Extreme Networks Inc (EXTR) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Extreme Network's fourth-quarter full year 2024 financial results. (Operator Instructions) Again, please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們的支持，並歡迎極進網絡 2024 年第四季全年財務表現。 （操作員指示）再次請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

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

我現在將會議交給企業發展和投資者關係副總裁 Stan Kovler。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone and welcome to the Extreme Network's fourth quarter fiscal 2024 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 EVP and CFO, Kevin Rhodes.

謝謝你，接線生。大家早安，歡迎參加極進網路 2024 財年第四季財報電話會議。我是 Stan Kovler，公司策略與投資者關係副總裁。今天與我在一起的有 Extreme Networks 總裁兼執行長 Ed Meyercord；執行副總裁兼財務長凱文‧羅茲 (Kevin Rhodes)。

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, along with our earnings presentation.

我們剛剛發布了新聞稿並提交了 8-K，詳細介紹了極進網路本季的財務表現。為了您的方便，您可以在我們網站Extremenetworks.com 的投資者關係部分取得新聞稿的副本，其中包括我們的 GAAP 與非 GAAP 調整表以及我們的收益演示。

Today's call and our discussion may include certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations about Extreme's future business, financial and operational results, growth expectations and strategies. All financial disclosures on this call will be made on a non-GAAP basis unless stated otherwise. 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.

今天的電話會議和我們的討論可能包括基於我們目前對 Extreme 未來業務、財務和營運業績、成長預期和策略的預期的某些前瞻性陳述。除非另有說明，本次電話會議的所有財務揭露都將按照非公認會計原則進行。我們提醒您不要過度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預期的結果有重大差異。

These risks are described in our risk factors in the 10-K report for the period ended June 30, 2023, and subsequent 10-Q reports 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.

這些風險在我們截至 2023 年 6 月 30 日的 10-K 報告以及隨後向 SEC 提交的 10-Q 報告中的風險因素中進行了描述。本次電話會議中所做的任何前瞻性陳述均反映了我們截至目前為止的分析，除非法律要求，否則我們沒有計劃或義務對其進行更新。

Further, we will be discussing our non-GAAP adjusted results, excluding the impact of our increase in E&O reserves, to show our operational results and to allow for better comparisons to our normal reporting and prior outlook. A reconciliation of our non-GAAP and adjusted results can be found in the press release and financial presentation. Following our prepared remarks, we will take questions.

此外，我們將討論我們的非公認會計原則調整後的結果，不包括我們增加 E&O 準備金的影響，以展示我們的營運結果，並更好地與我們的正常報告和先前的展望進行比較。我們的非公認會計原則和調整後的結果的調節可以在新聞稿和財務報告中找到。在我們準備好的發言之後，我們將回答問題。

And 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 的總裁兼執行長Ed Meyercord。

Thank you, Stan, and thank you all for joining us this morning. Our results in the fourth quarter were impacted by an extraordinary provision for excess and obsolete inventory. This was based on a comprehensive analysis and our decision to have our sellers focus on next-generation products to strengthen our competitive position.

謝謝斯坦，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。我們第四季度的業績受到了針對過剩和過時庫存的特別撥備的影響。這是基於全面的分析和我們決定讓我們的賣家專注於下一代產品以增強我們的競爭地位。

As we enter fiscal '25, we're confident that we've eliminated the headwinds from both our channel and direct inventory and that now put the challenges of the supply chain constraints cycle behind us. Excluding the E&O reserve in the quarter, we were slightly ahead of our top line outlook, aided by growth in order volume and improvement in our run rate business across all geos.

當我們進入 25 財年時，我們相信我們已經消除了通路和直接庫存的不利因素，並且現在已經將供應鏈限制週期的挑戰拋在了身後。不包括本季度的 E&O 儲備，我們的營收略高於我們的預期，這得益於訂單量的增長以及我們在所有地區的運行率業務的改善。

Both are positive macro indicators of the return of market demand and the elimination of excess supply conditions that persisted in 2024.

兩者都是市場需求回歸和2024年持續的供給過剩狀況消除的積極宏觀指標。

ARR from software subscriptions remained strong, up 29% year over year, and we've been recognized by industry analysts as the second largest player in cloud networking as we rapidly approach the 3 million mark for devices managed in our cloud. The growing demand for our solutions is a result of the flexibility, simplicity and the unique value proposition we offer to enterprise partners and customers relative to our competitors.

軟體訂閱的 ARR 依然強勁，年增 29%，隨著我們在雲端管理的設備數量迅速接近 300 萬台大關，我們已被產業分析師認可為雲端網路領域的第二大參與者。對我們解決方案不斷增長的需求是由於我們為企業合作夥伴和客戶提供相對於競爭對手而言的靈活性、簡單性和獨特的價值主張。

We derisk enterprise customer migration to modern networking infrastructure and offer unmatched premier services to ensure that customers get the most out of their investment with Extreme. Specifically, customers truly value the flexibility we offer to manage both Extreme and third-party hardware, which allows them to migrate and upgraded their pace without disruption.

我們消除企業客戶遷移到現代化網路基礎設施的風險，並提供無與倫比的優質服務，以確保客戶從 Extreme 的投資中獲得最大收益。具體來說，客戶真正重視我們提供的管理 Extreme 和第三方硬體的靈活性，這使他們能夠在不中斷的情況下遷移和升級他們的步伐。

A great example from this quarter is ebm-papst, in Germany, the world's leading industrial manufacturer of precision fans and motors. They're a long-time Cisco customer, wanted to migrate to a modern network with Extreme without disrupting operations. We allowed them to transition to Extreme while still supporting the old Cisco gear until the project was complete.

本季的一個很好的例子是德國的 ebm-papst，它是世界領先的精密風扇和馬達工業製造商。他們是思科的長期客戶，希望在不中斷營運的情況下遷移到具有 Extreme 的現代網路。我們允許他們過渡到 Extreme，同時仍然支援舊的思科設備，直到專案完成。

Customers are also embracing our modern Fabric because it's simple to deploy with zero-touch provisioning. It offers unmatched security and visibility, micro segmentation capability that dramatically minimizes the blast radius of lateral cyberattacks. And it provides the resiliency and flexibility to make moves, adds and changes to the network without taking it out of service.

客戶也接受我們的現代 Fabric，因為它可以透過零接觸配置輕鬆部署。它提供無與倫比的安全性和可見性以及微分段功能，可大幅減少橫向網路攻擊的爆炸半徑。它提供了彈性和靈活性，可以在不停止服務的情況下對網路進行移動、添加和更改。

None of our competitors have an enterprise Fabric with these capabilities. Davidson College in North Carolina recently decided to deploy Extreme Fabric to support the college's hybrid flex learning model, allowing seamless integration of in-person and online classes. By leveraging our Fabric, they are able to provide a more efficient, scalable and secure network environment across the campus and remote sites.

我們的競爭對手都沒有具備這些功能的企業 Fabric。北卡羅來納州戴維森學院最近決定部署 Extreme Fabric 來支援學院的混合彈性學習模式，從而實現面對面課程和線上課程的無縫整合。透過利用我們的 Fabric，他們能夠在校園和遠端站點提供更有效率、可擴展和安全的網路環境。

The combination of this Fabric with the industry's most flexible, simple, secure and advanced and cloud management platform makes for a powerful combination. When Asda, one of the UK's largest retailers was looking to modernize network management and operations, they chose Extreme Cloud because they wanted a solution that can help them seamlessly manage 800 locations while reducing CapEx, creating a scalable platform for the future and improving network performance across all of its stores.

