Scansource Inc (SCSC) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the ScanSource Quarterly Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) This call is being recorded. If anyone has objections, you may disconnect at this time.

歡迎參加 ScanSource 季度財報電話會議。（操作員說明）此通話正在錄音。如果有人反對，您可以此時斷開連線。

I'd now like to turn the call over to Mary Gentry, Senior Vice President, Treasurer, Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.

我現在想將電話轉給投資者關係高級副總裁兼財務主管 Mary Gentry。女士，您可以開始了。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Our call will include prepared remarks from Mike Baur, our Chair and CEO; and Steve Jones, our Chief Financial Officer. We will review our operating results for the quarter and the year and then take your questions. We posted an earnings infographic that accompanies our comments and webcast in the Investor Relations section of our website.

早安，感謝您加入我們。我們的電話會議將包括我們的主席兼執行長 Mike Baur 準備好的演講；和我們的財務長史蒂夫瓊斯。我們將審查本季和全年的營運業績，然後回答您的問題。我們在網站的投資者關係部分發布了收益資訊圖，並附有我們的評論和網路廣播。

As you know, certain statements in our press release, infographic and on this call are forward-looking statements and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. These risks and uncertainties include the factors identified in our earnings release and in our Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2024. Forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today, and ScanSource disclaims any duty to update these statements, except as required by law. During our call, we will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP results and have provided reconciliations on our website and in our Form 8-K.

如您所知，我們的新聞稿、資訊圖表和本次電話會議中的某些陳述均為前瞻性陳述，並存在可能導致實際結果與預期有重大差異的風險和不確定性。這些風險和不確定性包括我們在截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日的年度收益發布和 10-K 表格中確定的因素。前瞻性聲明僅代表我們截至目前為止的觀點，除法律要求外，ScanSource 不承擔任何更新這些陳述的義務。在電話會議期間，我們將討論 GAAP 和非 GAAP 業績，並在我們的網站和 8-K 表格中提供對帳資訊。

I'll now turn the call over to Mike.

我現在將電話轉給麥克。

Thanks, Mary, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. As we start our new fiscal year, we are seeing accelerated adoption of our hybrid distribution strategy, which we believe will drive more demand. Last week, we hosted 800 attendees at our Partner First Conference where we challenged our sales partners to get out of their comfort zones and embrace new opportunities for growth. Our hybrid distribution strategy enables our sales partners to sell more of the technology stack to meet end user customers' IT requirements. As our channel partners expand their technology stack offering, ScanSource expands our total addressable market.

謝謝瑪麗，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。隨著新財年的開始，我們看到混合分銷策略的加速採用，我們相信這將推動更多需求。上週，我們在合作夥伴優先會議上接待了 800 名與會者，我們要求銷售合作夥伴走出舒適區，擁抱新的成長機會。我們的混合分銷策略使我們的銷售合作夥伴能夠銷售更多的技術堆疊，以滿足最終用戶客戶的 IT 要求。隨著我們的通路合作夥伴擴大其技術堆疊產品，ScanSource 也擴大了我們的整體目標市場。

In July, Ken Mills joined us as President of Intelisys. With a background most recently as CEO of Epic IO, a supplier to all the TSDs in the channel, where he led a private equity funded company through four years of double-digit growth. Ken has many years of channel experience dealing with agents, VARs, MSPs, OEMs and end user customers when he worked previously at Cisco and EMC Dell. At Intelisys, Ken is leading our next phase of growth for the channel as we are making investments in advanced technologies such as AI and private 5G.

7 月，Ken Mills 加入我們，擔任 Intelisys 總裁。他最近擔任 Epic IO 的首席執行官，該公司是該通路中所有 TSD 的供應商，他帶領一家私募股權投資的公司實現了四年兩位數的成長。Ken 之前在 Cisco 和 EMC Dell 工作，擁有多年與代理商、VAR、MSP、OEM 和最終用戶客戶打交道的通路經驗。在 Intelisys，Ken 正在領導我們通路的下一階段成長，因為我們正在對人工智慧和專用 5G 等先進技術進行投資。

We also see partner segmentation as a strategy to demonstrate our differentiated value to partners who require a customized set of services. Our focus will be on the fastest-growing partners, including IT VARs, Advanced Technology Partners and telco agents.

我們也將合作夥伴細分視為一種策略，旨在向需要客製化服務的合作夥伴展示我們的差異化價值。我們的重點將放在成長最快的合作夥伴上，包括 IT VAR、先進技術合作夥伴和電信代理商。

Earlier in August, we announced two acquisitions in different segments of our business for the next phase of our hybrid distribution strategy. Both acquisitions are high-margin, recurring revenue businesses that are working capital light.

八月初，我們宣佈在不同業務領域進行兩項收購，以實施下一階段的混合分銷策略。兩項收購都是高利潤、經常性收入且營運資金較少的業務。

As we previewed on last quarter's earnings call, our advisory channel business came to life with our acquisition of Resourcive, which closed on August 8. Starting with Resourcive, ScanSource is creating the advisory channel model of the future, developing best practices that we can share with the Intelisys partner community.

正如我們在上季度財報電話會議上預覽的那樣，我們的諮詢通路業務隨著我們對 Resourcive 的收購而生機勃勃，該收購於 8 月 8 日完成。從 Resourcecive 開始，ScanSource 正在創建未來的諮詢管道模型，開發我們可以與 Intelisys 合作夥伴社群共享的最佳實踐。

Also in August, we announced the launch of our integrated solutions group. This new group is focused on specialty technology VARs and will provide them with new solutions to deliver more value with their hardware. On August 15, we closed the acquisition of Advantix, a connectivity provider of 5G for mobility solutions. Advantix enables mobility VARs to sell hybrid solutions by combining the recurring revenue stream from the connectivity with the hardware mobility devices.

