UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
FOR ANNUAL AND TRANSITION REPORTS PURSUANT TO SECTIONS
13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
| x | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended: March 31, 2005
OR
| ¨ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission File No. 0-14841
FRANKLIN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHERS,
INCORPORATED
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
| Pennsylvania | 22-2476703 | |
| (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization) |
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | |
| One Franklin Plaza, Burlington, New Jersey | 08016-4907 | |
| (Address of principal executive offices) | (Zip Code) | |
(609) 386-2500
(Registrants telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act:
Common Stock, par value $.01
Securities registered pursuant Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act:
None
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrants knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2) Yes ¨ No x
As of June 15, 2005 approximately 8,125,410 shares of common stock of the registrant were outstanding and the aggregate market value of common stock held by non-affiliates was approximately $19,190,000.
The registrants Proxy Statement for its 2005 annual meeting of shareholders is hereby incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.
FRANKLIN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHERS, INCORPORATED
INDEX TO ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K FILED WITH
THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
FISCAL YEAR ENDED MARCH 31, 2005
This 2005 Annual Report on Form 10-K contains statements which constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include statements regarding the intent and belief or current expectations of Franklin and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the timely availability and acceptance of new electronic books, organizers, and other electronic products, changes in technology, the impact of competitive electronic products, the management of inventories, dependence on key licenses, titles, and products, dependence on third party component suppliers and manufacturers, including those that provide Franklin-specific parts, and other risks and uncertainties that may be detailed herein, and from time-to-time, in Franklins other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Franklin undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future.
| ITEM 1. | BUSINESS |
Franklin Electronic Publishers, Incorporated (Franklin or the Company) designs, develops, publishes and distributes electronic information on handheld devices, memory media cards, and via internet downloads.
We believe we are one of the worlds largest designers, developers and publishers of electronic reference books, having sold more than thirty-four million handheld devices since 1986. Our handheld devices are battery-powered platforms with screen displays that incorporate the text of a reference work, such as a dictionary. We own or have licenses to publish in electronic format more than one hundred core reference titles, including monolingual and bilingual dictionaries (such as Merriam-Websters Collegiate® Dictionary), the Holy Bible, encyclopedias (such as the Britannica® Concise Encyclopedia), entertainment-oriented publications (such as The Official Scrabble® Dictionary), and educational publications such as The Princeton Review Pocket Prep Handheld for the new SAT. In addition, we own or have licenses to distribute in electronic format, either directly or through third parties, more than twenty-two thousand titles, including reference works and general literature, via internet download.
We marketed our first handheld reference device, the Spelling Ace® spelling corrector, in 1986. We believe that the Spelling Ace device was one of the first electronic books marketed in the United States. Beginning in 1987, we began marketing increasingly sophisticated electronic versions of thesauruses and dictionaries and, in 1989, the first handheld electronic version of the Holy Bible. In 1992 we introduced a line of updateable handhelds through a proprietary memory card system and in 2003 introduced a Pagemark series as a companion to printed material.
In 2001, we formed a strategic alliance with Mobipocket, SA of Paris, France, (MobiPocket) which, similar to our own efforts, had been working on a cross platform solution of providing electronic content in a single file format to all popular portable and desktop devices and in April 2003 we purchased a twenty-five percent equity interest in MobiPocket. In March 2005, we sold all of our shares in MobiPocket to Amazon.com Inc. who purchased the remaining seventy-five percent of MobiPocket. We received approximately $2,500,000 for our shares and realized a gain of $1,781,000. In connection with the sale, the Company and Amazon have entered into a series of agreements, including a Framework for Technology Collaboration Agreement pursuant to which we have secured rights to an ongoing software development and distribution relationship with Amazon in connection with our next generation handheld electronic reference products and electronic content reader devices
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and by which certain cross licenses were established. The agreements also provide for us to continue to utilize MobiPockets wholesale electronic content distribution system. We believe these agreements to be important in providing for our own proprietary devices to be able to access more content and to enable us to leverage our content development and availability to include access to the more than 50,000,000 personal digital assistant platforms, smartphones and hundreds of millions of personal computers already in the market.
