Power-One, Inc. announced that for the fourth quarter ended December 28, 2008, net sales were $130.4 million, a decrease of 1.5% from $132.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Net income was $0.02 per share, which included a gain of $3.9 million, or $0.04 per share, from the repurchase of $10 million of outstanding convertible debt during the quarter, compared to a net loss of $0.07 per share for the same period last year. For full-year 2008, sales increased by 5.1% to $537.5 million, and net loss was $17.5 million or $0.20 per share compared with sales of $511.6 million and net loss of $36.4 million, or $0.42 per share for full-year 2007.
Revenue for the quarter was negatively affected by the difficult market environment and approximately $4.8 million related to the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against European currencies. Bookings of $104.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 decreased 15% from bookings of $122.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. The company ended the fourth quarter of 2008 with approximately $69 million in 90-day backlog, compared to approximately $76 million for the same period last year.
Gross margin improved to 22.0% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with 21.1% in the fourth quarter of 2007, as a result of continued efforts to improve operating efficiencies. Operating expenses decreased to 21.7% of net sales compared with 23.3% of net sales for the fourth quarter of 2007.
The company continues to implement aggressive cost reduction actions in response to ongoing demand uncertainty. As a result, the company will reduce its global headcount by approximately 1,000, or 22% of the workforce, and will incur charges of approximately $1.3 million related to severance. The company expects to recoup the cash severance payments from related salary and benefits savings within three months of being incurred and will realize the substantial majority of the run rate benefit in the second quarter of 2009.
Richard Thompson, CEO, commented, "During the quarter we performed well and met our revenue and earnings guidance in a challenging economic climate. We continued to make improvements on our expense reductions, operating results and strategic initiatives while gaining momentum in the renewable energy market and with a number of major power customers as a result of improved order execution and our broad based product solutions. As we enter 2009, we are adjusting our cost basis to a lower revenue run rate as we continue to invest in our sales footprint, engineering and service delivery in the renewable energy space. Likewise, we will continue to implement changes throughout the business to build on our product momentum and further improve profitability and working capital efficiency."
