Good afternoon, and welcome to the Smith Micro Software Q4 and fiscal year 2021 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Charles Messman. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today to discuss Smith Micro Software's financial results for the Q4 and year-end December 31, 2021. By now, you should have received a copy of the press release with the financial results. If you do not have a copy and would like one, please visit the investor relations sections of our website at www.smithmicro.com. On today's call, we have Bill Smith, Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Smith Micro, and Jim Kempton, Chief Financial Officer.
Please note that some of the information you'll hear today during our discussion consists of forward-looking statements, including, without limitations, those regarding the company's future revenue and profitability, our future plans, new product development, new and expanded market opportunities, future product deployment, migration, and/or growth by new existing customers, operating expense, company cash reserves, and the expected impact of last year's acquisition of Avast Family Safety Mobile business on our business strategy, operations, and financial positions going forward. Forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. For more information, please refer to the risk factors included in our most recently filed Form 10-K and the final prospectus filed with respect to our public offering last year.
Smith Micro assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements which speak to our management's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date they are made. I want to point out that in the forthcoming prepared remarks, we'll refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our press release disseminated earlier today for reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures. With that said, I'll turn the call over to Bill. Bill?
Thanks, Charlie. Good afternoon to everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our 2021 Q4 and year-end earnings conference call. To start, I sincerely hope that everyone on this call today is doing well, given the unique challenges we have all faced over the past couple of years and now exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine. Despite all that we've been challenged with, much was accomplished at Smith Micro during 2021, and I'm looking forward to discussing our progress with you this afternoon. This past year, as we stated before, was a truly transformational year for Smith Micro. We accomplished several strategic initiatives that have positioned us very well for success in 2022 and beyond.
We enhanced the functionality of SafePath by successfully integrating Circle's code base into our platform, a huge accomplishment for our team that has resulted in us having the most comprehensive family safety offering on the market for wireless carriers. In addition, last spring, we acquired our largest competitor in the white label family safety space with the acquisition of Avast Family Safety Mobile business. This was the largest acquisition in Smith Micro's history. Not only did it add several tier one carrier customers to our global family safety client base, it also brought more than 150 highly experienced professionals to our company. We are clearly now the leader in the white label family safety space with a dedicated and experienced team focused on executing our growth strategies and advancing our SafePath platform.
With contracts in place with multiple carriers, we expect our historical customer concentration issues are behind us. I couldn't be happier with the growth potential we have in front of us. Before looking back at our financial results for 2021, I must share just how proud I am of the Smith Micro's team's preparation for the launch of SafePath 7 at T-Mobile, which should occur in the next few weeks, with the apps already having been submitted and approved by the Google Play and Apple App Store. As we have completed all of the requirements under the T-Mobile contract for the migration, we are now able to recognize the revenue from that contract under the new variable pricing model, which is more in line with our traditional SaaS model that I spoke of on the last call.
The launch at T-Mobile will mark the first carrier deployment of SafePath 7 into the market and will set the stage for future deployments of the platform with our other tier one customers in the U.S. and Europe. Now that we've completed migration activities related to the T-Mobile launch, we are well-positioned to migrate both Verizon and AT&T over to the SafePath platform, which is one of our key initiatives for 2022. In fact, we've seen an increase in urgency from our carrier customers to accelerate the migration efforts. They can offer a broader, more lucrative family safety offering to their respective customer bases. We continue to work very closely with our partners on the best strategy and timing behind these migration efforts, while also building momentum on the subscriber growth front. I believe this dual-pronged approach positions us strongly to drive revenue growth as 2022 progresses.
Now let's take a quick look at the financial results for the Q4 and full year of 2021. For our 2021 fiscal year, total revenues increased 13.9% to $58.4 million compared to $51.3 million reported in fiscal year 2020. For the Q4 of 2021, revenue increased 18.2% to $14.7 million when compared to the $12.4 million generated in the Q4 of 2020. Non-GAAP net loss for our 2021 fiscal year was $2.1 million or $0.04 per diluted share. For the Q4 , non-GAAP net loss was $2.3 million or $0.04 per diluted share. We ended the year with a cash balance of $16.1 million.