該Fabric與業界最靈活、簡單、安全、先進的雲端管理平台結合，形成了強大的組合。英國最大的零售商之一Asda 在尋求網路管理和營運現代化時，選擇了Extreme Cloud，因為他們需要一種解決方案，能夠幫助他們無縫管理800 個地點，同時減少資本支出，為未來創建可擴展的平台並提高網路效能遍布其所有商店。

Our new go-to-market initiatives are beginning to add to the growth equation and allowing us to gain share as well. We grew our MSP partner base to 27 during the quarter. Partners are attracted to the flexibility of our unique consumption-based billing model and pool able licensing. No one else in the industry offers these economic benefits or this level of commercial licensing simplicity. Our MSP bookings doubled sequentially in the fourth quarter, and we're seeing good traction globally.

我們新的市場進入計劃開始增加成長方程式，並使我們能夠獲得份額。本季我們的 MSP 合作夥伴數量增加到 27 個。合作夥伴被我們獨特的基於消費的計費模式和可池許可的靈活性所吸引。業內沒有其他公司能夠提供這些經濟效益或這種程度的商業許可簡單性。我們的 MSP 預訂量在第四季度連續增加了一倍，並且我們在全球範圍內看到了良好的吸引力。

Customers and partners are also 100% aligned with our technology roadmap and vision of the future. Last week, we hosted our direct sellers and partners at a highly immersive training event, Extreme Academy Live, where we showcased how we're driving the convergence of cloud networking, security and generative AI. The engaging main stage sessions, demos, hands-on training have generated positive buzz and infectious energy among sellers and partners. Is this is what customers are demanding in their modern networking environment?

客戶和合作夥伴也 100% 認同我們的技術路線圖和未來願景。上週，我們在Extreme Academy Live 舉辦了一場高度沉浸式的培訓活動，邀請直銷商和合作夥伴參加，展示了我們如何推動雲端網路、安全性和生成式人工智慧的整合。引人入勝的主舞台會議、演示、實踐培訓在賣家和合作夥伴中產生了積極的轟動和感染力。這是客戶在現代網路環境中所要求的嗎？

There was particular excitement for our layered security solutions with Network Access Control, ZTNA and Fabric. Last month, Gartner published a paper on network security, in which it said that traditional network access control offerings, no longer cover emerging enterprise needs, urging its clients to explore universal ZTNA. It combines the capability of core network access control functions along with securing users across any location of ZTNA. We have a single policy engine for cloud-based NAC and ZTNA, which no one else in our industry can offer.

我們的網路存取控制、ZTNA 和 Fabric 分層安全解決方案尤其令人興奮。上個月，Gartner發布了一篇有關網路安全的論文，其中表示傳統的網路存取控制產品已無法滿足新興企業的需求，敦促客戶探索通用的ZTNA。它結合了核心網路存取控制功能以及保護 ZTNA 任何位置使用者的安全。我們擁有適用於基於雲端的 NAC 和 ZTNA 的單一策略引擎，這是我們行業中其他任何人都無法提供的。

At Extreme Academy live, we also previewed advancements to our Extreme AI Expert, a generative AI solution that delivers insights that improve productivity, lowers total cost of ownership and makes networking simple. While the solution is currently in tech preview within extreme labs, we announced a co-innovation alliance with Intel last week, which will leverage a combination of network data and unique device data from PCs through Intel's connectivity analytics and Gen AI, to make networks smarter, faster and more resilient.

在 Extreme Academy 現場直播中，我們還預覽了 Extreme AI Expert 的進步，這是一種生成式 AI 解決方案，可提供可提高生產力、降低總擁有成本並使網路變得簡單的見解。雖然該解決方案目前正在極端實驗室中進行技術預覽，但我們上周宣布與英特爾建立聯合創新聯盟，該聯盟將透過英特爾的連接分析和Gen AI 結合網路數據和來自PC 的獨特設備數據，使網絡變得更智能，更快、更有彈性。

With all these pieces coming together, we're building the industry's most modern networking platform. Given the substantial M&A activity with our industry's largest players, we're benefiting from the disruption it is causing with enterprise customers and channel partners. The largest player is investing away from networking with no intent to integrate acquired technologies and solutions. This makes it complicated to stitch together, very expensive and time-consuming.

透過將所有這些部分組合在一起，我們正在建立業界最現代化的網路平台。鑑於與我們行業最大的參與者進行了大量的併購活動，我們正在從它對企業客戶和通路合作夥伴造成的破壞中受益。最大的參與者正在遠離網路進行投資，無意整合已獲得的技術和解決方案。這使得縫合起來變得複雜，非常昂貴且耗時。

During the quarter, we displaced Cisco at several major customer sites, including: Minnesota Vikings; City of Prescott; Bank of Indonesia; a major NHS hospital in the UK; then DaliaHealth in the US, a Fortune 500 US based manufacturing company; in numerous schools and universities.

本季度，我們在幾個主要客戶站點取代了思科，包括：明尼蘇達維京人隊；普雷斯科特市；印尼銀行；英國一家大型 NHS 醫院；然後是美國的 DaliaHealth，一家美國財富 500 強製造公司；在許多學校和大學。

The second and third largest players will also become increasingly distracted by their business combination. They'll have to make difficult decisions to abandon technology, install that tens of thousands of customers. Portfolio rationalization and integration creates risk. Today, customers and partners in our space are looking to derisk their investments in networking, which makes Extreme a far better alternative.

第二和第三大參與者也將越來越因業務合併而分心。他們將不得不做出艱難的決定，放棄技術，為數以萬計的客戶安裝該技術。投資組合合理化和整合會帶來風險。如今，我們領域的客戶和合作夥伴正在尋求降低網路投資的風險，這使得 Extreme 成為更好的選擇。

Recently, we displaced HP and Juniper across a number of sites, including: Bosch Automotive in Germany; University in North Carolina; Texas Tech University, to name a few. Going forward, we expect sequential revenue growth to continue during the first and second quarters and over year growth for the full year. This growth will be accompanied by increased margins and cash flow, our confidence in this outlook is based on the quality and volume of opportunities in our funnel as well as the current momentum in new funnel generation.

最近，我們在多個站點取代了 HP 和瞻博網絡，包括： 德國的 Bosch Automotive；北卡羅來納大學；德州理工大學，僅舉幾例。展望未來，我們預計第一季和第二季營收將繼續環比成長，全年將實現年比成​​長。這種成長將伴隨著利潤率和現金流的增加，我們對這一前景的信心是基於我們漏斗中機會的品質和數量以及新漏斗世代的當前勢頭。

The combination of our unique solutions, investments in innovation, strong leadership position in the Gartner MQ, mixed with the uncertainty of competitors' commitment to networking and long-term support of their products has created a promising opportunity for Extreme to return to growth in fiscal '25.

我們獨特的解決方案、對創新的投資、在Gartner MQ 中的強大領導地位，再加上競爭對手對網路的承諾以及對其產品的長期支持的不確定性，為Extreme 創造了恢復財務成長的良好機會。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO, Kevin Rhodes, to walk us through the results and guidance.

說到這裡，我想將電話轉給我們的財務長 Kevin Rhodes，讓我們了解結果和指導。

Thanks, Ed. Operationally, our results were slightly ahead of our outlook for the quarter. As we expected entering the quarter, our channel inventory position has now fully normalized. We are confident that sell-in and sell-through rates are balanced, and this will position us for a return to normalized growth as customer demands and trends continue to improve as we saw in the quarter.

謝謝，艾德。從營運角度來看，我們的業績略高於我們對本季的預期。正如我們預期的那樣，進入本季度，我們的通路庫存狀況現已完全正常化。我們相信，銷售率和售出率是平衡的，隨著客戶需求和趨勢繼續改善，這將使我們恢復正常成長，就像我們在本季看到的那樣。

As we've said for several quarters, the unlocking of the supply chain constraints this past year resulted in elevated levels of channel inventory that we and the rest of the networking industry had been working through. During fiscal year 2024, while managing the inventory issues, we held steadfast in our investments in innovation in our areas of growth, and those engines remain unabated.

