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VeriChip Corporation Announces
Financial Results for 2007 Fourth Quarter and Full Year
Company exceeds
revenue guidance, reporting record revenue of $8.6 million in the
fourth quarter and $32.1 million for the full year
Company to launch
direct-to-consumer VeriMed marketing campaign in strategic markets
Prototype development
of in vivo glucose-sensing microchip on schedule
DELRAY BEACH, FL – March 5, 2008 –
VeriChip Corporation ("VeriChip" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: CHIP), a
provider of RFID systems for healthcare and patient-related needs,
today reported financial results for its fourth quarter and full
year ended December 31, 2007.
Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2007
was $8.6 million compared to revenue of $7.0 million for the fourth
quarter of 2006, an increase of 24.0% due to strong sales of the
Company’s healthcare security and industrial products. Net loss in
the fourth quarter of 2007 was $(2.8) million, or $(0.29) per share,
compared to a net loss in the fourth quarter of 2006 of $(3.3)
million, or $(0.59) per share.
Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of VeriChip, said, “I am very proud that we
surpassed both of the publicly stated growth metrics we provided to
the investor community in early 2007. We reported record revenue of
$32.1 million, above our guidance, and also reported hospital
registrations and protocol adopted hospitals in the VeriMed Patient
Identification System of more than 900 and 200, respectively. Our
record annual revenues were driven by our healthcare security
business and strong sales of our industrial products. Looking ahead,
we expect consolidated revenues for 2008 of $36-38 million, driven
primarily from continued double-digit, top-line growth within our
healthcare security and industrial businesses. We also expect our
healthcare security and industrial businesses to generate adjusted
EBITDA of $5.6 to $6.2 million in 2008.”
Gross profit for the fourth quarter of
2007 was $4.5 million, or a gross margin of 52.4%, compared to gross
profit of $3.7 million, or a gross margin of 52.8%, in the fourth
quarter of 2006.
Revenue for the year ended December 31,
2007 was $32.1 million compared to revenue of $27.3 million for the
year ended December 31, 2006, an increase of 17.6%. Net loss for the
year ended December 31, 2007 was $(11.9) million, or $(1.36) per
share, compared to a net loss of $(6.7) million, or $(1.21) per
share, for the year ended December 31, 2006. The increase in net
loss is primarily due to increased non-cash equity compensation
charges, increased interest expense, severance and other exit costs
related to the first quarter 2007 shutdown of the Company’s
Vancouver facility, and increased costs related to the Company
becoming a public entity in the first quarter of 2007.
The Company ended 2007 with cash and
cash equivalents of $7.2 million compared to $1.0 million at the end
of 2006. On February 29, 2007, the Company
entered into an $8 million financing from which it used $5.3 million
of the proceeds to prepay debt owed to its stockholder, Digital
Angel. As a result of this prepayment, the
Company is not obligated to make any further debt service payments
to Digital Angel until September 2009 and Digital Angel agreed to
subordinate its debt to the Company’s new lender.
Silverman continued, “Following the
significant infrastructure build-out of our VeriMed system in 2007,
we are now ready to begin marketing VeriMed more directly to
patients in certain key geographies. Starting with
South Florida, we will launch our direct-to-consumer
campaign in early April as we increase our focus on patient
adoption. We plan to replicate the success of the
South Florida launch in one or two other markets by the
end of 2008.”
In December 2007, VeriChip, Digital
Angel and Receptors LLC held an event in New York to discuss plans
to build a prototype self-contained implantable bio-sensing device
included in an RFID microchip that for the first time will have the
ability to measure glucose levels in the human body, thereby
negating the need for diabetics to prick their fingers multiple
times per day.
The companies published a white paper
entitled “Development of an Implantable Glucose Sensor” that
unveiled development plans for a self-contained implantable RFID
glucose-sensing microchip. Upon completion, the in vivo
glucose-sensing microchip will be the first device able to measure
glucose levels in the human body and be read with an external
reader. The first phase of this development
program, the development of a self-contained glucose sensor
prototype, is on schedule for the middle of 2008.
Non-GAAP Financial Measure
To
supplement the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated financial
statements presented in accordance with GAAP, the Company provides
adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Adjusted
EBITDA is defined as operating loss plus depreciation and
amortization, and other non-cash items (such as equity-based
compensation) and non-recurring items as presented in the Company’s
Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Operations. Adjusted
EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to operating
income or net income (as determined in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”)) as a measure of the
Company’s operating performance or to net cash provided by
operating, investing and financing activities (as determined in
accordance with GAAP) as a measure of the Company’s ability to meet
cash needs. The Company believes that adjusted EBITDA is a measure
commonly reported and widely used by investors and other interested
parties as a measure of a company’s operating performance and debt
servicing ability because it assists in comparing performance on a
consistent basis without regard to capital structure, depreciation
and amortization or non-operating factors (such as historical cost).
