WILSONVILLE, Ore. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — May 25, 2012 — Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced financial results for the company’s fiscal first quarter ended April 30, 2012. The company reported revenues of $247.9 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of $.30, and GAAP earnings per share of $.25. The company raised guidance for fiscal year 2013 non-GAAP earnings per share by $.05 to $1.37 and for GAAP earnings per share by $.07 to $1.20.

“Strength in our business continued in the first quarter, with record first quarter revenue and earnings,” said Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics. “The release of our next-generation emulation platform during the quarter has attracted broad customer interest, and we have a very full sales funnel. We are also seeing increasing demand for our Calibre family of products at advanced process nodes, as the explosion of capacity at 28nm is driving significant design activity. With 20nm processes being certified now, and beginning production later in the year, we expect that the ongoing move to the 28nm and 20nm generations of technology will drive an exceptionally large increase in design activity. This will benefit Mentor and the whole electronic design automation industry through 2013.”

During the quarter, the company announced the availability of the Veloce®2 platform, the next generation of emulation solutions for the verification of electronic system and system-on-chip (SoC) designs. This included the announcement of a new environment called Veloce VirtuaLAB, giving verification engineers access to a full environment for verifying complex electronics systems prior to first silicon availability without requiring the building of hardware test systems. The company also announced the latest release of the PADS® desktop solution for PCB design, with new features addressing design-for-manufacturing analysis, high-speed and interactive routing. Additionally the quarter saw the latest release of the Questa® functional verification platform for complex SoC, ASIC and FPGA designs.

“Continued focus on cost controls, a favorable product mix, and better than forecasted profitability in the business have allowed us to raise earnings guidance for the year. We also reaffirm revenue guidance at $1.1 billion for the year as we expect increased Veloce2 emulation shipments beginning in the second quarter as production capacity increases,” said Gregory K. Hinckley, president of Mentor Graphics. “We are pleased that we have achieved an operating margin in the first quarter that is already near our fiscal year target of 18% non-GAAP. With a record backlog at the start of the year and strong demand for our products at advanced process nodes, we remain confident in our outlook for the rest of the fiscal year.”

Outlook

For the full fiscal year 2013, the company reaffirms that it expects revenues of about $1.1 billion, and raises outlook for non-GAAP earnings per share by $.05 to $1.37, and GAAP earnings per share by $.07 to $1.20. For the second fiscal quarter FY2013, the company expects revenues of about $240 million, non-GAAP earnings per share of $.17, and GAAP earnings per share of $.10.

Fiscal Year Definition

Mentor Graphics’ fiscal year runs from February 1 to January 31. The fiscal year is dated by the calendar year in which the fiscal year ends. As a result, the first three fiscal quarters of any fiscal year will be dated with the next calendar year, rather than the current calendar year.

Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Mentor Graphics’ management evaluates and makes operating decisions using various performance measures. In addition to our GAAP results, we also consider adjusted gross margin, operating margin, net income (loss), and earnings (loss) per share which we refer to as non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin, net income (loss), and earnings (loss) per share, respectively. These non-GAAP measures are derived from the revenues of our product, maintenance, and services business operations and the costs directly related to the generation of those revenues, such as cost of revenue, research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses, that management considers in evaluating our ongoing core operating performance. These non-GAAP measures exclude amortization of intangible assets, special charges, equity plan-related compensation expenses, interest expense attributable to net retirement premiums or discounts on the early retirement of debt and associated debt issuance costs, interest expense associated with the amortization of debt discount and premium on convertible debt, and the equity in income (loss) of unconsolidated entities (except Frontline PCB Solutions Limited Partnership (Frontline)), which management does not consider reflective of our core operating business.

Management excludes from our non-GAAP measures certain recurring items to facilitate its review of the comparability of our core operating performance on a period-to-period basis because such items are not related to our ongoing core operating performance as viewed by management. Management considers our core operating performance to be that which can be affected by our managers in any particular period through their management of the resources that affect our underlying revenue and profit generating operations during that period. Management uses this view of our operating performance for purposes of comparison with our business plan and individual operating budgets and allocation of resources. Additionally, when evaluating potential acquisitions, management excludes the items described above from its consideration of target performance and valuation. More specifically, management adjusts for the excluded items for the following reasons: