Category Archives: Technology

What happened

Shares ofAlign Technology(NASDAQ:ALGN) were up 14.5% at 1:00 p.m. EDT following first-quarter revenue that was better than industry watchers' forecasts.

Growing global use of Align Technology's Invisalign clear dental aligners has made this a top-performing stock over the past three years, and first-quarter results show that demand remains strong.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

In Q1, revenue grew 30%,to $310.3 million, when compared to a year ago. Diluted earnings per share in the quarter clocked in at $0.85, up from $0.50 last year. First-quarter sales were 5.8% higher than they were in the fourth quarter, a good sign given competition from 3Mand Dentsply Sirona.

The strong top- and bottom-line results came thanks to a 27% and 9.5% increase in case shipments versus last year and last quarter, respectively. International case shipments were particularly strong, up 41% year over year.

Align Technology is forecasting that a 25% to 27% increase in case shipments in Q2 will translate into revenue of between$340 million to $345 million, up 26% to 28% from the same period last year. It also expects to deliver diluted EPS of between$0.71 to $0.74 in the quarter.

Overall, this is yet another solid quarterly result from the company, and although there are ongoing patent challenges and competitors attempting to derail it, I think Align Technology will remain a stock investors will want to own in the coming years.

Todd Campbell owns shares of Align Technology.His clients may have positions in the companies mentioned.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Align Technology. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why Align Technology Inc.'s Shares Are Rallying 14.5% Today - Motley Fool

Predicting Micron Technology's (NASDAQ:MU) quarterly earnings with a month remaining in the quarter is a fool's errand. EP is a fool, and this is his errand.

A lot has happened since the 2Q earnings release on March 23. One of the best things is the appointment of Sanjay Mehrotra, the former CEO and co-founder of Sandisk as the company's new CEO. The mystery of who would replace Mark Durcan (current CEO retiring at the May board meeting), and when his replacement would be announced, was a significant dark cloud. Mehrotra was a model of clarity at Sandisk (despite his sometimes very thick accent!). He'd spend all day in analyst presentations with audio (and video!) that worked, enough seats for all would be attendees, piles and piles and piles of excellent slides, and excellent presenters from several layers of management. Then there was his wonderful, incomparable CFO, Judy Bruner, who would explain complex financials that would make you slap your forehead with the simplicity of some difficult concepts she conveyed with a minimum of pain. May Mehrotra bring that much better interface to the investment community! May we have well organized and presented and detailed analyst days such as Sandisk used to have. Ernie (current CFO) is far better than Ron (blessedly replaced CFO). But could there be a Judy in our future? Under his leadership, the Mehrotra-led Sandisk sported a multiple, using almost any conceivable metric, well in excess of peers. Mehrotra's Sandisk doubled from a level where I already thought it was fairly priced and was sold to Western Digital (NYSE:WDC) for a nice premium to that higher price. And we Micron shareholders won't talk about what's happened to WDC since this takeover.

Lots of other things have been going on. Bernstein's Mark Newman believes contract length on chip pricing has lengthened out to a quarter. The eyepopping bids for Toshiba's NAND division have shown that lots of large users feel assured NAND availability is a "must have". Could disappointed bidders in that auction want a piece or all of Micron? I think so. And then there is spot and contract pricing of chips. DRAM spot and contract pricing have taken a breather after a multi month impressive run; DRAM spot remains above contract which is a bullish sign. And NAND prices, both spot and contract, continue to post impressive nightly upward moves. Check my instablog posts updating chip price action, which I won't repeat here.

And what about market share? For the first time its pretty apparent that Micron is gaining DRAM share from both SK Hynix (OTC:HXSCF) and Samsung(OTC:SSNLF). Lets not go too crazy, but perhaps they are also currently gaining NAND share from those two and from Toshiba (OTCPK:TOSBF) and Western Digital.

At the winter analyst day, on February 2, management presented their view that industry DRAM demand was running at a 20% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) and NAND demand is running at a 45% CAGR. I've taken the high end of the ranges in each case.

And how are the competitors doing? For its 2Q ended February, Micron reported that its DRAM bits were up 1%. And here's Goldman Sachs on April 27th on the other two competitors, Hynix and Samsung who have just reported:

Samsung reported that its 1Q17 DRAM bits were down low teens qoq (in line with guidance); Hynix's DRAM bit shipments for 1Q17 were down 5% qoq, in line to slightly below guidance. Samsung maintained 2017 guidance for industry bit growth to be in the high teens range yoy, and said that it will be in line with the market. Hynix fractionally (and this may be semantics) adjusted its DRAM view for 2017 demand growth to be "a little over 20%" from "around 20%", and for demand to be ahead of supply.