正如我們在幾個季度中所說的那樣，去年供應鏈限制的解除導致通路庫存水準上升，我們和網路產業的其他公司一直在努力解決這個問題。 2024 財年，在管理庫存問題的同時，我們堅定不移地對成長領域的創新進行投資，這些引擎仍有增無減。

At the end of fiscal 2024, we found ourselves with a high level of inventory on hand related to our older generation of products, relative to our outlook for these and our new products. These conditions drove our decision to increase inventory reserves for products going into sale in fiscal 2025 by $46.5 million, which is reflected in our GAAP and non-GAAP results.

到 2024 財年末，我們發現與我們對這些產品和新產品的展望相比，我們的老一代產品的現有庫存水準很高。這些條件促使我們決定將 2025 財年上市產品的庫存儲備增加 4,650 萬美元，這反映在我們的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 業績中。

The reserve also includes a loss on some supplier commitments. On a positive note, we believe we are through the extraordinary cycle and enter fiscal 2025 feeling confident that our challenges are in the rearview mirror.

該儲備金還包括一些供應商承諾的損失。從正面的角度來看，我們相信我們已經度過了非凡的周期，進入 2025 財年，我們相信我們的挑戰已成為過去。

With that in mind, I'll be discussing our non-GAAP adjusted results, excluding the impact of our increase in E&O reserves to allow for a better comparisons to our normal reporting and our prior outlook. Let me get into some of the numbers.

考慮到這一點，我將討論我們的非公認會計原則調整後的結果，排除我們增加 E&O 準備金的影響，以便更好地與我們的正常報告和先前的展望進行比較。讓我來談談一些數字。

Fourth quarter revenue up $257 million, grew 22% sequentially during the quarter based on a sharp recovery in product sales from the third quarter. On a geographic basis, the recovery in EMEA, reflects an improvement in channel conditions in that region rather than a sharp rebound in end customer demand.

由於第三季產品銷售大幅復甦，第四季營收成長 2.57 億美元，季增 22%。從地理來看，歐洲、中東和非洲地區的復甦反映了該地區通路狀況的改善，而不是終端客戶需求的大幅反彈。

Product revenue of $153 million grew 43% sequentially, reflecting better alignment with channel sell-through as we have discussed for some time. The sequential improvement reflects a sharp rebound in wireless revenue and strong growth in campus switching. Product backlog was once again within our expected range.

產品收入為 1.53 億美元，環比增長 43%，這反映了我們已經討論了一段時間的與通路銷售的更好一致性。這項環比改善反映了無線收入的大幅反彈和園區切換的強勁成長。產品積壓再次處於我們的預期範圍內。

Overall bookings and most notably product bookings were once again above our revenue in the quarter. I'm also encouraged by other indicators of our recovery with growth in transacting partners', number of transactions and transacting accounts during the quarter. Extreme is gaining share by attracting a higher percentage of revenue from new customers, in the fourth quarter versus the year ago quarter.

本季的整體預訂量，尤其是產品預訂量再次高於我們的收入。我也對我們的復甦的其他指標感到鼓舞，包括本季交易合作夥伴、交易數量和交易帳戶的成長。 Extreme 在第四季度透過吸引更高比例的新客戶收入來擴大市場份額。

We had 38 customers spend over $1 million on Extreme Solutions this quarter. For fiscal year 2024, we had 164 customers who spent over $1 million, up from 152 customers in the prior year. Saas ARR continued to show strong top line growth at 29% growth year over year, driven by the strength of our renewals and activations of previously shipped products.

本季度，我們有 38 位客戶在 Extreme Solutions 上花費超過 100 萬美元。 2024 財年，我們有 164 位消費超過 100 萬美元的客戶，高於前一年的 152 位客戶。在我們續訂和啟用之前出貨產品的強勁推動下，Saas ARR 繼續呈現強勁的營收成長，年成長 29%。

Subscription Deferred Revenue was up 23% year-over-year to $267 million. Our subscription and support revenue was $104 million. Our recurring revenue growth has been largely driven by the strength of cloud subscription revenue. Total recurring revenue grew 9 percentage-points year over year to 39% of fourth quarter revenue and 36% of fiscal 2024 revenue.

訂閱遞延營收年增 23%，達到 2.67 億美元。我們的訂閱和支援收入為 1.04 億美元。我們的經常性收入成長很大程度上是由雲端訂閱收入的強勁推動的。經常性總營收年增 9 個百分點，佔第四季營收的 39%，佔 2024 財年營收的 36%。

Our Services business remained solid despite the fluctuations in product revenue trends. We achieved year over year improvement and new service penetration rates, new premier services and overall maintenance revenue, particularly in the Americas. The growth of cloud subscriptions and maintenance drove the total deferred revenue to $575 million, up 15% year over year.

儘管產品收入趨勢出現波動，我們的服務業務仍保持穩健。我們實現了逐年改善，新服務滲透率、新優質服務和整體維護收入，特別是在美洲。雲端訂閱和維護的成長推動遞延收入總額達到 5.75 億美元，年增 15%。

Gross margin achieved a high watermark of 63.5%, up 230 basis points from the prior quarter and up 330 basis points compared to a year ago. The combination of higher product revenue to cover fixed overhead costs drove the sequential on better results. We currently expect gross margin to continue to improve throughout fiscal 2025.

毛利率達到 63.5% 的高位，較上季上升 230 個基點，較去年同期上升 330 個基點。較高的產品收入與固定管理費用相結合，推動了連續績效的改善。我們目前預計 2025 財年毛利率將持續改善。

Our fourth quarter operating expenses were $128 million, down $19 million sequentially and down $27 million from the year-ago quarter. This is a reflection of our stringent cost controls and a reduction of incentive compensation. This helped drive a sequential improvement in our operating margin and along with increased revenue, drove our return to profitability from the third quarter.

我們第四季的營運支出為 1.28 億美元，比上一季減少 1,900 萬美元，比去年同期減少 2,700 萬美元。這反映了我們嚴格的成本控制和激勵性薪酬的減少。這有助於推動我們的營業利潤率連續改善，並且隨著收入的增加，推動我們從第三季開始恢復利潤。

Heading into fiscal '25, we do expect operating expenses to increase along with the recovery in our business due to higher incentive compensation.

進入 25 財年，由於激勵薪酬的提高，我們預計營運費用將隨著業務的復甦而增加。

Operating margin for the fourth quarter was 13.5%, up from a loss of 8.6% in the prior quarter, but down from a profit margin of 17.4% in the prior year quarter. All in fourth quarter adjusted EPS was $0.19, up from a loss per share of $0.14 in the third quarter and down from EPS of $0.33 in the year ago quarter. We ended the quarter with $157 million in cash and net debt of $33 million.

第四季營業利潤率為 13.5%，高於上一季 8.6% 的虧損，但低於去年同期 17.4% 的利潤率。第四季調整後每股收益為 0.19 美元，高於第三季每股虧損 0.14 美元，低於去年同期每股虧損 0.33 美元。本季結束時，我們的現金為 1.57 億美元，淨債務為 3,300 萬美元。

The $11 million of free cash flow in the quarter reflects higher revenue and adjusted profitability and a sharp decline in inventory purchases as commitments went down. We expect a recovery and cash flow in fiscal 2025 as we grow revenue, improve profitability and sell out the inventory we have on hand.

本季 1,100 萬美元的自由現金流反映了收入的增加和調整後的盈利能力，以及隨著承諾的減少而導致庫存採購的急劇下降。隨著我們增加收入、提高獲利能力並售完現有庫存，我們預計 2025 財年將出現復甦和現金流。

During -- Now let's turn to guidance. Our funnel of opportunities remains healthy, and we are encouraged by the level of improving customer and new logo activity that we are seeing, which should bode well for us heading into the new year.

現在讓我們轉向指導。我們的機會管道保持健康，我們對客戶的改善水平和我們所看到的新標誌活動感到鼓舞，這對我們進入新的一年來說是個好兆頭。

Looking ahead to the fifth -- to the first quarter, we are expecting improved sequential revenue growth based on our funnel across many of our verticals. For the first quarter, we expect guidance as follows, revenue to be in a range of $255 million to $265 million.

