One Marvell-ous Report

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Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL) shareholders have been sitting on the edge of their seats since last summer, all the while gripping their stock certificates tightly and hoping for some signs of life. Well, you can relax now, folks. Those wrinkled documents can go back in your safe deposit boxes.

The communications-semiconductor designer reported $0.11 in earnings per share on sales of $804 million. That represents a 26.6% boost in revenue from last year and a bottom line way better than the $0.09 loss per share from a year ago. And a $124 million torrent of free cash flow in a seasonally weak quarter swept away memories of the disappointing $19 million in FCF of yesteryear.

A long-running SEC investigation of the company's options-granting practices is now receding in the rearview mirror, and the settlement of that dispute added a $10 million cost item in this quarter. That's just under $0.02 per share, in case you're keeping score at home.

Management says the unexpectedly strong growth and profits come from high customer demand for its 802.11n next-generation Wi-Fi chips, system-on-a-chip printer platforms, and Network Attached Storage processors. That's an impressive versatility record, considering that the 802.11n market is teeming with megarivals such as Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), and even smaller players such as Atheros Communications (Nasdaq: ATHR) and Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM). However, the printer product is facing only two serious contenders in Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Freescale subsidiary SigmaTel.

Marvell dropped a tantalizing little tidbit about the cell-phone market, too. "We began volume shipments of our HSDPA communication processor to a key smartphone customer," said CEO Sehat Sutardja. HSDPA is a 3G specification, and it sure sounds as though Marvell could power the long-rumored 3G iPhone from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). We'll know for sure after Steve Jobs presents his latest baby, possibly at the June 9 developer conference. Just keep in mind that Marvell has a foot in the door -- it already provides the Wi-Fi chip for the first-generation iPhone.

There are plenty of both realized and potential growth drivers on hand here, and many of the question marks around this company have evaporated lately. The 68% rebound off a January low of $10.17 per share should continue for a while. Put that Marvell stub down, and have yourselves a good night's sleep, shareholders.

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