So Micron is picking up DRAM share from both of its competitors.

On the NAND side, Goldman reports that Hynix bits were down 3% QoQ and Samsung's were down "mid teens". So here too it seems that Micron is picking up share. Western Digital is expected to report as this is being written, so their numbers aren't known yet. Micron's NAND bits for the 2Q were up 18%.

And yes, mathematicians and purists among you will point out that there is a quarter end mis-match here on the comparisons where Micron's quarter ended in February and the competitors quarters ended in March. But I think its safe to say something VERY good is going on with Micron and that they are picking up market share in both NAND and DRAM. When has that ever happened? Given that the pricing environment is probably very similar across competitors, I would venture that the market is giving gold stars to Micron's current offerings in DRAM, and in 3DNAND where it also appears to be the cost leader. Time will tell.

And what about demand? Today's average sellside report would have one think the world is ending in chip pricing. Certainly Micron's and Hynix's low single digit PE's are suffering from this analytical gloom.

But we've recently heard from HPE (NYSE:HPE), Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), and Seagate (NASDAQ:STX), to name a few, that their earnings have been hurt by the unavailability and high price of chips. Here's Seagate on the subject, in their earnings call of April 26th:

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

Well, I think the NAND shortages are interesting because, at the end of the day, I think it's more challenging for the technology industry to deal with the shortages than it is maybe beneficial to HDDs because of some comparison on a 500 gig. I mean, the reality is even a 500-gig NAND drive, at today's prices or even at six months ago prices, aren't remotely competitive to an HDD price.

I do think that the lack of availability of NAND in certain market segments results in people then shifting their strategies around do they use HDDs or not. So I think, for example, the NAND companies are constantly optimizing where do they shift their NAND. Does to go into phones? Does it go into the data centers? Does it go into the servers or does it go into the PCs? And depending on the grade of flash you're building, the capacity plans you put in six months ago and then what customers are asking for, there's this constant re-optimization of where the NAND is flowing.

I think in the short term probably, and I think HP indicated this on their call two quarters ago, that they felt that the PC industry was being constrained a bit on NAND. I think that probably has shifted some longer-term strategy around product portfolios that breathes some more life into the HDD space, in that people don't want to be caught short with storage technology of any type. And, of course, there again we're talking about 128 or 256.

A hedge fund friend reports that he heard on a conference call that SK Hynix is "sold out on DRAM for 2017".

When are the sellside analysts going to get the message that the memory cycle hasn't turned (yet)?

What about a 3Q earnings forecast? Enough with the yammering about boring stuff like company changes and market conditions! Where's that earnings forecast?

With apologies to Bernstein's Mark Newman, whose lucid model format I've used, here are some basic model input and ouput comparisons:

And here's the model, simplified and broken into three chunks of revenue, COGS, and consolidated P&L. First the revenue assumptions:

Next the COGs assumptions:

And finally the simplified consolidate P&L:

Conclusions. For my 2Q model, most of the individual variables were off but directionally correct. One of the most glaring errors was NAND pricing which the company explained by a heavy mix of dense TLC parts. NAND prices have continued to zoom, so I'm once again leading with a solid price increase and this may prove the weakest part of this model.

Hopefully I will have the time to tweak this before the end of the quarter. Hopefully any feedback will be specific, with reasons behind a grievance on any specific variable.

So that's the fool's errand. Good luck to all.

Disclosure: I am/we are long MU, INTC.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Micron Technology Should Exceed Its Bullish Q3 Forecast - Seeking Alpha

A blockchain is a subtype of distributed ledger data structure, in which transactions are grouped into blocks that reference each other in cryptographic hashes. Technologies are developing that implement blockchains to solve all sorts of problems related to transactions: privacy, security, data integrity, double-spending, dynamic/smart contracting, payments, interoperability, etc. I started in this space at a time when there was very little published literature on blockchain technologies, including published patent applications. Times have changed; now patent applications for blockchain technologies are readily available, with many patents granted. Blockchain technologies are a red-hot investment and development space right now and will be for at least the next couple of years. Many blockchain technology innovators begin with the same concerns. These concerns inspire the following five points of considerations for innovators in blockchain technologies who are interested in securing intellectual property rights.

Blockchain technology innovators, in my experience, have great foresight and can understand many advanced concepts in patent law, perhaps because one must understand the economics of incentivization/gamification to implement true blockchain technologies.

Raina Haque is the founder and lead patent attorney of Erdos Intellectual Property Law. Her technical background is in software engineering and bioinformatics. Prior to joining the legal profession, she was a business analyst and software engineer at a major Wall Street financial firm for global portfolio trading technologies. She was a research fellow at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences in the Neurotoxicology and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance labs. At Wellesley College, her alma mater, she majored in bioinformatics. She serves the intellectual property needs of high tech and design clients. For more information, or to contact Raina, please visit her firm profile page.