展望第五季度（即第一季），我們預計根據我們在許多垂直領域的管道，收入的連續成長將有所改善。對於第一季度，我們預期營收指引如下，營收將在 2.55 億至 2.65 億美元之間。

Gross margin to be in a range of 62% to 64%. Operating margin to be in a range of 7.8% to 10.4%. Earnings per share to be in a range of $0.10 to $0.14. Our fully diluted count is expected to be about 133 million shares. For the full fiscal year 2025, we expect revenue to be in a range of $1,110 million to $1,135 million.

毛利率在62%至64%之間。營業利益率將在 7.8% 至 10.4% 之間。每股收益將在 0.10 美元至 0.14 美元之間。我們的完全稀釋後數量預計約為 1.33 億股。對於 2025 年整個財年，我們預計營收將在 11.1 億美元至 11.35 億美元之間。

We expect our gross and operating margins to improve throughout the year and to grow our cash flow. Further improvements in inventory and turnover are expected to come organically tied to growth in customer demand for newer products.

我們預計全年毛利率和營業利潤率都會提高，現金流也會增加。庫存和營業額的進一步改善預計將與客戶對新產品需求的成長有機地連結在一起。

And with that, I will now turn the call over to the operator to begin the Q&A session.

現在，我將把電話轉給接線員以開始問答環節。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Eric Martinuzzi, Lake Street Capital Markets.

馬丁努齊 (Eric Martinuzzi)，湖街資本市場。

Hey, thanks for taking my question. Curious on the guidance for FY25, what kind of macro assumptions do you have built in, maybe not on a quarter-by-quarter basis, but let's take it sort of first half versus second half, but we are anticipating a recovery, and if so, when?

嘿，謝謝你回答我的問題。對 25 財年的指導感到好奇，您建立了什麼樣的宏觀假設，也許不是按季度計算，但讓我們以上半年與下半年為例，但我們預計會出現復甦，如果那麼，什麼時候？

Yes, Eric, this is Ed. I'll cover it. Thanks for the question. We are expecting a gradual recovery in the first quarter and then we're expecting it to accelerate in Q4. And that's based on the visibility that we have with current opportunities in our funnel. So it's -- And then we would expect to see that carry through into calendar '25. (multiple speakers) --

是的，艾瑞克，這是艾德。我會覆蓋它。謝謝你的提問。我們預計第一季將逐步復甦，然後預計第四季將加速復甦。這是基於我們對漏斗中當前機會的可見性。所以，我們希望看到這種情況延續到 25 年曆。 （多位發言者）——

You were talking about calendar Q4?

你在談日曆 Q4？

Yes. So our Q2 and calendar Q4, where we were expecting to see an acceleration. And for us, it's highly visible.

是的。所以我們的第二季和第四季度，我們預計會看到加速。對我們來說，這是非常明顯的。

Got you. When you say it's highly visible, is that based on kind of orders from end users or channel orders?

明白你了。當你說它高度可見時，這是基於最終用戶的訂單還是通路訂單？

Orders from end users that are coming from both our channel as well as direct.

來自最終用戶的訂單來自我們的管道和直接管道。

Okay. And then the -- congratulations on the competitive displacements. I know you win for a number of different reasons, but is there one or two product capabilities that you would point to as to why these displacements are happening?

好的。然後——恭喜你的競爭性取代。我知道您獲勝的原因有很多，但是您是否會指出一兩個產品功能來解釋為什麼會發生這些位移？

I called some of that out. There are three different elements that I called out. The first is we have a technology that allows us to manage that competitor equipment. And so as enterprise customers are contemplating, moving to cloud, moving to end-to-and kind of the most modern networking platforms, there's a migration involved.

我把其中的一些都叫出來了。我提出了三個不同的要素。首先，我們擁有一項技術，可以讓我們管理競爭對手的設備。因此，當企業客戶考慮遷移到雲端、遷移到端到端以及最現代的網路平台時，就會涉及遷移。

And so because we're able to manage competitor equipment, it means we can provide a seamless migration and transition, as I mentioned, with ebm-papst, where we can still manage Cisco gear while they migrate. So it's -- in the industry we're the easiest player and the least risky player for upgrading your network to modern infrastructure because we have the capability to provide visibility and basic management for all of our competitor gear while you're installing and deploying Extreme. So that's unique, our competitors don't have that.

因此，因為我們能夠管理競爭對手的設備，這意味著我們可以提供無縫遷移和過渡，正如我所提到的，透過 ebm-papst，我們仍然可以在思科設備遷移時對其進行管理。因此，在業內，我們是將您的網路升級到現代基礎設施的最簡單且風險最小的參與者，因為我們有能力在您安裝和部署 Extreme 時為我們所有競爭對手的設備提供可見性和基本管理。所以這是獨一無二的，我們的競爭對手沒有。

The second is our Fabric. We have a very modern enterprise Fabric. If it's something that our competitors do not have. And we have unique capabilities as it relates to the ease of deploying networks and provisioning networks, turning up sites, et cetera. We talk about zero-touch provisioning where you add a network device, and it automatically comes up and it's automatically provisioned based on policies that are determined in the Fabric.

第二個是我們的 Fabric。我們有一個非常現代化的企業 Fabric。如果這是我們的競爭對手沒有的東西。我們擁有獨特的能力，因為它涉及輕鬆部署網路和配置網路、開通站點等。我們談論零接觸配置，您添加網路設備，它會自動出現並根據結構中確定的策略自動配置。

The other thing the Fabric has is micro-segmentation where you can literally create thousands of networks within a single physical network. We talk about Dubai Exhibition Center is a great example where Cisco sponsored -- actually paid for the network and the exhibition hall and then they migrated to Extreme because we have the ability to create thousands of networks for each exhibitor can have and by its own network with its own SLA and they're doing this with an IT team of like two or three people.

Fabric 的另一件事是微分段，您可以在單一實體網路中建立數千個網路。我們談論的迪拜展覽中心是一個很好的例子，思科贊助了該中心- 實際上支付了網絡和展廳的費用，然後他們遷移到Extreme，因為我們有能力為每個參展商創建數千個可以擁有的網路並透過自己的網路他們有自己的 SLA，並且透過一個由兩三個人組成的 IT 團隊來完成這項工作。

So this ability to segment the network is something that our competitors just simply don't have and the other value of that segmentation is from a security standpoint, I'll take you to Philadelphia Pan Medical Center, a brand-new 0.5 million square foot facility, downtown Philadelphia. They run on our Fabric. 47 operating each operating room has its own network.

因此，這種對網路進行分段的能力是我們的競爭對手根本不具備的，而這種分段的另一個價值是從安全角度來看，我將帶您前往費城潘醫療中心，這是一個全新的50 萬平方英尺的醫療中心設施，費城市中心。它們在我們的 Fabric 上運行。 47個手術室每個手術室都有自己的網路。

And if there's a hacker that gets through one of a medical device, they can't see any other IP addresses, so they can't go anywhere. So from a security perspective, it becomes -- the blast radius from a hack is minimized to wherever attack the segment of that network. So no one else has that, it's another reason why we won Washington University. It's also very resilient, so typical things that would bring a network down, don't bring the Fabric down and you can make moves, adds and changes, as I mentioned, to a network while the network is hot and running and you don't have to take it down.

如果駭客入侵其中一台醫療設備，他們就無法看到任何其他 IP 位址，因此他們無法前往任何地方。因此，從安全角度來看，駭客攻擊的爆炸半徑被最小化到攻擊該網路段的任何地方。所以沒有人擁有這一點，這是我們贏得華盛頓大學的另一個原因。它也非常有彈性，所以典型的事情會導致網路癱瘓，但不會導致結構癱瘓，正如我所提到的，您可以在網路熱且運行時對網路進行移動、添加和更改，而您不需要不必把它取下來。

So these are all characteristics of an enterprise Fabric that started off in a data center. We've extended it out through the aggregation and core layers out to the Edge switching out to wireless and now across the wide area network. And this is what makes our comparable SD-WAN solution so competitive because you can literally extend that Fabric and those policies out. No one else has that.