Overall, revenue for the quarter came in slightly below expectations communicated on our last earnings call. As Jim will review in more detail shortly, the decline in revenues is primarily related to the reduction in subscribers of the legacy CommSuite deployment at Sprint, which accelerated more quickly than expected during the Q4 . We've known for quite some time that revenues associated with this legacy visual voicemail deployment would decline once T-Mobile completed the migration of acquired Sprint customers onto its own network. While the end of the revenue stream is in sight, we are focused on other growth areas. We recently signed a contract with Dish Wireless for CommSuite that represents a healthy growth potential for our CommSuite product line as they work to deploy their network.
We can now turn the attention of our CommSuite teams to supporting our new customer and deploying a premium voice messaging solution that generates sustainable, recurring revenue for both Smith Micro and Dish. Now let's turn the call over to Jim for a more in-depth analysis of the 2021 financial results. Jim?
Thanks, Bill, and good afternoon, everyone. As a reminder, we acquired the Avast Family Safety mobile business in the Q2 of 2021, which impacts the period-over-period comparisons that I'll be covering today. As such, I'll be highlighting the sequential changes as well to provide some additional context on our quarterly results. With that, let me cover the financial details of the Q4 and fiscal year 2021. For the Q4 , we posted revenue of $14.7 million compared to $12.4 million for the same quarter last year, an increase of 18% as a result of the Avast Family Safety acquisition. When compared to the Q3 of this year, revenue was down approximately 11%, driven primarily by decreases in revenues associated with our CommSuite product line.
For the fiscal year, revenue was $58.4 million compared to $51.3 million last year, an increase of 14%. The increase in revenues compared to last year was as a result of the Family Safety growth related to the business we acquired from Avast, partially offset by the decline in CommSuite revenue. During the Q4 of 2021, Family Safety revenue increased 90% to $11.6 million compared to the Q4 of last year as a result of the additional Family Safety customers acquired through our acquisition from Avast. Family Safety revenues decreased 3% sequentially compared to the Q3 of this year.
The primary reasons for the sequential decrease in Family Safety revenue was related to the legacy Avast/Sprint Family Locator product being discontinued in October, and the continued reduction of the legacy Safe & Found platform revenue related to declining Sprint subscribers. For fiscal year 2021, Family Safety revenue increased 46% to $41 million in 2021 from $28 million in 2020. We remain excited about opportunities to grow the subscriber bases in all three of our U.S. tier one carrier customers in the coming quarters, but we expect that the growth will be aligned with the timing of several marketing initiatives undertaken by the carrier partners. We are encouraged by the upcoming launch of T-Mobile on the SafePath platform and the recent conversion of the new pricing under this contract to a variable pricing model.
We believe that this change in fee structure, in conjunction with the anticipated marketing efforts to add subscribers, should drive revenue increases on the FamilyMode offering in the coming quarters. During the Q4 of 2021, CommSuite revenues were $2.2 million, which declined $2.6 million compared to the $4.8 million in revenue produced in the Q4 of last year. Revenue from CommSuite decreased 37% sequentially compared to the Q3 of this year, due to the continued attrition of the legacy visual voicemail subscribers leaving the platform during the quarter. The decline in legacy Sprint subscribers is driven by those subscribers having the option to move from Sprint to the T-Mobile network for voice services. As more and more subscribers transition off the Sprint network, CommSuite revenues will continue to decline.
For fiscal year 2021, CommSuite revenues decreased 25% from $18.2 million in 2020 to $13.7 million in 2021. We continue to navigate the T-Mobile Sprint merger as subscribers now have an option to move from Sprint to T-Mobile network for voice services. As these subscribers transition from the Sprint network, we expect a natural decrease in Sprint CommSuite subscribers to continue. As we have stated in the past, the decline in revenues is very difficult for us to predict as we do not have visibility to when a customer switches over to a new SIM on the T-Mobile network. As a reminder, Boost, formerly owned by Sprint, is now part of Dish and comprised slightly over half of our CommSuite revenue in the Q4 .
