Product development and research expense decreased 10.8% from $839,000 (13.9% of sales) in the three month period ended September 30, 2001 to $748,000 (11.3% of revenues) in the three month period ended September 30, 2002 and decreased 7.6% from $2.7 million (13.4% of revenues) in the nine month period ended September 30, 2001 to $2.5 million (13.7% of revenues) for the nine month period ended September 30, 2002. The decrease in the dollar amount primarily resulted from our decreased use of outside design services coupled with the re-allocation of some engineering costs to cost of revenues related to engineering service revenues. Selling, general and administrative expense (SG&A) decreased 13.3% from $2.2 million (36.7% of revenues) in the three month period ended September 30, 2001 to $1.9 million (29.0% of revenues) in the three month period ended September 30, 2002 and decreased 11.7% from $6.4 million (32.1% of revenues) in the nine month period ended September 30, 2001 to $5.7 million (31.3% of revenues) for the nine month period ended September 30, 2002. The decrease in the dollar amount of SG&A is due to the reduction of staff and implementation of operating cost reduction programs implemented in the second quarter of 2001 and due to the $300,000 bad debt reserve adjustment recorded in the third quarter 2001. Operating results improved from a $593,000 loss in the three month period ended September 30, 2001 to an operating profit of $30,000 in the three month period ended September 30, 2002 and from a $2.5 million loss in the nine months ended September 30, 2001 to a $692,000 loss in the nine months ended September 30, 2002. Key factors contributing to the operating improvements were: i) an improving quarterly revenue trend in 2002; ii) the positive effect of organizational downsizing implemented in mid-2001; and iii) the negative impact of adjustments to inventory and bad debt reserves which occurred in the second and third quarters of 2001, respectively. We recorded a $764,000 income tax benefit in the nine month period ended September 30, 2001 and a zero tax provision in the nine month period ended September 30, 2002. No tax benefit was recorded in the 2002 period due to lack of sufficient probability that any additional potential benefit would actually be realized. Our net results improved from a $462,000 net loss in the three months ended September 30, 2001 to net income of $40,000 for the same period in 2002 and a net loss of $1.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2001 to a net loss of $692,000 for the same period in 2002, for the reasons described above. Liquidity and Capital ResourcesAt September 30, 2002, working capital totaled $18.8 million as compared to $19.3 million at December 31, 2001. This decrease is a result the usage of cash to purchase fixed assets and to reduce long-term debt. For the nine months ended September 30, 2002 operations generated $425,000 in positive cash flow. This result is due to the negative year-to-date operating results offset by non-cash adjustments and a net improvement in operating assets and liabilities. For the nine month period ended September 30, 2002, investing activities consisted primarily of our purchase of production and computer network equipment for $286,000 which was offset by the conversion to cash of marketable securities of $2.5 million that matured during the period. We believe we can fund operations for at least the next twelve months from existing cash balances. We renegotiated our U.S. bank lines of credit to eliminate the financial covenants; however, the agreements governing the lines of credit now require any future borrowings to be secured by cash and investments held at the bank. To date, we have not borrowed under these facilities. Negotiated lines of credit in Japan and the exercise of employee stock options are also potential sources of capital available to us. We require liquidity to fund capital expenditures and for working capital and other general corporate purposes. 12
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