(EXTR) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Extreme Networks Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2022 Financial Results. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎來到 Extreme Networks 2022 財年第四季度財務業績。 （操作員說明）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to hand the conference over to Stan Kovler, Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy. Please go ahead.

我現在想將會議交給投資者關係和公司戰略副總裁 Stan Kovler。請繼續。

Thank you, Catherine. Welcome to the Extreme Networks Fourth Fiscal Quarter and Year-end 2022 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Stan Kovler, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations. With me today are Extreme Networks' President and CEO, Ed Meyercord; and CFO, Remi Thomas.

謝謝你，凱瑟琳。歡迎參加 Extreme Networks 第四財季和 2022 年年終收益電話會議。我是 Stan Kovler，公司戰略和投資者關係副總裁。今天和我在一起的是 Extreme Networks 的總裁兼首席執行官 Ed Meyercord；和首席財務官雷米·托馬斯。

We just distributed a press release and filed an 8-K detailing Extreme Networks' financial results for the quarter. For your convenience, a copy of the press release, which includes our GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations, is available in the Investor Relations section of our website at extremenetworks.com.

我們剛剛發布了一份新聞稿並提交了一份 8-K，詳細說明了 Extreme Networks 本季度的財務業績。為方便起見，包含我們的 GAAP 與非 GAAP 對賬的新聞稿副本可在我們網站extremenetworks.com 的投資者關係部分獲得。

I would like to remind you that during today's call, our discussion may include forward-looking statements about Extreme's future business, financial, and operational results, growth expectations, and strategies. We caution you not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as they involve risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these statements, as described in our risk factors in our 10-K report for the period ending June 30, 2021, filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements made on this call reflect our analysis as of today, and we have no plans or duty to update them, except as required by law.

我想提醒您，在今天的電話會議中，我們的討論可能包括有關 Extreme 未來業務、財務和運營結果、增長預期和戰略的前瞻性陳述。我們提醒您不要過分依賴這些前瞻性陳述，因為它們涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與這些陳述的預期存在重大差異，如我們在 10-K 報告中的風險因素所述提交給 SEC 的截止日期為 2021 年 6 月 30 日。在本次電話會議上所做的任何前瞻性陳述都反映了我們截至今天的分析，除法律要求外，我們沒有更新它們的計劃或義務。

Now I will turn the call over to Extreme's President and CEO, Ed Meyercord.

現在我將把電話轉給 Extreme 的總裁兼首席執行官 Ed Meercord。

Thank you, Stan, and thank you all for joining us this morning. We have a strong quarter and year, and I'm pleased with the progress our teams are making. Our results for fiscal '22 highlight unprecedented demand for Extreme's solutions and a very vibrant and healthy market for networking.

謝謝你，斯坦，謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。我們有一個強勁的季度和年度，我對我們的團隊所取得的進展感到高興。我們在 22 財年的業績突顯了對 Extreme 解決方案的前所未有的需求，以及一個充滿活力和健康的網絡市場。

We reported record bookings growth of 24%, which is a clear indication that we're taking share and winning in the market. And our forward-looking funnel for fiscal '23 is up double digits year over year. This is a leading indicator of future bookings growth. The differentiation of our fabric and cloud solutions for enterprise customers and our targeted solutions for very large service provider customers, combined with the high performance of our global sales and channel teams gives us the confidence in our outlook for continued growth and demand. Our technology solutions are critical to infrastructure initiatives underpinning digital transformation for all of our customers around the world. We believe these important projects will continue to remain a priority, irrespective of a changing macroeconomic environment.

我們報告了創紀錄的 24% 的預訂量增長，這清楚地表明我們正在搶占市場份額並贏得市場。我們對 23 財年的前瞻性漏斗同比增長兩位數。這是未來預訂增長的領先指標。我們為企業客戶提供的架構和雲解決方案的差異化以及我們為超大型服務提供商客戶提供的針對性解決方案，再加上我們全球銷售和渠道團隊的高績效，使我們對持續增長和需求的前景充滿信心。我們的技術解決方案對於支持我們全球所有客戶的數字化轉型的基礎設施計劃至關重要。我們相信，無論宏觀經濟環境如何變化，這些重要項目將繼續成為優先事項。

For the year, our double-digit revenue growth led to an all-time high revenue of $1.1 billion, yet it was understated by the $400 million of incremental backlog we built during the year. Our total Q4 ending backlog was $513 million, thanks to the current supply chain environment.

這一年，我們兩位數的收入增長帶來了 11 億美元的歷史最高收入，但我們在這一年增加的 4 億美元的積壓訂單被低估了。由於當前的供應鏈環境，我們第四季度末的總積壓為 5.13 億美元。

Despite margin pressures, we were also pleased to generate a record $60 million of free cash flow during the quarter, bringing our net debt-to-EBITDA below 1. The continued improvement in our operating model allowed us to achieve record non-GAAP EPS of $0.70 per share for the year, up 35% year over year. We expect these bottom-line earnings growth trends to continue.

儘管面臨利潤壓力，我們也很高興在本季度創造了創紀錄的 6000 萬美元的自由現金流，使我們的淨債務與 EBITDA 之比低於 1。我們運營模式的持續改進使我們實現了創紀錄的非公認會計原則每股收益全年每股 0.70 美元，同比增長 35%。我們預計這些底線盈利增長趨勢將繼續下去。

A record 208 customers spent more than $1 million with Extreme during fiscal '22, up 28% from a year ago. We attribute this success to our strategy of leveraging channel partners as a vehicle for growth in the enterprise market, while focusing our direct sellers on larger projects. Our sales productivity is at an all-time high as a result, and we have more teams over quota than any time in our history. There's never been a better time to be at Extreme, as demonstrated by our sellers in the field.

在 22 財年，有 208 名客戶在 Extreme 上花費了超過 100 萬美元，比一年前增長了 28%。我們將這一成功歸功於我們利用渠道合作夥伴作為企業市場增長工具的戰略，同時將我們的直銷商集中在更大的項目上。因此，我們的銷售效率達到了歷史最高水平，而且我們的團隊超額配置比歷史上任何時候都多。正如我們在該領域的賣家所證明的那樣，現在是進入 Extreme 的最佳時機。

In addition, our competitive position in the industry has never been stronger. Small share gains have a large impact on Extreme from both the financial and industry recognition perspective. Our distributors, channel partners and our customers are taking notice of the industry accolades we're receiving for our solutions and service. For the first time, we eclipsed the largest industry player in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, where we are an established leader for 4 years. And for the fifth year in a row, Extreme was named Gartner's choice for wired and wireless LAN access infrastructure.

此外，我們在行業中的競爭地位從未如此強大。從財務和行業認可的角度來看，少量的股票收益對 Extreme 有很大的影響。我們的分銷商、渠道合作夥伴和我們的客戶正在關注我們的解決方案和服務所獲得的行業讚譽。我們第一次超越了 Gartner 魔力像限中最大的行業參與者，我們在該象限中已經成為了 4 年的領導者。連續第五年，Extreme 被 Gartner 評為有線和無線 LAN 接入基礎設施的選擇。

This recognition carries weight with our target enterprise customers. Our differentiated cloud-based solutions drove subscription bookings growth of 58%, and we achieved annualized cloud SaaS bookings of $170 million exiting Q4. Demand for our innovative SaaS solutions is also driving demand for our products, and we believe the level of organic subscription growth we are seeing today is sustainable.

這種認可對我們的目標企業客戶很重要。我們基於雲的差異化解決方案推動訂閱預訂量增長 58%，我們在第四季度實現了 1.7 億美元的年化雲 SaaS 預訂量。對我們創新的 SaaS 解決方案的需求也推動了對我們產品的需求，我們相信我們今天看到的有機訂閱增長水平是可持續的。

Our ARR reached $103 million in Q4, up 47% year over year and 8% quarter over quarter. We continue to build on our vision of the Infinite Enterprise with the launch of Extreme Cloud SD-WAN solutions, extending our cloud edge services across wide area networks. These solutions, along with our AI Ops development around digital twin and CoPilot will provide the next wave of growth in our subscription business and support our long-term subscription revenue outlook of 35% to 45%.

我們的 ARR 在第四季度達到 1.03 億美元，同比增長 47%，環比增長 8%。我們通過推出 Extreme Cloud SD-WAN 解決方案，繼續構建我們對無限企業的願景，將我們的雲邊緣服務擴展到廣域網。這些解決方案，連同我們圍繞數字孿生和 CoPilot 的 AI Ops 開發，將為我們的訂閱業務帶來下一波增長，並支持我們 35% 至 45% 的長期訂閱收入前景。

We received tremendous feedback from our annual Connect user conference that we held live for the first time in several years. Associated content sessions were viewed more than 4,000 times over 1.5 days. We also showcased our ecosystem of over 100-plus technology integrations and partnerships on display at the event. Next week, we're oversubscribed for our sales kickoff event for our direct sellers and channel partners, where we expect over 1,000 live up in Boston.