As Bill had mentioned, with the contract that we executed with Dish subsequent to year-end, we are expanding our relationship with Dish on the CommSuite platform with the goal to increase Boost CommSuite subscribers. ViewSpot revenue was approximately $800,000 for the Q4 of 2021, a decline of approximately $600,000 compared to the Q4 of last year and down 13% compared to the Q3 of this year. For fiscal year 2021, ViewSpot revenue was $3.6 million versus $4.2 million in 2020. As a reminder, we separate ViewSpot revenue into two categories, fixed and variable. The fixed portion of the revenue is related to license fees and is generally the recurring component of the revenue.
The variable portion of the revenue is related to device and promotional campaigns, which are short bursts of activity resulting in revenue, and the volume is less predictable. In total, we expect consolidated revenue for the Q1 of 2022 to be lower by approximately 13%-18% compared to the Q4 of 2021. This decline is expected to be driven primarily from the continued attrition of Sprint subscribers off the CommSuite and the Safe & Found family safety platforms. For the Q4 , gross profit was $10.6 million compared to $11 million during the same period last year. Gross margin was 72% for the Q4 compared to 89% in the Q4 of last year. Our longer-term goal for gross margin is to be in the range of 80%-90%.
To achieve this goal, we will optimize third-party applications and service contracts used by the combined business and execute on other cost synergy opportunities upon the migration of our Family Safety carrier customers onto a single Family Safety platform. In the short term, we expect gross margin to be near this current run rate until we are able to transition all the carriers off of the legacy Avast/Sprint platform onto our SafePath platform. At that point, we expect to be able to realize synergies that will help to drive our gross margins towards our targeted gross margin. Given the timeline of the migrations, we expect that these synergies will likely not be fully realized until the Q1 of 2023. For the fiscal year, gross profit was $45.7 million, compared to $46.1 million during the same period last year.
Gross margin was 78% for 2021, compared to 90% last year. GAAP operating expenses for the Q4 were $14.6 million, an increase of $3.6 million, or 33% compared to last year. The increase was primarily driven by compensation and employee-related expenses due to our acquisition of the Avast Family Safety mobile business. Non-GAAP operating expenses for the Q4 were $13 million compared to $9.5 million in 2020, an increase of $3.5 million or 36% compared to last year. GAAP operating expenses for the fiscal year were $76.7 million versus $42.6 million, an increase of $34.1 million or 80% compared to last year.
The increase in GAAP operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2021, compared to last year, is primarily related to a charge of $12.9 million due to the change in fair value of contingent consideration related to our acquisition from Avast. An increase of $13.2 million for compensation and employee related expenses, primarily related to the acquisition, as headcount increased 46% year over year, resulting in 373 employees at the end of 2021, compared to 255 at the end of 2020. This increase is inclusive of an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $1.8 million.
We also had an increase in amortization of $5.2 million, primarily driven by our acquisition from Avast. We also had an increase in acquisition costs of approximately $750,000 and CFO transition costs of approximately $300,000. We also had costs related to the acquisition of certain non-development intellectual property of $1 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses for the fiscal year were $47.9 million, versus $35.7 million in 2020, an increase of $12.2 million compared to last year, driven primarily by the increase in compensation and employee-related expenses, principally attributable to our acquisition of the Avast Family Safety mobile business.
We expect Q1 2022 non-GAAP operating expenses to be relatively consistent with the Q4 of 2021 as we continue to invest in our development resources to migrate our Family Safety carrier customers to the SafePath platform. Non-GAAP net loss for the Q4 was $2.4 million or $0.04 loss per share, compared to a non-GAAP net income of $1.4 million or $0.03 diluted earnings per share last year. The non-GAAP net loss for the fiscal year was $2.2 million or $0.04 loss per share, compared to a non-GAAP net income of $10.4 million or $0.24 diluted earnings per share last year. Within the recently issued press release, we have provided a reconciliation of our non-GAAP metrics to the most comparable GAAP metric.
For the Q4 , the reconciliation includes the following adjustments, stock compensation expense of $1.2 million, intangible amortization of $142,000, CFO transition cost of $179,000, and acquisition-related cost of $81,000. For the year, the reconciliation includes the following adjustments, stock compensation expense of $4.8 million, intangibles amortization of $8.1 million, acquisition cost of $14.5 million, including the $12.9 million change in fair value of contingent consideration recognized in the Q3 , non-development intellectual property cost of $1 million, and CFO transition cost of $322,000. Due to our cumulative net losses over the past few years, our GAAP tax expense is primarily due to certain state and foreign income taxes.
For non-GAAP purposes, we utilized the 0% tax rate for 2021 and 2020. The resulting non-GAAP tax expense reflects the actual income taxes expense during each period. From a balance sheet perspective, we reported $16.1 million of cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2021. As we noted on the last earnings call, we have paid the remaining portions of the earn-out to Avast during the Q4 in the amount of $13.6 million, which includes the $12.9 million charge for the change in contingent consideration recognized in operating expenses in the Q3 .
I would also note that the company completed the Avast Family Safety mobile business purchase price allocation during the Q4 , which resulted in an increase in intangible assets recognized and a decrease in the goodwill balance as compared to the preliminary estimates. The finalization of the purchase price allocation also resulted in an adjustment to amortization expense for the quarter, resulting in net amortization expense of $142,000. In 2022, we are anticipating amortization expense to be approximately $1.6 million quarterly. This concludes my financial review. Now back to Bill.
Thanks, Jim. As I previously mentioned, I believe the upcoming launch of SafePath 7 at T-Mobile will be a major achievement that will set the stage for driving increased revenue growth at this key customer. It will also provide a blueprint for successful deployments of the SafePath 7 platform at both Verizon and AT&T. The hard-won experience we gained during the T-Mobile project will help us accelerate SafePath migration efforts at the other two carriers, which is a very high priority for our company this year.
I am truly excited about the growth plan we have in place for T-Mobile, as well as the exciting opportunities we have ahead for us at this carrier. We are looking forward to growing the FamilyMode subscriber base while we work with T-Mobile on a strategy to unify all of its Family Safety apps onto a single platform. We have a fantastic team in place that is working collaboratively with T-Mobile to execute on these strategic initiatives, which I am confident will result in driving revenue growth for both Smith Micro and T-Mobile.
Turning our attention to Verizon, we've made some great progress since we last spoke in November, not only with the migration efforts, but also on the relationship-building front. We continue to branch out within the Verizon ecosystem with the goal of finding new ways to collaborate with the carrier. In fact, just recently, the carrier rolled out the first marketing campaign to promote Verizon Smart Family in its corporate-owned retail stores across the country.
We worked closely with Verizon to develop the product marketing assets for this campaign. I believe this is just the first step in utilizing extensive new retail marketing efforts, which have already proven to be effective in growing the subscriber base and profitability of carrier-provided family safety services. Increasingly, this initiative is also quite strategic for Smith Micro, as Verizon is also leveraging our ViewSpot platform to deliver the Smart Family promotional content across its footprint of retail stores. This multiproduct collaboration not only helps train Verizon retail associates and builds awareness of Smart Family, it also expands our reach throughout the carrier's internal organization. I believe this approach is critical to our overall growth strategy at Verizon. As part of our multichannel marketing efforts with Verizon, we continue to optimize the Smart Family digital advertising campaigns through increased targeting and user-based segmentation.
This enables us to serve specific messaging and ad creative to different subsets of Verizon's subscriber base. For example, we are targeting Smart Family basic subscribers to promote the premium tier of the service, as the Smart Family Premium includes several additional features such as family location services and driver safety monitoring. This digital marketing strategy illustrates that we're using all channels and tactics at our disposal to grow revenue at Verizon. Overall, our main Verizon-related priorities during 2022 will be to grow revenues while successfully migrating the carrier's Smart Family service to our SafePath platform. We are laser-focused on both initiatives, and I am very confident that our current plan will result in a successful migration, as well as increased ROI for this cornerstone account.