因此，這些都是始於資料中心的企業 Fabric 的所有特徵。我們已經透過聚合和核心層將其擴展到邊緣，切換到無線，現在跨廣域網路。這就是為什麼我們的同類 SD-WAN 解決方案如此具有競爭力的原因，因為您可以真正擴展該結構和這些策略。其他人都沒有這樣的能力。

Finally, it's about cloud. And our cloud platform is by far the most flexible in terms of cloud options that we provide in terms of which public cloud you want to be in, in terms of cloud deployment models, in terms of the security that we have built into our cloud.

最後，是關於雲的。就我們提供的雲端選項、您想要使用的公有雲、雲端部署模型以及我們在雲端內建的安全性而言，我們的雲端平台是迄今為止最靈活的。

And then finally, just the simplicity and ease of use and managing the network and the capabilities, recently just come out with really interesting mapping capabilities and we're looking at very soon coming out the ability through our cloud and then through our mapping application to see other non Extreme equipment in your environment. You can imagine that even in IoT world and the likes of Kroger. And we have so many other customers are so excited about this evolution where you have one map where you can literally see every connected device, not just network elements.

最後，簡單易用以及管理網路和功能，最近剛剛推出了非常有趣的地圖功能，我們正在考慮很快通過我們的雲，然後透過我們的地圖應用程式推出該功能查看您環境中的其他非Extreme 設備。你可以想像，即使在物聯網世界和克羅格這樣的公司也是如此。我們還有很多其他客戶對這一演變感到非常興奮，您可以在一張地圖上看到每個連接的設備，而不僅僅是網路元素。

So these are a few of the things that we have that are truly distinct and unique for Extreme. And there's a lot of uncertainty in the environment and as people are contemplating, upgrading and modernizing their networking infrastructure, which is obviously really important as everything runs on the network, we bring unique differentiating capabilities and in addition, we are derisking decisions because if you're looking at the number two and number three players out there, you have no idea what's going to survive.

因此，這些是我們擁有的一些對於 Extreme 而言真正獨特且獨特的東西。環境中存在著許多不確定性，當人們正在考慮、升級和現代化他們的網路基礎設施時，這顯然非常重要，因為一切都在網路上運行，我們帶來了獨特的差異化能力，此外，我們正在降低決策的風險，因為如果你看著外面的第二和第三名球員，你不知道什麼會生存。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Dave Kang, B. Riley.

戴夫·康，B.萊利。

Yes, good morning. While you're added talking about your technology, some of your competitors have been really talking up their AI functionality. Just wondering if you can kind of go over your AI functionality and how they stack up against the -- how it stacks up against some of your competitors?

是的，早安。當你被添加談論你的技術時，你的一些競爭對手一直在真正談論他們的人工智慧功能。只是想知道您是否可以回顧一下您的人工智慧功能以及它們如何與您的一些競爭對手相比？

Sure. The AI that you're hearing about in the networking industry is really around a AI Ops. And this is kind of incorporating the machine learning and data science together for driving better outcomes in the network. And this is -- Extreme is a leader here, we have our copilot application. This is really what Mist was so famous for in terms of their integration with ServiceNow and creating all those trouble tickets.

當然。您在網路產業中聽到的人工智慧實際上是圍繞著人工智慧營運的。這是將機器學習和數據科學結合在一起，以推動網路取得更好的結果。這是——Extreme 是這裡的領導者，我們有我們的副駕駛應用程式。這確實是 Mist 因與 ServiceNow 整合並創建所有這些故障單而聞名的原因。

They -- I think that's kind of the first-generation AI that I would say that between Extreme and Mist, we have a leadership position. I also think it's another reason why HP bought Mist, because HP fell way behind, and they were sort of in trouble in terms of kind of their go forward outlook from under-investing in their networking portfolio.

他們——我認為這是第一代人工智慧，我想說，在 Extreme 和 Mist 之間，我們擁有領導地位。我還認為這是惠普收購 Mist 的另一個原因，因為惠普遠遠落後了，而且由於對網路產品組合的投資不足，他們的未來前景陷入了困境。

As we move forward, the next generation of AI is coming into play, and this is generative AI. We talked about AI Expert. We are investing in and we're very focused on building a networking platform where it will fundamentally change how you interface with the networks. And we also mentioned Intel and our ability to pull in other data sources from our ecosystem partners and alliance partners, the likes of Zebra Appliances that are out there or contact cameras that are out there.

隨著我們的前進，下一代人工智慧正在發揮作用，這就是生成式人工智慧。我們談論了人工智慧專家。我們正在投資並且非常專注於建立一個網路平台，它將從根本上改變您與網路的互動方式。我們也提到了英特爾以及我們從生態系統合作夥伴和聯盟合作夥伴（例如現有的斑馬設備或接觸式攝影機）獲取其他資料來源的能力。

Here this is about us developing a platform where truly it's -- the cloud management becomes part of an overall platform where you have -- you talk into the platform through the form of queries, knowledge queries about our products, about configurations, et cetera. Overall intelligence queries about what's going on in your network. What I think is most exciting is going to be around reporting.

這是關於我們開發一個真正的平台——雲端管理成為您擁有的整個平台的一部分——您透過查詢、有關我們產品的知識查詢、有關配置等的形式與該平台交談。有關網路中正在發生的情況的整體情報查詢。我認為最令人興奮的是報告。

If you're in health care and BioMed comes to you and they're complaining about the network because a piece of medical equipment is not connecting. You can just ask the network, give me a report on that client and its behavior over the last 48 hours. And then it's right at your fingertips and it happens. So troubleshooting, something like that in that environment is literally going to be happening within minutes or an hour instead of what can take weeks today.

如果您從事醫療保健工作，BioMed 來找您，他們會抱怨網路問題，因為某件醫療設備無法連接。您可以直接詢問網絡，向我提供有關該客戶端及其在過去 48 小時內的行為的報告。然後它就在你的指尖，它就發生了。因此，在該環境中進行故障排除實際上將在幾分鐘或一小時內完成，而不是今天可能需要幾週的時間。

So there's this fundamental shift. This is where we're investing and we have -- it is going to fundamentally change the way the strategic value of networking, especially if you have a platform and you start pulling in other data sources that provide more insights and more intelligence into the broader network.

所以出現了這個根本性的轉變。這就是我們正在投資的領域，我們擁有——它將從根本上改變網路策略價值的方式，特別是如果你擁有一個平台，並且你開始引入其他資料來源，這些資料來源可以為更廣泛的領域提供更多見解和更多情報。

And when do you think -- and when should we expect that next generation generative AI to be unavailable?

您認為什麼時候——以及我們什麼時候應該期望下一代生成人工智慧不可用？

Yeah, we just had our Extreme Academy live event and we have opened this up in our AI labs to all of our sellers. So our sellers are now in there, which is going to be really helpful because now our sales teams can help us develop our technology, which is really how this next-generation of AI works as we sort of train it. And this is going to continue to evolve, we have a schedule to gradually open this up to partners, which you'll see a first round of a partner in October and then in November. And then we're looking at the early part of next year, calendar '25 to roll it out in earnest.

是的，我們剛剛舉辦了極限學院現場活動，我們已經在人工智慧實驗室向所有賣家開放了這項活動。所以我們的賣家現在就在那裡，這將非常有幫助，因為現在我們的銷售團隊可以幫助我們開發我們的技術，這實際上就是下一代人工智慧在我們訓練時的工作原理。這將繼續發展，我們制定了逐步向合作夥伴開放的時間表，您將在 10 月和 11 月看到第一輪合作夥伴。然後我們將在明年年初（25 日曆年）認真推出它。

So and then there will be a migration path where we start moving people over into the platform of which our cloud management capability will be obviously a fundamental part of the platform. So we're investing here, we're working -- the teams are working very hard. We're inclusive. We're bringing a lot into the platform and the product.