同樣在八月，我們宣布推出整合解決方案團隊。這個新團隊專注於專業技術 VAR，並將為他們提供新的解決方案，以利用其硬體創造更多價值。8 月 15 日，我們完成了對 Advantix 的收購，Advantix 是一家 5G 行動解決方案連線供應商。Advantix 將連接的經常性收入流與硬體行動裝置結合，使行動加值經銷商能夠銷售混合解決方案。

We are executing well on investments to accelerate our hybrid distribution strategy and the expanded high-margin growth opportunities ahead. As we said last quarter, we will continue to use our balance sheet to invest in the growth opportunities that are part of our strategic plan.

我們在投資方面執行得很好，以加速我們的混合分銷策略和未來擴大的高利潤成長機會。正如我們上季度所說，我們將繼續利用資產負債表來投資成長機會，這是我們策略計畫的一部分。

I'll now turn the call over to Steve, to take you through our financial results and outlook for fiscal year 2025.

我現在將電話轉給 Steve，向您介紹我們的財務表現和 2025 財年的展望。

Thanks, Mike. As we close our fiscal year, I'm proud of how our teams have executed. As reported by many channel companies and suppliers, we are experiencing soft demand for many of our technologies in both of our segments. However, we did see some technologies have experienced good growth in Q4, including physical security in our specialty technology solutions segment and UCaaS and CCaaS in our modern communication & cloud segment.

謝謝，麥克。當我們結束本財年時，我為我們團隊的執行感到自豪。正如許多通路公司和供應商所報告的那樣，我們的兩個細分市場對許多技術的需求都處於疲軟狀態。然而，我們確實看到一些技術在第四季度經歷了良好的成長，包括我們專業技術解決方案領域的實體安全以及我們現代通訊和雲端領域的 UCaaS 和 CCaaS。

While it was a challenging year, our teams stayed focused and were able to deliver strong profitability and significant free cash flow for the full year, including the fourth quarter. For the quarter, our business delivered strong gross profit margins, adjusted EBITDA margins and free cash flow of $53 million.

儘管這是充滿挑戰的一年，但我們的團隊保持專注，並能夠在全年（包括第四季度）實現強勁的盈利能力和大量的自由現金流。本季度，我們的業務實現了強勁的毛利率、調整後 EBITDA 利潤率和 5,300 萬美元的自由現金流。

In our specialty technology solutions segment, net sales declined 14% year-on-year, while gross profit declined 10% year-on-year. In our modern communications & cloud segment, net sales declined 32% year-on-year, while Intelisys net sales grew 6% year-on-year. Q4 end-user billings for Intelisys increased 9% year-on-year and totaled $2.67 billion in FY24. This includes Q4 billings growth in contact-center-as-a-service, or CCaaS, of 35% and UCaaS of 13%.

在我們的專業技術解決方案領域，淨銷售額年減14%，毛利年減10%。在我們的現代化通訊和雲端業務領域，淨銷售額年減 32%，而 Intelisys 淨銷售額較去年同期成長 6%。Intelisys 第四季最終用戶帳單年增 9%，2024 財年總計 26.7 億美元。其中包括第四季度聯絡中心即服務 (CCaaS) 的帳單增加 35%，UCaaS 的帳單增加 13%。

Gross profit in our modern communication & cloud segment declined 11% year-on-year, less than the sales decline, reflecting a favorable mix, including higher concentration of recurring revenues from Intelisys. For FY24, net sales declined 14% while gross profits declined 11%. GAAP and non-GAAP net income declined 12.5% and 20.5%, respectively. FY24 non-GAAP EPS is $3.08 compared to $3.85 last year. Free cash flow for the year was $363 million, driven by a significant reduction in working capital from lower sales and our working capital efficiency improvements.

現代通訊和雲端業務的毛利年減 11%，低於銷售額的降幅，反映出有利的組合，包括來自 Intelisys 的經常性收入的集中度更高。2024 財年淨銷售額下降 14%，毛利下降 11%。GAAP 和非 GAAP 淨利潤分別下降 12.5% 和 20.5%。2024 財年非 GAAP 每股盈餘為 3.08 美元，去年為 3.85 美元。本年度自由現金流為 3.63 億美元，這是由於銷售額下降導致營運資金大幅減少以及營運資金效率提高所致。

For the year, the specialty technology & solutions segment net sales declined 14% year-on-year, while gross profits declined 16%. Modern communications & cloud segment net sales declined 13%, while gross profit declined 6%, again reflecting a higher mix of recurring revenue from our Intelisys business which saw a 6.6% year-on-year growth in net sales. Recurring revenue represented 27% of the company's consolidated gross profit.

今年，專業技術與解決方案部門淨銷售額年減14%，毛利下降16%。現代通訊和雲端業務淨銷售額下降 13%，毛利下降 6%，再次反映出 Intelisys 業務的經常性收入組合較高，淨銷售額年增 6.6%。經常性收入占公司綜合毛利的27%。

Now turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. We are very pleased with the progress we're making on our working capital efficiency. Our goal throughout the year was to improve our working capital efficiency while maintaining appropriate inventory levels to meet channel partner demand. We saw inventories decrease $245 million year-over-year and sustainable improvements in our inventory turns. Our accounts receivable balances are in line with our change in revenue, and both our inventory and accounts receivable portfolios are healthy.

現在轉向資產負債表和現金流量。我們對營運資本效率的進展感到非常滿意。我們全年的目標是提高營運資金效率，同時維持適當的庫存水平，以滿足通路合作夥伴的需求。我們的庫存年減了 2.45 億美元，庫存週轉率持續改善。我們的應收帳款餘額與收入變化一致，我們的庫存和應收帳款組合都很健康。

Our balance sheet is strong. We ended Q4 with $185 million in cash and a net debt leverage ratio below 0 on a trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA basis. Our capital allocation plans balance acquisitions and share repurchases, while maintaining a strong balance sheet with a modest net leverage target of 1 to 2 times adjusted EBITDA. Share repurchases totaled $22 million for Q4 and $43 million for FY24.