As I mentioned earlier, T-Mobile's launch on SafePath 7 provides us with a migration blueprint to follow at, for Verizon as well as at AT&T. AT&T is eager to roll out a new family safety service based on SafePath because of the significant enhanced feature set and in-app notification functionality this migration will unlock. Retaining AT&T as a family safety customer was one of the company's major successes last year, as the carrier had every intention of winding down its service prior to our acquisition of the Avast family safety business. Because of the efforts of our team in selling the SafePath vision, however, digital family safety is now a renewed focus for this tier one customer. I am very pleased with the progress we have made up to this point with AT&T.
The carrier has been extremely receptive to our ideas and is committed to growing the number of subscribers of Secure Family. To help the carrier grow Secure Family subscriptions in the short term, we are developing a multichannel strategy that would consist of targeted digital advertising campaigns, stiff incentive programs for both retail and support representatives, as well as a large awareness campaign to spread the word about Secure Family within the AT&T employee base. The tremendous support we've received from the carrier up to this point, coupled with the exponential growth potential of the relatively small Secure Family's subscriber base, is just the tip of the iceberg at AT&T. The upside potential for this account is truly immense for Smith Micro. Okay, let's move on to our smart retail platform, ViewSpot.
We have continued to improve the platform with a key goal of broadening the total addressable market and utility of ViewSpot within the dynamic retail space. As I discussed during our last earnings call, these features are focused on enhancing ViewSpot's functionality in creating, deploying, and managing the digital content assets that comprise the in-store promotions that play on demo devices. Since our last call, we were able to extend contracts with two of our key ViewSpot customers, Verizon and Cricket. Both new contracts include our ViewSpot Studio feature, which provides enhanced content management capability for our customers. This feature should also decrease our costs associated with this product over time, allowing for decreased operating expenses relating to ViewSpot. We are also continuing to explore strategic partnerships with established retail technology vendors to extend ViewSpot's footprint and functionality.
Since we last spoke. Two more successful ViewSpot trials have been completed in Europe, which bodes well for future product line growth. Now let's talk a bit about our voice messaging platform, CommSuite, a product that continues to bring value to Smith Micro. Even though revenues associated with the legacy visual voicemail deployment at Sprint are winding down, we are positioned well to launch, CommSuite-powered premium visual voicemail and voice-to-text services at Dish Wireless later this year. We look forward to leveraging our experience and success with Boost Mobile, the carrier's prepaid brand, to build a successful and profitable partnership with America's newest tier one carrier and to extend the life of the CommSuite platform. Looking ahead, I believe we have the strongest foundation on which to build our future success that I can remember in the 40-year history of Smith Micro, and that truly excites me.
I believe that 2022 will be a transitional year, particularly in the first half, while we work with our tier one carrier partners to get their respective family safety deployments migrated to our SafePath platform. It is our priority to get these migrations done as soon as possible to eliminate the extra costs of running concurrent platforms and to position our carrier customers to take advantage of the other benefits SafePath has to offer. As I've spoken about many times, our vision for the family digital lifestyle extends far beyond mobile apps to the connected devices that comprise our digital lifestyles, including consumer IoT devices and in-home connected devices. Getting all of our customers up and running on SafePath unlocks this vision for Smith Micro.
Growing consumer adoption of the IoT and smart home technologies, paired with the market trend toward carrier-provided home internet connectivity based on 5G networks, is creating fresh demand for single pane of glass solutions that address multiple family safety challenges simultaneously. Based on these market conditions, I look for carrier deployments of both SafePath Home and SafePath IoT to activate new revenue streams for us soon. I am confident that the migration plans we have in place at both AT&T and Verizon provide us with a clear path to moving both carriers over the finish line and on to SafePath this year.
We will continue to build the momentum and grow revenues as we strive to return gross margins to be in the range of 80%-90%. This will result in the business generating significant free cash flow. We have the right team in place to achieve these goals, and I am very excited about Smith Micro's short- and long-term profile. With that said, I will open the call to questions. Operator?
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question will come from Josh Nichols with B. Riley. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Glad to hear some update on the timing. It seems like the apps have already been approved for Google and Apple. Is there anything else that needs to be done or major items before the anticipated launch with T-Mobile? Could you elaborate a little bit on any type of specific marketing plans that the company has in place and how long it'll take for that business to start generating material customer subs?
Yeah, Josh. Look, I think at the present time, everything's well set up and ready for the launch, so I don't anticipate any other issues. As far as their marketing programs that T-Mobile will use, I think I'd rather leave that to them to talk about, 'cause that's really more how they wanna go to market. I'm gonna have to kinda duck that question.
Fair enough. Then just 'cause you talked about it a little bit, AT&T, right? You know, a customer that was thought to be leaving the platform and now coming back on. You paid the earn-out, so I know that you must have, you know, pretty high expectations for what this carrier is gonna be doing. Like, what are you kind of assuming what builds into the model for AT&T now? Based on your discussions, what's the opportunity to grow that business off the relatively low base it is today?
Yeah. We believe that AT&T, like T-Mobile and Verizon, can have a very similar number of subs over time. We're we believe that we have an excellent relationship there, and that they are very excited about what Family Safety could bring them. You know, as we've talked in the past, family subs are some of the most treasured subs that a carrier can attract. They churn less. They tend to be much more loyal. As such, I think that you know, when all is said and done, we'll see similar you know, user bases at all three carriers as far as the number of subs.
Thanks. Last question for me, just drilling in. For the guidance for the Q1 , understand CommSuite's gonna be down. Just looking if you could provide a little bit color on the Family Safety business. I assume that's gonna be down, you know, 5%, 5%-10% sequentially. Is that driven by some churn as legacy customers from Sprint migrate over? Or what's the expectation that you're thinking of for the Family Safety business?
We are expecting the Family Safety business to be down. Couple of reasons for that. One, we do expect the continued attrition related to the Safe & Found platform, as those legacy Sprint subscribers transition off. The other thing I would mention, and we touched on this last quarter, but there was a pickup in Q4 that was one time related to the execution of the T-Mobile amendment, and that would be non-recurring as we go into Q1.
Got it. Thanks.
Yep.
Thank you. The next question will come from Scott Searle with Roth Capital. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Hey, guys, just a quick clarification, looking into the guidance for the Q1 . You know, in terms of that range of $12 million-$12.7 million, is that assuming basically that there is no contribution from T-Mobile from CommSuite, and is almost all of T-Mobile SafePath out of the numbers at that point in time?
There's a very modest amount of T-Mobile CommSuite revenue baked into that. Obviously, there's some variability to that, but it's again a very modest amount we have baked into the Q1 estimate.
Okay. Helpful. Just to follow up, in terms of the Verizon commentary around Smart Family, are those new additions in the marketing campaign built around the SafePath 7.0? Or is that still adding to legacy Location Labs platform?
Hey, Scott. It's Charlie. That is actually for the legacy. Our intent here is to grow through the transition. Hopefully that helps to answer the question.
Okay. Also on the Dish front, it sounds like you're starting to develop a stronger relationship with their, I think, a big chunk of the existing CommSuite revenue with Boost. How would you expect Dish to transition over the course of this year? Will that be growing on sequential basis throughout 2022?
We have a very modest amount of growth built into the Dish, Boost side of CommSuite. I would leave it at that.
Okay.
Yeah. I would say when you look at Dish, they have the Boost business. They have, you know, their MVNO business that's running on T-Mobile. They've announced that they will also have an MVNO relationship with AT&T. Of course, they've got the rollout of 5G on their own network. All of this, you know, is a major undertaking. You know, it's kinda hard for us to give you a whole lot of help on that because there's so many moving parts to what they're working on.
Okay. Lastly, if I could, there's been a lot of talk out of both, Verizon and T-Mobile as it relates to their 5G fixed wireless access initiatives. You guys, I think, had referenced some of that in the past as an opportunity for you to be integrated into the router or other, you know, extension in terms of home opportunities for you guys. I'm wondering what the latest thoughts are on that front, and maybe if you could kinda wrap up some IoT comments around that as well. Thanks.
Yes. I would say this. I would say that the first step is to, you know, be very focused on getting them launched on SafePath. Once they're launched on SafePath, yes, I think you'll see a lot of interest around the SafePath Home opportunity of putting the firmware in the 5G routers. I think that goes for a number of carriers that we're talking with. From an IoT standpoint, there's a lot of interest there. Again, all these things kick in once they're on SafePath. That's the main driver to get everybody over to get everybody off of the legacy Avast RingNet service offering. You know, that's what it's all about. This is a very focused execution year.