Warning & Disclaimer: The pages, articles and comments on IPWatchdog.com do not constitute legal advice, nor do they create any attorney-client relationship. The articles published express the personal opinion and views of the author and should not be attributed to the authors employer, clients or the sponsors of IPWatchdog.com. Read more.

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Five Considerations when Pursuing Patent Rights in the Blockchain Technology Space - IPWatchdog.com

New York Times

Huawei, Chinese Technology Giant, Is Focus of Widening US Investigation New York Times HONG KONG As one of the world's biggest sellers of smartphones and the back-end equipment that makes cellular networks run, Huawei Technologies has become one of the major symbols of China's global technology ambitions. But as it continues its ... and more »

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Huawei, Chinese Technology Giant, Is Focus of Widening US Investigation - New York Times

Seagate Technology Plc (NASDAQ:STX)

Q3 2017 Earnings Call

April 26, 2017 9:00 am ET

Executives

Kate Scolnick - Seagate Technology Plc

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

David H. Morton, Jr. - Seagate Technology Plc

William David Mosley, Ph.D. - Seagate Technology Plc

Philip G. Brace - Seagate Technology Plc

Analysts

Joe H. Wittine - Longbow Research LLC

Edward Parker - BTIG LLC

Rich J. Kugele - Needham & Co. LLC

Robert Cihra - Guggenheim Securities LLC

Operator

Good morning. And welcome to the Seagate Technology Fiscal Third Quarter 2017 Financial Results Conference Call. My name is Liz and I will be your coordinator for today. At this time, all participate are in a listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over it to Kate Scolnick, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury. Please proceed, Kate.

Kate Scolnick - Seagate Technology Plc

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's call. Joining me today from Seagate's executive team are Steve Luczo, Chairman and CEO; Dave Morton, Executive Vice President and CFO; Dave Mosley, President and COO; and Phil Brace, President of Cloud Systems and Silicon Group. We've posted our press release and detailed supplemental information for our March quarter of fiscal 2017 on our Investor Relations site at Seagate.com.

For the last few years, we have communicated our belief that data growths trends will continue to drive storage exabyte demand and the related measurement of capacity per drive and that units are less relevant to mobile cloud environments and future client addressable markets.

In today's newly deployed architectures and applications, high-capacity mass storage is critical. Importantly for Seagate, it is the advanced technology and heads of media, as well as manufacturing absorption of these technologies and test capacity absorption that will most significantly impact our financial performance.

Going forward, we will continue orienting our conference call remarks and supplemental data to key market exabyte results and other business metrics and discontinue providing unit detail. We recognize this represents a change for the investment community in the short term, but believe it better reflects how we are managing and measuring our business performance internally and will help our industry to be evaluated more effectively in a forward-looking manner.

During today's call, we will review the highlights for the March quarter and provide the company outlook for the June quarter and then open the call for questions. We are planning for the call today to go approximately half an hour, and we will do our best to accommodate your questions following our prepared remarks, as time permits.

We will refer to GAAP and non-GAAP measures on this call. Non-GAAP figures are reconciled to GAAP figures on our supplemental information available on the Investor section of our website. We have not reconciled our non-GAAP financial measure guidance to the most directly comparable GAAP measures because material items that impact these measures are out of our control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted. Accordingly, a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure guidance to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable effort.

As a reminder, this conference call contains forward-looking statements about the company's anticipated future operating and financial performance, customer demand, technology and product development advancements and general market conditions. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current views and assumptions and should not be relied upon as of any subsequent date. Actual results may vary materially from today's statements. Information concerning our risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ from these forward-looking statements are contained in the company's SEC filings and supplemental information posted on the Investor section of the company's website.

I would now like to turn the call over to Steve Luczo. Please go ahead, Steve.

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

Thanks, Kate. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. For today's call, I will cover the high-level trends we are seeing in the business. Dave Morton will then discuss certain financial highlights, and I will close the call with our outlook for the June quarter as well as an update for the calendar year.

For the March quarter, Seagate achieved: revenues of approximately $2.7 billion, up 3% year-over-year; GAAP gross margins of 30.5%; net income of $194 million; and diluted earnings per share of $0.65. On a non-GAAP basis, Seagate achieved: gross margins of 31.4%, up 870 basis points year-over-year; net income of $329 million; and diluted earnings per share of $1.10. Cash flow from operations for the quarter was $426 million, up 108% year-over-year.