The Company was incorporated in 1983 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the successor to a business commenced in 1981. The Companys principal executive offices are located at One Franklin Plaza, Burlington, New Jersey 08016-4907, and its telephone number is (609) 386-2500.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
We believe that we have the following competitive advantages:
| · | Efficient and Cost-Effective Manufacturing Process. We control the entire manufacturing process of our products, from design to sale, but do not own actual manufacturing facilities. This virtual manufacturing model enables us to produce our products in the most cost-effective manner by allowing us to outsource the manufacturing and assembly functions to third parties which meet our cost and quality standards. In this way, we maintain a high degree of flexibility and adaptability in our product sourcing operations with minimal capital invested and, due to the use of multiple factories in various Asian countries, we are able to maintain competitive manufacturing costs. |
| · | Strong Share in Electronic Reference Books. We believe that we are the preeminent company in the handheld electronic reference market in the United States, Europe and certain other international markets. We also believe that we have significant market share in Australia, and the Middle East. Over the past eighteen years, we have sold more than thirty-four million handheld devices worldwide. |
| · | Breadth and Strength of Distribution. We distribute our products through approximately 45,000 retail outlets in approximately fifty countries and through the internet and catalog mailings direct to customers. We also use direct channels to serve specialty markets, such as the professional, educational and customized application markets. In the educational market, our electronic books are used in tens of thousands of schools throughout the United States. With the success of our electronic Holy Bible, we have achieved substantial sales in the spiritual market, with our products currently distributed through Christian-affiliated bookstores. |
| · | Technological Leadership in Electronic Books. We have significant expertise in providing high quality content and functionality through cost-effective hardware designs of electronic information products. We design and have manufactured for our use proprietary microprocessors. Our products combine speech and sophisticated technology with a user-friendly interface designed for convenient and rapid retrieval of data. Our ability to compress data and to design systems that permit quick and intelligent information retrieval enables us to offer compact products with high functionality. For example, we store the Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, which fills up thirty-seven megabytes of memory space, into the memory space of only nine megabytes which also includes sophisticated search and retrieval functionality. We have been able to manufacture higher performance products at lower cost due in part to declining prices of memory chips. Our vertically integrated research and development effort, devoted to developing both the hardware and software for our products, also enables us to utilize cost-minimizing technologies such as custom chips which combine the functions of many components into a single chip. As a result, the cost of our products to consumers has decreased over the years to prices approaching those of print versions of reference publications, offering consumers added value at attractive price points. |
| · | Long-standing Relationships and Licenses with Many Top Publishers. We have electronic rights to over 100 core reference titles, including several versions of English and bilingual dictionaries, Bibles, |
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| encyclopedias and childrens language learning devices. We obtain our licenses from a variety of well-established publishers such as Merriam-Webster, Harper Collins, Editions Larousse and Ernst Klett International. These licenses are supported by long-standing relationships with the publishers, providing us with a significant competitive advantage. In the past several years we have increased the scope of our licenses to publish and/or distribute eBooks to cover over 22,000 titles including titles from well known trade publishers such as St. Martins Press, McGraw Hill, Time Warner, Random House, Harper Collins and others. |
BUSINESS STRATEGIES
We were the first, and strive to be the best, in electronic books focusing on linguistic solutions. Our strategy to fulfill that mission is to leverage our leading market position by exploiting the following opportunities:
| · | Consumer Driven Product Development and Marketing. While we have built strong distribution for our major products, we continue to believe that further opportunities lie in our ability to take a more marketing driven approach to product development. We believe a better understanding of our customers will allow us to boost sales, lower costs, accelerate sell through at retail and lead to successful new product introductions. We have initiated a new product category management process to further exploit additional opportunities in our core markets including language, language learning, bible, test preparation and leisure. For example, our PageMark Dictionary has been well-received in the marketplace and won top honors in Personal Electronic Design at the Design and Engineering Showcase at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Our Pocket Prep for the new SAT won the Best of Innovations award in Personal Electronic Design at the 2005 CES show. We regularly conduct consumer research to better understand our customers needs to be able to expand our solution-based product offerings in these markets. |
| · | Continuing Upgrade of Core Products. Our core product line continues to represent the major portion of our revenue. Dictionaries, spell correctors, translators and Bibles have been our mainstream consumer electronics products. We intend to continue to upgrade and enhance our core products. |
| · | Investment in Marketing. To date, we have engaged in limited advertising on the national or local level and rely heavily on cooperative advertising with our key retailers and on advertising in targeted local markets. |
| · | Growth in Selected International Markets. We have had success in selling our products directly through wholly-owned local subsidiaries in selected international markets, and through distributors in other markets. We will begin sale of our products in Asia during fiscal 2006 using Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII) as our distributor. We anticipate that our international sales will continue to provide a significant portion of our revenue as the English Learning market continues to expand on a global basis. |
| · | Exploitation of OEM and Licensing Opportunities. Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) opportunities are business agreements pursuant to which we develop products, software, and technology for resale or use by our customers. We have such agreements in certain markets and will seek to broaden our activities to other domestic and international markets. We believe our OEM business can be expanded as we upgrade existing and develop new open system platforms. We also license our technology to preeminent companies such as Adobe Systems, Sun Microsystems, MacroMedia and Ademco (a division of Honeywell). |
| · | Use of the Internet to Distribute Handheld Reference Devices and Content. We distribute our handheld devices and e-Books on our website (franklin.com) and other third party websites. We have developed hardware platforms to provide for portable use of content delivered from our website and other third party websites. |
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RISK FACTORS
We believe that the most significant risks to our business are those set forth below.
| · | We are Dependent on Development of New Products and Titles. We depend to a certain extent on the introduction of successful new products and titles to generate sales growth and replace declining revenues from certain older products and titles. We currently have several new products and titles under development; however, significant development efforts for a number of our proposed new products and titles will be required prior to their commercialization. A significant delay in the introduction of a new product or title could have a material adverse effect on our revenue or the ultimate success of the product or title. In addition, if revenues from new products and titles fail to replace declining revenues from certain existing products and titles, our operating results and growth could be adversely affected. There can be no assurance that new products and titles currently under development will be introduced on schedule, that they will generate significant revenues, or that we will be able to introduce additional new products and titles in the future. |
| · | We May Not Maintain Optimal Inventory Levels. Our lead times are necessarily long because of the custom nature of certain components and because most of our components are manufactured and assembled, by third parties in Asia. Accordingly, production and procurement planning are critically related to our anticipated sales volume. Any significant deviation from projected future sales could result in material shortages or surpluses of inventory. Shortages could cause our distribution base to shrink as customers turn to our competitors. Inventory surpluses could cause cash flow and other financial problems, which might cause us to liquidate inventory at a loss. There can be no assurance that our forecasts of demand for our products will be accurate. Inaccurate forecasts, or unsuccessful efforts by us to cope with surpluses or shortages, could have a material adverse effect on our business. |
| · | We Could be Adversely Affected by Changes in Technology. In general, the computer industry, and the electronics industry as a whole with respect to software and hardware, are subject to rapidly changing technology. Accordingly, the technology underlying our products may similarly be subject to change. The introduction of products embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards could exert price and/or performance pressure on our existing products or render such products unmarketable or obsolete. Our ability to anticipate changes in technology and industry standards and to develop and introduce new and enhanced products, as well as additional applications for existing products, in each case on a timely and cost-effective basis, will be a critical factor in our ability to grow and remain competitive. There can be no assurance that technological changes will not materially adversely affect our business. |
| · | We Face Significant Competition. The consumer electronics and handheld product markets are highly competitive and characterized by rapid technological advances and the regular introduction of new products or enhancements of existing products. We believe that we face various degrees of competition at different price points and in different geographical regions in these markets. Competitive factors include product quality and reliability, price, performance, brand awareness, marketing and distribution capability, service and reputation. There can be no assurance that companies, whether or not currently in the consumer electronics or handheld product markets, will not enter the markets in which we currently sell our products. There can be no assurance that other companies, currently in the consumer electronics industry, will not enter the electronic reference market. Many of such companies have greater capital, research and development, marketing and distribution resources than we do. If new competitors emerge or the existing market becomes more competitive, we could experience significant pressure on prices and margins. |
| · | We are Dependent on a Small Number of Suppliers and Manufacturers. Certain integrated circuits essential to the functioning of our products are manufactured by a relatively small number of overseas or domestic suppliers. Missed, late or erratic deliveries of custom IC-ROMs and other parts could have a material adverse impact on the timing of new product deliveries as well as our ability to meet demand for existing products. If any one of the integrated circuit suppliers were unable to meet its commitments to us on a timely basis, such failure could have a material adverse effect on our business. |
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Our products are assembled by third party manufacturers in Asia. The inability of any of these manufacturers to meet our delivery schedules could adversely affect our sales. Two manufacturers accounted for 21% and 15% respectively of our inventory purchases during fiscal 2005.