我們從幾年來首次現場舉行的年度 Connect 用戶大會中收到了巨大的反饋。相關內容會話在 1.5 天內被瀏覽了 4,000 多次。我們還在活動中展示了我們的 100 多項技術集成和合作夥伴關係的生態系統。下週，我們為直銷商和渠道合作夥伴舉辦的銷售啟動活動獲得了超額認購，我們預計波士頓將有超過 1,000 人參加。

We exceeded our stated goal of generating an incremental $20 million in fiscal '22 sales of our 5G solutions to service providers. We're starting to experience pull-through business, thanks to a significant ramp in next-generation global telco network deployments. And we're working on expanded use cases with our OEM partner for additional cloud-native solutions, where we are the preferred vendor.

我們超過了既定目標，即在 22 財年向服務提供商銷售我們的 5G 解決方案，增加 2000 萬美元。由於下一代全球電信網絡部署的顯著增長，我們開始體驗直通式業務。我們正在與我們的 OEM 合作夥伴一起開發更多的雲原生解決方案，我們是首選供應商。

Today, our teams are more confident in navigating the challenging supply chain environment, thanks to a combination of strategic relationships, new processes and more consistency with secondary and tertiary component suppliers, and success in the broker market for components. In addition, our teams have been successful in reengineering products to improve lead times for customers. This allowed us to release nearly $20 million of backlog during the quarter. These efforts were enabled by a number of our cross-functional teams working with key OEMs and suppliers. We were able to create new product SKUs and certify them in record time. Our customers recognize this agility, and it's creating new business opportunities for us.

今天，我們的團隊在應對充滿挑戰的供應鏈環境時更有信心，這要歸功於戰略關係、新流程以及與二級和三級組件供應商的一致性，以及在組件代理市場上的成功。此外，我們的團隊成功地重新設計產品以縮短客戶的交貨時間。這使我們能夠在本季度釋放近 2000 萬美元的積壓訂單。我們的許多跨職能團隊與主要 OEM 和供應商合作，促成了這些努力。我們能夠創建新產品 SKU 並在創紀錄的時間內對其進行認證。我們的客戶認識到這種敏捷性，它正在為我們創造新的商機。

As we noted during our Investor Day in May, we expect to continue to build backlog for the next several quarters, given our outlook for continued bookings growth and the gradual recovery in supply chain. For the guidance we provided, we expect sequential improvements in our ability to deliver product to customers throughout fiscal '23. Based on the lead times and commitments, we expect backlog will begin to shrink by Q4 of fiscal '23. We have complete visibility into our product backlog and have received negligible cancellations to date of less than 1% of bookings. Our backlog primarily consists of our latest-generation universal products. So when we begin to ship product, we will also see an improvement in subscription and services bookings that are attached to our wired and wireless products.

正如我們在 5 月的投資者日期間指出的那樣，鑑於我們對持續預訂增長和供應鏈逐步復甦的展望，我們預計未來幾個季度將繼續積壓。對於我們提供的指導，我們預計在整個 23 財年我們向客戶交付產品的能力將得到連續改進。根據交貨時間和承諾，我們預計積壓訂單將在 23 財年第四季度開始減少。我們對我們的產品積壓有完全的了解，並且迄今為止收到的取消訂單微不足道，不到 1% 的預訂。我們的積壓主要包括我們最新一代的通用產品。因此，當我們開始交付產品時，我們還將看到與我們的有線和無線產品相關的訂閱和服務預訂方面的改進。

At Extreme, we're focused on finding new ways to enable better outcomes for our customers. This quarter, Extreme helped Unicoop Firenze, an Italian grocer with over 100 locations and over $2 billion in annual turnover, bring next-generation retail experiences to its customers through our ExtremeCloud SD-WAN solution, lowering costs, simplifying management, and providing ease of deployment. At North Carolina A&T, the nation's largest HBCU, serving more than 13,000 students, Extreme Fabric solutions are being used to expand the campus network and improve the digital learning experience for students, while enhancing security. The re-architected environment was created with the help of our award-winning services team.

在 Extreme，我們專注於尋找新的方法來為我們的客戶帶來更好的結果。本季度，Extreme 幫助擁有 100 多個地點、年營業額超過 20 億美元的意大利雜貨商 Unicoop Firenze 通過我們的 ExtremeCloud SD-WAN 解決方案為其客戶帶來了下一代零售體驗，降低了成本，簡化了管理，並提供了便利的部署。在全美最大的 HBCU，為 13,000 多名學生提供服務的北卡羅來納州 A&T，Extreme Fabric 解決方案被用於擴展校園網絡並改善學生的數字學習體驗，同時增強安全性。重新設計的環境是在我們屢獲殊榮的服務團隊的幫助下創建的。

This quarter, we booked the largest network infrastructure as a service deal in Extreme's history with the U.S. federal customer, 10 million [campus] switching deal over 5 years. We leveraged our Capital Solutions group to deliver the new OpEx-based consumption model for this federal customer. Again, our ability to be flexible with our enterprise customers is an important differentiator for us.

本季度，我們與美國聯邦客戶簽訂了 Extreme 歷史上最大的網絡基礎設施即服務交易，5 年內 1000 萬 [campus] 交換交易。我們利用我們的資本解決方案團隊為這個聯邦客戶提供基於運營支出的新消費模式。同樣，我們與企業客戶保持靈活性的能力對我們來說是一個重要的差異化因素。

In Q4, we continued to expand our universal portfolio with the introduction of the 5720 Universal Switch, designed to support data-heavy applications, such as Wi-Fi 6E. We also continue to innovate on best-in-class Wi-Fi 6E and ultra-wideband [APs]. Extreme's first-to-market move in Wi-Fi 6E is leading us to win in the market transition. Adoption of 6E wireless will also drive multi-gig switching demand in the future. We nearly doubled our Wi-Fi 6E revenue during the quarter sequentially, as we've improved our ability to deliver access points to customers. 6E is now over 25% of our wireless AP revenue.

在第四季度，我們通過推出 5720 通用交換機繼續擴展我們的通用產品組合，該交換機旨在支持數據密集型應用，例如 Wi-Fi 6E。我們還繼續在一流的 Wi-Fi 6E 和超寬帶 [AP] 方面進行創新。 Extreme 率先推出 Wi-Fi 6E 市場，引領我們在市場轉型中獲勝。 6E無線的採用也將推動未來多千兆交換需求。由於我們提高了向客戶提供接入點的能力，本季度我們的 Wi-Fi 6E 收入幾乎翻了一番。 6E 現在占我們無線 AP 收入的 25% 以上。

Net-net, I'm incredibly excited to see our team execute at such a high level across the organization from our product team delivering incredible innovation, to our sales and marketing teams driving demand, our supply chain and ops teams delivering products in a challenging environment, and the cross-functional support from all the other organizations of putting Extreme in a position for unprecedented growth in top line, cash flow, and earnings in future quarters and years to come.

Net-net，我非常高興看到我們的團隊在整個組織中執行如此高的水平，從我們的產品團隊提供令人難以置信的創新，到我們的銷售和營銷團隊推動需求，我們的供應鍊和運營團隊在充滿挑戰的情況下交付產品環境，以及所有其他組織的跨職能支持，使 Extreme 在未來幾個季度和幾年內實現了收入、現金流和收益的空前增長。

With that, I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Remi Thomas.

有了這個，我將把電話轉給我們的首席財務官雷米·托馬斯。

Thanks, Ed. As Ed described, we had solid execution in fiscal '22 with record bookings and backlog generation, double-digit revenue growth, and overall improving margins, in spite of the supply chain environment. Strong demand for our portfolio of products, services, and subscription drove year over year bookings growth of 24% in fiscal '22 and 8% in Q4. With a product book-to-bill ratio of 1.29 for the year and 1.23 for the quarter, we exited the year with $513 million in backlog, up more than $400 million year over year and close to $90 million sequentially. That's nearly 3 full quarters of product revenue.

謝謝，埃德。正如 Ed 所描述的，儘管供應鏈環境不佳，但我們在 22 財年的執行情況穩健，預訂量和積壓訂單數量創紀錄，收入實現兩位數增長，利潤率整體提高。對我們的產品、服務和訂閱組合的強勁需求推動了 22 財年的預訂量同比增長 24% 和第四季度的 8%。憑藉本年度 1.29 和本季度 1.23 的產品訂單出貨比，我們以 5.13 億美元的積壓退出了這一年，同比增長超過 4 億美元，環比接近 9000 萬美元。這幾乎是產品收入的 3 個完整季度。

We achieved double-digit revenue growth for the year to surpass the $1 billion mark. Our fourth quarter revenue of $278.2 million came in -- came above the high end of our expectations entering the quarter, reflecting the ability of our supply team to either source small components or qualify alternative ones. We grew our SaaS subscription bookings by 58% in fiscal '22 and 51% in Q4. We're making a change to how we report our SaaS ARR. We're now basing it on an annualized view of our quarterly subscription revenue, as opposed to the annualized contract value. Historical data can be found on Page 15 of the Q4 earnings deck, posted on our website. Based on this methodology, our ARR reached $103 million in Q4, up 47% year over year and 8% quarter over quarter.