因此，接下來將會有一條遷移路徑，我們開始將人員遷移到平台中，而我們的雲端管理功能顯然將成為平台的基本組成部分。所以我們在這裡投資，我們正在工作——團隊正在非常努力地工作。我們包容。我們為平台和產品帶來了很多東西。

The other thing I would mention is that from an AI perspective, we have over 20 different agents that we've developed or partnered with Microsoft and Copilot, and we have use cases for sales enablement. So we have a sales assistant that being very helpful, and we're incorporating this in our service function as far as self-help. We're incorporating it across many functions of the company, which is, I guess, more that the non-product, if you will use case is for AI at Extreme.

我要提到的另一件事是，從人工智慧的角度來看，我們開發了 20 多個不同的代理，或與 Microsoft 和 Copilot 合作，我們有銷售支援的用例。因此，我們有一位非常有幫助的銷售助理，我們正在將其納入我們的自助服務功能中。我們正在將其整合到公司的許多職能中，我想，如果您將用例用於 Extreme 的人工智慧，那麼這不僅僅是非產品。

And I guess at the bottom at the end of the day, I mean, what does it do to your ARR? I assume it's already growing at 30% year over year. I mean, could that accelerate in our recurring revenue growth?

我想歸根結底，我的意思是，這對你的 ARR 有何影響？我認為它已經以 30% 的年增長率增長。我的意思是，這會加速我們的經常性收入成長嗎？

I mean, Dave, what I would say is, I think you're sustaining that kind of growth rate over a long period of time is difficult. I think what is going to allow us to do this potential for accelerated growth. But what this is going to allow us to do is to maintain of that 30% -- we've called 30% growth. If you look at adding in security, for example, which is evolving and we're expecting that ZTNA product that I mentioned to go GA in the fall. That will be our first offering where we have a subscription that's untethered to -- it doesn't require Extreme hardware or extreme devices.

我的意思是，戴夫，我想說的是，我認為長期維持這種成長率是很困難的。我認為什麼能讓我們發揮加速成長的潛力。但這將使我們能夠保持 30%——我們稱之為 30% 的成長。例如，如果您考慮添加安全性，安全性正在不斷發展，我們預計我提到的 ZTNA 產品將在秋季上市。這將是我們第一個提供不受限制的訂閱的產品——它不需要極端硬體或極端設備。

So there's a security opportunity. And then as we move to a platform, we're going to continue to evolve with our ecosystem partners and what we call alliance partners and pulling in more data and intelligence from their devices. And so it's still early innings in terms of how we translate all of this into the long-term growth rate. But this is going to allow us to attach more and more devices, including non Extreme devices, just anything tethered to the network and then sell more and more subscription to those devices. So that's the that's the long-term strategy.

所以這是一個安全機會。然後，當我們轉向平台時，我們將繼續與我們的生態系統合作夥伴以及我們所謂的聯盟合作夥伴一起發展，並從他們的設備中獲取更多數據和情報。因此，就我們如何將所有這些轉化為長期成長率而言，現在還處於早期階段。但這將使我們能夠連接越來越多的設備，包括非 Extreme 設備，以及任何連接到網路的設備，然後銷售越來越多的這些設備的訂閱。這就是長期戰略。

Sounds good. Thank you.

聽起來不錯。謝謝。

Christian Schwab, Craig-Hallum.

克里斯蒂安·施瓦布，克雷格·哈勒姆。

Great. Ed, as move into post this fiscal year. And then we talked about growth continuing and accelerating into Q4, but that you've had enough time to kind of digests, the overbuying because of COVID and now hopefully with the last steps of cleaning up the panel inventory excess levels, what do you see as your long-term top line growth objective.

偉大的。艾德，進入本財年之後。然後我們談到了第四季度的持續增長和加速增長，但你已經有足夠的時間來消化由於新冠疫情而導致的過度購買，現在希望通過清理面板庫存過剩水平的最後步驟，你看到了什麼作為您的長期收入成長目標。

Yeah, Christian, thanks for the question. And I know on the last call you were someone who picked up on the inventory and that being an issue. If you look at historical September as a tough comp for us, we had a large September revenue quarter last year in anticipation of a bookings forecast that didn't materialize. As a result, when you compare year over year, you're going to come up with -- call it a mid-single digit growth rate for us just looking at the guide that we provided.

是的，克里斯蒂安，謝謝你的提問。我知道在上次通話中你是一個了解庫存的人，這是一個問題。如果您將歷史上的 9 月視為對我們來說是一個艱難的時期，我們去年 9 月的營收季度很大，因為預訂預測並未實現。因此，當你逐年比較時，你會得出——只要看看我們提供的指南，我們就可以稱之為中等個位數的成長率。

Longer term, if you look at the second half of the year, obviously, it's going to be much higher. And so we are -- we see ourselves as a double-digit grower long term. It's going to be really interesting to see how things play out in the competitive environment. There's going to be -- at this stage of the game, number two and number three are still saying nothing is going to change out in the market. And we all know that's not the case.

從長遠來看，如果你看看下半年，顯然，它會更高。因此，我們認為自己是長期兩位數的成長者。看看事情在競爭環境中如何發展將會非常有趣。在遊戲的這個階段，第二名和第三名仍然表示市場不會有任何變化。我們都知道事實並非如此。

And as that evolves, it's going to have an impact on the channel and it's going to cause some dislocation as it will with enterprise customers. And if we are that -- we're absolutely the best alternative. So depending on how that share shift materializes, that could affect what we're calling that. I think what we've called is 10%, 12% at Investor Day. We're confident in double digit going into '26.

隨著這種情況的發展，它將對通路產生影響，並造成一些混亂，就像企業客戶一樣。如果我們是這樣的話——我們絕對是最好的選擇。因此，根據份額轉移如何實現，這可能會影響我們所說的內容。我認為我們在投資者日所說的是10%、12%。我們對進入 26 年達到兩位數充滿信心。

Great. And then just my last question. Where do you think the greatest market share opportunity geographically in the channel is for you given the competitive dislocation -- location potential.

偉大的。然後是我的最後一個問題。鑑於競爭錯位，您認為通路中最大的市佔率機會在哪裡—位置潛力。

I slice in as two pieces, Christian, I think here in the US, I think there's a big opportunity. I think we're poised to execute on that. And I think that's where you'll feel a lot of that dislocation in Europe. We have different challenges in the channel and we're less channel focused in the US and we're becoming more and more channel focused in the US.

我把它分成兩塊，克里斯蒂安，我認為在美國這裡有一個很大的機會。我認為我們已經準備好執行這一點。我認為這就是你在歐洲會感受到很多混亂的地方。我們在通路方面面臨不同的挑戰，我們不太注重美國的管道，而是越來越注重美國的管道。

In Europe, we have a well established and many more partners to drive the network, but they tend to be smaller. So we're moving up market and EMEA to larger partners. And we have a distinct strategy for that. We're going to do the same thing here in the US and then we're also going to build out a broader base here in the US.

在歐洲，我們擁有完善的合作夥伴和更多的合作夥伴來推動網路發展，但它們往往規模較小。因此，我們正在將高端市場和歐洲、中東和非洲地區轉移給更大的合作夥伴。我們對此有獨特的戰略。我們將在美國做同樣的事情，然後我們也將在美國建立更廣泛的基礎。

So around competitive dislocation, these are opportunities. Cisco is taking a lot of action out in the channel, given their movement away from networking as a focus area. And this will create opportunities for us. We're also coming out with these other commercial models. We've talked about private subscription and maybe the new way to approach markets that traditionally we've not penetrated well with a different kind of relationship with a much larger service provider.