| · | We license Key Titles from Others. We depend on licenses from a variety of well-established publishers such as Merriam-Webster, Harper Collins, Editions Larousse and Ernst Klett International for the right to distribute approximately 100 core reference titles, including several versions of English and bilingual dictionaries, Bible related works, and encyclopedias and childrens language learning devices. If an existing license agreement covering certain of our core reference titles was terminated or not renewed, we would have to develop and introduce alternative or new titles, which could have a negative impact on our results of operations and profitability. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to extend the terms of our existing license agreements or that we will be successful in negotiating alternative or new license agreements. |
| · | Over 10% of Our Sales Come from One Product. We derived 11%, 11%, and 13% of our consolidated revenue for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2005, 2004, and 2003, respectively, from one product under a license that expires in March 2007. |
| · | Our Intellectual Property Rights May be Challenged. We own utility and design patents in the United States and other countries on our electronic books. There can be no assurance (i) that the claims allowed under any patents will be sufficiently broad to protect our technology, (ii) that the patents issued to us will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented or (iii) as to the degree or adequacy of protection any patents or patent applications will afford. We also claim proprietary rights in various technologies, know-how, trade secrets and trademarks which relate to our principal products and operations, none of which rights is the subject of patents or patent applications in any jurisdiction. There can be no assurance as to the degree of protection these rights may or will afford us or that third parties will not obtain patent rights that may be interposed against our products. |
| · | We Are Subject To International Sales and Currency Fluctuations. We expect that international sales will continue to constitute a material portion of our business. Our international business is subject to various risks common to international activities, including political and economic instability and the need to comply with both import and export laws, tariff regulations and regulatory requirements. There can be no assurance that political or economic instability in any given country or countries will not have an adverse impact on our overall operations. Approximately 24% of our 2005 sales were made in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, resulting in our being subject to the risk of fluctuation in currency values from period to period. We maintain a program of selling Euros at current rates for future settlement in order to protect the dollar value of sales generated by foreign subsidiaries. Gains or losses on these contracts are offset primarily by the effect of the foreign exchange rate changes on the underlying transactions. |
PRODUCTS
Electronic Books
Dictionaries
Our electronic spelling products (the Spelling Ace® line) operate as phonetic spelling error detectors and correctors, puzzle solvers, word list builders and word finders. These products permit the user to obtain the correct spelling of a word that the user does not know how to spell correctly. For example, if the user phonetically types in krokodyl, the book will display a list of seven words including, as the first choice, crocodile. We market various versions in the Spelling Ace line incorporating different databases such as both American and British English and foreign language correctors.
Our top-of-the-line electronic dictionary in the U.S. market is Merriam-Websters Speaking Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition which is sold for use in BOOKMAN® products and which contains more than 200,000
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words with clear and concise definitions, as well as parts of speech, hyphenation points and different word forms (inflections). All of our electronic dictionaries provide phonetic spelling correction and many provide thesaurus features as well. For example, if a user enters the word baffled, the thesaurus will display eleven different synonyms, including frustrated, disappointed and foiled.
We market versions of our dictionaries that include speech synthesis circuitry (based on text to speech technology in which algorithms are used to convert text into sound) which allow our products to pronounce, in computer generated speech, relevant words contained in the various databases. We also develop and sell audio products that use digitally recorded and compressed speech, which provides for a more natural sounding voice.
Our line of products also includes bilingual dictionaries. Each contains more than 200,000 words in both English and either Spanish, French, German, Arabic or Hebrew, and each provides complete translations, definitions, verb conjugations and a gender guide, and plays a variety of language learning games to help teach the language. Our Spanish/English dictionaries are marketed in versions with and without speech synthesis for both Spanish and English words. Many of the other bilingual dictionaries are equipped with speech synthesis for the English words. We currently market a French/German dictionary and bilingual dictionaries for several other languages, including other language pairs that do not include English, such as German/Italian and French/Spanish.
We have a speaking dictionary designed to facilitate use by blind, visually impaired or learning disabled individuals, as well as others with special needs. This dictionary incorporates speech technology which pronounces every word at user adjustable volumes and speeds. In addition, this dictionary is equipped with full audio feedback, which allows every key on the keyboard to speak its letter or function. Other features include a keyboard with high-contrast lettering and raised locator dots, a large high-contrast screen with adjustable fonts and headphones.
Childrens Products
Since 1990, we have successfully sold childrens versions of our reference products. In 1997, we introduced a new line of childrens products which includes the Homework Wiz electronic dictionary with a text-to-speech voice synthesizer enabling the product to speak both words and definitions.