Our March quarter results reflect a relatively stable demand environment and improved profitability year-over-year. HDD exabyte shipments for the March quarter were 65.5 exabytes, up approximately 18% year-over-year. Average capacity per drive across the HDD portfolio was approximately 1.8 terabytes per drive, up 27% year-over-year. ASPs of $67 were sequentially flat for the March quarter and up 10% year-over-year. Our Cloud Systems and Silicon Group demonstrated 19% year-over-year growth in the March quarter, with particular strength in our flash-based solutions.

We are pleased with Seagate's execution in the March quarter, both in terms of our ability to maximize the profitability of our storage technology portfolio and our continued execution on operational efficiencies.

I will turn the call over to Dave Morton now to go into more detail on our operational activities.

David H. Morton, Jr. - Seagate Technology Plc

Thanks, Steve. For the March quarter, Seagate's addressable HDD market was relatively in line with our forecast. We continue to drive our HDD product sales towards our higher capacity products across our portfolio, benefiting both our revenue and margin results year-over-year.

HDD enterprise revenues were up 3% year-over-year, reflecting exabyte growth of 20% year-over-year and representing 36% of our total consolidated revenue. Within this, nearline revenues were up 9% year-over-year and represented 24% of our total consolidated revenue. Hyperscale nearline revenues were up strong double digits, and our 8 terabyte nearline product continues to be our leading revenue SKU.

Our HDD client high-capacity growth opportunities include consumer, surveillance, DDR and NAS markets. Revenues from these markets were up 25% year-over-year, reflecting exabyte growth of 41% year-over-year and representing approximately 28% of the total consolidated revenue. Average capacity per drive across these markets was over 2 terabyte per drive, up 22% year-over-year.

In our mature mission critical and PC client markets, revenues declined year-over-year, as expected, and exabytes declined slightly. PC client revenues continue to represent approximately 25% of the total consolidated revenue.

Operating expenses for the March quarter were $550 million on a GAAP basis and $443 million on a non-GAAP basis. Total consolidated expenses were slightly higher than forecast, primarily due to non-executive variable compensation.

Capital expenditures were $95 million for the March quarter for maintenance capital and manufacturing footprint redeployment supporting the continued ramp of new HDD products in our portfolio that utilize new tooling and equipment. Our capital expenditures and maintenance capital requirement levels are expected to be less than 5% of our revenue for the remainder of the fiscal year. And through our manufacturing consolidation activities, Seagate is and will continue to operate at, or very near, full capacity.

Cash flow from operations in the March quarter was $426 million and free cash flow was $331 million. These results include approximately $150 million in cash payments related to restructuring charges and biannual non-executive variable compensation. Excluding these items, cash flow from operations would have been approximately $576 million.

Our balance sheet remains healthy, and we ended the March quarter in $3 billion in cash and cash equivalents and 297 million ordinary shares outstanding. Our board has approved our quarterly dividend payment of $0.63 for the March quarter, which will be payable on July 5.

In January, we successfully completed a debt offering of $1.25 billion of investment-grade financing with a weighted average interest rate of less than 5%. This funding will serve as a pre-financing of our 2018 and our 2021 notes and other corporate purposes. We have called our 2021 7% senior notes with a payment of $158 million scheduled for May 1.

Interest expense for the March quarter was $60 million and will be similar in the June quarter. Our debt structure and level of interest expense continues to be well within our financial capabilities and reflective of our investment-grade framework, given our staggered maturities and low interest rate.

Our March quarter results continue to reflect strong execution of our business model objectives and our ability to generate strong cash flow from our Storage portfolio. Combined with our Cloud Systems and Silicon Group, we view that approximately 80% of our Storage product revenue opportunities in calendar 2017 and beyond have growth potential.

While we are still in the process of executing a number of our cost actions in our manufacturing sites and at the corporate level, we believe the combination of these cost alignment activities and the competitiveness of our HDD product portfolio will continue to benefit our product gross margins and overall profitability of our business over the course of calendar year 2017 and beyond.

I would now like to turn the call back to Steve.

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

Thanks, Dave. A few weeks ago, we launched our Data Age 2025 study with IDC that addresses data growth, location and new business verticals over the next several years. With a forecast of 163 zettabytes of information being created over the next few years, HDD mass storage technology will continue to be a vital player in maximizing the value of data across many new verticals.

We believe continuing to optimize our full HDD product portfolio to the structural shifts in application workloads towards higher capacity will prove to be a resilient and competitive marketplace strategy. By this time next year, we anticipate less than 10% of our HDD technology portfolio will be exposed to competing flash devices.