我們的資產負債表強勁。在第四季結束時，我們擁有 1.85 億美元的現金，以過去 12 個月調整後的 EBITDA 計算，淨負債槓桿率低於 0。我們的資本配置計畫平衡收購和股票回購，同時保持強勁的資產負債表，並將淨槓桿目標調整為調整後 EBITDA 的 1 至 2 倍。第四季的股票回購總額為 2,200 萬美元，2024 財年的股票回購總額為 4,300 萬美元。

For FY25, we have an active pipeline of acquisition targets and room to continue to do share repurchases, while staying within our targeted net leverage ratio. As we look to our FY25 annual outlook, the company expects the challenging demand environment to continue in the near term, particularly in the first half of our fiscal year.

對於 25 財年，我們擁有活躍的收購目標管道，並有繼續進行股票回購的空間，同時保持在我們的目標淨槓桿率範圍內。在我們展望 25 財年年度展望時，該公司預計短期內，特別是本財年上半年，充滿挑戰的需求環境將持續下去。

As a reminder, we have very little backlog to give us an indication of demand as we ship each day from our inventory based on orders received that day. We continue to manage our SG&A spending to match our revenue growth expectations for FY25 and beyond, by redirecting resources and investing in our recurring revenue businesses. We continually review our resource investment and adjust based on market opportunities.

提醒一下，我們每天根據當天收到的訂單從庫存中發貨，因此我們幾乎沒有積壓訂單來指示需求。我們透過重新調整資源和投資於我們的經常性收入業務，繼續管理我們的銷售、行政管理支出，以符合我們對 2025 財年及以後的收入成長預期。我們不斷審查我們的資源投資並根據市場機會進行調整。

For FY25, we currently believe our net sales will be between $3.1 billion and $3.5 billion, with adjusted EBITDA ranging between $140 million and $160 million. This reflects an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 4.5% to 4.6%.

對於 25 財年，我們目前認為我們的淨銷售額將在 31 億美元至 35 億美元之間，調整後的 EBITDA 範圍在 1.4 億美元至 1.6 億美元之間。這反映出調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率約為 4.5% 至 4.6%。

As we reported last year, the company is building a cash culture as we believe generating predictable free cash flow is a key measure of success. For FY25, we believe that we will generate at least $70 million in free cash flow. While this is significantly lower than FY24, we believe the majority of our working capital reduction actions are complete and will shift to a continuous working capital efficiency improvement. Our outlook includes our recent acquisitions, and we remain confident in our growth opportunities, the resilience of our business model and the strength of our hybrid distribution strategy.

正如我們去年報導的那樣，該公司正在建立現金文化，因為我們相信產生可預測的自由現金流是成功的關鍵衡量標準。對於 25 財年，我們相信我們將產生至少 7000 萬美元的自由現金流。雖然這明顯低於 2024 財年，但我們相信我們大部分的營運資本削減行動已經完成，並將轉向持續提高營運資本效率。我們的前景包括我們最近的收購，我們對我們的成長機會、我們的業務模式的彈性以及我們混合分銷策略的優勢仍然充滿信心。

We'll now open it up for questions.

我們現在將開放提問。

(Operator Instructions) Adam Tindle, Raymond James.

（操作員說明）Adam Tindle、Raymond James。

Mike, you talked earlier in the call about the appointment of Ken Mills as President of Intelisys in July. And I think that's a really interesting turning point for the company. I wonder if you could maybe just double click on that, maybe a little bit more details on the structure of the organization, how that's changing, the KPIs for that business and how those might be changing?

Mike，您早些時候在電話會議中談到了 7 月任命 Ken Mills 為 Intelisys 總裁的事宜。我認為這對公司來說是一個非常有趣的轉捩點。我想知道您是否可以雙擊它，也許可以了解更多有關組織結構、組織結構如何變化、該業務的 KPI 以及這些可能如何變化的詳細資訊？

Yes. Adam, for us, as you know, we took quite a while to actually appoint a new President. And at the time, I was acting in that capacity to make sure I understood not only where we were doing things well, but also where we weren't doing things maybe for the future. And it looked to me like we needed more strategy and vision. Execution is something, I think, that Intelisys has always been very good at.

是的。亞當，對我們來說，如你所知，我們花了很長時間才真正任命一位新總統。當時，我以這種身分行事，以確保我不僅了解我們在哪些方面做得很好，而且還了解我們未來可能在哪些方面做得不好。在我看來，我們需要更多的策略和願景。我認為，執行是 Intelisys 一直非常擅長的事情。

But I think as the competition changed on us over the last couple of years, we need to take a hard look at where our value is and where our value can become in the future. And Ken brings such a strong background in different channel approaches, that really resonated with our team as we interviewed Ken and looked at others that might come more directly from the TSD channel community. Ken's background, not only at Cisco and EMC Dell, but also at a supplier to all of the TSDs really brings a unique approach to the knowledge base that, frankly, I didn't have.

但我認為，隨著過去幾年我們面臨的競爭發生了變化，我們需要認真審視我們的價值在哪裡以及我們未來的價值會變成哪裡。Ken 在不同通路方法方面擁有如此強大的背景，當我們採訪 Ken 並研究可能更直接來自 TSD 通路社群的其他人時，這確實引起了我們團隊的共鳴。Ken 的背景不僅在 Cisco 和 EMC Dell，而且還在所有 TSD 的供應商中，這確實為知識庫帶來了一種獨特的方法，坦白說，這是我所沒有的。

And so as Ken and myself talked about where Intelisys is, it became more of the conversation about where it can go and what it can become. And so we are very bullish on the TSD model, and why we believe, going forward, we can create more growth. As a matter of fact, Ken and I discussed going forward, we believe we can get back to double-digit growth at Intelisys.

