PC CONNECTION INC - Quarter Report: 2012 September (Form 10-Q)

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

(Mark One)

For the quarterly period ended September 30, 2012

OR

For the transition period from             to             

Commission file number 0-23827

PC CONNECTION, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(603) 683-2000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report: N/A

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 whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    YES  x    NO  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    YES  ¨    NO  x

The number of shares outstanding of the issuer’s common stock as of November 1, 2012 was 26,510,827.

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PC CONNECTION, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

FORM 10-Q

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PC CONNECTION, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1—Financial Statements

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(Unaudited)

(amounts in thousands)

See notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

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PC CONNECTION, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1—Financial Statements

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME

(Unaudited)

(amounts in thousands, except per share data)

See notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

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PC CONNECTION, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1—Financial Statements

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(Unaudited)

(amounts in thousands)

See notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements

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PC CONNECTION, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1—Financial Statements

NOTES TO UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

(amounts in thousands, except per share data)

Note 1–Basis of Presentation

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements of PC Connection, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Such principles were applied on a basis consistent with the accounting policies described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the financial statements contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K.

In the opinion of management, the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements contain all adjustments (consisting only of normal recurring adjustments) necessary for a fair presentation of the results of operations for the interim periods reported and of the Company’s financial condition as of the date of the interim balance sheet. The Company considers events or transactions that occur after the balance sheet date but before the financial statements are issued to provide additional evidence relative to certain estimates or to identify matters that require additional disclosure. Subsequent events have been evaluated through the date of issuance of these financial statements. The operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012 may not be indicative of the results expected for any succeeding quarter or the entire year ending December 31, 2012.

Use of Estimates in the Preparation of Financial Statements

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions. These estimates and assumptions affect the amounts reported in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Comprehensive Income

We had no items of comprehensive income, other than our net income for each of the periods presented.

Note 2–Earnings Per Share

Basic earnings per common share is computed using the weighted average number of shares outstanding. Diluted earnings per share is computed using the weighted average number of shares outstanding adjusted for the incremental shares attributable to restricted stock units and stock options outstanding, if dilutive.

The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted earnings per share:

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For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, the following outstanding stock options were excluded from the computation of diluted earnings per share because including them would have had an anti-dilutive effect:

Note 3–Other Intangible Assets

At December 31, 2011, our intangible assets included the MoreDirect tradename of $1,190, which had an indefinite life and was not subject to amortization. In the second quarter of 2012, we determined that the tradename had an estimated remaining useful life of five years, and accordingly, we began amortizing the cost of the tradename over a five-year period on a straight-line basis. Our intangible assets and related accumulated amortization are detailed below:

For the three-month periods ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, we recorded amortization expense of $294 and $184, respectively. For the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, we recorded amortization expense of $802 and $447, respectively. The estimated amortization expense in each of the five succeeding years and thereafter is as follows:

Note 4–Segment and Related Disclosures

We are required to report profits and losses and certain other information about our “reportable operating segments” in our annual and interim financial statements. The internal reporting structure used by our chief operating decision maker (“CODM”) to assess performance and allocate resources determines the basis for our reportable operating segments. Our CODM is our Chairman of the Board of Directors, and she evaluates operations and allocates resources based on a measure of operating income.

Our operations are organized under three reporting segments—the SMB segment, which serves primarily small- and medium-sized businesses, consumers, and small office/home office (“SOHO”) markets; the Large

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Account segment, which serves primarily medium-to-large corporations; and the Public Sector segment, which serves primarily federal, state, and local government and educational institutions. In addition, the Headquarters/Other group provides services in areas such as finance, human resources, information technology, marketing, and product management. Most of the operating costs associated with the Headquarters/Other group functions are charged to the operating segments based on their estimated usage of the underlying functions. We report these charges to the operating segments as “Allocations.” Certain headquarters costs relating to executive oversight and other fiduciary functions that are not allocated to the operating segments are included under the heading of Headquarters/Other in the tables below.

In 2011, we managed our Consumer/SOHO business as a separate operating segment. Effective January 1, 2012, we merged our Consumer/SOHO business into our SMB business to better serve the Consumer/SOHO customers and improve operating efficiencies. We have revised the reporting of operating segments to reflect the new basis for assessing performance and allocating resources. Under this revised reporting structure, the operating results related to our consumer and SOHO customers that were formerly reported separately are now included within the SMB segment. We have restated prior year segment information to conform to our revised segment reporting structure.