Test Preparation
In April 2005, we began shipping an all new Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Prep device to coincide with a significant revision of the SAT. Our Princeton Review Pocket Prep device features test taking techniques, full-length practice exams with complete answers and explanations, a test timer to improve time management, personal diagnostic reports to identify score improvement opportunities, and practice drills and flash cards for efficient studying. The product was specifically designed to allow high school students to take the product anywhere for convenient study and is based on The Princeton Reviews Cracking the SAT printed book. This product marks our entry into the standardized test preparation market.
The Holy Bible
Our electronic Holy Bible is a handheld edition of the entire text of the Holy Bible, which allows for retrieval of text by searches based on single words, word groups or synonyms. For example, a search for the words valley and shadow will retrieve the Twenty-third Psalm. Because of its built-in ability to conduct full-text word searches, the Franklin Bible is a fully automated concordance. We sell the Bible on our BOOKMAN platform and on cards designed for use with our BOOKMAN platform as well as other formats. We sell both the King James and the New International versions of the Bible as well as a Bible Dictionary and Bible Concordance.
Entertainment Titles
We sell a variety of crossword puzzle solvers in both U.S and British English, which provide correct spelling for over 250,000 words and phrases from Merriam-Websters Official Crossword Puzzle Dictionary and
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Chambers Concise Crossword Dictionary for use by word puzzle enthusiasts. In fiscal 2005, we began to sell a new handheld version of the Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary and sold backgammon, some casino style games, and a Jokebook to a third party OEM customer. We continue to pursue opportunities to sell games and puzzles through our existing brands and distribution channels or to new OEM customers
Seiko® Products
In fiscal 2004, we began to distribute handheld reference products in the United States under the Seiko® trademark. We currently distribute five Seiko products, primarily dictionaries and translators in the United States.
In June 2004, we entered into agreements with Seiko Instruments, Inc. (SII), for SII to distribute Franklin branded reference products in Asia and for us to distribute Seiko branded reference products in Europe and Australia. An agreement was also signed with Seiko U.K. Ltd. to distribute our products in the United Kingdom. We and SII are working together to establish common development architectures. We began distribution of Seiko products in Australia in fiscal 2005 and will begin distribution of SII products in Europe in fiscal 2006.
The agreements provide for SII to purchase from us reference products for the Japanese markets over a five year period commencing in fiscal 2006 with a minimum purchase guarantee of $20,000,000 during the period.
The agreement also provides for us to continue purchasing Seiko® reference products for distribution in North America for the five years ending March 31, 2009 with a minimum purchase guarantee of $14,000,000 during the period. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, we purchased $1,750,000 of Seiko® reference products.
International Titles
We have developed and produced British English versions of our electronic reference products for international markets, particularly the United Kingdom and Australia. We have monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual electronic reference products for the French and German-speaking markets. We have omnibus agreements for publishing electronic reference products with two major European publishers, Ernst Klett International and Editions Larousse, under which Franklin has developed titles in handheld electronic platforms, electronic downloads and ROM cards. Larousse publishes dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias and other works under the following well known trademarks: Larousse and Chambers.
Linguistic Technology
Through our Proximity Technology division, we design linguistic solutions software that perform spelling error detection and correction, hyphenation correction and thesaurus and dictionary functions in conjunction with databases of words in 36 languages and dialects. We license this software for use in various computer applications, which can be ported to work with any operating system.
Electronic Organizers
In 1997, we began to sell a line of organizers and databanks under the ROLODEX® Electronics trademark which we had licensed late in 1996. Since acquiring the ROLODEX® Electronics product line, we have updated and improved both low priced databanks that allow users to store and retrieve names and telephone numbers and more advanced personal organizers, that can interface with PCs.
Sales of ROLODEX® organizers and databanks have declined substantially during the last four years primarily because of the use of other devices, such as personal computers, PDAs and cell phones, to perform organizer functions. Because of this decline, we recorded impairment charges of $11.1 million in fiscal 2002 and $1.5 million in fiscal 2005 to reflect the impairment of the value of the ROLODEX® Electronics mark.
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Translators
We have developed and sell a line of handheld translator devices that incorporate a comprehensive list of English words and phrases useful to the traveler, with translations for each word and phrase in one or more languages such as: Spanish, French, German, Italian, and several Eastern European and Asian languages. Translations can be provided by these devices either visually on a display screen or by audible output.