因此，當 Ken 和我談論 Intelisys 的位置時，更多地討論的是它可以走向何方以及它可以成為什麼。因此，我們非常看好 TSD 模式，以及為什麼我們相信，展望未來，我們可以創造更多成長。事實上，Ken 和我討論了未來的發展，我們相信 Intelisys 能夠恢復兩位數的成長。

Got it. That's helpful. But I heard that he’s a Clemson Tiger too, so I’m sure that was welcome.

知道了。這很有幫助。但我聽說他也是克萊姆森老虎隊的一員，所以我確信這是受歡迎的。

Well, we try not to use those things to influence us. But yes, it wasn't a bad thing. Go Tigers.

好吧，我們盡量不要用這些東西來影響我們。但是，是的，這並不是一件壞事。走吧，老虎隊。

Yes. Steve, I wanted to maybe follow up on that. Obviously, this is part of sort of a broader strategy to also build up the ISS group, and we've got a couple of acquisitions here. Any help that you can maybe provide us in terms of expected contribution from those acquisitions as you build up your fiscal '25 guidance?

是的。史蒂夫，我想跟進一下。顯然，這是建立 ISS 集團的更廣泛策略的一部分，我們在這裡進行了幾項收購。在製定 25 財年指導時，您能否就這些收購的預期貢獻向我們提供任何幫助？

And then separately from that, just more broadly speaking, as you built up the fiscal '25 guidance, I wonder how that process might have been similar or different from entering fiscal '24? I know that whole process was kind of newer to you guys at that time. And sure there's been some learning since. So if you could maybe just touch on the process to guidance entering fiscal '25, how it was different, and then any acquisition contribution color would be helpful?

除此之外，更廣泛地說，當您制定 25 財年指導方針時，我想知道這個過程與進入 24 財年有何相似或不同？我知道整個過程對當時的你們來說有點新鮮。當然，從那時起我們學到了一些東西。因此，如果您可以簡單談談進入 25 財年的指導流程，它有何不同，然後任何收購貢獻顏色都會有所幫助？

Yes, Adam, thanks for the question. And good morning. Let me talk about the first one about our acquisitions. Again, when we talk about our -- and we've been thinking about this for a while and working through this, when we think about our acquisition strategy, it's really around acquiring higher-margin opportunities that are low in working capital. And this will always be over the context of the right return for the company.

是的，亞當，謝謝你的提問。早安.我先講第一個關於我們收購的事情。再說一遍，當我們談論我們的收購策略時，我們已經思考了一段時間並努力解決這個問題，這實際上是圍繞收購營運資本較低的高利潤機會。這始終是在公司獲得正確回報的背景下進行的。

So when we think about are they accretive to our EBITDA, are they accretive to our overall contribution, yes, they are. They're small. These are small acquisitions that we're announcing, more of a programmatic approach to our acquisition strategy. And so they are included in our guidance. But I would say that they're not significant to the consolidated results for FY25 that we've got in our guidance.

因此，當我們考慮它們是否會增加我們的 EBITDA 或增加我們的整體貢獻時，是的，它們會增加。它們很小。這些是我們宣布的小型收購，更多的是我們收購策略的程序化方法。因此它們包含在我們的指南中。但我想說，它們對於我們在指導中獲得的 25 財年綜合業績並不重要。

Let me maybe move to the second question on we learned a lot. And the thing that we learned is, this is a tough time to try to predict the top line growth. When we entered last year, there was a lot of changes going on in the market. We were coming out of the supply chain constraints and our technologies. We do have this differentiated portfolio, which helps us, but our technologies all went through different cycles of that portfolio. So what we learned is predicting this thing is hard again. And so that kind of guided our decisions as we came into '25 on how we would guide. We wanted to maintain guidance because we think it's important.

讓我談談第二個問題，我們學到了很多。我們了解到，現在是預測營收成長的艱難時期。當我們去年進入時，市場正在發生很多變化。我們正在擺脫供應鏈和技術的限制。我們確實擁有這種差異化的產品組合，這對我們有幫助，但我們的技術都經歷了該產品組合的不同週期。所以我們了解到，預測這件事又變得困難。因此，當我們進入 25 世紀時，這在某種程度上指導了我們如何指導的決定。我們希望維持指導，因為我們認為這很重要。

But also what's important to us, and one of the things that became crystal clear last year is we needed to focus our whole company on driving free cash flow and making good decisions on our working capital. And so that gave us confidence that we could guide again this year for free cash flow. But really, I would say the two takeaways is hard to predict the top line as we go through the year. And we gave wider ranges because of that. And keeping everyone laser-focused on the trade-off between expanded top line and the return on free cash flow.

但對我們來說也很重要，去年變得非常清楚的事情之一是我們需要將整個公司的重點放在推動自由現金流和對我們的營運資本做出正確的決策上。這讓我們有信心今年可以再次指導自由現金流。但實際上，我想說，隨著我們度過這一年，這兩個要點很難預測。因此我們給出了更廣泛的範圍。讓每個人都專注於擴大收入和自由現金流回報之間的權衡。

Our next question comes from the line of Greg Burns, Sidoti.

我們的下一個問題來自格雷格·伯恩斯（Greg Burns），西多蒂（Sidoti）。

We've had some, I guess, I don't know if you characterize it as positive, but maybe improving kind of outlook from some of your supplier partners like Cisco and Zebra or maybe just more positive comments or green shoots there in terms of maybe demand firming up. Is it just a function of maybe the cycles of -- like you mentioned, the different technologies or where you sit in terms of the timing of orders that is like maybe clotting demand? I'm just trying to understand maybe the declines you saw this quarter in both segments and your outlook relative to maybe some of the more positive commentary we're seeing from your supplier partners?