我們今年實現了兩位數的收入增長，超過了 10 億美元。我們第四季度的收入為 2.782 億美元——超過了我們進入本季度的預期，這反映了我們的供應團隊有能力採購小型組件或合格的替代組件。我們的 SaaS 訂閱預訂量在 22 財年增長了 58%，在第四季度增長了 51%。我們正在改變我們報告 SaaS ARR 的方式。我們現在基於季度訂閱收入的年度視圖，而不是年度合同價值。歷史數據可在我們網站上發布的第四季度收益表的第 15 頁上找到。基於這種方法，我們的 ARR 在第四季度達到 1.03 億美元，同比增長 47%，環比增長 8%。

SaaS deferred revenue was $157 million at the end of Q4, up 40% year over year and 10% quarter over quarter. For the year, we achieved record EPS of $0.77, up from $0.57 a year ago. Q4 non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.15, in line with our expectations entering the quarter.

SaaS 遞延收入在第四季度末為 1.57 億美元，同比增長 40%，環比增長 10%。今年，我們實現了創紀錄的 0.77 美元每股收益，高於一年前的 0.57 美元。第四季度非公認會計原則每股收益為 0.15 美元，符合我們進入本季度的預期。

On a geographic basis, and looking at revenue, our top-performing region was EMEA, which delivered revenue growth of 23% for the year and 10% for Q4. The Americas grew 3% for the year, but declined in Q4, impacted by fewer stadium deployments this quarter. Finally, although APAC revenue declined slightly for the year, it enjoyed a very strong recovery of 48% in Q4, resulting from improved execution across the board.

在地理基礎上，從收入來看，我們表現最好的地區是歐洲、中東和非洲地區，該地區今年的收入增長了 23%，第四季度增長了 10%。美洲全年增長 3%，但在第四季度有所下降，受本季度體育場部署減少的影響。最後，儘管今年亞太地區的收入略有下降，但由於全面執行的改善，它在第四季度實現了 48% 的強勁復甦。

From a vertical standpoint, and this time looking at total company bookings, the highest year-over-year growth in fiscal '22 came from sports and entertainment, followed by government and health care. For Q4 specifically, the highest growth came from government, followed by health care and service provider. From a product category standpoint, our wired product bookings grew 28% for the year but were down slightly in Q4, due to a very demanding comparison in the campus segment, while [less] product bookings grew 25% for the year and maintain a healthy growth rate of 6% in Q4. Total wired revenue grew at a high single-digit rate for the year, but declined in Q4 due to supply chain constraints. Our wireless revenue, on the other hand, grew at a double-digit rate for the year and in the mid-20s for Q4, as we were able to release a meaningful part of our backlog.

從垂直的角度來看，這次是從公司總預訂量來看，22 財年同比增長最快的來自體育和娛樂，其次是政府和醫療保健。特別是對於第四季度，增長最快的來自政府，其次是醫療保健和服務提供商。從產品類別的角度來看，我們的有線產品預訂今年增長了 28%，但在第四季度略有下降，原因是校園細分市場的比較非常苛刻，而 [less] 產品預訂全年增長 25% 並保持健康第四季度增長率為 6%。全年有線總收入以高個位數的速度增長，但由於供應鏈限制，第四季度有所下降。另一方面，我們的無線收入在今年和第四季度的 20 年代中期以兩位數的速度增長，因為我們能夠釋放我們積壓的重要部分。

Services and subscription revenue of $91.1 million in Q4 was up 11% year over year, taking the total for the year to $350.6 million, up 13%. This growth was largely driven by the strength of cloud subscriptions, for which revenue grew 34% in Q4 and 37% for the year.

第四季度的服務和訂閱收入為 9110 萬美元，同比增長 11%，全年總收入達到 3.506 億美元，增長 13%。這一增長主要是由雲訂閱的強勁推動的，其收入在第四季度增長了 34%，全年增長了 37%。

Total Q4 recurring revenue, including maintenance, managed services and subscription, rose to $87.3 million, or 31% of total company revenue, up from 28% last quarter. For the full year, our recurring revenue was 30% of total.

包括維護、託管服務和訂閱在內的第四季度總經常性收入增至 8730 萬美元，占公司總收入的 31%，高於上一季度的 28%。全年，我們的經常性收入佔總收入的 30%。

The growth of cloud subscription and service renewals drove the total deferred revenue sitting on our balance sheet to $402 million, up 16% from the year-ago quarter and 8% sequentially.

雲訂閱和服務更新的增長推動我們資產負債表上的總遞延收入達到 4.02 億美元，同比增長 16%，環比增長 8%。

Our non-GAAP gross margin came in at 57%, down 1 percentage point sequentially and 3.5 percentage points year over year, driven by lower product gross margin. In addition to high expedite fees and freight costs, our product gross margin was impacted by an unfavorable mix. For the full year, total company gross margin would have been at least 600 basis points higher, if not for these elevated expedite fees and freight costs.

由於產品毛利率下降，我們的非公認會計原則毛利率為 57%，環比下降 1 個百分點，同比下降 3.5 個百分點。除了高昂的加急費和運費外，我們的產品毛利率還受到不利組合的影響。如果不是因為加急費和運費的上漲，全年公司的總毛利率至少會高出 600 個基點。

On the other hand, services and subscription non-GAAP gross margin improved to 70.7% in Q4, up from 64% in the year-ago quarter and 65.1% sequentially, driven by a higher mix of subscription and maintenance and lower professional services revenue based on the timing of certain high-touch stadium deployments.

另一方面，服務和訂閱的非 GAAP 毛利率從去年同期的 64% 和上一季度的 65.1% 上升至第四季度的 70.7%，這是由於訂閱和維護的組合增加以及基於專業服務的收入減少關於某些高接觸體育場部署的時間安排。

Q4 non-GAAP operating expenses were $132 million, up from $131 million in the year-ago quarter and from $130 million in Q3, reflecting lower R&D expenses, but higher sales and marketing expenses. OpEx as a percentage of revenue was 47.3%. For the full year, operating expenses dropped to 46.1% of revenue, at the lower end of the long-term range of 46% to 49% we had provided at our Analyst Day in early 2021. All in all, our operating margin was 9.6% for the quarter and 12.2% for fiscal '22, the highest on record.

第四季度非 GAAP 運營費用為 1.32 億美元，高於去年同期的 1.31 億美元和第三季度的 1.30 億美元，反映出研發費用較低，但銷售和營銷費用較高。運營支出佔收入的百分比為 47.3%。全年，運營費用降至收入的 46.1%，處於我們在 2021 年初分析師日提供的長期範圍 46% 至 49% 的下限。總而言之，我們的運營利潤率為 9.6本季度的百分比和 22 財年的 12.2%，創歷史新高。

Net debt was reduced by $35 million sequentially to $114 million as a result of a record operating cash flow of $16 million this quarter. This was driven by strong collections as well as an acceleration in the pace of tariff duty drawbacks.

由於本季度創紀錄的 1600 萬美元的運營現金流，淨債務連續減少 3500 萬美元至 1.14 億美元。這是由強勁的稅收以及關稅退稅步伐加快推動的。

During Q4, we repurchased a total of 2.05 million shares of our common stock for $20 million, with an average price of $9.74 per share. For the full year, we repurchased $45 million worth of stock. We currently have $200 million remaining in our new buyback authorization as of July 1.

在第四季度，我們以 2000 萬美元的價格回購了 205 萬股普通股，平均價格為每股 9.74 美元。全年，我們回購了價值 4500 萬美元的股票。截至 7 月 1 日，我們目前在新的回購授權中剩餘 2 億美元。

Now turning to guidance, for Q1, we expect revenue to be in the range of $279 million to $289 million. Q1 non-GAAP gross margin is anticipated to be in the range of 57% to 59%. Q1 non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $130.7 million to $134.2 million. Q1 non-GAAP earnings are anticipated to be in the range of $19.9 million to $26.5 million, or $0.15 to $0.20 per diluted share. We anticipate that the reduction in expedites and shipping fees, combined with the full impact of our recent pricing actions, will lead to a progressive recovery in gross margin throughout fiscal year '23, with Q4 expected to be above 60%. For the year, we expect 10% to 15% revenue growth, with an operating margin in the 10% to 15% range.

現在轉向指導，對於第一季度，我們預計收入將在 2.79 億美元至 2.89 億美元之間。第一季度非公認會計準則毛利率預計在 57% 至 59% 之間。第一季度非公認會計準則運營費用預計在 1.307 億美元至 1.342 億美元之間。第一季度非公認會計原則收益預計在 1990 萬美元至 2650 萬美元之間，或每股攤薄收益 0.15 美元至 0.20 美元。我們預計，加急和運費的減少，加上我們最近定價行動的全面影響，將導致整個 23 財年的毛利率逐步恢復，預計第四季度將超過 60%。今年，我們預計收入增長 10% 至 15%，營業利潤率在 10% 至 15% 之間。

With that, I will now turn it over to the operator to begin the question-and-answer session.

有了這個，我現在將把它交給接線員開始問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Alex Henderson with Needham & Company.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Needham & Company 的 Alex Henderson。

Wanted to get a better handle on the bookings in 4Q and the outlook commentary going into the first half of fiscal '23. It sounds like, clearly, you expect to stay supply constrained true most of the fiscal year. But do you, A, see any improvement in supply in your expectations in the first half of the year? And then second, what's going on in that pipeline as you're looking at that first half outlook. And particularly, if you look at the bookings numbers in the fourth quarter, how did that play on geography, and how do you think that looks going into the upcoming quarter, particularly in EMEA.

希望更好地處理第四季度的預訂情況以及進入 23 財年上半年的前景評論。聽起來，很明顯，您希望在本財年的大部分時間裡都保持供應受限。但是，您 A 是否認為您對今年上半年的預期供應有任何改善？其次，當您查看上半年前景時，該管道中發生了什麼。特別是，如果您查看第四季度的預訂量，這對地理位置有何影響，以及您認為下一季度的情況如何，特別是在歐洲、中東和非洲地區。

Remi, why don't you let me jump in, and then you can fill in. And so Alex, you're rightfully pointing out kind of this -- how we're looking at bookings, which is really our measure of true demand, and then versus revenue, and our revenue outlook is really a function of supply chain and product that we are able to release, given the massive backlog that we've built up and the continued strength of bookings. So I'll just start off with supply chain. You've asked about that.

雷米，你為什麼不讓我加入，然後你可以填寫。所以亞歷克斯，你正確地指出了這一點——我們如何看待預訂，這實際上是我們衡量真實需求的方式，然後與收入相比，我們的收入前景實際上是我們能夠發布的供應鍊和產品的函數，因為我們已經建立了大量的積壓訂單和持續的預訂實力。所以我將從供應鏈開始。你已經問過了。

What we see is a gradual improvement throughout the year. So think of a step function where we will be stepping our revenue, quarter by quarter, throughout the year, based on our outlook of supply chain. And we do have more confidence, as we've mentioned before, strong relationships with the likes of Broadcom, where we are not constrained. It's more about secondary, tertiary component vendors, where we've established direct relationships, normal processes, and have consistency now in our expectations around delivery, and then some of the creative things that our teams are doing around reengineering, et cetera, and then more products showing up in the spot market.

我們看到的是全年逐步改善。因此，請考慮一個階梯函數，根據我們對供應鏈的展望，我們將在全年逐個季度地增加收入。正如我們之前提到的，我們確實更有信心與博通等公司建立牢固的關係，我們不受限制。更多的是關於二級、三級組件供應商，我們已經建立了直接關係、正常的流程，並且現在我們對交付的期望保持一致，然後是我們的團隊圍繞再工程等所做的一些創造性的事情，然後更多產品出現在現貨市場。

So our teams, as I mentioned in my comments, are more confident today than they have been in our ability to step function our supply of product to our customers' partners. So what does that mean? That is how we built the revenue forecast for fiscal '23, which is that step function, with sharper improvement in the second half of the fiscal.

因此，正如我在評論中提到的那樣，我們的團隊今天比他們對我們向客戶合作夥伴逐步提供產品的能力更有信心。那是什麼意思？這就是我們如何建立 23 財年的收入預測，這是一個階梯函數，在本財年的下半年有更大的改善。

As it relates to demand, our demand has been strong, as we talked about it for the year, 24% for us. That's record-breaking performance. However, the seasonality for bookings is very different. In an environment where people know that there are long lead times when there are pricing actions like there were last year, in response to increased expenses, we had a couple of price raises. And in that case, people wanted to get ahead, so we saw extraordinary bookings growth at the very end of the September quarter last year, and of the March quarter as far as bookings. So there was a lot of pull-ins from the other periods. So normally, you would see the peak in June and then slowdown in September, peak in December, and then slowdown in March. In this case, what you saw was an explosion in September last year, a slowdown from that level in December, an explosion in March, and then a slight slowdown.

由於它與需求有關，我們的需求一直很強勁，正如我們今年談到的那樣，對我們來說是 24%。這是破紀錄的表現。但是，預訂的季節性非常不同。在人們知道像去年那樣進行定價行動時交貨時間很長的環境中，為了應對費用增加，我們進行了幾次提價。在這種情況下，人們想要取得成功，所以我們在去年 9 月季度末看到了非凡的預訂量增長，就預訂量而言，在 3 月季度。所以有很多其他時期的拉動。所以通常情況下，你會看到 6 月的高峰，然後 9 月的放緩，12 月的高峰，然後 3 月的放緩。在這種情況下，你看到的是去年 9 月的爆發，從 12 月的水平放緩，3 月爆發，然後略有放緩。

In terms of our internal plans, we hit our internal target, which is why we continue to grow bookings. But relative to where we were in the March quarter with the pricing action, it was different. As we look out at the first half of fiscal '23, we see bookings growth continue, and that is a function of several factors. First of all, we rely on our teams and our bottoms-up roll-up from direct sellers in the field rolling up geographically. There's a lot of confidence from our field teams in the numbers that they're actually calling, I'd say stronger than in years past. The second thing, we look at that funnel, and we run our own metrics and look at the commit levels and the confidence levels with our algorithms and our formulas there. And they're up. As we mentioned, if you look at our funnel year over year, we are up over double digits in terms of the opportunities. And over the course of last year, with competitiveness at Extreme, our conversion rates on that funnel have improved, so we're more confident about the quality of the funnel and our ability to win, and we still see growth there.

就我們的內部計劃而言，我們達到了內部目標，這就是我們繼續增加預訂量的原因。但相對於我們在 3 月季度的定價行動，情況有所不同。當我們展望 23 財年上半年時，我們看到預訂量繼續增長，這是多個因素的作用。首先，我們依靠我們的團隊和來自該領域的直銷商的自下而上的匯總。我們的現場團隊對他們實際調用的數字有很大的信心，我想說比過去幾年更有信心。第二件事，我們查看那個漏斗，我們運行我們自己的指標，並使用我們的算法和公式查看提交水平和置信水平。他們起來了。正如我們所提到的，如果您逐年查看我們的渠道，我們的機會就超過了兩位數。在去年的過程中，憑藉 Extreme 的競爭力，我們在該渠道的轉化率有所提高，因此我們對渠道的質量和我們的獲勝能力更有信心，我們仍然看到那裡的增長。

Finally, we have an AI tool, [recall] the number based on all the CRM activity and looking at the opportunities. That's up, and now our partners, channel partners and our distributors, they have an outlook and a view, and they're calling a number. So when we look at all those different data points, it points to increase in demand. What I would tell you is that for the first quarter, we definitely expect to be over a book-to-bill of 1 and that the normal seasonal trends in bookings and comparisons will likely be different because of the pricing actions.

最後，我們有一個人工智能工具，[召回]基於所有 CRM 活動的數字並查看機會。就是這樣，現在我們的合作夥伴、渠道合作夥伴和我們的分銷商，他們有一個前景和一個觀點，他們正在打電話。因此，當我們查看所有這些不同的數據點時，它表明需求增加了。我要告訴你的是，對於第一季度，我們肯定會超過 1 的訂單與賬單，並且由於定價行為，預訂和比較的正常季節性趨勢可能會有所不同。

So EMEA?

那麼歐洲、中東和非洲？

Remi, do you want to comment?

雷米，你要評論嗎？

No, I think you gave a very detailed view of...

不，我認為你給出了一個非常詳細的視圖...

Alex, as it relates to EMEA, we continue to see strength, so we're not seeing -- I know that this is something that you're paying close attention to and you're concerned about. We can't provide that data point for you. We're just -- we're not seeing it. We continue to see strength. And the question is whether or not that's because we're taking market share, I guess a macro, or if our data point is a valid macro data point.

亞歷克斯，因為它與歐洲、中東和非洲有關，我們繼續看到實力，所以我們沒有看到——我知道這是你正在密切關注和擔心的事情。我們無法為您提供該數據點。我們只是 - 我們沒有看到它。我們繼續看到實力。問題是這是否是因為我們正在佔據市場份額，我猜是一個宏觀，或者我們的數據點是否是一個有效的宏觀數據點。

Our next question comes from Mike Genovese with Rosenblatt Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Rosenblatt Securities 的 Mike Genovese。

I guess a little bit of asking that part of the last question in a slightly different way. I think you said that by the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, you think book-to-bill will be below 1. And I guess my question there, is that more of a function of less confidence in demand when you look that far out, or more confidence in the supply chain allowing you to eat into the backlog and report extraordinary revenue growth in the back half of the year?