Internet Enabled Content
We offer 17,000 titles, including versions of certain reference works from our website, franklin.com, for downloading to our own handheld devices and those using the Palm OS operating system, Pocket PC Windows CE operating system, and Symbian operating system popular with many major cell phone manufacturers.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
We have a group of forty-two persons that perform research and development relating to new electronic products, improvements to existing products and enhancements to our linguistic solutions that enable both our handhelds and our Proximity licensing division.
We maintain an internal development group of hardware and software engineers dedicated to our critical functions such as developing the underlying software itself. Our team of highly trained engineers provide our technology base from sophisticated search and retrieval, correction, speech and compression algorithms to developing proprietary microprocessors. Through this extensive effort, we are able to reduce the cost of components for our platforms and cards on an ongoing basis. We focus our hardware development efforts on creating new platforms and regularly engage in programs to redesign our platforms and to develop new VLSIs for our products. We rely on our team of software engineers to develop new products and we also contract for software development work in Europe, Russia, India and the Far East.
Total research and development spending was $3,886,000, $3,224,000 and $3,385,000 for the years ending March 31, 2005, 2004 and 2003, respectively.
MANUFACTURING
We arrange for the assembly of our products by placing purchase orders with established third-party manufacturers in China, Malaysia and Thailand. We believe that we could locate alternate manufacturers for our products if any of our current manufacturers are unable, for any reason, to meet our needs.
We design certain custom integrated circuits, which are manufactured by third parties for use in our products. We also create the mechanical, electronic and product design for our hardware platforms and design and own the tooling used in the manufacture of our products. Our electronic products are based on our proprietary microprocessors or general purpose microprocessors and custom ROM chips and general purpose static random access memory chips. We design VLSIs that integrate our proprietary or general purpose microprocessors and custom-designed circuits in order to reduce the cost of the materials in our devices. In order to minimize the effect of any supplier failing to meet our needs, we generally attempt to source these parts from multiple manufacturers. In those cases where we choose to use a single source, alternative suppliers are generally available.
We utilize our subsidiary in Hong Kong to facilitate component procurement, manufacturing, and quality control. On-site quality control inspection of electronic products is conducted by our employees in China, Malaysia and Thailand. Our products are generally shipped at our expense to our facility in New Jersey, where we maintain inspection, quality control, warehousing and repair operations for distribution in the United States, and to similar facilities in Europe and elsewhere for our foreign operations.
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SALES AND MARKETING
Domestic Sales
Our products are marketed domestically through our own sales and marketing force, through independent sales representative organizations, which are supervised by our internal sales department, and through third party alliances.
Our products are sold in approximately 30,000 retail establishments in the United States. These are comprised of mass market retailers, discount chains, bookstores, independent electronic stores, department stores and catalog companies Our major customers include Radio Shack, Best Buy, Target, Staples, Wal-Mart, Costco, Office Depot, Sharper Image, Office Max, Rite Aid, Borders, Brookstone, and Heartland. We also mail approximately 1,700,000 print catalogs each year to consumers and educational buyers for mail order sales and consumers can order products directly from us by calling 1-800-BOOKMAN or by visiting our website at franklin.com. We commonly participate in and provide financial assistance for our retailers promotional efforts, such as in-store displays, catalog and general newspaper advertisements. We promote our products with advertisements in magazines and newspapers. We also promote our products at trade shows, including the Consumer Electronics Show, and advertise in trade magazines and on regional television and radio.
Generally our orders are not on a backlog status. Customer orders are generally filled within a short time period other than customer displays during back to school and holiday seasons.
International Sales
We sell our products worldwide through wholly-owned local subsidiaries and a network of independent distributors. We have subsidiaries in France, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Mexico and Australia, that market and distribute our products, which are specifically developed for these markets. In October 2004, we began to use Seiko U.K. Ltd. to distribute and market our products in the United Kingdom.
Our sales outside of the United States represented 31, 31 and 28 percent of total sales in the fiscal years 2005, 2004, and 2003, respectively.
OEM Markets and Licensing Efforts
We produce custom products for and license technologies to third parties. We have developed custom products including a speaking version of the alMawrid, an Arabic-English bilingual dictionary and an Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary for sale in the Middle East. We continue to pursue opportunities for custom versions of our products. We also license our technology to preeminent companies such as Adobe Systems, Sun Microsystems, MacroMedia, and Ademco (a division of Honeywell).
PATENTS, TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS
We own more than twenty United States utility and design patents on our electronic reference products and a number of international patents on our products. We actively pursue the acquisition and enforcement of patent rights and, in furtherance thereof, maintain an ongoing program to apply for and prosecute patent applications and to enforce our rights in patents that issue therefrom.