因此，圍繞競爭錯位，這些都是機會。鑑於思科不再將網路作為重點領域，因此他們正在渠道中採取大量行動。這將為我們創造機會。我們也推出了其他商業模式。我們討論了私人訂閱，也許還有一種進入市場的新方式，傳統上我們沒有透過與更大的服務提供者建立不同類型的關係來很好地滲透到這些市場。

The commercial models that we're pursuing are going to open up doors and give us -- that is purely channel-focused, both of them. And we think that over the next coming years, that will open up a lot of opportunity.

我們追求的商業模式將為我們打開大門，並為我們帶來——這兩者都是純粹以管道為中心的。我們認為，在接下來的幾年裡，這將帶來許多機會。

Great. No other questions. Thanks, guys.

偉大的。沒有其他問題。謝謝，夥計們。

Thanks Chris.

謝謝克里斯。

Timothy Horan, Oppenheimer.

提摩西霍蘭，奧本海默。

Thank you. So add our congratulations on rolling out this new -- I don't know exactly what you call it overlay SaaS product that will manage all of an enterprise's network. Well, I guess what do you kind of call this product and, you know, does anyone else out there, have it?

謝謝。因此，我們對推出這項新產品表示祝賀——我不知道您確切地知道您將其稱為覆蓋 SaaS 產品，該產品將管理整個企業的網路。好吧，我猜你怎麼稱呼這個產品，你知道，還有其他人擁有它嗎？

And can you maybe just describe what's the return on invested capital for customers, ultimately, I know that's just the first product rolling out there. But when do you envision having a kind of full platform out there and what's your OSC for customers?

您能否描述一下客戶的投資資本回報率是多少？但是您什麼時候設想擁有一個完整的平台？

Thanks Tim. What we talk about is like kind of what's happening in terms of like platformization, you know not to strangle that word, but the idea of standing up a platform. What we have today, we have cloud management capabilities and then our cloud management for our networking elements becomes an element of our platform.

謝謝蒂姆。我們談論的是平台化方面正在發生的事情，你知道不要扼殺這個詞，而是建立一個平台的想法。我們今天擁有雲端管理功能，然後我們對網路元素的雲端管理成為我們平台的一個元素。

And then the idea is through our alliance partners -- with everything that's tethered to the network, we are in a position now and we create a platform where we can ingest our data and information from those devices, and then we can provide more services based on information from those devices.

然後這個想法是透過我們的聯盟合作夥伴——透過與網路相連的一切，我們現在處於一個位置，我們創建了一個平台，我們可以從這些設備中獲取我們的數​​據和信息，然後我們可以提供更多基於網路的服務。

So it's early innings. We're working on standing up that platform that will be -- we'll see what our competitors are doing, but we will create a pure play networking platform. And what we're aiming to do is to make it very easy for that platform to integrate with other sources of data or where we can supply data into other platforms.

所以現在是早幾局。我們正在努力建立這個平台，我們將看看我們的競爭對手在做什麼，但我們將創建一個純粹的網路平台。我們的目標是使該平台能夠輕鬆地與其他資料來源集成，或者我們可以向其他平台提供資料。

The company that was out talking about platforms, Palo Alto got a lot of notice for all the different solutions that they put together and then creating a platform. And I'd say that's a model that will be followed and I know it's talked about. I think you should think about it like that.

帕洛阿爾托是一家談論平台的公司，他們將所有不同的解決方案組合在一起，然後創建了一個平台，從而引起了很多關注。我想說這是一個將被遵循的模型，我知道它已經被討論過。我想你應該這樣想。

And I would basically be able to manage all or most enterprise legacy hardware ultimately?

我最終基本上能夠管理所有或大多數企業遺留硬體嗎？

Yes. In our case, we're not developing the technology so that we're going back a decade ago trying to find all networking gear that we can attach, we're looking forward. And we're looking forward to our universal hardware platforms where today that's 80%-plus of what we sell and it's moving -- it will move to 100%. And all of that attaches to the cloud, and then it becomes more about ecosystem partners, we mentioned Intel and being able to grab data from other sources away from our networking equipment.

是的。就我們而言，我們並沒有開發這項技術，因此我們要回到十年前，試圖找到我們可以連接的所有網路設備，我們期待著。我們期待著我們的通用硬體平台，今天我們銷售的產品中有 80% 以上，而且這一比例正在不斷提高——將達到 100%。所有這些都依賴於雲，然後它變得更多關於生態系統合作夥伴，我們提到了英特爾並能夠從我們的網路設備之外的其他來源獲取數據。

So Zebra Technologies is another one where we have an integration with Zebra, where we can find -- where we have intelligence about those devices, the location of the devices, the performance of the devices, connectivity et cetera, that we can feed back to the user where they have thousands and thousands of these Zebra devices in their network.

因此，Zebra Technologies 是我們與 Zebra 整合的另一項技術，我們可以在其中找到有關這些設備、設備位置、設備性能、連接性等的情報，我們可以將這些情報回饋給用戶的網路中擁有成千上萬個Zebra 設備。

So I know it's been lastly -- sorry, I know it's really, really early, but -- and you're probably not sure how you're going to charge for it. But can you talk about what kind of improvement the customers will experience and --the payback period for customers.

所以我知道這是最後 - 抱歉，我知道這真的非常非常早，但是 - 你可能不確定如何收費。但您能否談談客戶將體驗到什麼樣的改進以及客戶的投資回收期。

It's too soon for me to talk about payback, Tim, but -- the obvious -- benefits here for us are the simplicity and ease in which you have access to information that's contained in the network or that's things that are tethered to the network. And I mentioned reporting, that's the big one. I spoke to a CIO who talked about the constant fights with BioMed around device connectivity and health care.

提姆，我現在談論回報還為時過早，但是，顯而易見的好處是，您可以輕鬆輕鬆地存取網路中包含的資訊或與網路相連的資訊。我提到了報道，這是最重要的。我採訪了一位首席資訊官，他談到了與 BioMed 在設備連接和醫療保健方面的持續鬥爭。

And now all of a sudden, you can literally just query the network and ask the network for reports that historically have taken a long time and then a lot of troubleshooting to figure out.

現在突然之間，您實際上可以查詢網路並向網路請求報告，而這些報告過去需要很長時間才能解決，然後需要進行大量故障排除才能解決。

So massive time savings. Time savings equates to efficiencies. Efficiencies and cost savings -- traditional networking engineers can now be more productive and more strategic. And the other is a transformation that's going to happen there because the network is strategic, but you're no longer going to need some of the old skills of the old networks and you can repurpose to more value add.

節省了大量時間。節省時間等於提高效率。提高效率並節省成本—傳統網路工程師現在可以提高工作效率並更具策略性。另一個是那裡將要發生的轉變，因為網路具有策略性，但你不再需要舊網路的一些舊技能，你可以重新調整用途以獲取更多附加價值。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

David Vogt, UBS.

大衛‧沃格特，瑞銀集團。

Great, guys. Thanks for squeezing me in. And Kevin and team appreciate all the color on the inventory. Assume -- if I may, can I dig in a little bit on what kind of transpired in the quarter because the obsolescence charge looks like it's about 30% of your finished goods inventory. Can you help us understand sort of what the products were, how you're thinking about it?

太棒了，夥計們。感謝您邀請我加入。假設 - 如果可以的話，我可以深入了解本季發生的情況，因為過時費用看起來約佔成品庫存的 30%。您能幫助我們了解這些產品是什麼以及您是如何看待它的嗎？

And even with the charge, inventory still a bit elevated relative to historical levels when you've been at the sort of revenue run rate from a product perspective. So you can help us understand kind of what's going on there and how to think about it going forward? And then I have a follow-up.

即使收取費用，當你從產品角度來看處於某種收入運行率時，庫存相對於歷史水平仍然有點高。那麼您可以幫助我們了解那裡正在發生的事情以及如何思考未來的情況嗎？然後我有一個後續行動。

Kevin, you want to take that one?