我想，我不知道您是否將其描述為積極的，但也許您的一些供應商合作夥伴（例如思科和斑馬）的前景有所改善，或者可能只是在以下方面有更多積極的評論或萌芽也許需要加強。這是否只是周期的函數——就像你提到的那樣，不同的技術或你在訂單時間方面的位置，就像可能會阻礙需求一樣？我只是想了解您本季在這兩個領域看到的下降以及您的前景相對於我們從您的供應商合作夥伴那裡看到的一些更積極的評論？

Greg, it's Mike. I'll tackle it. I think, as Steve indicated, the approach we took this year, similar to what we've done in many years, is we ask our teams what's their best estimate of what we're going to do. And I've argued for a long, long time that for us as a distributor, really, we don't control the demand, we don't typically create demand, it's very hard for us to know what's coming.

格雷格，是麥克。我會解決它。我認為，正如史蒂夫指出的那樣，我們今年採取的方法與我們多年來所做的類似，是我們詢問我們的團隊對我們將要做的事情的最佳估計是什麼。我已經爭論了很長一段時間，對於我們作為分銷商來說，實際上，我們無法控制需求，我們通常不會創造需求，我們很難知道即將發生什麼。

And as you know as well, we don't maintain a backlog except for that brief period during the supply chain crisis where there was no product and so we did kind of understand what demand was. We're more back to where our business normally operated from a distributor standpoint of hardware, which is we have to depend on our partners to tell us what they think they're going to need.

如您所知，除了供應鏈危機期間沒有產品的短暫時期外，我們不會維持積壓訂單，因此我們確實了解需求是什麼。我們更多地回到了從硬體分銷商的角度來看我們的業務通常運營的地方，即我們必須依賴我們的合作夥伴告訴我們他們認為他們需要什麼。

We then place orders with our suppliers. And our suppliers, let me tell you, they're asking us constantly, hey, are we starting to see, as you indicated, green shoots. This idea that we gave for this year, unlike last year, where we had a net lease number for the top line, we decided to come up with this wide range because it's the timing question.

然後我們向供應商下訂單。我們的供應商，讓我告訴你，他們不斷地問我們，嘿，我們是否開始看到，正如你所說的，萌芽。我們今年提出的這個想法與去年不同，去年我們有一個淨租賃數量作為頂線，我們決定提出這個廣泛的範圍，因為這是時間問題。

And as Steve indicated in his prepared remarks, there -- we believe right now that there is a first half, second half dynamic that should play out. That's based on all the information we have. That may or may not be true. Meaning, I think the first half of our fiscal year is going to be very hard to forecast. We believe the second half will be easier. But we also said that last year, so we're doing the best we can and bounding it by what we continue to hear as well from the suppliers that you've referenced.

正如史蒂夫在他準備好的演講中所指出的那樣，我們相信現在應該會出現上半場和下半場的動態。這是基於我們掌握的所有資訊。這可能是真的，也可能不是。這意味著，我認為我們財政年度的上半年將很難預測。我們相信下半年會比較容易。但我們去年也說過，所以我們正在盡我們所能，並以我們繼續從您提到的供應商那裡聽到的消息為限。

But as you know, we've got a lot of suppliers, and we indicated that some actually did better last year than others. Our physical security business, as an example, really was very strong and resilient. Yet we had some other parts of our business, even beside the Cisco and the Zebras that did not do well. And so we're trying to figure out where we should make an investment decision for '25 and '26 right now.

但如您所知，我們有很多供應商，我們表示有些供應商去年實際上比其他供應商做得更好。舉例來說，我們的實體安全業務確實非常強大且富有彈性。然而，即使除了思科和斑馬之外，我們的其他一些業務也表現不佳。因此，我們正在努力弄清楚我們現在應該在哪裡為 25 和 26 年做出投資決策。

But we're mindful of the fact that as Steve indicated as well, we want to be mindful of managing our balance sheet appropriately, not get into the position where we're using our balance sheet to drive opportunistic purchases. That's something we used to do. We're going to make sure we're very conservative in our use of the balance sheet to drive working capital.

但我們也注意到這樣一個事實，正如史蒂夫也指出的那樣，我們希望適當地管理我們的資產負債表，而不是陷入利用資產負債表來推動機會主義購買的境地。這是我們過去常做的事情。我們將確保在使用資產負債表來推動營運資本方面非常保守。

All right. And then in terms of Resourcive, why was that the right, I guess, first acquisition in the advisory space? Maybe what was unique about them that attracted you to that business?

好的。然後就 Resource 而言，我猜為什麼這是諮詢領域的首次收購？也許他們有什麼獨特之處吸引您進入該行業？

Well, when we started talking about this idea of creating a new business group, the two key messages we started talking about was we believed that we needed a management team, a leadership team that could -- that we could acquire that would be the people that are staying, not the people exiting.

好吧，當我們開始談論創建一個新業務集團的想法時，我們開始談論的兩個關鍵訊息是，我們相信我們需要一個管理團隊，一個領導團隊，我們可以收購這樣的人留下來的人，而不是離開的人。

In this particular case, the founder and CEO, President of this company is leaving, but the team that he recruited has been there for about seven years, and they're on board, they're staying, and we're excited about their ability to build really a team that can continue to perform well going forward. And so we believe this is kind of the starting point for this leadership team.