The competitiveness of our HDD portfolio is a result of our long-term investment in delivering world-class storage technology and our dedication to product innovation. A few recent portfolio highlights include: in the nearline market, our 10 terabyte Helium HDD is continuing to ramp with large hyperscale cloud service provider customers. Customer evaluation feedback on our 12 terabyte Helium HDDs has been positive, and we plan to start volume shipments in the June quarter. We believe our opportunities in the nearline market will continue to span across multiple capacity points as our customers evolve their capacity infrastructure for a growing multiple of enterprise workload applications.

We are successfully refreshing a number of products in our portfolio, utilizing our fourth generation SMR technology. And to-date, we have sold over 35 million HDDs into the nearline client and consumer markets with this technology. We believe our technical leadership in areal density will continue through calendar 2017.

Our planned 1 terabyte and 2 terabyte product refreshes for the PC compute markets are on schedule. And this week at NAB, we announced new consumer products including our first offering for the drone marketplace, the Fly Drive, which includes enough space for 60 hours of 4K video footage and developed in partnership with top drone manufacturer, DJI.

From an R&D technology perspective, we continue to invest in our next-generation areal density HAMR technology. With products on the road map for the late 2018 calendar year, we believe we are leading the market in developing and bringing to market this important cost-benefit solution for mass storage capacity needs.

Turning to the market outlook, we remain cautiously optimistic about the current macroeconomic environment and IT spending trends. For the June quarter, we are expecting to achieve revenues of between $2.5 billion and $2.6 billion. Our expectations reflect a seasonal decline in revenue, our desire to maintain lower inventories going into the summer months and some conservatism due to the potential impact of component shortages in DRAM and NAND on various aspects of our customers' businesses in the server, CSP and client space.

We are raising our gross margin expectations for the June quarter to 31%, and we are targeting a new range for calendar 2017 of 29% to 33%. As Dave indicated, operating expenses will trend sequentially down to expect approximately $430 million in the June quarter. We anticipate operating expenses will continue to decline through the rest of the calendar year and exit the December quarter at or below $400 million. Cash flow from operations will be down slightly sequentially, reflecting lower seasonal revenue and cash payout related to our elimination of U.S. vacation accrual.

We continue to expect overall exabyte demand to grow double digits in calendar 2017 over 2016, representing modest revenue growth opportunities for Seagate. Assuming market conditions remain intact, we continue to believe Seagate will achieve earnings per share of at least $4.50 in calendar 2017, and we will provide a fiscal 2018 outlook on our July call.

Thank you for joining us on the call today. And we'll now open the call up for questions and answers.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Our first question comes from the line of Joe Wittine with Longbow Research.

Joe H. Wittine - Longbow Research LLC

Hi. Thanks. Maybe discuss your go-forward exabyte growth expectations by the segments as you lay them out. And specifically...

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

We're not going to provide exabyte growth by segments. That's highly competitive information.

Joe H. Wittine - Longbow Research LLC

Okay. Maybe I should ask...

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

We still believe in exabyte growth that's consistent with what we've said over the last couple of years. Exabyte growth in excess of areal density growth.

Joe H. Wittine - Longbow Research LLC

Can nearline still grow in the mid to high-30%s this year after the 20% start? I ask because the remaining quarters have some pretty difficult comps. So maybe talk a little bit more detail with that.

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

Yes, I do think they can. As you see the 10s and 12s start to ramp. I think the first half of the year has been an issue both of what's really the right marketplace for the 10 terabyte, especially with the 12 kind of coming right behind it, as well as the CSPs have been and we've kind of expected this the whole time, that the second half of the year was going to be stronger than the first half of the year. So I think the combination of stronger demand signals for the second half plus the rotation of the portfolio that's going to have 8s, 10s and 12s and not just pretty much 8s, you're going to see exabyte growth there that's going to continue.

Joe H. Wittine - Longbow Research LLC

Okay. And then as a follow-up, price per exabyte declined at the lowest rate in a few years. It's now the second quarter you're kind of in a 13% to 14% range versus the low 20%s range that the industry has been in. What is a good expectation to model going forward, given you said you're generally near peak capacity?

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

Yes. I think that's a great question. I think we've got to continue to be very careful on the pricing, especially, again, as you go from 10s and 12s. On the one hand, the customer demand is certainly there for those higher capacity drives, but the industry's capability to deliver that technology is coming through solutions that effectively cost more.

Either you're adding more heads in disk or other technology to handle that kind of workload. And especially when you're adding more heads in disk, you have to obviously be very careful about the aggressive price takedowns that have occurred because somehow you have to absorb the extra parts. So I think you're going to see some resolution where those price declines are going to continue to stabilize just because we have to afford the new technology.

And, of course, we're not going to end at 10s or 12s. We're going to have to get to 16 and then 20 and 32, and that's all going to take a lot of technology. So we definitely believe you're going to see stabilization in that pricing.