我想以稍微不同的方式問最後一個問題的那一部分。我認為您說過，到本財年第四季度，您認為訂單出貨比將低於 1。我想我的問題是，當您看得太遠時，更多的是對需求的信心不足，還是對供應鏈更有信心，讓您吃掉積壓的訂單並在下半年報告非凡的收入增長？

Mike, it's a good question, and it's all supply chain. So as I mentioned, we continue to see strength in demand going out for the year, and growth. But on the supply chain side, where we are most constrained, and we talked about our components, and these are Tier 2, Tier 3 components where we need every component to make a switch or to make an access point. And without it, we can't ship -- we can't produce and we can't ship. So some of our suppliers have [fabs] that are coming online in the first part of the calendar year. And the fact of the matter is, we have a schedule, we have visibility to how our components will come online, and then we'll see a greater supply of the components. They're the ones that are holding us up. So…

邁克，這是一個很好的問題，而且都是供應鏈。因此，正如我所提到的，我們繼續看到今年需求的強勁增長和增長。但是在供應鏈方面，我們最受限制，我們談到了我們的組件，這些是第 2 層、第 3 層組件，我們需要每個組件進行切換或建立接入點。沒有它，我們就無法發貨——我們無法生產，也無法發貨。因此，我們的一些供應商的 [fabs] 將在日曆年的第一部分上線。事實上，我們有一個時間表，我們可以看到我們的組件將如何上線，然後我們會看到更多的組件供應。他們是阻礙我們的人。所以…

I guess, because I'm using this, I just need some clarification between definitions when we're talking about fiscal years versus calendar years. So when you're talking about improvement in every quarter of '23, is that a fiscal year comment or a calendar year comment? And can you talk about any kind of green shoots, color on green shoots that you may be seeing or not seeing in the actual calendar second half of '22?

我想，因為我正在使用它，所以當我們談論財政年度與日曆年度時，我只需要在定義之間進行一些澄清。因此，當您談論 23 年每個季度的改進時，是財政年度評論還是日曆年評論？你能談談在 22 年下半年的實際日曆中你可能看到或沒有看到的任何種類的綠芽、綠芽上的顏色嗎？

Yes. I think our comments for the fiscal apply to calendar. I think the calendar -- our view of the calendar '23 is, the second half of calendar '23, you'll see even a greater inflow of products if we start taking down backlog. I mean, fine, what we've been talking about is just releveling our revenue to real demand, which is

是的。我認為我們對財政的評論適用於日曆。我認為日曆 - 我們對日曆 '23 的看法是，日曆 '23 的後半部分，如果我們開始減少積壓，你會看到更多的產品流入。我的意思是，很好，我們一直在談論的只是將我們的收入重新平衡到實際需求，這是

(technical difficulty)

（技術難度）

resetting this book-to-bill. And on top of it, we're talking about building backlog, where we'll have hundreds and hundreds of millions of backlogs to release. And so that is -- again, that will continue, and that will only gain velocity in the second half of the calendar.

重置這本書到帳單。最重要的是，我們正在討論構建積壓工作，我們將在其中發布數億個積壓工作。所以這就是 - 再次，這將繼續，而且只會在日曆的後半段加速。

Sorry to -- I don't know if I'm already being a dead horse, but can you give us any -- if we think about fiscal 2Q, the December quarter, gross margin, I mean, I know you don't normally guide 2 quarters out, but do you have any color on how we should think about the supply chain versus pricing versus other factors for the sequential gross margin into December?

很抱歉——我不知道我是否已經是一匹死馬了，但你能給我們任何——如果我們考慮一下第二財季、十二月季度、毛利率，我的意思是，我知道你不知道通常會指導兩個季度，但是對於我們應該如何考慮到 12 月的連續毛利率的供應鏈、定價和其他因素，你有什麼看法嗎？

Based on our view expedite fees, freight costs that are starting to come down as more capacity is being built between Taiwan and Shanghai, in El Paso where we have our main hub, we feel confident that we can improve the gross margin sequentially by close to 1 percentage point, so that we now see ourselves in Q2 at around 59%.

根據我們的觀點，隨著台灣和上海之間更多的運力建設，在我們擁有主要樞紐的埃爾帕索，我們認為加快費用，運費開始下降，我們有信心可以將毛利率連續提高近1 個百分點，因此我們現在看到自己在第二季度的佔比約為 59%。

Our next question comes from Eric Martinuzzi with Lake Street Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 Lake Street Capital Markets 的 Eric Martinuzzi。

Yes, I wanted to address the FX impact of the strong dollar. I was actually concerned that you guys might be backing away from the 10% to 15% growth in FY '23 based on the strength of the dollar versus the pound and the euro. Could you address that?

是的，我想解決強勢美元對外彙的影響。實際上，我擔心你們可能會因美元兌英鎊和歐元的強勢而退出 23 財年 10% 至 15% 的增長。你能解決這個問題嗎？

Sure. There's 2 aspects, Eric. The first one is the competitiveness of our product. Unless some of our customers are willing to go with Huawei or with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, which is a very mall player, if we're dealing with Juniper, Cisco, HP Aruba, that has not proven to be a problem. And believe me, I'm asking the questions every Monday on our sales calls to our head of EMEA sales. But so far, customers basically are absorbing the impact of a higher product in their local currency, specifically if they're in the Eurozone, because all of our competitors use the dollar as a functional currency, with the exception of the 2 that I mentioned.

當然。有兩個方面，埃里克。第一個是我們產品的競爭力。除非我們的一些客戶願意與華為或阿爾卡特朗訊企業合作，後者是一個非常有市場的玩家，如果我們與瞻博網絡、思科、惠普 Aruba 打交道，這並沒有被證明是一個問題。相信我，我每週一都會在我們的銷售電話中向我們的 EMEA 銷售主管提出問題。但到目前為止，客戶基本上都在以當地貨幣吸收更高產品的影響，特別是如果他們在歐元區，因為我們所有的競爭對手都使用美元作為功能貨幣，除了我提到的 2 .

Second aspect is we have a significant cost base, not so much in terms of R&D, but obviously in sales and marketing, with a significant presence in Europe. And as we account for that, it basically has a favorable impact on our OpEx. As a prudent CFO was a very prudent treasurer, we're hedging ourselves against the euro and the Indian rupee to lock in some of these rates, so the impact that you'll see on the P&L depends on how smart we've been in terms of our hedging. But that second aspect is favorable to the P&L.

第二個方面是我們有一個重要的成本基礎，不是在研發方面，而是在銷售和營銷方面，在歐洲有很大的影響力。當我們考慮到這一點時，它基本上對我們的 OpEx 產生了有利的影響。由於謹慎的首席財務官是一位非常謹慎的財務主管，我們正在對沖歐元和印度盧比以鎖定其中一些匯率，因此您將看到的損益表影響取決於我們的聰明程度我們的對沖條款。但第二個方面有利於損益表。

Okay. And then, you talked about Q4 relief in the supply chain that -- or I guess the release of the backlog. Is that consistent with your comments in May at the Investor Day? I could have sworn you were talking about Q3 relief. Go ahead, Ed.

好的。然後，您談到了供應鏈中第四季度的緩解——或者我猜是積壓的釋放。這與您在 5 月投資者日的評論一致嗎？我可以發誓你說的是第三季度的救濟。來吧，埃德。

Yes, I was going to say it is consistent, and I think not to be confused with how our suppliers begin turning up product, and then how that product affects our supply chain. So I think in Norman's commentary, he was talking about suppliers where we're constrained turning up and opening up new fabs, and then turning up production lines to start releasing products. And so there's an evolution there. That is happening in the first quarter, and they're on schedule. That's happening in Q4 and calendar Q1. But then, those components have to make it into our supply chain, and so our timetable for that is we're seeing a significant step, in our Q4, of those much-needed components that we can then turn around and ship product.

是的，我想說它是一致的，我認為不要與我們的供應商如何開始提供產品以及該產品如何影響我們的供應鏈相混淆。所以我認為在諾曼的評論中，他是在談論我們受到限制的供應商開工並開設新的晶圓廠，然後啟動生產線以開始發布產品。所以那裡有一個演變。這發生在第一季度，他們正在按計劃進行。這發生在第四季度和第一季度。但是隨後，這些組件必須進入我們的供應鏈，因此我們的時間表是，我們在第四季度看到了重要的一步，這些急需的組件我們可以轉身並運送產品。

Okay. So it was really more of an upstream comment, in that the P&L impact is Q4.

好的。因此，這實際上更像是上游評論，因為損益影響是第四季度。

It is. I think keep in mind, we are forecasting a significant step in each quarter going forward. So normally, there would be seasonality in the September quarter in revenue, but we're guiding to a step up. We're guiding to a step up in December, a step up in March, a step up in June. So it's -- we're seeing this gradual release, with some pretty larger steps happening into March, and then especially in the June time frame.

這是。我認為請記住，我們預測未來每個季度都會邁出重要的一步。因此，通常情況下，9 月季度的收入會出現季節性變化，但我們正在指導逐步提高。我們正在指導在 12 月更上一層樓，在 3 月更上一層樓，在 6 月更上一層樓。所以它是 - 我們看到這個逐漸發布，一些相當大的步驟發生在 3 月份，然後特別是在 6 月份的時間範圍內。

We have a follow-up from Alex Henderson with Needham & Company.