在這個特殊的案例中，這家公司的創始人兼首席執行官、總裁即將離開，但他招募的團隊已經在那裡工作了大約七年，他們已經加入，他們將留下來，我們對他們的有能力建立一支真正能夠在未來繼續表現良好的團隊。因此，我們相信這是這個領導團隊的起點。

The second thing we talked about that we were going to need was some kind of technology tool to help this particular company, Resourcive and others like them that buy from us on the Intelisys side of the fence, manage their contracts, manage renewals, manage selling advanced technologies, and we believe we still need to find that other piece of the puzzle. We need to find a technology tool rather than us building ourselves.

我們談到的第二件事是我們需要某種技術工具來幫助這家特定的公司、Resourcive 和其他類似的公司，這些公司在Intelisys 方面從我們這裡購買、管理他們的合約、管理續約、管理銷售先進的技術，我們相信我們仍然需要找到拼圖的另一塊。我們需要找到一種技術工具，而不是我們自己建構。

And so for us, if we had to choose between acquiring a technology tool, if you will, or a leadership team first, our preference was the leadership team first and that's where Resourcive really shined. So we're excited. This team is excited to be part of ScanSource. And Mark Morgan, who many of our investors and certainly folks in the community know Mark, he led the discovery of the potential targets and led the acquisition and so Mark leading this gives us a lot of confidence that we picked the right team and that we will be able to get started very quickly to generating the kind of business that we expect Resourcive to become.

因此，對我們來說，如果我們必須在購買技術工具（如果你願意的話）和領導團隊之間做出選擇，我們的首選是領導團隊第一，而這正是 Resourcive 真正發揮作用的地方。所以我們很興奮。團隊很高興成為 ScanSource 的一部分。還有馬克·摩根，我們的許多投資者，當然還有社區中的人們都認識馬克，他領導了潛在目標的發現並領導了收購，因此馬克的領導給了我們很大的信心，我們選擇了正確的團隊，並且我們將能夠非常快速地開始產生我們期望 Resourcive 成為的那種業務。

Our next question comes from the line of Keith Housum, Northcoast Research.

我們的下一個問題來自北海岸研究中心的 Keith Housum。

Good morning, guys. Steve, perhaps you can provide some color in terms of the scalability of the companies that you just acquired, were they limited more, like there's some geographies there, where you guys are taking them country-wide now? But how scalable are the businesses? And how quickly can you guys scale them up?

早安，夥計們。史蒂夫，也許你可以就你剛剛收購的公司的可擴展性提供一些信息，它們是否受到更多限制，比如那裡有一些地區，你們現在正在把它們帶到全國範圍內？但這些業務的可擴充性如何？你們能多快擴大規模？

Keith, yes, the way we are thinking about both of these companies is they are scalable plays. They are smaller companies that we think have unique capabilities, unique management styles and those would then be what we would build on. Advantix that we announced, that's an interesting one because it does two things for us.

基思，是的，我們對這兩家公司的看法是它們都是可擴展的公司。我們認為它們是規模較小的公司，擁有獨特的能力、獨特的管理風格，而這些正是我們賴以為生的基礎。我們宣布推出 Advantix，這是一件有趣的事情，因為它為我們做了兩件事。

First of all, it gives us some advanced capabilities and some value-added capabilities, much like what we did with POS Portal years ago, but it also then should help us sell more hardware. And that's an exciting thing for us as well is this will help our VAR partners sell more of the technology stack. And that's a good thing in that channel for us. We think that will help differentiate our offerings, again, around the technologies that we know very well, and we've been in for a long time.

首先，它為我們提供了一些高級功能和一些增值功能，就像我們幾年前對 POS Portal 所做的那樣，但它也應該幫助我們銷售更多硬體。這對我們來說也是一件令人興奮的事情，因為這將幫助我們的 VAR 合作夥伴銷售更多的技術堆疊。這對我們來說是該頻道的一件好事。我們認為，這將有助於我們的產品脫穎而出，圍繞著我們非常熟悉且已經投入很長時間的技術。

So in terms of the scale, yes, both of these are scalable acquisitions, both small as we start out, but the right -- to Mike's point, Resourcive the right management team to get that that opportunity off the ground. And with Advantix, very established. They know their stuff. They're in a very exciting and interesting space in that hardware technology stack that we're really excited about.

因此，就規模而言，是的，這兩項收購都是可擴展的，在我們開始時都是小規模的收購，但按照邁克的觀點，資源是正確的，需要合適的管理團隊來獲得這個機會。Advantix 已經非常成熟。他們知道自己的事情。他們處於硬體技術堆疊中一個非常令人興奮和有趣的領域，我們對此感到非常興奮。

I appreciate that. And I know that you guys said a higher margin. Do I assume that these are 100% gross margin businesses as well as much better on the bottom line as well?

我很欣賞這一點。我知道你們說利潤更高。我是否認為這些業務的毛利率為 100%，而且利潤也好得多？

Well, they're primarily recurring revenue businesses, Resourcive more so than Advantix, but Advantix also has recurring revenue. But if you think about Advantix, there'll be little bit more services around that, too, but higher margin for sure. And Resourcive, the net reporting would be close to 100%. Advantix is going to be very high as well, just the mix of services in there might bring it down a bit.

嗯，他們主要是經常性收入業務，Resourcive 比 Advantix 更重要，但 Advantix 也有經常性收入。但如果你考慮 Advantix，也會有更多的服務，但利潤率肯定會更高。Resource 的淨報告率將接近 100%。Advantix 的價格也會非常高，但其中的服務組合可能會降低一點。

Okay. Got it. Got it. In terms of the -- switching over to the hardware. In terms of the hardware portfolio, historically, there has been issues, obviously, as the on-prem hardware communication systems were declining. I guess what I'm trying to understand, is there anything in their product portfolio that perhaps we're seeing like just evolution of technology where there is naturally under pressure from being able to grow going forward? Can you perhaps give me an idea of your portfolio if you get any challenges there that perhaps will be hurting hardware growth sales going forward?

