ARM grew its revenues by 15 per cent in 2008 in a semiconductor market that declined 2.8 per cent. Revenues were £289.9m ($546.2m) compared to £259.2m in 2007, and ARM's Q408 revenues at £94.4m ($149.4m) were also up 15 per cent year-on-year in a Q408 semiconductor market that declined 22.5 per cent.
Q4 revenues, and the full year revenues, were both records for ARM. Profit for 2008 was £43.59m compared to £35.25m in 2007. Operating margin was 34.6 per cent and over £90m cash was generated, nearly £30m in Q4.
"ARM has built a base of more than 580 processor licenses that is driving long-term royalty growth", said ARM CEO, Warren East.
"We are encouraged to see that the inherent operating leverage in the ARM business model, combined with sound financial discipline and the recent strengthening of the dollar against sterling, has given rise to earnings growth in 2008 of more than 20 per cent."
The outlook for 2009 is 'uncertain' said ARM. 'Semiconductor industry activity slowed down markedly in the fourth quarter', said a company statement, 'whilst not immune from the impact of the industry slow down, ARM continues to build an established base of licenses (587 processor licenses with 21 signed in Q408) that drives long-term royalty growth.'
The ARM statement continues: 'Although there is less visibility than usual at this time of the year, unless conditions deteriorate to a greater extent than generally anticipated, we expect group dollar revenues for full-year 2009 to be at least in line with current market expectations of around $460 million.'
ARM's core business, processor licenses, saw three Cortex A9 licenses signed for mobile computing and gaming in Q4. ARM's physical IP division saw 12 companies take licenses from 0.18micron to 32nm.