Joe H. Wittine - Longbow Research LLC

Okay. Thanks, Steve.

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

Yes. Thanks.

Operator

Our next question comes from Edward Parker with BTIG.

Edward Parker - BTIG LLC

Thanks. Steve, I wanted to ask you about price elasticity and I'm just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the impact of higher NAND pricing in the quarter on your HDD business. Are you seeing higher unit sales because of higher prices for SSDs or higher unit sales because of the lack of availability for SSDs?

And then secondly, how do you think about price elasticity across your portfolio? And how could that change as you look at your business over the next couple of years?

Stephen James Luczo - Seagate Technology Plc

Well, I think the NAND shortages are interesting because, at the end of the day, I think it's more challenging for the technology industry to deal with the shortages than it is maybe beneficial to HDDs because of some comparison on a 500 gig. I mean, the reality is even a 500-gig NAND drive, at today's prices or even at six months ago prices, aren't remotely competitive to an HDD price.

I do think that the lack of availability of NAND in certain market segments results in people then shifting their strategies around do they use HDDs or not. So I think, for example, the NAND companies are constantly optimizing where do they shift their NAND. Does to go into phones? Does it go into the data centers? Does it go into the servers or does it go into the PCs? And depending on the grade of flash you're building, the capacity plans you put in six months ago and then what customers are asking for, there's this constant re-optimization of where the NAND is flowing.

I think in the short term probably, and I think HP indicated this on their call two quarters ago, that they felt that the PC industry was being constrained a bit on NAND. I think that probably has shifted some longer-term strategy around product portfolios that breathes some more life into the HDD space, in that people don't want to be caught short with storage technology of any type. And, of course, there again we're talking about 128 or 256.

For us, it's really an issue of getting the volumes ramped on the 1TB, where we have a substantial lead, and then offering that product to the PC companies that maybe today are taking a lot of 500- gig product because at volume, obviously, it's a single-disk and two-headed product, so we can be quite competitive. So I think from a Seagate perspective, we feel that the shortage overall might marginally help us on the client space as we move through the calendar year and maybe even to the beginning of next year.

I think where it's more problematic for the industry in general, and I mean everyone, is if it's constraining build-outs at all at the CSP space, that with the DRAM shortages. And we have seen indications of certain deployments being delayed because they basically can't get all the component technology that they need across the board. We experience that a little bit in our own CSSG business, where we obviously need to get flash to sell our flash drives.

We have a big demand profile for our current-generation products, which are quite competitive. But we're constrained by as much as $40 million or $50 million in revenue in terms of can we get the flash or not. So that's one of the issues that we're going to be working hard and one of the reasons that I think there is some opportunity on the revenue side if we can secure that NAND. So it's a pretty dynamic situation that you're on top of.

I don't know that it's as easy to say that it's good or bad. I think there's some good to it and there's some pressures from it. We've always said it's a better world if there's a lot of NAND because that means people have more devices in their hand and they're creating more data. And that's still our thesis.

Next question?

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Rich Kugele with Needham & Company.

Rich J. Kugele - Needham & Co. LLC

Thank you. Good morning. Steve, can you just elaborate a little more about your comment that less than 10% of your portfolio would be exposed to competing flash devices? Like over what timeframe are you referring and how do you get there? Is that walking away from categories, or is that just a mix change towards more cloud service providers?

Continued here:

Seagate Technology Plc (STX) Q3 2017 Results - Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha

During Wednesdays matinee between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants infielder Eduardo Nunez was thrown out trying to steal second base in the bottom of the first inning.

Although Nunez was originally called out, after an official review the call was reversed thanks to the latest in video technology. The play was studied numerous times in high definition and in slow motion. It was also watched at an exposure at least five-times the normal magnification.

The same scenario unfolds every day in sports, from the NHL to the NBA and Major League Baseball, technology and video replays are now an integral part of the athletic landscape. After decades of trial and error, officials have come to the realization that there is no limit to video review to assure the correct call.

Every sport, that is, except golf.

How the new decision issued by the USGA and R&A on Tuesday will be applied remains to be seen, and by most accounts the new standards are a step in the right direction. But there is something distinctly archaic about a move that limits technology.

Under the new naked eye standard, officials will continue to use video reviews to determine if theres been a violation and the same standard was already being used in some situations but the difference now is that officials will need to determine how much technology is too much technology.

Video technology, especially the use of methods such as high resolution or close-up camera shots that can be replayed in slow motion, has the potential to undermine this essential characteristic of the game by identifying the existence of facts that could not reasonably be identified in any other way, the new decision reads.

Officials will now need to determine if a possible violation could reasonably have been seen with the naked eye.