好的。知道了。知道了。就切換到硬體而言。就硬體產品組合而言，從歷史上看，隨著本地硬體通訊系統的衰落，顯然存在一些問題。我想我想了解的是，他們的產品組合中是否有什麼東西是我們所看到的，就像技術的演變一樣，自然會面臨未來發展的壓力？如果您遇到任何可能損害未來硬體成長銷售的挑戰，您能否告訴我您的產品組合？

Keith, it's Mike. And you're talking about our Comms business and whether there's any new challenges because that's certainly been a story for seven or eight years. Is that really your question? Is there anything new there?

基思，是麥克。您談論的是我們的通訊業務以及是否存在任何新的挑戰，因為這肯定是七、八年來的故事。這真的是你的問題嗎？有什麼新的東西嗎？

Yes. I'm looking for new challenges. If it's Comms or Specialty Group, either one?

是的。我正在尋找新的挑戰。如果是通訊組或專業組，選哪一個？

Got it. Yes, I don't think the -- well, on the Specialty itself, no new news there. I think we expect that business to return to growth. We believe the technologies that customers want to develop and use, they're going to need to refresh their products. And so that -- we believe we're in an opportunity where that will become the story. We don't know yet again, is that first half, second half, when is that going to start to become apparent.

知道了。是的，我不認為——嗯，就專業本身而言，沒有新消息。我認為我們預計該業務將恢復成長。我們相信客戶想要開發和使用的技術，他們將需要更新他們的產品。因此，我們相信我們正處於一個機會，這將成為故事。我們還不知道上半場、下半場、什麼時候會開始變得明顯。

But going over to the comms side, that business, as we said, and again, we got to remember in our Comms segment, we have Cisco which confuses sometimes our story, right? So, Cisco being challenged affects that Comms segment more than normal. So that's probably why there's maybe some -- it maybe looked different than it did a year ago, it's because of the Cisco emphasis there.

但在通訊方面，正如我們所說，我們必須再次記住，在我們的通訊領域，我們有思科，這有時會讓我們的故事感到困惑，對嗎？因此，思科受到的挑戰對通訊領域的影響比正常情況更大。所以這可能就是為什麼會有一些——它可能看起來與一年前有所不同，這是因為思科對此的重視。

But the traditional other business in the Comms segment outside of Cisco, I would say, it's operating as our other hardware businesses are. They're challenged, but we expect them to start doing better, not necessarily. Some of them still declining, but they will do better going forward into fiscal year '25.

但我想說的是，思科以外的通訊領域的傳統其他業務的運作方式與我們其他硬體業務的運作方式相同。他們面臨挑戰，但我們希望他們開始做得更好，但不一定。其中一些仍在下降，但進入 25 財年它們會表現得更好。

Yes. Just touching on that Networking business. If I remember right, last year, obviously, a lot of tough comparables because you guys were flushing through the supply chain Cisco-wise. Those tough compares are just about ending here after the first -- fiscal first quarter, correct?

是的。剛剛談到網路業務。如果我沒記錯的話，去年顯然有很多艱難的可比性，因為你們在思科的供應鏈中衝鋒陷陣。這些艱難的比較在第一個財季之後即將結束，對嗎？

Yes, that's right. Yes. Like you said, it was -- they were the last technologies for us to come out of the supply chain problems, yes.

是的，沒錯。是的。正如你所說，它們是我們擺脫供應鏈問題的最後技術，是的。

Yes, absolutely. So last question from me, and I'll turn it back over. Capital allocation strategy, obviously, $185 million, a lot of cash to work with. You guys bought back more shares in the past two quarters, than you probably have historically. Obviously, the acquisition pipeline is large. What's your strategy going forward in terms of mixing your capital cash allocation between M&A and share buyback?

是的，絕對是。這是我的最後一個問題，我會把它翻過來。資本配置策略很明顯，1.85 億美元，大量現金可供使用。你們在過去兩個季度回購的股票數量可能比歷史上還要多。顯然，收購管道很大。在混合併購和股票回購之間的資本現金分配方面，您的未來策略是什麼？

Keith, this is Steve again. I'll tackle that one. It really goes back to what we generate free cash flow and the focus on our free cash flow that then allows us to do our capital allocation strategy. And we think there's room to do both. We think we were -- we had some of these opportunities coming out of the -- in August to close some of these deals. But we think that there is room to do both.

基思，這又是史蒂夫。我會解決這個問題。這實際上可以追溯到我們產生自由現金流的因素，以及對自由現金流的關注，從而使我們能夠制定資本配置策略。我們認為兩者都有空間。我們認為我們——我們有一些機會——在八月完成了其中一些交易。但我們認為兩者都有空間。

Particularly to your point, we have cash on the balance sheet, so we're not concerned about where our leverage ratio would go for '25. So the near view that we have, it's do both, take advantage of the opportunities of the acquisitions that are out there, but be disciplined in those to make sure they fit our strategy and fit our profile and then return the share -- through share repurchases, return that capital back to our shareholders through a disciplined share repurchase program.

特別是就你的觀點而言，我們的資產負債表上有現金，因此我們並不擔心 25 年後我們的槓桿率會達到什麼水準。因此，我們的近期觀點是，兩者兼而有之，利用現有的收購機會，但要遵守這些收購的紀律，以確保它們符合我們的策略和我們的形象，然後透過股票返還股票回購，透過嚴格的股票回購計畫將資本返還給我們的股東。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Harrigan, The Benchmark Company.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Benchmark 公司的 Matthew Harrigan。

Two questions, one more or less derivative of some of the prior questions. When you look at the M&A market right now, is there any loosening up on multiples given the economic uncertainty? I know you're not going to talk about the EV to sales multiples on the two acquisitions you just did, Resourcive and Advantix. But where do you see the -- what's the broad (inaudible) for multiples that you're seeing? I know you've got a nice (inaudible) between the operating contributions between what you see and the perceived sellers multiple, but just any general thoughts on where that's going because it seems like you got a lot of back-end opportunities to roll up more smaller companies in the same genre of the two recent acquisitions.