We own certain trademark rights, including Franklin®, BOOKMAN®, Spelling Ace®, Wordmaster®, Next Century® and Language Master and have an exclusive license for the trademark ROLODEX® Electronics in the United States and various foreign countries.
Copyrights to certain word lists incorporated in our electronic books are the property of our licensors. We own copyrights in certain programs, word lists, and algorithms used in our electronic books.
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COMPETITION
We are the market leader in the United States for handheld reference books. We face various degrees of competition at different price points in the United States consumer market. We have a leading position in the European market where our main competitors include Lexibook, Hexaglot, Casio, and Sharp.
Competitive factors for electronic reference products are product quality and reliability, functionality, price, performance, speed of retrieval, quality of underlying databases, quality of spelling correction, portability, marketing and distribution capability, service and corporate reputation. We believe we are a leader in respect of each such factor.
Our reference products enjoy a reputation for quality resulting from their content, hardware design and easy-to-use software applications. Our reference products are characterized by their capacity to permit the user to define the kind of information being sought and to provide information responsive to the users request.
Sharp and Royal are our primary competitors in electronic organizers. Competitive factors for electronic organizers and personal computer companion products are size, product quality and reliability, functionality, price, performance, marketing and distribution capability and corporate reputation.
A number of prominent electronics manufacturers, including Palm, Sony, Sharp Electronics, Casio, Royal, and RIM sell palmtop personal organizer products, personal digital assistants, electronic books, computer peripherals, or general usage personal computers that offer varying degrees of electronic reference capabilities and personal information management functions. Many competitors in this market have greater capital, research and development, marketing and distribution resources than we do. There can be no assurance that we can successfully compete in this market. Sales of ROLODEX® organizers and databanks have declined substantially during the last four years. Because of this decline, we recorded impairment charges of $11.1 million in fiscal 2002 and $1.5 million in fiscal 2005 to reflect the impairment in the value of the ROLODEX® mark.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We file annual, quarterly and current reports, information statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). The public may read and copy any materials we file with the SEC at the SECs Public Reference Room at 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC also maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that site is http://www.sec.gov.
INTERNET ADDRESS
Our Internet address is www franklin.com. We make available on or through our investors page on our web site, free of charge, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and beneficial ownership reports on Forms 3, 4, and 5 and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after this material is electronically filed or furnished to the SEC. We also make available, on our website, a code of ethics that applies to our chief executive officer and chief financial officer, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, respectively, and all of our other financial executives and a code of ethics applicable to all of our employees, officers and directors pursuant to SEC requirements and American Stock Exchange listing standards.
EMPLOYEES
As of June 4, 2005, we employed a total of 200 people consisting of 141 in the United States, 28 in Asia, and 31 in international sales and marketing subsidiaries. None of our employees are represented by a union. We believe our relations with our employees are satisfactory.
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Merriam-Websters and Collegiate are trademarks of Merriam-Webster, Inc.; Palm is a trademark of Palm Inc.; ROLODEX® is a registered trademark of Berol Corporation, a division of Newell Rubbermaid Inc.; and Britannica is a trademark of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
| ITEM 2. | PROPERTIES |
We own a 90,000 square foot corporate headquarters building in Burlington, New Jersey. We believe this facility will satisfy our foreseeable needs for office, laboratory and warehousing space. We also rent office and warehouse facilities in Germany, France, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia and Mexico.
| ITEM 3. | LEGAL PROCEEDINGS |
We are subject to litigation from time to time arising in the ordinary course of our business. We do not believe that any such litigation is likely, individually or in the aggregate, to have a material adverse effect on our financial condition.
| ITEM 4. | SUBMISSION OF MATTER TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS |
NONE
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT
| NAME |
AGE |
POSITION | ||
| Barry J. Lipsky |
54 | President and Chief Executive Officer; Director | ||
| Arnold D. Levitt |
68 | Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; Treasurer; Secretary | ||
| Michael A. Crincoli |
40 | Vice President, North American Operations | ||
| Kevin M. Port |
44 | Vice President, International Operations | ||
| Walter Schillings |
44 | Managing Director, European Operations |
Mr. Lipsky joined us as Vice President in February 1985. He was elected our Executive Vice President in 1997, our Interim President and Chief Operating Officer in April 1999 and our President and Chief Executive Officer in May 1999. Mr. Lipsky has been a Director or Managing Director of our Hong Kong subsidiary since its inception in 1985. Prior to joining us and from 1972, Mr. Lipsky was employed by Mura Corporation of Hicksville, New York, a designer and importer of consumer electronics products and custom components. During his tenure at Mura, Mr. Lipsky held a variety of senior management positions, including product development and procurement, culminating in his election as Vice President of Operations, the position he held just prior to joining us.