Alex Henderson 對 Needham & Company 進行了跟進。

So I wanted to just clarify on the FX and international sales. So do you have any receivables that you have exposure on, relative to the FX, that could be impacted by the strong dollar, weak currencies in the international markets, particularly Europe, that are either unhedged or would be impacted by further strength in the dollar?

所以我想澄清一下外彙和國際銷售。那麼，相對於外匯而言，您是否有任何應收賬款可能受到強勢美元、國際市場（尤其是歐洲）弱勢貨幣的影響，這些應收賬款要么未對沖，要么會受到美元進一步走強的影響?

The functional currency that we used with our [theses], where we basically collect 85% of our receivable, happens to be the dollar. So that means that whatever bill was in dollar, they have to come up with the right amounts to meet that bill, so no exposure there.

我們在 [論文] 中使用的功能貨幣（我們基本上收取 85% 的應收賬款）恰好是美元。所以這意味著無論賬單是美元，他們都必須拿出正確的金額來支付賬單，所以沒有風險敞口。

And relative to the functional currency internationally and particularly in EMEA, what percentage of your revenues are in dollars versus local currencies? I assume that there are some -- I'm pretty sure that there are some that are in local currencies. Could you just clarify what that -- that percentage, since this is such a large factor these days?

相對於國際功能貨幣，特別是在歐洲、中東和非洲，您的收入中美元與當地貨幣的百分比是多少？我假設有一些——我很確定有一些是以當地貨幣計算的。你能否澄清一下——那個百分比，因為現在這是一個很大的因素？

I don't know the exact percentage, but I would assume it's 95%, unless we have guaranteed a net price in the local currency, which, to my knowledge, we don't do. We sometimes will guarantee a net price, so some customers are immune from the price increase we've done until the frame agreement we have with them expires. But in any instance, that price is always set in dollars, to my knowledge.

我不知道確切的百分比，但我假設它是 95%，除非我們保證以當地貨幣計算的淨價格，據我所知，我們不這樣做。我們有時會保證淨價，因此在我們與他們簽訂的框架協議到期之前，一些客戶不會受到我們所做的價格上漲的影響。但在任何情況下，據我所知，這個價格總是以美元為單位。

That's lower -- higher than I thought it was. Going back to the environment, it's hard to believe that the Europeans are not seeing some pressure in the pipeline. Can you talk a little bit more about the pipeline relative to Europe? You haven't seen any slowdown or any increase in the number of signatures really, the stretching of lead times, anything on those type of metrics? It seems hard to believe that, given the massive hits that that economy is taking, that there hasn't been any change at all in conditions.

這比我想像的要低——高。回到環境方面，很難相信歐洲人沒有看到管道中的一些壓力。你能多談談相對於歐洲的管道嗎？你真的沒有看到簽名數量的放緩或增加，交貨時間的延長，這些類型的指標有什麼嗎？鑑於經濟正在遭受的巨大打擊，似乎很難相信情況根本沒有任何變化。

I would add a couple of things to that, Alex. One is, it's something that we're looking at very closely and we're watching very closely. And the answer is, no, we really haven't seen that. As I mentioned before, is that a function of us taking share? We're seeing, with our position in cloud and with our position in fabric and our -- the quality of our story and then the quality of the actual -- the implementations, we're getting more [advanced]. And so is this a function that we're seeing more opportunities from a share gain perspective? That could be part of it.

亞歷克斯，我會添加一些東西。一個是，這是我們正在非常密切關注並且我們正在非常密切關注的事情。答案是，不，我們真的沒有看到。正如我之前提到的，這是我們分享的功能嗎？我們看到，憑藉我們在雲中的地位、我們在結構中的地位以及我們的故事的質量，然後是實際的質量——實施，我們正在變得更加[先進]。那麼，從份額收益的角度來看，這是一個我們看到更多機會的功能嗎？這可能是其中的一部分。

The other thing I would say on an overarching basis is that networking infrastructure is critical, probably more strategic today than it's been. And if you're looking at digital transformation, the connective tissue is the network, and the connected tissue is the cloud. And these are really important, complicated projects that we just -- we're not seeing these projects being deprioritized. And when we look at sort of the difference that new networks can make in terms of driving customer outcomes and business outcomes, these are not the first projects to go. So if things are getting cut, we're -- and it's why I made to comment about the antirecessionary nature of critically important networking projects. We're -- I would reinforce, we're not seeing it yet.

我要說的另一件事是網絡基礎設施至關重要，今天可能比以往更具戰略意義。如果你正在關注數字化轉型，那麼結締組織就是網絡，而連接的組織就是雲。這些都是非常重要、複雜的項目，我們只是 - 我們沒有看到這些項目被取消優先級。當我們研究新網絡在推動客戶成果和業務成果方面可以產生的影響時，這些並不是第一個項目。因此，如果事情被削減，我們就是——這就是為什麼我要評論至關重要的網絡項目的抗衰退性質。我們 - 我會加強，我們還沒有看到它。

That's fabulous. Okay. One more question, except this one on the internal side of things. Have you changed your behavior relative to hiring? What are you seeing in terms of wage inflation? What are you seeing in terms of staffing churn? Any thoughts on those elements of the drive OpEx? And when is your annual merit increases, so that we can footnote them in our model?

這太棒了。好的。還有一個問題，除了這個關於事物內部的問題。您是否改變了與招聘相關的行為？您對工資通脹有何看法？您在人員流失方面看到了什麼？對驅動 OpEx 的這些元素有什麼想法嗎？您的年度績效何時增加，以便我們可以在我們的模型中添加腳註？

So annual merit increases for us are in the second half of the fiscal, so they would come into play in the January, February time frame, so in the March quarter. The -- for us, what I would tell you is that our turnover remains unusually low, and I think that has -- some of that has to do with our success in the marketplace and the kind of talent that we're attracting right now at Extreme. So from that standpoint, we are -- we are out in the market, and we are out hiring.

所以我們的年度績效增長是在財政的下半年，所以它們會在一月、二月的時間框架內發揮作用，所以在三月的季度。 - 對我們來說，我要告訴你的是，我們的營業額仍然異常低，我認為這與我們在市場上的成功以及我們現在吸引的人才類型有關在極端。所以從這個角度來看，我們是——我們在市場上，我們在招聘。

We are being very disciplined in our spend and our investments because real demand is a lot higher in the market, and we're driving a much higher demand than what we're spending towards, because our revenue is lower. But we've been making some key strategic hires in the channel and in our sales leadership. We're better organized now to support the channel, and we see a real channel growth opportunity, and I would say we're hiring. So right now, we're in investment mode, but we're constrained because we're governing investment via revenue, and our revenue is artificially low because it's not a reflection of real demand because of supply chain, if that makes sense.

我們在支出和投資方面非常自律，因為市場上的實際需求要高得多，而且我們推動的需求比我們的支出要高得多，因為我們的收入較低。但我們一直在渠道和銷售領導層中進行一些關鍵的戰略招聘。我們現在組織得更好來支持渠道，我們看到了真正的渠道增長機會，我想說我們正在招聘。所以現在，我們處於投資模式，但我們受到限制，因為我們通過收入來管理投資，我們的收入人為地低，因為它沒有反映供應鏈的實際需求，如果這有意義的話。

So would you then, as supply chain improves, accelerate the hiring to take advantage of your accelerating revenue growth? It sounds like that's the answer to that question.

那麼，隨著供應鏈的改善，您會加速招聘以利用您加速的收入增長嗎？聽起來這就是那個問題的答案。

We would blend returns to investment in the business and growth with returns to -- current returns to shareholders.

我們會將業務和增長的投資回報與股東的當前回報相結合。

Makes sense. Wanted to just get a little bit more clarity on the embedded backlog in the systems backlog, the stuff that's relevant to service, the stuff that's relevant to subscriptions for software that are tied to actual shipments. If we were to take a ratio of the, say it's $100 million worth of systems, what would the equivalent portion of software and services be that are embedded in that deferred revenue for systems? Is it 25%, 30%? Is it 50%? How do we think about it?

說得通。想要更清楚地了解系統積壓中的嵌入式積壓，與服務相關的內容，與與實際出貨量相關的軟件訂閱相關的內容。如果我們計算一個比例，比如說價值 1 億美元的系統，那麼嵌入在系統遞延收入中的軟件和服務的等效部分是多少？是25%還是30%？是50%嗎？我們如何看待它？

I don't know that we have that kind of metric, because in that 100, you have to see what is our campus portfolio as opposed to our wireless portfolio. I could answer that typically, the attach rate that we're now seeing around our wireless portfolio for cloud is around 60%. So every time you sell 100 switches, in 60% of the cases, the customers will take XIQ to manage that. And the dollar amount related to that is a lower number of that, which we haven't really been disclosed. So I'm not sure we can answer that question, Alex.