Put another way, its not simply a review of the facts that officials will need to address, but also whether the level of technology used to determine a possible violation fits with the naked eye standard.

A great example of this standard came at the 2014 Players Championship when Justin Rose was assessed a two-stroke penalty one shot for the ball moving at address and one for not replacing it after it had moved on Day 3.

This ruling was the result of numerous reviews of the incident using high-definition cameras and highly magnified images, but the next day PGA Tour rules officials rescinded the penalty based on the original naked eye decision and the Englishman began the final round two strokes closer to the lead than he was when he left the golf course on Saturday.

While most agreed that Roses situation was exactly what the rule makers were hoping to remedy with the naked eye standard, no one can say exactly where that line should be drawn.

Is standard-definition video and images slowed to half speed where things remain clear to the naked eye, or are there scenarios where a more detailed review would be considered appropriate?

Originally, Tour officials said the naked eye standard shouldnt apply to Roses situation in 14 at TPC Sawgrass because hed backed away from the shot.

He saw something, the Tours vice president of rules and competitions Mark Russell told GolfChannel.com at the time.

A more recent incident involving Lexi Thompson at the ANA Inspiration would be a more legitimate standard, but because neither Thompson nor anyone in her group was questioned about the incident it is unknown if the penalty would have been reversed under the new standard.

Because officials used ultra-high definition and magnified video to determine that Thompson had not replaced her golf ball in the same spot after marking it during the third round it would be a legitimate litmus test going forward. Its also worth pointing out that most who watched the replay of the Thompson situation agree there was a violation of Rule 20-7c (playing from wrong place).

If the consensus is Thompson ran afoul of the rules, however innocent the incident might seem, should the issue be what level of video technology remains within the new naked eye decision, or whether the Rules of Golf need to be adjusted to account for such seemingly harmless acts?

Technology and to a lesser degree viewer call-ins and emails, but thats a column for another day has been made out to be the problem here, and yet every other professional sport is heading in the opposite direction of golf on the information super highway.

The rule makers are blazing new paths in what has been billed as a modernization of the Rules of Golf, but this new decision which is entitled limitations on use of video evidence feels like a step in the wrong direction.

No one is pleased with the the Thompson situation neither the outcome nor that it took some 20 hours to unfold and the desire to avoid similar incidents in the future is understandable, but sports have rules that must be applied no matter how much technology is needed to assure the proper outcome.

Just ask Nunez.

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Golf takes step back in reducing technology's role - Golf Channel

If we value growth, more technology is a must Financial Times What changed this was technology. Despite huge technological advances, employment as a percentage of population has remained stable in western Europe over the past 150 years. But we work 50 per cent fewer hours, and gross domestic product has ...

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If we value growth, more technology is a must - Financial Times

Badger Meter Inc. will acquire D-Flow Technology AB of Lule, Sweden for $23 million in cash, the Brown Deer-based company announced Wednesday.

Badger Meter Inc.s headquarters in Brown Deer.

D-Flow Technology designs and manufacturers integrated circuits and transducers and specializes in ultrasonic technology. The company has 13 employees and $2.5 million in sales last year. The deal is expected to close May 1.

There is a growing acceptance of ultrasonic technology within the municipal water market. We believe the D-Flow Technology will strengthen our position in ultrasonic flow measurement by enabling us to further enhance our existing E-Series Ultrasonic product line, lower production costs and provide a platform for the continuing advancement of our ultrasonic capabilities, said Richard Meeusen, Badger Meter chairman, president and chief executive officer.

Meeusen said D-Flows research and development work would stay in Sweden while production would come to Badger Meters Milwaukee-area and Mexican facilities. He said the deal is similar to Badger Meters 2013 acquisition of Aquacue Inc., which allowed the company to bolster its cellular technology.

Weve been looking for a way to beef up our ultrasonic technology, Meeusen said, noting Badger Meter found it difficult to hire enough talent to accomplish the goal or to partner with another firm.

D-Flow currently makes some of the technology used by Badger Meters competitors. Meeusen said he initially sought to establish an exclusive licensing agreement with D-Flow, but the company wasnt open to the idea. He said the acquisition will allow Badger Meter to control D-Flows future development while also bolstering Badger Meters ultrasonic capabilities.

Badger Meter Inc. will acquire D-Flow Technology AB of Lule, Sweden for $23 million in cash, the Brown Deer-based company announced Wednesday.

Badger Meter Inc.s headquarters in Brown Deer.

D-Flow Technology designs and manufacturers integrated circuits and transducers and specializes in ultrasonic technology. The company has 13 employees and $2.5 million in sales last year. The deal is expected to close May 1.

