Vuzix Corp (VUZI) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Vuzix first-quarter for the period ending March 31, 2024 financial results and business update conference call. (Operator Instructions)

您好，歡迎參加 Vuzix 截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日第一季的財務業績和業務更新電話會議。（操作員說明）

As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Now I would like to turn the call over to Ed McGregor, Director of Investor Relations at Vuzix. Mr. McGregor, you may begin.

提醒一下，此通話正在錄音。現在我想將電話轉給 Vuzix 投資者關係總監 Ed McGregor。麥格雷戈先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Vuzix first-quarter 2024 ending March 31 financial results and business update conference call. With us today are Vuzix CEO, Paul Travers, and our CFO, Grant Russell.

謝謝接線員，大家下午好。歡迎參加截至 3 月 31 日的 Vuzix 2024 年第一季財務業績和業務更新電話會議。今天與我們在一起的有 Vuzix 執行長 Paul Travers 和財務長 Grant Russell。

Before I turn the call over to Paul, I would like to remind you that on this call, management's prepared remarks may contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and management may make additional forward-looking statements during the question-and-answer session.

在我將電話轉交給保羅之前，我想提醒您，在這次電話會議中，管理層準備的言論可能包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響，管理層可能會在提問期間做出額外的前瞻性陳述問答環節。

Therefore, the company claims the protection of the Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements that are contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by any forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including, but not limited to, general economic and business conditions, competitive factors, changes in business strategy or development plans, the ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, as well as changes in the legal and regulatory requirements.

因此，該公司聲稱 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中包含的前瞻性聲明受到安全港的保護。由於某些因素，包括但不限於總體經濟和商業狀況、競爭因素、業務策略或發展計劃的變化、吸引和吸引人才的能力，實際結果可能與任何前瞻性陳述預期的結果有重大差異。的人員，以及法律和監管要求的變化。

In addition, any projections as to the company's future performance represent management's estimates as of today, May 9, 2024. Vuzix assumes no obligation to update these projections in the future as market conditions change.

此外，對公司未來業績的任何預測均代表管理層截至今天（2024 年 5 月 9 日）的估計。Vuzix 不承擔在未來隨著市場條件變化而更新這些預測的義務。

This afternoon, the company issued a press release announcing its first quarter 2024 financial results and filed its 10-Q with the SEC. So participants on this call who may not have already done so may wish to look at those documents, as the company will provide a summary of the results discussed on today's call.

今天下午，該公司發布新聞稿，宣布 2024 年第一季財務業績，並向 SEC 提交了 10-Q 報告。因此，本次電話會議的參與者可能尚未查看這些文件，因為該公司將提供今天電話會議討論結果的摘要。

Today's call may include certain non-GAAP financial measures. When required, reconciliation to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP can be found in the company's filing at sec.gov, which is also available at www.vuzix.com.

今天的電話會議可能包括某些非公認會計準則財務指標。如果需要，可以在公司在 sec.gov 上提交的文件中找到根據 GAAP 計算和提出的最直接可比較財務指標的調節表，該文件也可以在 www.vuzix.com 上找到。

I'll now turn the call over to Vuzix CEO, Paul Travers, who will give an overview of the company's operating results and business outlook.

我現在將把電話轉給 Vuzix 執行長 Paul Travers，他將概述公司的營運業績和業務前景。

Paul will then turn the call over to Grant Russell, Vuzix CFO, who will provide an overview of the company's first quarter financial results, after which we'll move on to the Q&A session. Paul?

然後，Paul 將電話轉給 Vuzix 財務長 Grant Russell，他將概述公司第一季的財務業績，之後我們將進入問答環節。保羅？

Thank you, Ed. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Vuzix Q1 2024 conference calls. Since we reported our Q4 and full year 2024 results just a few weeks ago on April 15, my prepared remarks on this call will be relatively brief. In the same vein, we will dispense with our usual call presentation deck also.

謝謝你，艾德。大家好，歡迎參加 Vuzix 2024 年第一季電話會議。由於我們就在幾週前的 4 月 15 日報告了第四季度和 2024 年全年業績，因此我在這次電話會議上準備的演講將相對簡短。同樣，我們也將放棄通常的電話會議簡報。

Our Q1 revenue improved sequentially over Q4 of 2023 with our product sales increasing again. That said, industry demand for our enterprise smart glasses has clearly remained lumpy as the industry is still in the early adopter stage relative to where we and most others see it ultimately heading.