This information has been disclosed here to permit a more complete
comparative analysis of the Company’s operating performance relative
to other companies. Adjusted EBITDA may not, however, be comparable
in all instances to other similar types of measures.
For supplemental information to
facilitate evaluation of the impact of non-cash charges,
non-recurring charges, and comparisons with historical results, see
the attached tables showing the detailed reconciliation of results
reported under GAAP to non-GAAP results for the 2007 fourth quarter
and full year and the 2006 fourth quarter and full year.
Results Conference Call
The Company will host a conference call
tomorrow for all interested parties at 9:00 a.m. ET to discuss these
results. Interested participants should call (800) 472-8309 within
the United States
or (706) 643-9561 internationally. Please use passcode 36492916.
Alternatively, an audio-only, simultaneous Web cast of the live
conference call can be accessed through the home page of the
Company's Web site at www.verichipcorp.com. For persons unable to
participate in either the conference call or the Web cast, a
digitized replay will be available from March 6 at 11:30 a.m. ET to
March 13 at 11:59 p.m. ET. For the replay, dial (800) 642-1687 (USA)
or (706) 645-9291 (international), using access code 36492916.
Alternatively, a replay can be accessed through the Media/Audio &
Video link on the Company's Web site at www.verichipcorp.com
About VeriChip
Corporation
VeriChip Corporation, headquartered in
Delray Beach, Florida,
develops, markets and sells radio frequency identification, or RFID,
systems used to identify, locate and protect people and assets.
VeriChip's goal is to become the leading provider of RFID systems
for people in the healthcare industry. The Company recently began
marketing its VeriMed(TM) Patient Identification System
for rapidly and accurately identifying people who arrive in an
emergency room and are unable to communicate. This system uses the
first human-implantable passive RFID microchip, the implantable
VeriChip(TM), cleared for medical use in October 2004 by
the United States Food and Drug Administration.
For more information on VeriChip, please
call 1-800-970-2447, or email
info@verichipcorp.com.
Additional information can be found online at
www.verichipcorp.com.
This press release
contains certain “forward-looking” statements (as such term is
defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995).
Forward-looking statements included in this press release include,
without limitation, those concerning expectations for strong revenue
growth of our healthcare security products, continued strengthening
of our VeriMed infrastructure, success of the Company’s marketing
and sales initiative, including its new direct-to-consumer campaign,
and expected growth in sales, earnings and improvement in gross
margins and revenue guidance for 2008. These forward-looking
statements are based on the Company's current expectations and
beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and
assumption. Among the important factors that could actual results to
differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the
forward-looking statements are our ability to successfully implement
our business strategy; our expectation that we will incur losses, on
a consolidated basis, for the foreseeable future; the relative
maturity in the United States and limited size of the markets for
our infant protection and wander prevention systems and vibration
monitoring instruments; the degree of success we have in leveraging
our brand reputation, reseller network and end use customer base for
our infant protection and wander prevention systems to gain inroads
in the emerging market for asset/staff location and identification
systems; the rate and extent of the U.S. healthcare industry’s
adoption of RFID asset/staff location and identification systems;
the relative degree of market acceptance of our zonal, or cell ID,
active RFID systems compared to competing technologies, such as
lower power Ultra Wide Band-based location technologies; uncertainty
as to whether we will be able to increase our sales of infant
protection and wander prevention systems outside of North America;
our reliance on third-party dealers to successfully market and sell
our products; uncertainty as to whether a market for our VeriMed
system will develop and whether we will be able to generate more
than a nominal level of revenue from the sale of these systems; and
market acceptance of our VeriMed system, which will depend in large
part on the future availability of insurance reimbursement for the
VeriMed system microchip implant procedure from government and
private insurers, and the timing of such reimbursement, if it, in
fact, occurs. Additional information about these and other factors
that could affect the Company's business is set forth in the
Company's various filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including those set forth in the Company's
10-K filed on
April 2, 2007, under the caption "Risk Factors."
The Company undertakes no
obligation to update or release any revisions to these
forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after
the date of this statement or to reflect the occurrence of
unanticipated events, except as required by law.
Contact:
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VeriChip Corporation
Allison Tomek
561-805-8000
atomek@digitalangel.com
CEOcast
Dan Schustack
212-732-4300
dschustack@ceocast.com
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