Great. Thanks.
The next question comes from Eric Martinuzzi with Lake Street. Please go ahead.
Yeah, I was scribbling as fast as I could, but I didn't quite get your comment regarding the migration versus launch on T-Mobile. Obviously, you know, we got the contract signed in mid-Q4. It sounds like the technology's been bulletproof tested. Is it all in their hands, or is there anything left for you guys to do as far as getting that program going?
Yeah. The only thing left for us to do is to fully support them as they hit the launch button. Yeah, we're ready. We're excited.
Eric, I would add, as we noted on the call, we have done everything that we needed to transition to the new variable pricing model in terms of the delivery, objective that we needed to make. We've delivered everything we needed to associate with the migration from that perspective.
Okay. Then when I just kinda riff through the P&L based on your guidance for Q1 here, you know, at roughly $12.5 million at 72% gross margin with $13 million of OpEx, we're looking at about a $4 million negative operating margin here. Is my math correct, first of all, and then do we have any issue here with getting a little bit tight on the working capital to support these three major carrier rollouts?
Your math is directionally correct. We are not anticipating any issues from delivering on these rollouts.
Okay. Is it safe to say that Q1 you would expect to be the biggest? Let me ask the question. Where do we reach maximum burn here in 2022? What quarter?
We're projecting right now that would be Q1, although we're not expecting a substantial uplift in Q2.
Okay, that's helpful. Lastly, Bill, you talked about critical lessons learned in 2021. What are one or two examples of those critical lessons learned?
I guess, you know, I think it's just very difficult sometimes to forecast and set schedules with tier one carriers. That's a lesson I think I've had a lot of years now to learn, and it just got reinforced. This is where having great relationships at the executive levels help, 'cause you're able to kind of smooth out some of the bumps in the road. Yeah, we just have to stay focused. We have to keep our heads down, and we have to execute. Our entire team understands that. They are totally tied to it. You know, I think that's really the way to view it.
Okay. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thanks, Eric.
The next question will come from Jim McIlree with Dawson James. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon. For the domestic carriers, would you expect all of them to have all of their subscribers on SafePath 7 by the end of this year?
That would be our fond hope. I can't guarantee you that because that's in their hands, though, Jim. They get the final vote. I would definitely be looking to have all three of them moved over and have all their subscribers moved over as well.
Is there something you can do or would do in order to incentivize them to go quicker, or is it's completely at their discretion, and you're just gonna have to accept what their decision is?
Well, look, I don't view us as a victim here. I view us as a helpful partner, but we have to understand that we're dealing with very large corporate entities that have a lot of their own rules, and they like to make their own decisions. You know, we know how to play the game, and we will work with them and hopefully be able to get all of their bases over to SafePath before the end of the year.
Is there any human or technological capacity issues that you have that would prevent you from, you know, moving all of them over on the exact same day, or is that not an issue?
That's not an issue.
Okay. You mentioned some international initiatives. Is that something that is likely to happen this year, customer announcements this year, or is this year going to be mostly focused on the domestic market and then, you know, as that migration takes place, then you can start focusing international?
We talked about that when I was talking about ViewSpot. You know, there's a good likelihood that we could see some new customers added that we will be able to talk about during 2022. But as you recognize clearly, you know, the revenue coming from ViewSpot is smaller than the revenue coming from Family Safety, so it doesn't have the same impact or effect. I will say, however, that we will be working diligently to move both Wind Tre and as well as Vodafone Czech, both customers that came to us through the Avast transaction, that we will be working with them to get them moved over to SafePath as well. That, that movement to SafePath might be early Q1 , but all the work will be done by the end of the year.
All right. Very good. Thank you. That's it for me. Thanks for the answers.
Sure.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Charles Messman for any closing remarks.
I wanna thank everybody for joining us today, and we look forward to updating you in the future. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us directly. Thanks. Have a great day.
Thank you. Conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.