On March 17, 2011, we acquired ValCom, a provider of IT infrastructure and on-site managed services to medium-to-large corporations, and have included its operating results in our Large Account segment from the date of the acquisition. For the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, we reported external sales for ValCom of $29,258 and $17,208, respectively, which were immaterial to our consolidated results. The operating results of ValCom for the nine months ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 were also immaterial to our consolidated results.

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Net sales presented below exclude inter-segment product revenues. Segment information applicable to our reportable operating segments for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 is shown below:

The assets held by our operating segments are primarily accounts receivables, intercompany receivables, goodwill, and other intangibles. Assets reported under the Headquarters/Other group are managed by corporate headquarters, including cash, inventory, and property and equipment, and are presented net of intercompany balance eliminations of $31,951 as of September 30, 2012. Our capital expenditures are comprised largely of IT hardware and software purchased to maintain or upgrade our management information systems. These systems serve all of our subsidiaries, to varying degrees, and as a result, our CODM does not evaluate capital expenditures on a segment basis.

Senior management also monitors consolidated revenue by product mix (Notebook; Desktop/Server; Software; Net/Com Product; Video, Imaging and Sound; Printer and Printer Supplies; Storage; Memory and System Enhancement; and Accessory/Other).

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Net sales by product mix is presented below:

Note 5–Commitments and Contingencies

We are subject to various legal proceedings and claims, including patent infringement claims, which have arisen during the ordinary course of business. In the opinion of management, the outcome of such matters is not expected to have a material effect on our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows.

We are subject to audits by states on sales and income taxes, unclaimed property, employment matters, and other assessments. A comprehensive multi-state unclaimed property audit continues to be in progress. While we believe we have adequately provided for known and estimated liabilities, it is too early to determine the ultimate outcome of such audits, as no formal assessments have yet been made. Additional liabilities for this and other audits could be assessed, and such outcomes could have a material, negative impact on our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows.

Note 6–Bank Borrowing and Trade Credit Arrangements

We have a $50,000 credit facility that expires February 24, 2017. The loan is collateralized by receivables, and has no restrictions on the repurchase of our common stock or the payment of dividends. This facility can be increased, at our option, to $80,000 for approved acquisitions or other uses authorized by the lender at substantially the same terms. Amounts outstanding under this facility bear interest at the one-month London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, plus a spread based on our funded debt ratio, or in the absence of LIBOR, the prime rate (3.25% at September 30, 2012). The one-month LIBOR rate at September 30, 2012 was 0.22%. The credit facility includes various customary financial ratios and operating covenants, including minimum net worth and maximum funded debt ratio requirements, and default acceleration provisions, none of which we believe significantly restricts our operations. Funded debt ratio is the ratio of average outstanding advances under the credit facility to Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Expense, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization, and Special Charges). The maximum allowable funded debt ratio under the agreement is 2.0 to 1.0. Decreases in our consolidated Adjusted EBITDA could limit our potential borrowings under the credit facility. We had no outstanding bank borrowings during the third quarter of 2012, and accordingly, the entire $50,000 facility was available for borrowings under the credit facility.

At September 30, 2012, we had security agreements with two financial institutions to facilitate the purchase of inventory from various suppliers under certain terms and conditions. The agreements allow a collateralized first position in certain branded products in our inventory financed by the financial institutions up to an aggregated amount of $47,000. The cost of such financing under these agreements is borne by the suppliers by discounting their invoices to the financial institutions. We do not pay any interest or discount fees on such inventory. At September 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011, accounts payable included $13,996 and $22,827, respectively, owed to these financial institutions.

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Note 7–Treasury Stock Purchases

On March 28, 2001, our Board of Directors authorized the spending of up to $15,000 to repurchase our common stock. We consider block repurchases directly from larger shareholders, as well as open market purchases, in carrying out our ongoing stock repurchase program.

In the nine months ended September 30, 2012, we repurchased 162 shares for $1,466. As of September 30, 2012, we have repurchased an aggregate of 1,682 shares for $12,233, and the maximum approximate dollar value of shares that may yet be purchased under the board authorization is $2,767. During the nine months ended September 30, 2012, we issued, upon the vesting of restricted stock, 177 shares from treasury with a fair value of $1,314 and have reflected the net remaining balance of treasury stock on the condensed consolidated balance sheet. In connection with the vesting, we withheld 52 shares, having an aggregate fair value of $504, to satisfy related statutory withholding obligations. These net-share settlements had the economic effect of repurchases of common stock as they reduced the number of shares that would have otherwise been issued as a result of the vesting. The shares withheld were returned to treasury but did not apply against authorized repurchase limits under our Board of Directors’ authorization.

Note 8–Fair Value

Our financial instruments consist primarily of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and a contingent liability related to the ValCom acquisition. The carrying values of cash, accounts receivable, and accounts payable approximate their fair values due to their short-term nature.

