Waters Corporation revised its 2001 results and updated its earnings outlook for 2002 first quarter and full year as a result of an unfavorable ruling in the patent litigation involving certain mass spectrometry products sold in the United States.
The judgement is specific to the company's Quattro Ultima(TM) product offerings. However, because the high-end Q-TOF family of products uses similar technology, the company has decided to hold shipment of these products as well in the United States. Affected products are the Quattro Ultima(TM), Q-TOF API(TM), Q-TOF Maldi(TM) and Q-TOF Global(TM). All other mass spectrometry products including the Q-TOF Micro(TM) and Quattro Micro(TM) are not affected.
Even though Waters Corp. plans to aggressively appeal this verdict, it has revised its 2001 results, previously reported in a January 2002 press release, to include a $75 million pre-tax provision for estimated costs related to this matter. This has reduced earnings per share for the year from $1.23 per diluted share to $.83 per diluted share. Adjusted financial statements are attached.
In light of the current litigation status facing Waters Corp., it has reforecasted its view of 2002 and the Company now estimates that sales growth in Q1 and full year to be 5 percent and 9 percent respectively before currency impacts and 2 percent and 7 percent respectively at actual rates. Earnings per diluted share are now estimated to be between $.27 to $.29 for Q1 and $1.37 to $1.45 for the full year.
Douglas A. Berthiaume, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "The result of the recent litigation involving several of our mass spectrometry offerings has been a significant disappointment. We still believe that we have a strong defense and we will pursue the appeals process while we proceed with our efforts to introduce new products in the second half of this year that incorporate pre-existing technology."
Source: Waters Corp.