我們第一季的營收比 2023 年第四季持續成長，產品銷售再次成長。也就是說，我們的企業智慧眼鏡的行業需求顯然仍然不穩定，因為相對於我們和大多數其他人看到的最終發展方向，該行業仍處於早期採用階段。

Nevertheless, we remain encouraged by our current business outlook, and we do expect our top line revenue to grow over the remainder of this year.

儘管如此，我們仍然對當前的業務前景感到鼓舞，並且我們確實預計我們的營收在今年剩餘時間內將會成長。

And with our ongoing aggressive cost reduction and control measures, including our recently commenced voluntary cash salary reduction for equity program, our net operating losses and net operating cash burn should be reduced at an even faster pace as compared to each prior period of 2023.

透過我們持續積極的成本削減和控制措施，包括我們最近開始的自願現金工資削減股權計劃，我們的淨營運虧損和淨營運現金消耗應該比 2023 年之前的每個時期更快地減少。

I'd like to now discuss, at a higher level, our key business areas in terms of where we've been recently, and what to expect in terms of timing and catalysts going forward.

我現在想在更高的層面上討論我們的關鍵業務領域，包括我們最近的情況，以及對未來時機和催化劑的預期。

As you know, we have been developing enterprise smart glasses solutions for the enterprise space for some time. We have continued to steadily improve the performance, functionality, and wearability of these devices, and will continue to do so, but now with the shifting and more tightened focus on waveguide based designs.

如您所知，我們為企業空間開發企業智慧眼鏡解決方案已經有一段時間了。我們繼續穩步提高這些設備的性能、功能和耐磨性，並將繼續這樣做，但現在重點轉向基於波導的設計。

This is being done to both give us a stronger competitive position and deliver products closer to our customers' expectations and needs. As part of this shift, we are adopting a bifurcated smart glasses model approach that we think will appeal to a larger swath of our target markets.

這樣做是為了讓我們擁有更強大的競爭地位，並提供更接近客戶期望和需求的產品。作為這一轉變的一部分，我們正在採用分叉的智慧眼鏡模型方法，我們認為這種方法將吸引更多的目標市場。

Firstly, offering high powered standalone smart wearable devices, which provide broad video and computing functionalities. And secondly, lightweight, less expensive, thin client-type devices, that can either serve as wearable displays designed to connect wirelessly with other devices, like handheld scanners, smartphones, and other wearable computing devices, or as IU-enabled augmented reality and artificial intelligence glasses with its intelligence and information display coming from the cloud.

首先，提供高效能獨立智慧穿戴設備，提供廣泛的視訊和運算功能。其次，輕量級、較便宜的瘦客戶端型設備，可以用作可穿戴顯示器，旨在與其他設備無線連接，如手持掃描器、智慧型手機和其他可穿戴計算設備，也可以用作支援IU的擴增實境和人工智慧智慧眼鏡，其智慧和資訊顯示器來自於雲端。

All these smart glasses models, we believe, are among the most competitive in the enterprise space, and we have growing independent software partnerships to support them. Additionally, our steadily expanding channel strategy is now in place to sell and distribute them, and we believe we are well positioned to be a, if not the, vendor of choice for many customers in this space, as the adoption cycle finally accelerates.

我們相信，所有這些智慧眼鏡型號都是企業領域最具競爭力的型號，並且我們擁有不斷增長的獨立軟體合作夥伴關係來支持它們。此外，我們穩步擴展的通路策略現已到位，可以銷售和分銷它們，而且我們相信，隨著採用週期最終加速，我們有能力成為該領域許多客戶的首選供應商（如果不是的話）。

The return on investment realized by the use of smart glasses speak for themselves, with numerous proven proof point examples showing significantly improved efficiency and picking times, combined with less errors, as well as sharply lower new worker onboarding, and training times.

使用智慧眼鏡實現的投資回報是不言而喻的，大量經過驗證的證據範例顯示，效率和揀選時間顯著提高，錯誤更少，新員工入職和培訓時間也大幅縮短。

It's worth repeating that, as per research published by Incisive earlier this year, 69% of executives surveyed see wearable augmented reality solutions supporting artificial intelligence and workflow optimization as being central to their future warehouse operations.

值得重複的是，根據 Incisive 今年稍早發布的研究，69% 的受訪高階主管認為支援人工智慧和工作流程優化的可穿戴擴增實境解決方案是他們未來倉庫營運的核心。

Vuzix smart glasses are clearly helping modernize warehouses, and improve productivity, practically guaranteeing them a spot in the future of the frontline worker. That said, many of the larger specific deployment opportunities we have pursued -- and in some cases, long expected -- have been challenging to fully consummate for a variety of reasons that include, among other things, backend software selection, customization and optimization, system integration issues such as security, communications, and database management, organizational changes, multi-location training and even union approvals.