There is a growing acceptance of ultrasonic technology within the municipal water market. We believe the D-Flow Technology will strengthen our position in ultrasonic flow measurement by enabling us to further enhance our existing E-Series Ultrasonic product line, lower production costs and provide a platform for the continuing advancement of our ultrasonic capabilities, said Richard Meeusen, Badger Meter chairman, president and chief executive officer.

Meeusen said D-Flows research and development work would stay in Sweden while production would come to Badger Meters Milwaukee-area and Mexican facilities. He said the deal is similar to Badger Meters 2013 acquisition of Aquacue Inc., which allowed the company to bolster its cellular technology.

Weve been looking for a way to beef up our ultrasonic technology, Meeusen said, noting Badger Meter found it difficult to hire enough talent to accomplish the goal or to partner with another firm.

D-Flow currently makes some of the technology used by Badger Meters competitors. Meeusen said he initially sought to establish an exclusive licensing agreement with D-Flow, but the company wasnt open to the idea. He said the acquisition will allow Badger Meter to control D-Flows future development while also bolstering Badger Meters ultrasonic capabilities.

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Badger Meter to acquire Swedish technology firm - BizTimes.com (Milwaukee)

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP The technology the Next Generation Air Transportation System operates on passed a major test recently.

Aireon and the Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday a successful flight test of space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast technology. NextGen is a system of sensors based around automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast technology. The ADS-B technology lets air traffic control workers have a better idea of where craft are in the air.

A flight test coordinated with the FAA was the ultimate validation accomplishment for the Aireon system to date and is a textbook example of how a public-private partnership can thrive. It is nearly impossible to have a higher fidelity test without the experts at the FAA, Vinny Capezzuto, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at Aireon, said in a statement.

The flight took place March 30 utilizing the FAAs specially equipped flying laboratory Bombardier jet, based at the William J. Hughes Technical Center, with three Aireon payloads available to receive data. The aircraft is retrofitted with highly calibrated antennas, flight-data test equipment and recorders.

The collaboration between Aireon, its service partner Harris, and the FAA is a testament to our goal of working with industry to continue pushing NextGen technology forward, Andy Leone, surveillance and broadcast services, systems engineering lead/test director at the FAA, said in a statement. This test further exemplifies the FAAs and NextGen programs commitment to improving air traffic safety and efficiency for global aviation.

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NextGen technology passes key test - Press of Atlantic City

Scientists have created a new technology that could potentially act as an artificial womb wherein babies bornduring the second trimester could not only be kept alive but potentially develop until fully healthy and independently viable, Stat reported Tuesday.

This experimental artificial womb the biobag is a large plastic bag filled with fluid and kept in a state that mimicsthe inside of a uterus. The umbilical chord is attached to a device that provides the blood with oxygen. The goal is that, after a few weeks in the biobag, the baby couldbe removed and placed on a ventilator until further developed to the point where they can breath on their own.

Babies born as early as 22 weeks have a 50 percent chance of survivalwith current technology,but the same devices that save their lives can causeproblems that last well into adulthood.

We know that even a few hours of that [current technology]damages the lungs of a 24-week infant, says Dr. George Mychaliska, a pediatric and fetal surgeon at C.S. Mott Childrens Hospital. Our hands are tied, because in the absence of that, the baby would die. So we accept some lung damage to keep the baby alive.

With this new technology, doctors hope for a much greater chance of survival without developmental problems. While tests have not started on humans as of yet, Mychaliskahas tested the technology on prematurely born lambs. The duration of support is outstanding, he said.

Scientists predict that human testing is at least three years away, but the technology will face its own problems. Umbilical chords shrink the moment they are hit by air, Stat reported, making it difficult to fit tubes into them. Stat also noted thatthe artificial uteri can easily be contaminated with infections, andthe fetal heart is weak and sometimes cant handle artificially having blood pumped into it.

Dr. Alan Flake, a pediatric and fetal surgeon at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia has begun studies with lambs as well, and described the process to Stat:

In tests on sheep, Flake first slits open the uterus as if he were performing acaesarean section. Then, he connects an artificial blood-circulation system to the ends of the umbilical cord. Finally, he takes out the tiny lamb, umbilical cord included, and places it into the biobag, which is filled with a brew of electrolytes. The entire process takes about two minutes, he said.

A video demonstrating part of Flakes lamb experiment has been released. In it, you can see the premature lamb in the biobag, being artificially gestated.

Flake typically euthanizes the lambs quickly after delivery for study. However, he has allowed one to live and grow naturally. Reportedly, its living in a field with other sheep somewhere in Pennsylvania.

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New artificial womb technology could keep babies born prematurely alive and healthy - TheBlaze.com