凱文，你想拿那個嗎？

Yeah, I'm happy to. I would say, throughout the year, we were evaluating and looking at just like we do every single quarter, our inventory levels, and as we got into the fourth quarter, as we were doing our planning for this next year, as we were looking at our funnel of activity, what we saw is more and more opportunities created around newer generations, universal hardware, et cetera, and realizing that we had some inventory that was going to end of life in 2025.

是的，我很高興。我想說，全年我們都在評估和審視我們的庫存水平，就像我們每個季度所做的那樣，當我們進入第四季度時，當我們為明年做計劃時，當我們在尋找在我們的活動漏斗中，我們看到圍繞新一代、通用硬體等創造了越來越多的機會，並意識到我們有一些庫存將在2025 年終止。

When we looked at that and realize that a lot of our sellers are not really incentivized, nor do we want them to be pushing kind of whole older technologies, we realize that this would be a good opportunity, if you will, for us to evaluate what our strategy in 2025 and looking at our inventories and making sure that we had basically brought it to the net realizable value that we would expect us to sell out in this next year.

當我們看到這一點並意識到我們的許多賣家並沒有真正受到激勵，我們也不希望他們推動某種較舊的技術時，我們意識到這將是一個很好的機會，如果你願意的話，我們可以評估我們 2025 年的策略是什麼，查看我們的庫存，並確保我們基本上已將其實現淨可變現價值，我們預計我們將在明年出售。

Some of it was a combination of raw materials. So we had not created yet. Those older technologies number we had to buy some of these components. Year -- two years ago, we had to buy them when there was elevated demand. Those orders were put into our ODMs and then we were getting those raw materials.

其中一些是原材料的組合。所以我們還沒有創建。對於那些較舊的技術，我們必須購買其中一些組件。一兩年前，當需求增加時，我們不得不購買它們。這些訂單被放入我們的 ODM，然後我們就可以獲得這些原料。

You're probably not going to create new finished goods if in fact, you have raw materials and you're not even moving the finished goods. And so we took -- look at all of that and just came to the conclusion that this was the right thing to do in the fourth quarter. That's the best way to describe it.

如果事實上您有原材料並且甚至不移動成品，那麼您可能不會創建新的成品。因此，我們審視了所有這些，並得出結論，這是第四季度採取的正確做法。這是描述它的最好方式。

And then on the balance of [$141 million], which still seems a bit elevated relative to back -- if I go back to fiscal '20, when you're kind of at this revenue run rate on the product side. Just wanted to kind of get a sense what's going on there.

然後，關於[1.41億美元]的餘額，相對於過去，這似乎仍然有點高——如果我回到20財年，當你在產品方面處於這種收入運行速度時。只是想了解那裡發生了什麼事。

So the good news is, that the $141 million that we have now, that's all-fresh new universal hardware. We feel very confident in our ability to go forward, we're kind of clean on that level. And that's new product that will be sold out. And we think that the normal kind of level of our inventory is going to be about between $60 million and $80 million in that range based on historical numbers. And so we'll still generate cash flow from that $141 million going down, let's call it $60 million to $80 million of free cash flow in this next year based on that finished goods inventory selling out.

好消息是，我們現在擁有 1.41 億美元，這是全新的通用硬體。我們對自己前進的能力非常有信心，我們在這個水平上是乾淨的。那是即將售空的新產品。我們認為，根據歷史數據，我們的庫存正常水準約為 6,000 萬美元至 8,000 萬美元。因此，我們仍將從這 1.41 億美元的下降中產生現金流，根據成品庫存的售出，我們將其稱為明年 6,000 萬至 8,000 萬美元的自由現金流。

Great. And can I slip one more in maybe for Ed. When you think about the demand drivers in '25, you talked about obviously a sequential improvement in December, obviously year over year growth against an easy compare in March. When you think about sort of the environment as we turn into calendar '25, I think visibility still seems a little bit light to us.

偉大的。我可以再給艾德塞一張嗎？當您考慮 25 年的需求驅動因素時，您顯然談到了 12 月份的環比改善，顯然是與 3 月份的輕鬆比較相比的同比增長。當您考慮進入 25 日曆時的環境時，我認為能見度對我們來說仍然有點淡。

What gives you confidence that you can grow revenue kind of in that mid 10s in the back half of your fiscal '25 or the early part of 2025. I get the comp is easy in March, but I'm maybe thinking a little bit more longer-term in terms of normalization in the environment. I know Kevin, talked about demand and channel seems to be aligned. But just any sort of color there would be great.

是什麼讓你有信心在 25 財年後半段或 2025 年初的 10 年代中期實現收入增長。我知道凱文談到需求和管道似乎是一致的。但任何顏色都會很棒。

Yeah. I mean, David, it's -- overall, it's the technology differentiation that we have today is very strong. And as we've made changes to our sales organization, our marketing organization, and we've attracted a lot of new talent, it's very good. And I would say the rigor around and we've overhauled our reporting on funnel, our reporting on funnel generation. We have a lot more clarity and visibility, which gives us confidence into what -- one, what we currently have in our funnel of opportunities and why we're creating them.

是的。我的意思是，大衛，總的來說，我們今天擁有的技術差異化非常強大。隨著我們對銷售組織、行銷組織進行了調整，並且吸引了許多新人才，這非常好。我想說的是，我們已經徹底修改了關於漏斗的報告，以及關於漏斗產生的報告。我們有了更多的清晰度和可見性，這讓我們對第一，我們目前在機會漏斗中擁有什麼以及我們為什麼要創造這些機會充滿信心。

And then two, our momentum we have around funnel generation. And this is really what's going to give us confidence. So there's kind of what we're doing in terms of how we're executing as a company. There's a macro, this is a macro cycle evolution, which we think will be somewhat favorable.

第二，我們圍繞著漏斗生成的動力。這確實會給我們信心。因此，就我們作為一家公司的執行方式而言，我們正在做一些事情。有一個宏觀的，這是宏觀週期的演變，我們認為這會有些有利。

And then finally, there's the conditions within our industry and what is going on. And -- between HP and Juniper, there's a lot of work that they have to do and a lot of risks they have to put out into the market, which we fully intend to take advantage of. And then as Cisco just continues to move in a direction that creates complexity and creates challenges for customers. And it just feels like with both the channel and end-user customers that with those that volume of opportunity is getting greater in terms of where do they go. There's one less place to go with Juniper and HP getting together. And at this stage of the game, we become the least risky and I think most attractive modern networking platform to go to.

最後，我們產業內的狀況以及正在發生的事情。而且，惠普和瞻博網路之間有很多工作要做，也有很多風險需要投入市場中，而我們完全打算利用這些風險。然後，思科繼續朝著給客戶帶來複雜性和挑戰的方向前進。對於管道和最終用戶來說，就他們的去向而言，機會的數量正在變得越來越大。瞻博網路和惠普的強強聯手讓我們少了一個可以去的地方。在遊戲的這個階段，我們成為風險最小、我認為最具吸引力的現代網路平台。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

I show no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Ed Meyercord for closing remarks.

目前我在隊列中沒有顯示任何其他問題。我現在想將電話轉回給艾德·邁耶科德（Ed Meyercord），讓其致閉幕詞。

Thanks, Michelle. Let me just say thank you to everyone who's joined the call. We appreciate investors and our analysts, we thank you for the questions. Here are also we have a lot of our employees and partners who are joined in on the call and of course, I want to thank them for the work in -- and we've got a tremendous opportunity ahead of us, and we appreciate you being with us, and we're looking forward to updating you on more things to come. Have a great day.

謝謝，米歇爾。讓我對所有加入通話的人表示感謝。我們感謝投資人和分析師，感謝您提出的問題。我們還有很多員工和合作夥伴參加了電話會議，當然，我要感謝他們所做的工作——我們面前有一個巨大的機會，我們感謝你們與我們在一起，我們期待向您通報更多即將發生的事情。祝你有美好的一天。

This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。