Vuzix 智慧眼鏡顯然正在幫助倉庫現代化並提高生產力，實際上保證了它們在未來第一線工人中的一席之地。也就是說，我們所追求的許多更大的特定部署機會（在某些情況下是長期期待的）由於各種原因而難以完全實現，其中包括後端軟體選擇、客製化和優化、系統整合問題，例如安全、通訊和資料庫管理、組織變革、多地點培訓甚至工會批准。

These are the common technology adoption and learning curves that we and our partners have continued to assess. The bottom line for us here is that a growing list of current and potential enterprise customers see the value and the return on investment that our solutions can offer and our demand pipeline in this space is, as we recently stated, growing.

這些是我們和我們的合作夥伴持續評估的常見技術採用和學習曲線。我們的底線是，越來越多的當前和潛在企業客戶看到了我們的解決方案可以提供的價值和投資回報，正如我們最近所說，我們在這個領域的需求管道正在成長。

As we move into the latter half of this year, keeping in mind the issues related to deployment, timing and predictability I just covered, we are optimistic that we will see more and more of these larger smart glasses deployment opportunities finally get announced, and or commence in earnest.

隨著我們進入今年下半年，請記住我剛剛談到的與部署、時間安排和可預測性相關的問題，我們樂觀地認為，我們將看到越來越多的大型智慧眼鏡部署機會最終被宣布，或認真開始。

Owning the software stack, and by that, I mean the application, has been part of the challenge for deployment, and hence, the reason we originally purchased Moviynt. Their business, although taking more time than expected to mature, continues to gain momentum within the larger corporate ERP-based market that we feel is very underserved by smart glasses currently.

擁有軟體堆棧，我指的是應用程序，一直是部署挑戰的一部分，因此，這也是我們最初購買 Moviynt 的原因。他們的業務雖然需要比預期更長的時間才能成熟，但在基於 ERP 的更大的企業市場中繼續獲得動力，我們認為目前智慧眼鏡對這個市場的服務還很不足。

In early 2024, Moviynt announced support for our smart glasses as part of their solution offering, and as a result, we have seen a growing number of potential customer engagements for pilots that have been quoted, and/or are in the process of being quoted, for the hardware, software and professional services in their targeted warehousing and logistics areas, as well as manufacturing, and brick and mortar backend operations.

2024 年初，Moviynt 宣布支持我們的智慧眼鏡作為其解決方案的一部分，因此，我們看到越來越多的潛在客戶參與已報價和/或正在報價的飛行員，為其目標倉儲和物流領域以及製造和實體後端運作提供硬體、軟體和專業服務。

We have already won our first deployment, and our expectation is that multiple more of these projects will convert to wins over the second half of 2024. The widespread consumer adoption of smart glasses faces a different set of challenges that, fortunately, the largest players in the industry are driving to fix.

我們已經贏得了第一次部署，我們期望更多的此類項目將在 2024 年下半年轉化為勝利。消費者對智慧眼鏡的廣泛採用面臨一系列不同的挑戰，幸運的是，業內最大的參與者正在努力解決這些挑戰。

I think most would agree that if you can offer consumers a fashionable, lightweight, functional product at an affordable price -- one that can largely replace smartphones -- its use will quickly become ubiquitous, and offer on demand augmented reality and AI applications to the wearer.

我想大多數人都會同意，如果你能以實惠的價格為消費者提供一款時尚、輕巧、功能齊全的產品——一種可以在很大程度上取代智慧型手機的產品——它的使用將很快就變得無處不在，並為消費者提供按需擴增實境和人工智慧應用程式。

That said, the existence of applications and ecosystems are critical to the final missing piece. As we previously stated, AI will be the key enabler of a new level of functionality and productivity, and giants such as Meta and several others, now have plans to make their AI and XR software stacks available to third parties. Apple is also expected to join the party this June as part of their annual developers conference.

也就是說，應用程式和生態系統的存在對於最後缺失的部分至關重要。正如我們之前所說，人工智慧將成為新水平的功能和生產力的關鍵推動者，Meta 和其他幾家巨頭現在計劃將其人工智慧和 XR 軟體堆疊提供給第三方。蘋果預計也將參加今年六月的聚會，作為年度開發者大會的一部分。

The publishing and licensing of these software stacks should enable ecosystems with content and experiences that will drive AR with AI smart glasses adoption, and allow Vuzix, our other major ODMs, and larger consumer electronics suppliers, a path to products that consumers will want to embrace and buy.

