Mastek (NASDAQ: SLAB)

MASTEK Mumbai based IT services company Mastek Limited (BSE: MAST) has been on a high in recent days. The company posted revenues of $20.75 million for the quarter ended March 2003, a 45% increase over its performance in the year ago period. Net profit for the quarter ended March 31, stood at $3.3 million, a 45% increase over the same quarter, previous year.

The Group International Revenues for the nine months ending March 31, 2003 were $48.9 million, an increase of 42% over $40.8 million in the corresponding period last year, which was led by growth of 49% in the US operations and 33% in the European operations.

The March 2003 quarter marked a moderate nine months for the company, which has seen 800% plus growth since 1996. It was not able to maintain its growth momentum and achieve its ambitious target of 43-48% growth. However, the company is still on course for a 26-30% revenue growth rate, which is in line with the average industry growth rate.

The company attributes its fairly conservative guidance of 26-30% to decision postponements, order -size reductions, economic and other external uncertainties. However, the company is going ahead with its plan to diversify its services portfolio. In May, the company announced a joint venture between its U.S. arm Majesco Software and the U.S. based Carreker Corp. to offer business processing and IT services from offshore locations like India. Nasdaq-listed Carreker (Nasdaq:CANIE) will hold 51 percent and Majesco 49 percent of the new company that is to be called Carretek LLC. Carreker, which focuses on the financial services industry, has over 250 clients around the world, including 75 of the largest 100 banks in the United States. In its pursuit of further diversifying its business offerings, Mastek also announced the launch of its BPO services.

In a study conducted by Credit Lyonnasis (CLSA) in the year 2002, Mastek was ranked fourth amongst the Indian IT companies.


Silicon Laboratories, (NASDAQ: SLAB)

Nav Sooch-led Silicon Labs (NASD:SLAB) is fresh of a record breaking quarter, more than doubling its quarterly revenue year on year and delivering its sixth consecutive revenue of quarter on quarter growth.

The Austin, TX-based IC mixed signal innovator reported first quarter 2003 revenues of $63.8 million, up six percent from the $60.2 million it posted in the fourth quarter of 2002. This represents a 121 percent increase over revenues of $28.8 million during the first quarter of 2002. As of March 29, 2003, cash and short-term investments totaled $131.3 million, an increase of $16.1 million over the fourth quarter of 2002.

The company also achieved its goal of 25% operating income, before non-cash and litigation settlement charges, as a percent of revenue. The company also saw sustained growth in all three of its product lines- wireline, wireless and optical.

The company also shored up its Asia operations, setting up offices in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The expansion serves the purpose of proximity to what could be Silicon Labs' most lucrative market. The company has a number of high value customers like Samsung Electronics, BenQ Corporation, Compal Communications and Panasonic Mobile Communications etc. Moreover, Asia is the world's largest market for semiconductors and a major contributor to the double-digit growth that the semiconductor industry is expecting in 2003.

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Asia represents 36 percent of the world's telecommunication subscribers and is expected to have more than one billion new subscribers by the end of the decade. Asia is home to 33 percent of the world's Internet users and 47 percent of ADSL users. These opportunities represent a tremendous market for Silicon Laboratories' customers who leverage the company's integrated circuits as key components of their solutions.

The company will be relying on its Asia operations for a significant chunk of the $66 to $68 million second quarter revenues it is forecasting.