Caliper Life Sciences' first-quarter 2010 GAAP revenues increase 1% to $28.7M

Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CALP), today reported its first quarter 2010 results.

First Quarter Results:

• GAAP revenues for the quarter increased to $28.7 million, or 1%, from $28.5 million in the same period in 2009.  First quarter revenue from the Company's ongoing business operations, which excludes the effects of divested non-core operations (see table entitled "Non-GAAP Revenues"), grew 13% compared to the same period in 2009.  Revenues from the Company's LabChip® and IVIS® product families comprised 71% of total revenues in the quarter and grew 31% and 26%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2009.  Foreign currency movements benefited total revenues by approximately 2% compared to the first quarter of 2009.
• Gross margin in the first quarter of 2010 increased over 1,200 basis points to 51.5% compared to 39.1% in the first quarter of 2009. The combined gross margin of product and service revenues was 47.0% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to 34.7% in the first quarter of 2009.  The overall gross margin improvement was principally driven by product sales which increased by 11%, and featured a greater mix of proprietary high margin instruments and consumables tied to the LabChip and IVIS product families. The Company's divestiture of its former pre-clinical in vivo services business in the fourth quarter of 2009, which carried lower margins, quality improvements that resulted in lower warranty costs, and material cost reductions were additional factors that contributed to the improvement in the Company's overall gross margin in the first quarter.
• GAAP net loss was $2.2 million for the quarter, or $0.04 per basic share, compared to GAAP net loss of $6.6 million, or $0.14 per basic share, in the first quarter of 2009. The $4.4 million bottom line improvement over 2009 resulted principally from increased gross margin improvements, and to a lesser extent, lower operating costs compared to the first quarter of 2009.  
• The Company achieved non-GAAP loss of $0.02 per basic share in the first quarter of 2010 compared to a non-GAAP net loss per basic share of $0.10 in the same period in 2009 (see table entitled "Non-GAAP Earnings per Share").
• Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $36.4 million as of March 31, 2010, compared to $38.0 million as of December 31, 2009.  Outstanding credit line borrowings were $14.9 million as of March 31, 2010, which was unchanged from December 31, 2009.

"Our LabChip and IVIS performance is the result of solid R&D investments and positioning these products in attractive biotherapeutics, genomics and optical imaging markets.  The revenue growth from these patent-protected, high gross margin platforms is driving improvement to our bottom line," commented Kevin Hrusovsky, Caliper's president and CEO.  "We believe the continued adoption of our existing products, bolstered by the strong interest in our recently launched LabChip XT and Quantum FX instruments will enable us to sustain this strong momentum," added Hrusovsky.

Recent Business Highlights:

• On April 19, the Company introduced the Quantum FX at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2010.  The Quantum FX is a low dose, microCT system that provides researchers with a 3-dimensional anatomical view of disease activity, tumor development and therapeutic response over multiple time points during the course of a study.
• On April 15, the Company announced a partnership with Access Genetics which is expected to accelerate adoption of LabChip GX instruments in the molecular diagnostics market.
• Earlier in the first quarter the Company announced the establishment of a scientific advisory board to guide the Company's efforts in automated sample preparation for next generation and third generation sequencing platforms.  The Company also launched LabChip XT, an automated nucleic acid fractionation instrument that eliminates a key bottleneck in the current workflow for next generation sequencing.
• Also in the first quarter, the Company filed a lawsuit, along with Stanford University, against Carestream Health, Inc. for willful infringement of seven patents (which comprise a portion of Caliper's "Optical Imaging Patent Suite™") that encompass methods for non-invasive in vivo imaging of fluorescence and bioluminescence in animals and that are exclusively licensed to the Company by Stanford. 

2010 Guidance

The Company is expecting revenues to grow between 4-6% on an organic basis in 2010 over 2009 pro forma revenue from continuing operations of $119.7 million. Assuming present rates, currency movements compared to 2009 are expected to benefit reported revenues modestly in the first half of the year and show a reversing trend in the second half of the year, resulting in a less than 1% impact on revenue growth on a full year basis.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company supplements its GAAP financial reporting with certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the Company's GAAP to non-GAAP revenue and earnings per share are provided at the end of this release under "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

Certain revenue growth percentages in this press release are derived from non-GAAP revenues which exclude the impact of revenue from product lines which were divested in the fourth quarters of 2008 and 2009.  The term "organic" revenue growth eliminates the impact of these divestitures and foreign currency movements during the quarter to reflect growth percentages on a constant currency basis. The Company believes that providing this additional information enhances investors' understanding of the financial performance of the Company's operations and increases the comparability of its current financial statements to prior periods.