我不知道我們有那種指標，因為在那 100 種指標中，你必須看看我們的校園產品組合與無線產品組合是什麼。我通常可以回答這個問題，我們現在看到的云無線產品組合的附加率約為 60%。因此，每賣出 100 台交換機，在 60% 的情況下，客戶都會使用 XIQ 來管理它。與此相關的美元金額是其中的一個較低數字，我們尚未真正披露。所以我不確定我們能否回答這個問題，Alex。

Well, the services should be pretty straightforward, right? I mean the services…

好吧，服務應該很簡單，對吧？我的意思是服務…

Services attachment [if you’re thinking] about $7. So you sell $100 worth of switch or access points, you typically get $7. But as far as XIQ is concerned…

服務附件 [如果您正在考慮] 約 7 美元。因此，您出售價值 100 美元的交換機或接入點，通常會得到 7 美元。但就 XIQ 而言……

Alex, I think we should circle back. We should circle back with you on this one.

亞歷克斯，我想我們應該繞回去。我們應該在這個問題上和你一起回過頭來。

We have a question from Dave Kang with B. Riley.

我們有一個來自 Dave Kang 和 B. Riley 的問題。

First, on clarification, I think, Remi, you talked about gross margin would have been 600 bps higher. I'm assuming that was for fiscal fourth quarter?

首先，澄清一下，我認為，雷米，你談到的毛利率會高出 600 個基點。我假設那是第四財季？

No, that was for the full year.

不，那是全年的。

Oh, then what was the fiscal fourth quarter? Can I get that number?

哦，那麼第四財季是什麼？我能得到那個號碼嗎？

It was about the same.

差不多。

Same? Okay, got it. And then, yes, regarding a lot of that has to do with expedite fees. I mean, have we seen the peak of that, or when do we see that peaking? Because gross margin obviously declined 1 percentage point sequentially. I'm assuming that was a function of that?

相同的？好，知道了。然後，是的，其中很多都與加急費用有關。我的意思是，我們是否看到了那個高峰，或者我們什麼時候看到了那個高峰？因為毛利率明顯環比下降1個百分點。我假設這是一個功能？

Actually, the expedite fees and freight costs in Q4 versus Q3 and versus what we expected didn't really come as a surprise. What really drove that 1% gross margin impact was a mix. We had a significantly stronger quarter for wireless, and our gross margin on wireless are lower than for our products.

實際上，第四季度與第三季度以及與我們預期相比的加急費用和運費成本並不令人意外。真正推動 1% 毛利率影響的是混合因素。我們的無線季度表現強勁，無線業務的毛利率低於我們的產品。

To your question about have we seen the peak, the answer is yes. As we look at the expected, what we call PPV, purchase price variance, which is really what we pay in addition to the normal invoices to secure supplies from Broadcom and other vendors, we actually see a slight improvement in Q1, and same for freight costs. I mentioned earlier that there is now more capacity being added back by commercial airlines between Asia and the United States, and we're basically using -- leveraging that commercial capacity to carry our products, so that the bill that we expect to pay this quarter is actually going to be down sequentially, which is why we're suggesting a 1 percentage point improvement sequentially.

對於您關於我們是否看到高峰的問題，答案是肯定的。當我們看到預期的，我們稱之為 PPV 的採購價格差異，這實際上是我們為確保博通和其他供應商的供應而支付的正常發票之外的實際費用，我們實際上看到第一季度略有改善，運費也是如此費用。我之前提到過，現在亞洲和美國之間的商業航空公司增加了更多的運力，我們基本上正在使用——利用商業運力來運送我們的產品，因此我們預計本季度支付的賬單實際上會按順序下降，這就是為什麼我們建議按順序提高 1 個百分點。

Got it. And then, so sticking with wireless, what is the mix between wired versus wireless for product revenue?

知道了。然後，如此堅持無線，有線與無線之間的產品收入組合是什麼？

So this quarter, it went back up. It had been depressed because we were delivering more on the wired side. This quarter, we went back up to 28% wireless, 72% wired.

所以本季度，它又回升了。它一直很沮喪，因為我們在有線方面提供了更多。本季度，我們恢復到 28% 的無線和 72% 的有線。

Got it. And then, regarding your backlog, I think last quarter, you talked about a backlog of maybe $500 million, maybe slightly higher, but clearly, you already exceeded that, and you're implying that will continue to go up. So how should we think about the new peak? Are we talking about maybe $600 million, even higher? And then, after peaking, can you maybe talk about the rate of decline? I'm assuming that's going to be more of a fiscal '24?

知道了。然後，關於你的積壓，我認為上個季度，你談到可能有 5 億美元的積壓，可能略高，但很明顯，你已經超過了，而且你暗示這將繼續上升。那麼我們應該如何看待新的高峰呢？我們是在談論可能 6 億美元，甚至更高嗎？然後，在達到頂峰之後，你能不能談談下降的速度？我假設這將更像是 24 財年？

Ed, you want to comment? So I'll go, Dave, and Ed, you can go free to add.

埃德，你想發表評論嗎？所以我會去，戴夫和埃德，你們可以自由添加。

Yes, I wanted to clarify, I wasn't sure about the question of rate of decline. Dave, we're…

是的，我想澄清一下，我不確定下降率的問題。戴夫，我們……

Backlog decline.

積壓下降。

Oh, the backlog, yes. So we would expect to see backlog decline. We would -- what we mentioned is that it would level out and start chipping away at that in our Q4. We're not expecting a meaningful impact, but it's really in the second half of calendar '23 that you'll start to see us take more meaningful chunks out of that backlog. And again, it will all be based on supply of components and the increased volume. So I think through our fiscal year, the second half of our fiscal year, you'll see a step up, and then throughout fiscal '24 and probably into fiscal '25, you'll see us right-size our backlog.

哦，積壓，是的。因此，我們預計積壓訂單會減少。我們會 - 我們提到的是它會在我們的第四季度趨於平穩並開始減少。我們預計不會產生有意義的影響，但實際上是在 '23 日曆的下半年，您將開始看到我們從積壓的工作中取出更有意義的部分。同樣，這一切都將基於組件的供應和增加的數量。所以我認為在我們的財政年度，我們財政年度的下半年，你會看到一個進步，然後在整個 24 財年甚至可能到 25 財年，你會看到我們調整了我們的積壓工作。

So where do you think it will peak, around $600 million?

那麼你認為它會在哪里達到峰值，大約 6 億美元？

I'm not sure we provided guidance on that, but I think that would be a -- I think that's a fairly -- I think that's a fairly conservative number. I would say that's a safe number, based on the strength of bookings that we've got relative to supply, especially if you look at the trend over the last several quarters.

我不確定我們是否提供了這方面的指導，但我認為這將是一個 - 我認為這是一個相當 - 我認為這是一個相當保守的數字。我會說這是一個安全的數字，基於我們相對於供應的預訂強度，特別是如果你看看過去幾個季度的趨勢。

Got it. Just a couple more. Can we get the latest update on SD-WAN and Ipanema, how that's progressing?

知道了。再多幾個。我們能否獲得有關 SD-WAN 和 Ipanema 的最新更新，進展如何？

Sure. We had our Connect conference, and we announced that we were launching ExtremeCloud SD-WAN. Our team came in ahead of schedule as far as putting the SD-WAN solution in our cloud. So one of the things you'll hear us talk about is that we have one cloud to orchestrate services, and we're the only provider in the industry that has a single cloud delivering cloud management on campus as well as wide area network cloud management. So this is how we're -- this is how we are differentiated, and we're looking at bringing new WAN Edge services that we can orchestrate across our cloud.

當然。我們召開了 Connect 會議，並宣布我們將推出 ExtremeCloud SD-WAN。我們的團隊提前將 SD-WAN 解決方案放入我們的雲中。因此，您會聽到我們談論的一件事是，我們有一個雲來協調服務，而且我們是業內唯一擁有單一云提供校園雲管理和廣域網雲管理的供應商.所以這就是我們的方式——這就是我們的差異化方式，我們正在考慮引入新的 WAN 邊緣服務，我們可以在我們的雲中進行協調。

We are building -- we are -- this is a 6- to 12-month selling cycle. As we've just launched, what we're seeing is we're seeing the funnel start building of opportunities, and we've already seen -- I mentioned Unicoop Firenze. We had our sales kickoff meeting with partners, and SD-WAN is going to be a big part of that launch next week. And our teams will have commitments on those numbers, so we're expecting a significant growth throughout the course of the year, and then you'll see the funnel build, and then you'll see the bookings come predominantly in the second half of the year.

我們正在建立——我們正在——這是一個 6 到 12 個月的銷售週期。正如我們剛剛推出的那樣，我們看到的是我們看到漏斗開始構建機會，我們已經看到了——我提到了 Unicoop Firenze。我們與合作夥伴舉行了銷售啟動會議，SD-WAN 將成為下週發布的重要組成部分。我們的團隊將對這些數字做出承諾，因此我們預計全年會有顯著增長，然後你會看到漏斗的建立，然後你會看到預訂主要出現在下半年那一年。

Got it. And my last question is on 5G. Clearly, you exceeded $20 million, and then I think before, you were expecting $50 million to $100 million. So I was just wondering if that's the case, still the case for fiscal '23. And then, any new customers in the funnel -- I mean the pipeline?

