necessarily for how to implement it during that period, but it will reflect both, existing market conditions as well as, you know, a systematic program.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Well, Bernie implies a buy low, keep it high.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yeah. Okay.
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
That is very helpful. The other follow-up, and I know this is a minor detail, but your lighting control business was up quite a bit in the quarter. Was that mainly because of notebook, or was there something else going on there?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Lighting business?
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
I am sorry, Tore, you broke up a little bit. Were you talking about storage and computing?
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
No, no, no. You have the lighting control business, but, you showed this in your filings. It was up about 20% sequentially, and I was just wondering if that was because of notebook or anything else.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
No, these are decorative lighting. We do not have a lot of consumer business anymore. These are... But these are small numbers, and, I do not know specifically, but I do know we do not have a lot of consumer, because these are really, really low price. So these are industrial lighting and, and decorative, decorative lighting.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
I apologize, Tore. I think that you broke up, and we missed the heart of your question. Which end market?
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Lighting.
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
You have a lighting control versus DC-to-DC, right? So lighting control, it increased by $4.5 million sequentially. It was up 20%. You know, it's a $100 million annual business, it's not trivial, but obviously small in the bigger scheme of things.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yeah.
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Okay.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Again, Michael addressed it, that it's a general market up.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
I do not know specifically, but that is the market where we are in, okay? Where we position ourselves.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Yes.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Okay, not specifically in the consumer, and in the high volumes.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Also it's in automotive as well.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Yeah.
Tore Svanberg (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)
Great. Fair enough.
Michael Hsing (Chairman, President and CEO)
Yes, you are right. Okay.
Operator (participant)
If there are any follow-up questions, please click the Raise Hand button. As there are no further questions, I would now like to turn the webinar back over to Bernie.
Bernie Blegen (EVP and CFO)
Just in closing here, I would like to thank you all for joining us this webinar, and I look forward to talking to you again during the fourth quarter, which will likely be at the end of January. Thank you. Have a nice day.