Mr. Levitt joined us in May 1999 as our Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer and was elected our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer in September 1999. Mr. Levitt has been engaged in consulting as a chief financial officer or senior business adviser for companies in a variety of industries since 1996. Prior to these consulting arrangements, Mr. Levitt was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of WICO Gaming Supply Corp. Mr. Levitt has owned or was employed as a chief financial officer of a number of companies and also worked in public accounting.
Mr. Crincoli joined us in January 2000 as Vice President, North American Sales and was promoted to Vice President, North American Operations in October 2003. Prior to joining us, Mr. Crincoli was the Vice President of Sales for Delta Millenium for 18 months and spent four years with Broderbund Software where he held the position as Director of Sales for the last two years. Previously, Mr. Crincoli spent six years at Pioneer Electronics (USA), Inc. in various sales and marketing roles.
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Mr. Port joined us in December 2004 as Vice President, International Operations. Prior to joining us, Mr. Port worked as an independent international business consultant for various consumer product organizations. From March 2002 to December 2003, Mr. Port was the Senior Manager, Japan Alliance Marketing at Mattel Inc. From April 2001 to March 2002, he operated an international business consulting practice. Previously, he was employed by the Ronson Corp. as the Director of International Business. Mr. Port started at Lander Co. Inc. in 1995 as the Director of Asia-Pacific Markets and during this 5-year tenure, the role expanded to include Africa and the Middle-East regions. Mr. Port has lived in Japan and worked in various roles with Reebok Japan, Kaimu Inc. and the Fujitsu Basic Software Corporation. He has been active in diverse international sales and marketing roles for consumer goods companies for more than 15 years.
Mr. Schillings joined us in April 1996 as Managing Director Germany and became Managing Director Central Europe in 2000. In August 2004, Mr. Schillings assumed responsibility for all of our business in Continental Europe managing multiple subsidiaries and distributors. Prior to joining us, Mr. Schillings owned his own business, SYSTECH GmbH.
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| ITEM 5. | MARKET FOR REGISTRANTS COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES |
The Companys common stock is traded on the American Stock Exchange (the AMEX) under the symbol FEP. The following table sets forth the range of the high and low closing sales prices as reported by the AMEX, as applicable, for the last two fiscal years:
| Sales | ||||
| Quarter Ended |
High |
Low | ||
| June 30, 2003 |
4.52 | 1.95 | ||
| September 30, 2003. |
5.05 | 2.74 | ||
| December 31, 2003 |
3.97 | 2.65 | ||
| March 31, 2004 |
4.44 | 3.10 | ||
| June 30, 2004 |
4.65 | 3.05 | ||
| September 30, 2004. |
4.58 | 3.34 | ||
| December 31, 2004 |
4.69 | 3.67 | ||
| March 31, 2005 |
4.40 | 3.37 | ||
The approximate number of holders of record of the common stock as of June 15, 2005 was 738. The high and low price at which the Companys common stock traded on June 15, 2005 was $3.35 and $3.26 respectively.
The Company has not declared cash dividends on the common stock and does not have any plans to pay any cash dividends on the common stock in the foreseeable future. The Board of Directors of the Company anticipates that any earnings that might be available to pay dividends on the common stock will be retained to finance the business of the Company and its subsidiaries.
Purchase of Preferred Shares
| Period |
Total Number of Shares Purchased |
Average Price Paid per Share |
Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs |
Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs | |||||
| January 1, 2005 - March 31, 2005 |
1,000 | $ | 1,000 | 0 | 0 | ||||
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| ITEM 6. | SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA |
The following tables should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto and the Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation section appearing elsewhere herein.
| Year Ended March 31, |
||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005 |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
||||||||||||||||
| Statements of Operations Data |
||||||||||||||||||||
| Sales |
$ | 62,146 | $ | 61,836 | $ | 65,592 | $ | 71,025 | $ | 79,966 | ||||||||||
| Cost of Sales |
32,167 | 32,306 | 35,963 | 41,962 | 46,089 | |||||||||||||||
| Write-down of eBookMan Inventory and Product Costs |
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