兩個問題，其中一個或多或少是先前一些問題的衍生問題。當您審視目前的併購市場時，考慮到經濟的不確定性，本益比是否有所放鬆？我知道您不會談論您剛剛完成的兩項收購（Resource 和 Advantix）的 EV 與銷售倍數。但是您在哪裡看到 - 您所看到的倍數的廣義（聽不清楚）是多少？我知道你所看到的和感知到的賣家倍數之間的營運貢獻之間有一個很好的（聽不清），但只是關於它的​​發展方向的任何一般想法，因為你似乎有很多後端機會可以累積最近兩次收購的同類公司中有更多規模較小的公司。

And then secondly, fairly encouraging noises out of Zebra. And what are you seeing in terms of kind of the equilibrium between sector decline and innovation on the barcode market right now?

其次，斑馬發出相當令人鼓舞的聲音。您目前對條碼市場產業衰退與創新之間的平衡有何看法？

This is Mike. I'll take part of the first question, and I'll come back to the second after Steve answers. But when I think about our acquisition strategy, we've got a history of acquiring companies that want to be part of ScanSource. And that has always allowed us to frankly make very, I think, good acquisitions from a multiple standpoint, from a return standpoint because these companies see that if they join with ScanSource, their employees and even their founders and sellers do better, especially because many of our acquisitions over the years have included earnouts. So we actually are a generally well received acquirer, and I think that helps us make smart decisions.

這是麥克。我將回答第一個問題，史蒂夫回答後我將回到第二個問題。但當我考慮我們的收購策略時，我們有收購想要成為 ScanSource 一部分的公司的歷史。坦白說，我認為，從回報的角度來看，這始終使我們能夠進行非常好的收購，因為這些公司看到，如果他們加入ScanSource，他們的員工甚至他們的創始人和賣家都會做得更好，特別是因為許多公司多年來我們的收購都包含收益。因此，我們實際上是一家廣受好評的收購方，我認為這有助於我們做出明智的決策。

And to the earlier question that was being asked about acquisitions, I think what we'll see in '25 is a result of the work we did in '24 working on a target list. So we certainly believe that a year ago, we didn't have the targets aligned like we do today. And I'll leave it to Steve to answer some more about the acquisitions and anything else, Steve, on that.

對於先前提出的有關收購的問題，我認為我們將在 25 年看到的是我們在 24 年制定目標清單的工作的結果。因此，我們當然相信，一年前，我們沒有像今天這樣調整目標。我將讓史蒂夫回答更多有關收購和其他問題的問題，史蒂夫。

Yes. The only thing I would add to that, Mike, I think you covered it really well, is that when you talk about acquiring recurring revenue businesses with higher margins, they come naturally with a higher multiple. But we're not seeing any big shift yet in the multiples that are out there. We just think that we're doing a better job of getting them queued up and fitting them to our strategy so that we can then bring them in and make them, to Mike's point, happy ScanSource family members.

是的。我唯一要補充的是，麥克，我認為你講得很好，當你談論收購利潤率更高的經常性收入業務時，它們自然會帶來更高的倍數。但我們還沒有看到市盈率有任何重大變化。我們只是認為，我們在讓他們排隊並使他們符合我們的策略方面做得更好，這樣我們就可以把他們帶進來，讓他們（按邁克的觀點）成為快樂的 ScanSource 家庭成員。

Yes, that's right. And then to the Zebra question or the bar code question, if you will, one of the things that we really are excited about is this idea of creating this group now that we're calling ISG and led with this Advantix acquisition, this is going to actually drive demand for hardware. We know that, and we've experienced this over the last few years, we've had experience with Advantix for about, I think, four or five years. And so this has been kind of we were dating these guys for a long time, not really understanding whether we should own this business or not.

是的，沒錯。然後是 Zebra 問題或條碼問題，如果您願意的話，我們真正感到興奮的事情之一就是創建這個小組的想法，現在我們正在調用 ISG 並領導這次 Advantix 收購，這將是真正推動對硬體的需求。我們知道，並且在過去幾年中我們已經經歷過這一點，我認為我們使用 Advantix 的經驗大約有四到五年了。因此，我們與這些人約會了很長時間，並沒有真正了解我們是否應該擁有這項業務。

But as we looked at how do we participate as the market comes back, we felt like we need to create a stronger value proposition for our partners, and we believe having recurring revenue and being able to sell mobility devices gives us a stronger position in the market as it comes back. So we believe that a year from now, we'll actually do much better than our competitors in these competitive barcode spaces because of an acquisition like Advantix.

但當我們考慮到隨著市場的復甦如何參與時，我們覺得我們需要為我們的合作夥伴創造更強大的價值主張，並且我們相信擁有經常性收入並能夠銷售行動裝置使我們在市場中處於更強大的地位市場回歸時。因此，我們相信，一年後，由於像 Advantix 這樣的收購，我們實際上會在這些競爭激烈的條碼領域中比競爭對手做得更好。

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Steve Jones for closing remarks.

謝謝。我目前沒有提出任何進一步的問題。現在我想請史蒂夫瓊斯做結束語。

Thank you, and thank you for joining us today. We expect to hold our next conference call to discuss September 30 quarterly results on Thursday, November 7, at 10:30 a.m.

謝謝您，也謝謝您今天加入我們。我們預計將於 11 月 7 日星期四上午 10:30 舉行下一次電話會議，討論 9 月 30 日的季度業績。

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

感謝您參加今天的會議。這確實結束了該程式。您現在可以斷開連線。