知道了。我的最後一個問題是關於 5G。顯然，你超過了 2000 萬美元，然後我認為之前，你期望 5000 萬到 1 億美元。所以我只是想知道是否是這種情況，23 財年仍然如此。然後，漏斗中的任何新客戶——我的意思是管道？

The answer is yes, yes, and yes. So we're seeing new opportunities with one of our large global telecom suppliers that we've spoken about. They went from 0 to over 22 proof of concepts, and now the proof of concepts are going into production. So we're going to see a significant ramp as major telcos start deploying this cloud-native infrastructure solution. But we're the sole source vendor for networking around major service provider 5G networks around the globe, so we are seeing it happen in real time, and so we're very confident in that forecast.

答案是肯定的，是的，是的。因此，我們看到了與我們談到的大型全球電信供應商之一的新機遇。他們從 0 到超過 22 個概念證明，現在概念證明正在投入生產。因此，隨著主要電信公司開始部署這種雲原生基礎設施解決方案，我們將看到顯著增長。但我們是全球主要服務提供商 5G 網絡網絡的唯一來源供應商，因此我們看到它實時發生，因此我們對這一預測非常有信心。

We are also part of the 5G solution, and I know we mentioned Verizon by name. We have a significant business opportunity, where we are being certified in Verizon in real time, so the Verizon sellers in the enterprise space can position, and they can commission and sell Extreme. This is an exciting new opportunity for us. This also expands across the broader portfolio.

我們也是 5G 解決方案的一部分，我知道我們提到了 Verizon 的名字。我們有一個重要的商業機會，我們正在 Verizon 中實時獲得認證，因此企業領域的 Verizon 賣家可以定位，他們可以委託和銷售 Extreme。這對我們來說是一個令人興奮的新機會。這也擴展到更廣泛的投資組合。

And then, we do -- we are adding new customers. Because of the work that we've done for these large service providers, there are use cases and very targeted use cases that apply to other service providers, and we're starting to see the funnel build where we open up that portfolio to other service providers. But I'd also say we've also been investing in that team, so this is an area where we see significant growth opportunities.

然後，我們這樣做了——我們正在增加新客戶。由於我們為這些大型服務提供商所做的工作，有適用於其他服務提供商的用例和非常有針對性的用例，並且我們開始看到我們向其他服務開放該產品組合的漏斗構建提供者。但我還要說，我們也一直在對該團隊進行投資，所以這是我們看到重大增長機會的領域。

And Alex, if you still on the line, we do have an answer to your earlier question. We did some back of-the-envelope math. But typically, when you have $100 worth of backlog that you're not able to deliver, between the services and subscription, assuming attach rate for service, and assuming a different attach rate for subscription, you should assume around 15%. So as that $500 million of backlog gets released, that's potentially $75 million worth of subscription and services business that can be generated over time.

亞歷克斯，如果您仍然在線，我們確實可以回答您之前的問題。我們做了一些粗略的數學運算。但通常情況下，當您在服務和訂閱之間無法交付價值 100 美元的積壓工作時，假設服務的附加率和訂閱的不同附加率，您應該假設大約 15%。因此，隨著 5 億美元的積壓工作被釋放，隨著時間的推移，可能會產生價值 7500 萬美元的訂閱和服務業務。

Our next question is a follow-up from Mike Genovese with Rosenblatt Securities.

我們的下一個問題是 Mike Genovese 對 Rosenblatt Securities 的跟進。

I had a fairly long list of follow-ups, but then they mostly just got asked in the last few questions. So I'm just going to end with, for me, CoPilot. I know it's early days, but do you have revenues there yet? What's the pipeline like that looking for? How do you sell that product, and what's customer acceptance like?

我有一個相當長的後續列表，但他們大多只是在最後幾個問題中被問到。因此，對我來說，我將以 CoPilot 結束。我知道現在還為時尚早，但你們那裡有收入嗎？這樣的管道在尋找什麼？您如何銷售該產品，客戶接受度如何？

Yes, Mike, it's a great question. It's something we're really excited about, and we talked about the next generation -- the next generation of sort of new growth factors for subscription, and clearly, SD-WAN, we've gotten a lot of attention around digital twin [as the] visibility, and then CoPilot with AI Ops and automation and some of the operational savings that we're going to bring. The launch is really this week, this upcoming week in Boston. So we're -- there's a huge amount of training and enablement and an official launch with our own internal sellers, with marketing programs and incentives as well as for our partners. So more to come on that. We're very excited about the capability and the differentiation of what that can do. So still early innings there, but stay tuned.

是的，邁克，這是一個很好的問題。這是我們非常興奮的事情，我們談到了下一代——下一代訂閱的新增長因素，很明顯，SD-WAN，我們在數字孿生方面得到了很多關注 [as ] 可見性，然後是 CoPilot 與 AI Ops 和自動化以及我們將帶來的一些運營節省。發射真的是本週，即將到來的波士頓的一周。所以我們 - 有大量的培訓和支持，以及我們自己的內部賣家的正式發布，營銷計劃和激勵措施以及我們的合作夥伴。所以還有更多的事情要做。我們對它的能力和差異化感到非常興奮。所以仍然是早期的一局，但請繼續關注。

Okay. I guess if we take very long term, years down the road, and we kind of dimensionalize the CoPilot opportunity versus the core XIQ opportunity, like what percentage would it be?

好的。我想如果我們從長遠來看，幾年後，我們將 CoPilot 機會與核心 XIQ 機會進行維度化，比如百分比是多少？

We haven't guided there yet, Mike. And I think that's something that we can come back. And what we do is, we look at customers, and we look at their software subscription spend. And so obviously, the core is a pilot license, and then maybe you start layering services on top of that. And so we look at, you could call it, it's an additive strategy where we're looking at adding services on top of that pilot. And I think for us to give you a meaningful answer there, we need to do some modeling for you to try to be responsive and understand what you're trying to build in there. I think it's premature for us to give you an answer on the call today.

我們還沒有在那裡指導，邁克。我認為這是我們可以回來的事情。我們所做的是，我們著眼於客戶，我們著眼於他們的軟件訂閱支出。很明顯，核心是一個試點許可證，然後你可能會在此基礎上開始分層服務。所以我們看，你可以稱之為，這是一種附加策略，我們正在考慮在該試點之上添加服務。我認為為了讓我們在那裡給你一個有意義的答案，我們需要為你做一些建模，以嘗試做出響應並理解你想要在那裡構建的東西。我認為我們今天就電話會議給你答復還為時過早。

Mike, can we just say you -- sorry, Mike. You should think of this as an opportunity for us to improve our net retention rate. So if our gross retention rate is in the high 80s, low 90s, when we go back to the customer and renew, we're typically going to upsell them with this type of product and get an additional few percentage points and increase on net retention rate.

邁克，我們能不能說你——對不起，邁克。您應該將此視為我們提高淨保留率的機會。因此，如果我們的總留存率在 80 年代高點，90 年代低點，當我們回到客戶那裡續訂時，我們通常會用這種類型的產品向他們追加銷售，並獲得額外的幾個百分點並增加淨留存率速度。

Fantastic.

極好的。

And that's all the time we have for questions. I'd like to turn the call back to management for closing remarks.

這就是我們提出問題的所有時間。我想將電話轉回給管理層以結束髮言。

Okay, thank you. Well, we appreciate everyone joining us today, and we appreciate the engagement with the analysts. Great questions. We're very excited as we turn the corner into our fiscal '23. The bookings growth and the demand for Extreme in the market is unprecedented, and I'd just say, personally, I'm very proud of the team. I know we have a lot of customers, partners, employees who listen in on the call, and I want to congratulate everyone on a job well done and tremendous momentum that we've got turning the corner, again, across the board from the product team, the sales and marketing teams, our services team, supply chain ops teams, and then everyone supporting the efforts at Extreme. We're just in a very unique position for top line growth and cash flow and earnings growth, not just the next couple of futures, but the next several years, so we're excited about it.

好的謝謝你。好吧，我們感謝今天加入我們的每個人，我們感謝與分析師的互動。好問題。當我們將拐角處轉入 23 財年時，我們感到非常興奮。市場上對 Extreme 的預訂增長和需求是前所未有的，我只想說，就個人而言，我為團隊感到非常自豪。我知道我們有很多客戶、合作夥伴、員工都在聽電話，我想祝賀每個人都做得很好，而且我們已經有了轉機的巨大動力，再次，全面地從產品團隊、銷售和營銷團隊、我們的服務團隊、供應鏈運營團隊，然後是支持 Extreme 努力的每個人。我們在收入增長、現金流和收益增長方面處於非常獨特的位置，不僅僅是未來的幾個期貨，而是未來幾年，所以我們對此感到興奮。

But thank you again for joining us, and have a great day.

但再次感謝您加入我們，祝您有美好的一天。

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。