這些軟體堆疊的發布和授權應該能夠為生態系統提供內容和體驗，從而推動AR 與AI 智慧眼鏡的採用，並為Vuzix、我們的其他主要ODM 和更大的消費電子供應商提供一條獲得消費者想要接受的產品的道路併購買。

We have multiple roads at Vuzix to participate materially in this business. First, our ODMs. We are currently working with, and deepening our relationship with, Quanta, one of the world's largest ODMs, to supply them with waveguides, projectors, and related software, with the goal of having them resell products based on our components and supplying as many of the major commercial electronics customers as possible with AR-finished products and solutions.

我們在 Vuzix 有多個途徑可以實質參與這項業務。首先，我們的 ODM。我們目前正在與世界上最大的ODM 之一廣達合作並加深我們的關係，為他們提供波導、投影機和相關軟體，目標是讓他們轉售基於我們組件的產品，並提供盡可能多的產品。

Second, we continue to meet with numerous consumer product companies directly, all of which have embraced and publicly supported the future directions of consumer AR and AI driven wearables with their intentions to participate in this space.

其次，我們繼續直接與眾多消費產品公司會面，所有這些公司都接受並公開支持消費者 AR 和 AI 驅動的可穿戴設備的未來方向，並有意參與這一領域。

Finally, there is an internal effort underway of Vuzix around our ultralight platform and Z100 smart glasses to offer a Vuzix branded consumer version of our designs that we believe we can bring to market in volume at a competitive yet profitable price point.

最後，Vuzix 正在圍繞我們的超輕量平台和Z100 智慧眼鏡進行內部努力，以提供我們設計的Vuzix 品牌消費者版本，我們相信我們可以以具有競爭力且有利可圖的價格點將其批量推向市場。

Over the balance of this year and into 2025, we anticipate each of these roads will become more publicly visible and increasingly add to our top-line revenue. How much and how soon remains variable, but clearly, the numbers here could ultimately dwarf our current run rate once things get going.

從今年到 2025 年，我們預計每條道路都將變得更加公開，並且越來越多地增加我們的總收入。多少和多快仍然存在變數，但顯然，一旦事情開始，這裡的數字最終可能會讓我們當前的運行速度相形見絀。

Beyond consumer related OEM engagements, we have several active defense and enterprise opportunities. As recently stated, we continue to expect at least one defense firm, with which we have been working for several years, to commence production of products incorporating our waveguides this year, and there is a good chance a second to may follow on right behind.

除了與消費者相關的 OEM 業務之外，我們還有一些積極的防禦和企業機會。正如最近所述，我們仍然預計至少有一家與我們合作多年的國防公司今年將開始生產採用我們波導的產品，並且很可能會有第二家公司緊隨其後。

On the enterprise side, we are currently working with multiple potential partners, at least one of which, we expect will go into production in the back half of this year. Again, we hope to bring you news of these engagements during this year.

在企業方面，我們目前正在與多個潛在合作夥伴合作，我們預計其中至少一個將在今年下半年投入生產。我們再次希望在今年為您帶來這些活動的消息。

The backbone of all this remains our technologies and processes. Most specifically, our waveguide and micro LED projector development and capabilities. We covered a lot about waveguides in our recent April conference call, including INCOGNITO, and integrated scripts. So I'll simply restate that we feel we can make high quality waveguides cheaper, faster, and in higher volumes than anyone else on the planet today.

這一切的支柱仍然是我們的技術和流程。最具體地說，是我們的波導和 Micro LED 投影機的開發和能力。我們在最近四月份的電話會議中討論了很多有關波導的內容，包括 INCOGNITO 和整合腳本。因此，我只想重申一下，我們認為我們可以比當今地球上的任何其他公司更便宜、更快、產量更高地製造高品質波導。

Beyond Vuzix's waveguides offerings, the expensive waveguides made by our competitors, and their lack of scalability to cost effective volume production, represents an industry deployment impediment. The value of our waveguide process technologies and production facility, and their future place in the wearables industry, we feel is very substantial.

除了 Vuzix 的波導產品之外，我們的競爭對手製造的昂貴的波導以及它們缺乏成本效益批量生產的可擴展性，構成了行業部署的障礙。我們認為，我們的波導製程技術和生產設施的價值及其未來在穿戴式裝置產業中的地位非常重要。

And as our success in the OEM waveguide side of our business continues to expand, it will finally start to be realized in the enterprise value of the company.

隨著我們在 OEM 波導業務方面的成功不斷擴大，它最終將開始在公司的企業價值中實現。

As for Atomistic, we again covered a bit more detail about their progress in our recent call, so I'll simply add that they continue to work on achievement of their remaining performance milestones.

至於 Atomistic，我們在最近的電話會議中再次詳細介紹了他們的進展，因此我只是簡單地補充一下，他們將繼續致力於實現剩餘的性能里程碑。

In summary, although we still have work to do, we believe we are making steady progress on most key aspects of our business. And at this point, we expect to achieve and will be sharing some exciting progress on multiple fronts over the rest of this year.

總而言之，儘管我們仍有工作要做，但我們相信我們在業務的大多數關鍵方面正在穩步取得進展。目前，我們預計將在今年剩餘時間內在多個方面取得並將分享一些令人興奮的進展。

Grant will now take you through our numbers, after which we will move on to Q&A. Grant?

格蘭特現在將帶您瀏覽我們的數據，然後我們將進入問答環節。授予？

Thank you, Paul. As Ed mentioned, the 10-Q we filed this afternoon with the SEC offers a detailed explanation of our quarterly financials. So I'm just going to provide you with a bit of color on some of the numbers.

謝謝你，保羅。正如艾德所提到的，我們今天下午向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-Q 報告詳細解釋了我們的季度財務狀況。所以我只想為您提供一些數字的一些顏色。

Our first quarter 2024 revenue was $2 million, down from the '23 comparable period, due to decreased sales of smart glasses, particularly our M400. Engineering services sales were $0.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024, versus nil in the prior year's period.

由於智慧眼鏡（尤其是我們的 M400）銷量下降，我們 2024 年第一季的營收為 200 萬美元，低於 23 年同期。截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的三個月，工程服務銷售額為 20 萬美元，去年同期為零。

As of March 31, 2024, the company had $2.8 million of remaining performance obligations under two current waveguide development projects, of which approximately 60% we expect to realize in 2024 with the remainder in 2025.

截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日，該公司在目前的兩個波導開發項目下還有 280 萬美元的剩餘履約義務，我們預計其中約 60% 將在 2024 年實現，其餘部分將在 2025 年實現。

There was an overall gross loss of $0.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024, as compared to a gross profit of $0.9 million for the same period in 2023. The net loss was the result of lower revenues to absorb many of our relatively fixed manufacturing and plant overhead costs, which were actually 8% lower in dollar terms as compared to the 2023 period.

截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的三個月，整體毛虧損為 10 萬美元，而 2023 年同期的毛利為 90 萬美元。淨虧損是由於我們吸收了許多相對固定的製造和工廠間接費用而產生的收入減少所致，以美元計算，這些成本實際上比 2023 年同期下降了 8%。

Manufacturing overhead costs as a percentage of total product sales increased to 25% from 13% for the same period in 2023. As a result, research and development expense was $2.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024, compared to $3.1 million for the comparable 2023 period, a decrease of approximately 11%. The reduction in R&D expense was largely due to a $0.3 million decrease in salary and benefits related expenses and driven by headcount reductions.

製造費用佔產品總銷售額的百分比從 2023 年同期的 13% 上升至 25%。因此，截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日止三個月的研發費用為 270 萬美元，而 2023 年同期為 310 萬美元，下降約 11%。研發費用的減少主要是由於工資和福利相關費用減少了 30 萬美元，並受到員工人數減少的推動。

Sales and marketing expense was $2.2 million for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, as compared to $2.5 million in the same 2023 quarterly period. The $0.3 million reduction was primarily due to lower advertising and tradeshow spending, and reduced salary and benefits expenses due to headcount reductions.

截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的三個月，銷售和行銷費用為 220 萬美元，而 2023 年同一季度的銷售和行銷費用為 250 萬美元。減少 30 萬美元主要是因為廣告和貿易展覽支出減少，以及人員減少導致工資和福利支出減少。

General and administrative expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $4.1 million versus $5.1 million for the comparable 2023 period, a decrease of approximately 20%. The reduction was primarily due to a drop in noncash stock-based compensation and reduced investor relations expenses, partially offset by an increase in legal expenses.

截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日止三個月的一般及行政費用為 410 萬美元，而 2023 年同期為 510 萬美元，下降約 20%。減少的主要原因是非現金股票薪酬的下降和投資者關係費用的減少，但部分被法律費用的增加所抵消。

Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $10 million or $0.16 per share, versus a net loss of $10.2 million or $0.16 per share for the same period in 2023.

截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的三個月淨虧損為 1,000 萬美元，即每股 0.16 美元，而 2023 年同期淨虧損為 1,020 萬美元，即每股 0.16 美元。

Now for some balance sheet and cash flow highlights. Our cash and cash equivalents position as of March 31, 2024 was $16.5 million, and our net working capital was $29.2 million. The cash net loss after adding back noncash operating expenses and excluding working capital changes, a non-GAAP measure, was $6.5 million for the first quarter of 2024 versus $5.4 million for the comparable 2023 period.

現在我們來看看一些資產負債表和現金流的亮點。截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日，我們的現金及現金等價物部位為 1,650 萬美元，淨營運資本為 2,920 萬美元。加上非現金營運費用並排除營運資本變動（非公認會計準則衡量標準）後，2024 年第一季的現金淨虧損為 650 萬美元，而 2023 年同期為 540 萬美元。

The net cash flow used in operating activities was $8.8 million in the first quarter of 2024 as compared to a net use of $4.2 million for the first quarter of 2023. The bulk of this Q1 2024 increase in cash used was due to negative working capital investments, which collectively totaled approximately $3 million across increased inventories and receivables, along with reductions in accrued expenses.

2024 年第一季經營活動所使用的現金流量淨額為 880 萬美元，而 2023 年第一季的淨現金流量為 420 萬美元。2024 年第一季所用現金增加的大部分是由於負營運資本投資，庫存和應收帳款增加以及應計費用減少，總計約 300 萬美元。

Cash used for investing activities for the fourth quarter of 2024 was $1.2 million, as compared to $4.7 million in the prior year period. We spent much less on fixed asset purchases related to our waveguide production facility, and for technology development license payments to Atomistic.

2024 年第四季用於投資活動的現金為 120 萬美元，而去年同期為 470 萬美元。我們在與波導生產設施相關的固定資產採購以及向 Atomistic 支付技術開發許可費用方面的支出要少得多。

This exclusive technology license currently expires June 30, 2024, and the company is currently negotiating further licensing fees, but at a significantly lower rate as compared to the annual amounts that were paid in total for 2023 and 2022.

該獨家技術許可目前將於 2024 年 6 月 30 日到期，該公司目前正在就進一步的許可費用進行談判，但與 2023 年和 2022 年支付的年度總額相比，費率要低得多。

If such amounts cannot reasonably be negotiated or would be considered to large by Vuzix, failure to pay the additional license fees could result in the termination of Vuzix's existing license to the Atomistic technologies, and Vuzix remaining a minority shareholder in Atomistic, with certain liquidation rights and a sharing of future royalty license fees earned by Atomistic.

如果這些金額無法合理協商或被 Vuzix 認為數額過大，則未能支付額外的許可費可能會導致 Vuzix 對 Atomistic 技術的現有許可終止，並且 Vuzix 仍然是 Atomistic 的少數股東，並擁有某些清算權以及Atomistic 未來賺取的特許權使用費的分享。

We continue to feel that we've taken and will be taking further actions to ensure we have adequate cash and finished goods inventory to fund growth and operations into 2025, and I would like to explain why.

我們仍然認為，我們已經並將採取進一步行動，以確保我們有足夠的現金和成品庫存，為 2025 年的成長和營運提供資金，我想解釋一下原因。

We envision neutral to positive working capital changes, thanks to expected reductions and further builds of M400 Smart Glasses and tighter accounts receivable management. Investing activities will also be minimized for priorities only, and in fact, are expected to be under $1 million in total for 2024, before any investments in intellectual properties and technology licenses.

由於 M400 智慧眼鏡的預期減少和進一步建設以及更嚴格的應收帳款管理，我們預計營運資本將出現中性至積極的變化。僅針對優先事項的投資活動也將最小化，事實上，在智慧財產權和技術授權方面的任何投資之前，預計 2024 年的投資總額將低於 100 萬美元。

Second, we are further trimming our operating expenses by taking additional actions that include, among other things, adjust implemented voluntary one-year salary reduction program that offers employees restricted stock or stock options, in lieu of a 10% to 50% reduction in their base salaries. Subscriptions to this program totaled approximately 1.6 million on an annual basis.

其次，我們透過採取其他行動進一步削減營運費用，其中包括調整已實施的自願一年減薪計劃，該計劃為員工提供限制性股票或股票選擇權，以取代其工資減少 10% 至 50%。 。該節目的年度訂閱總數約為 160 萬。

Finally, we do expect steadily improving revenue growth, which will contribute to reducing both our book and cash operating losses. And we expect, within 12 months, to improve our total product margin through outsourced manufacturing of selected products.

最後，我們確實預期收入成長將穩定提高，這將有助於減少我們的帳面和現金營運損失。我們預計，在 12 個月內，透過選定產品的外包製造來提高我們的總產品利潤率。

Taken together, we expect all these adjustments will allow us to reduce our total average statement of operations, operating expense, cash usage -- a non-GAAP measure -- to a new target of approximately under $4.5 million per fiscal quarter starting by July 1, 2024, a 35% reduction over the 2023 comparable period.

總而言之，我們預計所有這些調整將使我們能夠從7 月1 日開始將我們的平均總營運報表、營運費用、現金使用量（一項非公認會計原則衡量標準）減少到每個財政季度約450 萬美元以下的新目標，到2024年，比2023年同期減少35%。

Actually achieved gross margin or losses from revenues will of course positively or negatively reduce this cash burn, as we better right size our operations, but still grow.

隨著我們更好地調整業務規模，實際實現的毛利率或收入損失當然會積極或消極地減少這種現金消耗，但仍然會成長。

Of course, in addition to better working capital management, we can improve our cash position through potential strategic investments, government engineering service grants, and under the right circumstances, other equity-based liquidity options available to the company.

當然，除了更好的營運資金管理之外，我們還可以透過潛在的策略性投資、政府工程服務補助以及在適當的情況下公司可用的其他基於股權的流動性選擇來改善我們的現金狀況。

As of March 31, 2024, the company continues to have no current or long-term debt obligations outstanding. With that, I would like to turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.

截至2024年3月31日，該公司繼續沒有未償還的當前或長期債務。這樣，我想將電話轉給接線生進行問答。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Matt VanVliet, BTIG.

馬特·範弗利特，BTIG。

Yes, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I guess first on some of the engineering services or the contracts you have in place.

是的，下午好。感謝您提出我的問題。我想首先是一些工程服務或您現有的合約。

Grant, you mentioned the remaining performance obligation, but how much visibility do you have into the actual timing of each step of that project pushing forward, and ultimately recognizing revenue?

格蘭特，您提到了剩餘的履約義務，但是您對該專案推進的每個步驟以及最終確認收入的實際時間有多少了解？

I appreciate you gave us an estimate for what might be recognized here this year, but how much visibility in the actual timing do you have at this point?

我很感激你給我們提供了今年可能會被認可的估計，但目前你對實際時間有多少了解？

Well, I mean, it should be, I think, a little back end loaded into the second half. Q2 may be larger. And Q1, there was actually no revenues related to that project we realized. And maybe, Paul, you know the current schedule details, the best. So maybe you could add something there?

嗯，我的意思是，我認為，下半場應該有一點後端。Q2可能更大。第一季度，我們意識到實際上沒有與該項目相關的收入。保羅，也許你最了解目前的日程安排細節。那麼也許你可以在那裡添加一些東西？

Another 14 months or so, the one program will be fully delivered on. So a lot of it should show up here in the back half of this year for that one particular program.

再過14個月左右，這項計畫將全面落實。因此，對於該特定計劃，其中許多內容應該會在今年下半年出現。

Some of the other programs, Matt, were highly anticipating production rollouts that will start this year. There is actually three of them right now, one in commercial and two of them in defense.

馬特（Matt）非常期待今年開始的其他一些項目的生產。現在實際上有三個，一個用於商業，兩個用於防禦。

The one in defense is right around the corner. I would like to think we will see some revenue starting in Q2. The commercial one is early deliveries -- might start in Q2 -- but then it will start to crank up in Q3 and going into Q4. And the other one, I'm just not sure yet.

防守者就在轉角處。我認為我們將在第二季開始看到一些收入。商業交付是提前交付——可能會在第二季開始——但隨後將在第三季開始加速並進入第四季。另一個，我還不確定。

Okay, helpful. And then you mentioned maybe embracing even more of the waveguide production prior to kind of a fully fabricated, at least, smart glasses use cases. I mean, what gives you the confidence that you'll see, I think you mentioned accelerated uptake in that area?

好的，有幫助。然後您提到，在完全製造的智慧眼鏡用例之前，可能會採用更多的波導生產。我的意思是，是什麼讓您有信心看到，我想您提到了該領域的加速採用？

Do you have sort of preliminary interest of whether it's pilots or prototypes or anything of that nature that's given you the confidence to sort of lean into that aspect of the business even further?