We are required to measure fair value under a fair value hierarchy that maximizes the use of observable inputs and minimizes the use of unobservable inputs. Observable inputs are obtained from independent sources and can be validated by a third party, whereas unobservable inputs reflect assumptions regarding what a third party would use in pricing an asset or liability. A financial instrument's categorization within the fair value hierarchy is based upon the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement. Three levels of inputs may be used to measure fair value:

Level 1–Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

Level 2–Include other inputs that are directly or indirectly observable in the marketplace.

Level 3–Unobservable inputs which are supported by little or no market activity.

We measure our cash equivalents at fair value and classify such assets within Level 1 of the fair value hierarchy. This classification has been determined based on the manner in which we value our cash equivalents, primarily using quoted market prices for identical assets. The Level 3 liability consists of contingent consideration related to our acquisition of ValCom in the first quarter of 2011. The fair value of the contingent consideration was estimated by applying the income approach, which utilizes significant inputs that are unobservable in the market. Key assumptions used at the initial valuation date included a discount rate of 4.8% and a 100% probability of achievement. In the second quarter of 2011, we paid the first $1,000 of the contingent consideration. In the second quarter of 2012, we made a second payment of $1,000, which was initially valued at $960 at the date of the acquisition and was increased by $40, representing the change in fair value over the period from acquisition to the milestone date. We paid $916 in contingent consideration in the fourth quarter of 2012 for the last milestone, which was valued at $970 at December 31, 2011. The decrease represents the change in fair value over the period from December 31, 2011 to the milestone date.

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A roll forward of Level 3 liabilities is as follows:

Assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis consisted of the following types of instruments at September 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011:

Note 9–Special Charges

In the first nine months of 2012, we recorded special charges of $1,135 related to awards granted upon the retirement of a former executive officer and certain workforce reductions. We did not record any such charges in the nine months ended September 30, 2011. A roll forward of the liability for these charges is shown below.

The issuance of nonvested stock for $842 was a non-cash charge. The remaining obligation of $9, which we expect to pay in the fourth quarter of 2012, is included in accrued payroll on the condensed consolidated balance sheet.

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PC CONNECTION, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 2—MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION

AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations include the identification of certain trends and other statements that may predict or anticipate future business or financial results that are subject to important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated. See Item 1A.“Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011 on file with the SEC.

OVERVIEW

We are a leading direct marketer of a wide range of information technology, or IT, solutions. We help companies design, enable, manage, and service their IT environments. We provide IT products, including computer systems, software and peripheral equipment, networking communications, and other products and accessories that we purchase from manufacturers, distributors, and other suppliers. We also offer an extensive range of services involving design, configuration, and implementation of IT solutions. These services are performed by our personnel and by third-party providers. We operate through three sales segments, which serve primarily: (a) small- to medium-sized businesses and consumers and small office/home office (“SOHO”) customers, in SMB, through our PC Connection Sales subsidiary, (b) large enterprise customers, in Large Account, through our MoreDirect and ValCom Technology (“ValCom”) subsidiaries, and (c) federal, state, and local government and educational institutions, in Public Sector, through our GovConnection subsidiary.

We generate sales primarily through outbound telemarketing and field sales contacts by account managers focused on the business, education, and government markets, our websites, and inbound calls from customers responding to our catalogs and other advertising media. We seek to recruit, retain, and increase the productivity of our sales personnel through training, mentoring, financial incentives based on performance, and updating and streamlining our information systems to make our operations more efficient.

As a value added reseller in the IT supply chain, we do not manufacture IT hardware or software. We are dependent on our suppliers—manufacturers and distributors that historically have sold only to resellers rather than directly to end users. However, certain manufacturers have on multiple occasions attempted to sell directly to our customers, and in some cases, have restricted our ability to sell their products directly to certain customers, thereby attempting to eliminate our role. We believe that the success of these direct sales efforts by suppliers will depend on their ability to meet our customers’ ongoing demands and provide objective, unbiased solutions to meet their needs. Our customers increasingly seek complete IT solutions, rather than simply the acquisition of specific IT products, and our advantage is our ability to be product-neutral and provide a broader combination of products, services, and advice tailored to customer needs. By providing customers with customized solutions from a variety of manufacturers, we believe we can mitigate the negative impact of continued direct sales initiatives from individual manufacturers. Through the formation of our ProConnection services group, and our acquisition of ValCom, we are able to provide customers complete IT solutions, from identifying their needs, to designing, developing, and managing the integration of products and services to implement their IT projects. Such service offerings carry higher margins than traditional product sales. Additionally, the technical certifications of our service engineers permit us to offer higher-end, more complex products that generally carry higher gross margins. We expect these service offerings and technical certifications to continue to play a role in sales generation and improve gross margins in this competitive environment.