您是否對試點、原型或任何類似性質的東西有某種初步的興趣，這讓您有信心進一步深入業務的這一方面？

Yes, we do have -- in a few cases, it's more than preliminary interest. We're actually working through some negotiations and stuff. So we also have this wonderful relationship with one of the largest ODMs on the planet that are really embracing this with us.

是的，我們確實有——在某些情況下，這不僅僅是初步的興趣。我們實際上正在進行一些談判之類的工作。因此，我們也與地球上最大的 ODM 之一建立了良好的關係，他們確實與我們一起擁抱這一點。

And come to follow over this year slash going into next year, we have pretty good expectations that there will be some great success there too.

繼今年的大幅削減之後，我們對明年也將取得一些巨大的成功抱有很好的期望。

And then just last one, on the cost reductions. Grant, I guess from both the reduction in actual headcount, and then some of the stock grants or restricted stock in lieu of cash payments, how should we think about that impacting the cost structure from a seasonality standpoint or linearity standpoint here?

最後一個是關於降低成本。格蘭特，我想，從實際員工人數的減少，以及一些股票授予或限制性股票代替現金支付，我們應該如何從季節性角度或線性角度考慮這對成本結構的影響？

Should it continue to decrease through the year with 1Q on those line items, on the OpEx side, being sort of the high watermark? Or are there other elements that we should think about maybe partially offsetting the gradual reduction here?

在營運支出方面，這些項目的第一季是否應該繼續下降，在某種程度上是高水位線？或者我們應該考慮其他因素來部分抵消這裡的逐漸減少？

Well, related to the salary deferral or salary for equity plan, I mean that's starting effectively the first week of May, so there'll be two-thirds of a quarter. But the $1.6 million, you could extrapolate that evenly over the 12-month period. So that'll be two months' worth, and then the balance will be each quarter -- the pro rata -- all the way into, I guess, Q2 of 2025.

嗯，與工資延期或股權計劃工資相關，我的意思是從五月第一周開始有效，所以將有一個季度的三分之二。但是 160 萬美元，您可以在 12 個月期間平均推斷。所以這將是兩個月的價值，然後餘額將是每個季度——按比例——一直到我猜的 2025 年第二季。

The other costs, I mean, we are, we did make some cuts earlier in the year. We're making some further ones, and fortunately, there'll be some further headcount reductions. And with potential severance accruals and the others, I mean, we will see the impact of that starting in Q3.

我的意思是，其他成本我們在今年早些時候確實進行了一些削減。我們正在做更多的事情，幸運的是，還會進一步裁員。我的意思是，考慮到潛在的應計遣散費和其他費用，我們將從第三季開始看到其影響。

I mean there'll be some in Q2, but the majority of that will be in Q3, and hopefully, we can achieve the target of on a pure cash expense basis for OpEx of no more than $4.5 million a quarter. 35% on a cash only basis from the comparable period in 2023. Does that --

我的意思是第二季度會有一些，但其中大部分將出現在第三季度，希望我們能夠實現每季營運支出不超過 450 萬美元的純現金支出目標。與 2023 年可比期間相比，僅現金支付 35%。是這樣嗎--

Okay. Appreciate it. Great. Thank you.

好的。欣賞它。偉大的。謝謝。

Thank you. This does end the Q&A session. I would now like to hand the call back over to Paul Travers for closing remarks.

謝謝。問答環節就此結束。我現在想將電話轉回給保羅·特拉弗斯（Paul Travers），讓其致閉幕詞。

Thank you, Daryl. Thank you, everybody. I'd like to thank you for your interest and participation on today's call. We look forward to an exciting remainder of this year with hopefully a lot of great, great, stimulus, and sharing of the unfolding year with these opportunities that are happening for Vuzix. It should be great.

謝謝你，達裡爾。謝謝大家。我要感謝您對今天電話會議的關注和參與。我們期待今年令人興奮的剩餘時間，希望能有很多偉大的、偉大的刺激，並與 Vuzix 發生的這些機會分享即將展開的一年。應該很棒。

And finally, we look forward to seeing you at our annual shareholders meeting for those that want to come on June 13 here in Rochester, New York. Have a good evening, everybody.

最後，我們期待在 6 月 13 日在紐約州羅徹斯特舉行的年度股東大會上見到您。祝大家晚上好。

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開線路並享受剩下的一天。