Market conditions and technology advances significantly affect the demand for our products and services. Virtual delivery of software products and advanced Internet technology providing customers enhanced functionality have substantially increased customer expectations, requiring us to invest more heavily in our own IT development to meet these new demands. This investment includes significant expenditures to update our

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websites. As buying trends change and electronic commerce continues to grow, customers have become more sophisticated due to the amount and quality of information available and the increased number of readily available choices. Customers are also better able to make price comparisons through the Internet, thereby necessitating more aggressive pricing strategies to remain competitive. While it is not possible for us to estimate with any degree of accuracy the level of sales we may have lost or may lose in the future as a result of such increased buyer sophistication, we believe we are able to successfully compete by providing comprehensive product and service solutions, and our consolidated net sales and gross profit margins have increased over the last three years.

The primary challenges we continue to face in effectively managing our business are (1) increasing our revenues while at the same time improving our gross margin in all three sales segments, (2) recruiting, retaining, and improving the productivity of our sales personnel, and (3) effectively controlling our selling, general, and administrative, or SG&A, expenses while making major investments in our IT systems and solution selling personnel.

To support future growth, we continue to expand our ability to deliver complete IT solutions, which requires the addition of highly-skilled service engineers. We are still in the early stages of this multi-year initiative, and although we expect to realize the ultimate benefit of higher-margin service revenues, we believe that our SG&A expenses will continue to increase as we add service engineers. If our service revenues do not grow enough to offset the cost of these headcount additions, our operating results may decline.

To operate more efficiently, we have undertaken a comprehensive review and assessment of our entire business software needs. That review and assessment includes the review of commercially available software that meets, or can be configured to meet, those needs better than our existing software. As of September 30, 2012, we have capitalized $12.0 million of software and integration costs for the initial phase of this software project, related to Customer Master Data Management (“Customer MDM”), and we expect to fully place this asset into service in 2013. When the Customer MDM software is placed into service, we expect depreciation expense to increase by $2.0 million on an annual basis. While we have not yet finalized our decisions regarding to what extent additional software will be acquired and implemented beyond the Customer MDM software we have acquired to date, we expect to increase our capital investments in our IT infrastructure in the next three years, which will also likely increase SG&A expenses.

RECENT EVENTS

Effective January 1, 2012, we merged our Consumer/SOHO segment into our SMB segment to better serve the Consumer/SOHO customer and to achieve operating efficiencies. We have revised the reporting of operating segments to reflect the new basis for assessing performance and allocating resources. Under this revised reporting structure, the operating results related to our consumer and SOHO customers that were formerly reported separately are now included within the SMB segment. We have restated prior year segment information to conform to our revised segment reporting structure.

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following table sets forth information derived from our statements of income expressed as a percentage of net sales for the periods indicated:

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Net sales in the third quarter of 2012 decreased by $14.4 million, or 2.5%, compared to the third quarter of 2011. Declines in net sales for both our SMB and Large Account customers were partially offset by an increase in Public Sector sales. As noted above, we combined our SMB and Consumer/SOHO segments on January 1, 2012. Sales to small and medium businesses increased by 2.2% year over year, however, when combined with lower consumer and SOHO sales, overall sales for this segment decreased by 2.3%. Improvements in gross margin (gross profit expressed as a percentage of net sales) for our Large Account and, to a lesser extent, our Public Sector segment more than offset a small decrease in SMB gross margins, resulting in an overall gross margin improvement. SG&A expenses increased in dollars due to investments in internal systems projects and incremental variable compensation. Operating income in the third quarter of 2012 increased to $16.3 million, or 2.9% of net sales, due to the increase in gross margin.

Net sales in the nine months ended September 30, 2012 increased by $52.5 million, or 3.4%, compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2011 due to the $57.0 million increase in our Large Account sales. Sales to small and medium businesses increased by 3.2% year over year, however, when combined with lower consumer and SOHO sales, overall sales for this segment decreased by 1.1%. Gross margin increased in all three segments in the nine months ended September 30, 2012 compared to the prior year period due to increased sales of higher-margin IT product and service solutions. SG&A expenses increased in dollars due to investments in internal systems projects and incremental variable compensation. Operating income in the nine months ended September 30, 2012 increased year over year by $4.2 million to $40.0 million due to the increase in net sales and gross margin.

Net Sales Distribution

The following table sets forth our percentage of net sales by business segment and product mix: