Fluidigm Corp

F:FLB

Earnings Call Analysis

Standard BioTools navigates challenges with restructuring, sets sights on future growth.

In Q3, Standard BioTools reported $45 million in revenue, a 5% year-over-year decline, but up 21% sequentially. The merger with SomaLogic is underway, yielding $80 million in projected synergies. Consumables revenue rose 13%, while instruments faced a 42% drop due to market constraints. Despite operational hurdles, non-GAAP gross margin improved to 57%. The company reaffirmed its 2024 revenue guidance of $170-$175 million, aiming for an adjusted EBITDA breakeven by 2026. Their strategy focuses on diversifying the customer base and expanding consumables, positioning them for eventual market recovery as VC funding returns to biotech.

Navigating a Challenging Environment

In the third quarter of 2024, Standard BioTools reported revenues of $45 million, reflecting a 5% decrease year-over-year but a significant sequential increase of 21% from the second quarter. The backdrop remains challenging with customer budgets for capital equipment tightened due to external economic pressures, leading to conservative purchasing behaviors. This environment necessitates strong operational discipline and ongoing improvements to enhance efficiency.

Revenue Breakdown and Growth Drivers

Delving into revenue streams, Consumables revenue showed robust growth, climbing 13% year-over-year to $14 million in Q3 and up 21% year-to-date. This surge is largely driven by the expansion of SomaScan authorized sites and partnerships such as the Illumina Early Access Program. The Instruments segment, however, faced a sharp decline, dropping 42% year-over-year to just under $6 million for the quarter, impacted by capital spending constraints in the life sciences and significant challenges in China.

Restructuring and Cost Synergies

The company's non-GAAP operating expenses decreased by 24% year-over-year to $40 million in Q3, attributed to strategic merger cost synergies expected to total $80 million by 2025. The ongoing integration of SomaLogic, which has progressed well, has allowed Standard BioTools to realize cost savings sooner than anticipated, suggesting a stronger operational foundation as they move forward.

Gross Margins and Performance Insights

The non-GAAP gross margin for the third quarter improved to 57%, compared to 52% from the prior year. This was primarily driven by a favorable shift in the revenue mix, with more revenue coming from higher-margin Consumables instead of Instruments. Efforts to improve operational efficiencies are yielding positive results, reaffirming a commitment to sustaining margin expansion.

Cash Position and Burn Rate

As of the end of Q3, Standard BioTools reported a strong cash position with about $368 million on hand. The total cash burn was reduced to $28 million, a significant decrease of 58% compared to the previous quarter. This reduction arises from restructuring efforts and is expected to support their growth toward cash flow breakeven. Excluding one-time expenses, the adjusted cash burn is approximately $21 million.

Guidance and Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Standard BioTools reiterated its revenue guidance for 2024, forecasting total revenues between $170 million and $175 million. While the outlook for Q4 remains cautious given the current economic climate, the management expressed optimism about the potential for recovery in 2025, especially with ongoing relationships like the one with Illumina expected to yield broader customer access.

Strategic Initiatives and Expansion Plans

Standard BioTools continues to focus on expanding its service offerings and diversifying its customer base beyond its traditional large clients. The recent launch of single SOMAmer reagents is a significant step toward democratizing proteomics technology and opens up new revenue streams. Their strategic vision emphasizes evolving a higher-margin consumables business while investing in key growth areas, positioning them well to capitalize on industry shifts.

Final Thoughts on the Investment Landscape

Standard BioTools finds itself at a pivotal moment, strategically equipped to tackle current market challenges while seizing new opportunities for growth. Investors should monitor the company's upcoming milestones, particularly in the context of cash management and operational improvements, as these factors will be crucial for driving shareholder value in the coming years.

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q3

[Operator]

Good day, and welcome to the Standard BioTools Inc. Third Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Holmes of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[David Holmes, executive]

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Standard BioTools Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Leading the call today is Michael Egholm, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Alex Kim, Chief Operating Officer and Interim Chief Financial Officer.

At the close of market today, Standard BioTools released its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. During this call, we will review our results and provide an update of our financial and operational performance, 2024 outlook, market trends and strategic initiatives.

During the call, we will make forward-looking statements about events and circumstances that have not yet occurred, including plans and projections for our business; our outlook for 2024 and future financial results; market trends and opportunities and our expectations related to the combined operations with SomaLogic, including potential synergies and our business outlook for the combined company. These statements are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from current circumstances. The forward-looking statements on this call are based on information currently available to us, and we disclaim any obligation to update these statements, except as that may be required by law.

During the call, we will also present some financial information on a non-GAAP basis. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating our core performance and is a baseline for assessing the future earnings potential of the company. We use these non-GAAP measures in our own evaluation of continuing operating performance. We encourage you to carefully consider our results on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. The reconciliation between non-GAAP measures and their GAAP equivalents, are provided in the tables accompanying today's press release and as appendix to today's presentation slides.

Please note that management will be referring to a slide presentation, including updated supplemental financial information within the webcast today. Following prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. Today's slide presentation, along with a replay of the webcast, will be available on the Investors section of website.

I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Egholm, President and CEO of Standard BioTools. Michael?

[Michael Egholm, executive]

Thank you, David, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. Before we discuss our quarterly results, I want to welcome Alex Kim to the call, who is acting CFO, and will be covering our financial performance for the third quarter 2024. Alex has been with Standard BioTools since its inception, instrumental to its founding and fundamental to its growth. As a Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer; Alex brings to the CFO role a deep understanding of our business and seasoned operational acumen honed from a decade at Danaher.

In addition, Sean Mackay, our Chief Business Officer, who now heads our organic and inorganic growth efforts, is joining the call and will be available to answer questions. With that, let's discuss our results, of which I will be speaking to pro forma numbers.

In the third quarter, we delivered $45 million in revenue, sequentially up 21% from last quarter, but down 5% year-over-year, and $128 million in revenue year-to-date, which is down 9% versus 2023. From last quarter to this one, the industry backdrop remains challenged, with customer budgets for CapEx equipment tied and purchasing behaviors conservative. Operating in a dynamic environment like this one requires deep operational discipline and continuous focus on improvement.

Against these metrics, the team delivered. We met our adjusted revenue targets and accelerated operational efficiency. Our team is now 3 quarters into the SomaLogic integration and a full year ahead on cost reduction, having already operationalized an expected $80 million synergies. While the savings are expected to be fully realized in 2025, we have already seen a 24% year-over-year reduction in non-GAAP operating expenses year-to-date and a 50% improvement in adjusted EBITDA in the quarter.

Our operating system, Standard BioTools Business System, or just SBS, has become deeply embedded in the new businesses. Examples of the power of SBS includes improved forecasting, improved delivery performance and an inherent focus on quality. For example, we now have an industry-leading delivery -- on-time delivery for products and services of 98% versus 78% 2 years ago for legacy Standard BioTools.

We also have reduced complaints per installed base for our highest-selling instrument more than fourfold in the same period. This allows our customers to be focused on their exciting research with less downtime, and our sales force to be focused on generating new leads. We believe we can still be even more efficient and expect you will see the benefit of our continuous improvement culture in both our bottom and top line going forward.

With these results and with full awareness of the current operating environment, we are reiterating our full year 2024 revenue guidance in the previously communicated range of $170 million to $175 million. With $368 million in cash and short-term investment as of September 30, we are well capitalized to advance our strategic vision of building a scaled and profitable life science company.

At Standard BioTools, we're building a top-tier life science company, leveraging consolidation to overcome the sector's innovation bottleneck and inability to scale. Our goal is to become the preferred industry partner to customers and to innovators. We're focused on providing a portfolio of consumables, instruments and services, which share a platform that drives reliability, performance and profitability for stakeholders and shareholders alike.

We recognize the importance of achieving our profitability objectives, and we are targeting adjusted EBITDA breakeven for the full year 2026, which will further position the company to partner and consolidate a fragmented and capital-constrained industry. With a high-performance culture, streamlined infrastructure, team of seasoned operators and access to capital, we are positioned to execute this vision.

However, it is early in our journey, if not just the first innings, and we are far from done and far from optimized, but we are on our way. We have a clear strategy and a world-class team operating in one of the most challenged environments, which opens new opportunities for us.

Turning to results. Our revenue mix in the third quarter was split between Lab Services at 41%, Instrument Field Services at 14%, Instruments at 12% and Consumables at 31%. Our sequential quarter-over-quarter revenue growth was driven by our service offerings, which is, today, chiefly SomaScan services.

We saw a bounce back from last quarter's results from favorable timing from a few large account. To this end, we are pushing hard to expand our overall customer mix. And then currently, outside our top 5 SomaScan customers, service revenue grew double digit in the quarter year-over-year.

One component of our strategy is to expand our footprint beyond our core lab located in Boulder and deeper into our authorized SomaScan sites. In the quarter, one of these sites we added was a major U.S.-based biopharma customer, which should help us expand the customers' use of our product.

Another diversifier to our service revenue is our Omics as a Service offering, which leverages all of our products: SomaScan, CyTOF and imaging mass cytometry and future platforms developed, acquired or partnered. This offering expands our assay lab services revenue stream and provides customers premium data with clinical research support. This will increase adoption while avoiding the capital budget constraints currently facing the broader biopharma market.

Turning to our Instruments business, which is down year-over-year by 42%, with the biggest impact coming from our higher-priced mass cytometry instrument. The industry headwinds have not cleared, and we're working hard with our customers to unlock budgets and adjust to their new purchasing behaviors, where we can.

Our Genomics business, including fluidics instruments, consumables and OEM, while down year-over-year, is contribution margin-positive, and it's a case study of the value of the SBS culture. SBS culture can create a lean, profitable business unit with upside potential. Hence, we are working on additional OEM relationships and identifying new niche growth opportunities, which leverages our infrastructure and which will be accretive to the bottom line.

Consumable is and remains our most attractive product margin profile. And in an industry with dark clouds, it's a continued bright growing spot in our business. This revenue stream was up 13% year-over-year in the quarter. Consumables are the most attractive products in the industry and at the top of our product pyramid and a top strategic focus for us both organically and inorganically.

A major example of what we can do with Consumables is that distributed SomaScan solution on Illumina sequencing platform, which we believe is becoming, with increasing clarity, the next big thing in proteomics and is an exciting new growth vector for the company. SomaScan is a powerful and competitively differentiated platform with tremendous upside potential. And recent studies confirm the assay's unique ability to scale with precision.

With this alternative distributed solution, we can further unlock our potential to be supplying the leading proteomics solution. Our partnership remains on track with full commercial release in the first half of 2025, democratizing the SomaScan assay on Illumina's installed base of more than 2,000 NovaSeq instruments.

Having now spent time with the team, the technology and customers, it is clear to us that the SOMAmer technology has more headroom and much more commercial potential than we originally envisaged. We are exploring new ways to leverage the technology. And today, we announced the launch of single SOMAmer reagent as a minimal viable product offering, making each of the 11,000 individual SOMAmers available for purchase.

This is a highly differentiated solution in an all-important and large protein reagent end market. This meets an unmet need for protein identification and qualification and inside the right Voice of Customer process. We'll proceed with care to ensure the utmost quality of our product and prepare for the full product launch in the future.

As we look to the next several quarters and beyond, we believe we are well equipped to execute our vision for Standard BioTools. We're in the business of delivering solutions to our customers, not just focusing on individual applications as those can evolve over time. What's important is that we have strong exposure to attractive end markets to date, particularly in academia and pharma. As we continue to strategically allocate capital to bolster our portfolio, we will expand into other attractive markets.

We have an experienced leadership team committed to our continuous improvement initiatives, with a track record of driving growth, expanding gross margins and reducing operating costs. The current market environment is offering many unique opportunities, and we're actively assessing how to accelerate our consolidation thesis.

Our story is not complete, and we remain focused on scaling the business, driving end market diversification, evolving to a higher-margin consumable offerings and delivering long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Alex. Alex?

[Hanjoon Kim, executive]

Thank you, Michael, and thank you all for joining our call today. I'm honored to be representing Standard BioTools on this call as an acting CFO. As Michael said, I've been with the company since the inception, and I've been happy to jump into the role as CFO, bringing my knowledge and experience as a business leader and operator to the finance function.

I will take us through our financial results in more detail and provide additional context. I want to remind you that on an as-reported basis, our third quarter and year-to-date 2024 results include the combined operations of Standard BioTools and SomaLogic since the close of the merger on January 5 of this year, while the same period in 2023 include the financial results of the legacy Standard BioTools business only.

Therefore, for comparative purposes, we think it's much more meaningful to look at the results of both businesses combined. And so as I speak to our Q3 financial results, my commentary will focus on the pro forma combined results of operations for both Standard BioTools and SomaLogic for 2023 and 2024. Please do refer to today's press release and the appendix to our investor deck for more information, including a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures that I will be discussing here.

Starting with revenue on Slide 9. Our third quarter came in at $45 million, down 5% year-over-year, and year-to-date revenue was $128 million, down 9% year-over-year. Sequentially, our third quarter revenue increased 21% versus the second quarter. Breaking revenue down further. Consumables revenue was $14 million in the third quarter, up 13% year-over-year, and $45 million year-to-date, up 21% compared to 2023.

Our Consumables growth particularly benefited from continued expansion in our SomaScan authorized sites and the Illumina Early Access Program. As we've discussed in the past, we believe having distributed solutions for SomaScan is critical to compete and establish market leadership. We see this ability to supply more new sites worldwide is highly complementary to our existing Lab Services business.

Instruments revenue was just under $6 million in the third quarter, down 42% year-over-year and just under $20 million year-to-date, down 28% compared to 2023. This was largely driven by the external capital spending constraints in the life sciences sector as well as extended weakness we're seeing in China. This is elongating our sales cycle, delaying orders as customers secure funding. But we are encouraged as our funnel continues to grow and particularly with our IMC spatial biology platform.

Lab Services revenue was $18 million in the third quarter, up over 1% year-over-year, and $41 million year-to-date, down 23% compared to 2023. The third quarter benefited from favorable timing from a few large customer projects, alongside new SomaScan customers continuing to commit to the platform.

Historically, our SomaScan Lab Services business has been heavily reliant on a few large customers for the majority of our revenue. And while our year-to-date performance has been impacted by fewer projects from these top customers, we are encouraged by the broadening of the customer base. Beyond our largest customers, our Lab Services business delivered double-digit revenue growth year-to-date, positioning us well as we continue to expand and diversify our base.

Field Services revenue was just over $6 million in the third quarter, down 4% year-over-year, and $19 million year-to-date, flat compared to 2023. Field Services revenue was impacted by lower installation services on fewer instrument sales, offset by continued maintenance contracts.

By our application segments, our Proteomics business, which includes our SomaScan, CyTOF and IMC product lines, was 77% of our revenue and was down 4% for the quarter and down 10% year-to-date. While our Genomics business, represented by our Biomark product line, was 23% of revenue and was down 8% for the quarter and down 7% year-to-date.

Moving on to our operating performance on Slide 10. Our non-GAAP gross margin on a pro forma combined basis was 57% in the third quarter versus 52% year-over-year, and 53% year-to-date compared to 52% in 2023. Our third quarter was positively impacted by a shift in revenue mix, driven by higher Consumables relative to Instruments, as well as by underlying improved quality yield, lower scrap and lower warranty costs.

There are lingering gross margin headwinds and onetime costs that we continue to navigate through the rest of this year. But we are encouraged by the positive gross margin impact of our SBS activities to reduce waste and improve quality as well as our ability to continue to drive gross margin expansion over the long run.

Moving to our operating expenses on Slide 11. Our non-GAAP operating expenses on a pro forma basis was $40 million in the third quarter versus $53 million last year, which is a 24% year-over-year reduction, and $137 million year-to-date versus $176 million in 2023, which is a 22% reduction.

Sequentially, from quarter 2, we delivered a 17% reduction. Our third quarter improvement is a result of the ongoing realization of merger cost synergies that we've spoken of before, as well as a onetime benefit from reduction in our annual bonus accrual, in line with our current full year expectations.

There will still be a few onetimers, restructuring and integration costs and timing of year-end marketing investments that we'll come across in quarter 4. But we head into 2025 with the full $80 million in target synergies identified and at a run rate of $170 million non-GAAP annualized operating expenses versus our 2023 first half pro forma annualized operating expenses of approximately $250 million.

On Slide 12, our adjusted EBITDA was a $14 million loss in the third quarter compared to a $28 million loss last year, which is a 50% year-over-year reduction, and a $69 million loss year-to-date versus $102 million loss in 2023, which is a 32% reduction.

This brings me to cash on Slide 13. We ended the third quarter with about $368 million in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments. Our total cash burn was $28 million in the third quarter versus $68 million in the second quarter, representing a 58% reduction. This includes about $5 million for transaction, restructuring and integration costs.

Excluding the impact of these items, our adjusted cash burn was about $21 million, representing a 23% reduction, versus the second quarter adjusted cash burn of $28 million. We are beginning to see material reductions in our cash burn coming through as a result of our restructuring efforts and the ongoing realization of merger cost synergies. We are well positioned with our strategic plan and our balance sheet to support the growth of our business to cash flow breakeven.

As we look to the fourth quarter, as Michael said, we are reiterating our full year revenue guidance of $170 million to $175 million. To remind you, our quarterly results can be lumpy as a few Instruments and/or Lab Services projects can move from 1 quarter to another.

And as I've mentioned, we're still working through some cost headwinds as we end the year. However, over the long run, we are driving strategic initiatives to more reoccurring Consumables revenue, and we are committed to delivering long-term profitable revenue growth. Back to you, Michael.

[Michael Egholm, executive]

Thanks, Alex. We thank you all for your continued support as we navigate these tough end markets. We look forward to seeing many of you at the UBS Global Healthcare Conference on November 12 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California and at the Jefferies London Healthcare Conference on November 19. And now I hand the call back to Wyatt for Q&A. Wyatt? .

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from Dan Brennan with TD Cowen.

[Kyle Boucher, analyst]

This is Kyle on for Dan. I just wanted to start, if maybe you could quantify what percent of assay services revenue in 3Q was timing based? Is there a way you can quantify that?

[Michael Egholm, executive]

What we had said before -- good to hear you. And as we talked about before, our SomaScan services have historically relied on a few large customers, like 5 or so. And as Alex pointed out, outside that, we see -- outside those, we see double-digit growth in the SomaScan Assay Services, which we see as an encouraging sign.

We had favorable timing in Q3 and unfavorable in Q2. For the year, from those 5 large customers, we have a hefty headwind on the order of $15 million to $20 million, as we have shared before. So it's really encouraging to see the broadening of the SomaScan as a Service businesses.

And then just to remind everyone, it is -- these large projects are highly dependent on getting the PO and then getting the samples and getting it all run. So the quarter-to-quarter timing can push numbers one way or another. But if you take a step back, we like where this business is headed.

[Kyle Boucher, analyst]

Got it. And then maybe just on the guide. You reiterated your guide, $170 million to $175 million for the year. The midpoint of that, I think, for Q4 implies maybe flat to a little bit down Q-over-Q. Are you expecting any year-end budget flush or anything? Any year-end spending dynamics that are earning different from what you saw in 3Q?

[Michael Egholm, executive]

We don't, but it would be really nice if it came. So we do build in a little bit of an uptick on Instruments here in Q4, but we're not relying on a market recovery or new budgets becoming available today. Anything to add to that, Alex?

[Hanjoon Kim, executive]

I think it's a good summary. We'll continue to actively work our funnel, and we feel comfortable where our funnel is at to hit the guidance that we've shared with you here. As we've mentioned before, any quarter can be impacted as an instrument and or a large service project may shift from 1 quarter or another. But we have a funnel that we feel comfortable with the guide that we've provided.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Matt Stanton with Jefferies.

[Matthew Stanton, analyst]

Maybe to pick up there on the instrument side. Clearly, trends there remain weak for you guys in the broader industry. Can you just talk a little bit more about -- if you're starting to see any green shoots or funnel improvement? When could we start to see maybe demand improve, not just easy comps?

And you called out China. Can you just unpack a bit more what's going on over there in China and when we could potentially see things improve over there? Is it really tied to stimulus dollars starting to flow?

[Michael Egholm, executive]

Yes. No, Matt, good to hear you. And like if you just sort of zoom out a little bit, instruments are down year-to-date, 28% versus last year, where we were up 46%. And I think it's largely in line with our peers. We are selling high-cost instruments that still work in niches. So we're in a tough environment here.

As Alex alluded to, our funnels are building, which we see as an encouraging sign. And for -- specifically for China, our team are talking about it looking a little better, but we don't expect it to flow through in Q4, hopeful it will be a tailwind in 2025. Historically, up until the last quarter, China has been a bright spot for us, and we're certainly looking forward to China growth coming back.

And then maybe on green shoots, we are seeing VC money flowing into biotech again. And we are beginning to see more leads being generated there, but it is not translated into dollars to us yet. So cautious optimism, I would characterize it as.

[Matthew Stanton, analyst]

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And then maybe one on the cost side, a lot of really good progress there. You called out in your script kind of certain growth areas within multi-omics, the launch of single SOMAmers, Omics as a Service, some of the items you talked on the strategy update back in May. So can you just talk a little bit more about the areas you're investing in, some of those launches?

And I think on the single SOMAmer launch, you talked about kind of a limited launch and then a broader launch later. So any finer point you can talk about just in terms of rolling that product out or customers you'll be targeting? What you tend to consider a successful launch if you look out 12 to 18 months from now?

[Michael Egholm, executive]

Yes. No, great question. So we're taking out $80 million now. And I want to thank my team for doing all the heavy lifting here. So we're really, really well setup with significantly reduced cash burn. We are protecting our growth -- like our growth investments, and we are protecting investments in sales and marketing as a backdrop.

And so to that end, we launched the individual SOMAmers on what we call a minimal viable product. It's minimal viable product because we have not shipped individual reagents before for revenue. So there's a whole infrastructure that's set up, and there's limited support for the number of applications that you can use them for. And then we do not have an e-based site that eventually will be there, where it will be -- click on a protein and then get the individual SOMAmer.

And to that end, it's limited in that we have rolled it out to all our existing customers. And then we'll do a broader launch yet when we have fixed all that infrastructure. And again, we are still investing heavily in R&D because we believe, for our technologies, there's a long runway ahead.

[Matthew Stanton, analyst]

Okay. Great. And then maybe understanding the backdrop remains pretty fluid out there. I mean, as we start to think about '25, back half of this year, you're kind of at $45 million a quarter, call it. If you annualize that, we're at $180 million. Any kind of directional commentary you're willing to provide as we start to think about '25, obviously, Instruments will have easy comps. You have Illumina ramping. Should we think about a kind of $180 million base and some growth app, but any finer point you're willing to put on that as we start to dial in our models for next year?

[Michael Egholm, executive]

I'll let Alex handle that one, yes.

[Hanjoon Kim, executive]

Yes. Not at this time. We're not providing guidance on 2025 yet. Our focus is very much on Q4 and closing out this year strong. We'll come back to you in the future with our updated view on 2025 later.

[Michael Egholm, executive]

Yes. I'll just say, like, so our -- we reiterate our guidance of $170 million to $175 million. It remains a challenging environment. And then on top of a business where you can get a big order, that can sway one way or the other. As for '25, we are -- as you've heard repeatedly, we're very encouraged by our relationship with Illumina, which we think, in the long term, we'd get access to a much, much broader customer base.

We believe we have the best solution out there. It's the only solution, so far, that can scale, with precision, currently 10,000 proteins. So long term, really good. I've been doing this for 30 years, and rollouts always -- and adoption of new workflows always take longer than you want. So I wouldn't over index on the Illumina launch or impact on next year for the out years. We're certainly expecting healthy growth, if that's helpful, Matt.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Paul Knight with KeyBanc.

[Lucas Baranowski, analyst]

This is Lucas on for Paul Knight at KeyBanc. It sounds like you recognized revenue from some of those projects that got pushed out last quarter. Would you say that all of that work is behind you now? Or are there some delayed projects that will actually get recognized still here in Q4?

[Michael Egholm, executive]

Lucas, the way I would characterize it is we had favorable timing this year, as we said in the script, and unfavorable timing last year. It's not a matter of recognition, per se, as I said, from our top 5 customers. We have a $15 million, $20 million headwind year-over-year, not because they're not spending on -- or committed to the technology, it's just we had a very favorable 2023. So that's the backdrop.

What I would point to, as we also talked about in the script, is we have rigorous application of SBS now across the organization. And so we have much better visibility to win these large projects when we get the PO and when we can get the samples and when we can get them run.

[Lucas Baranowski, analyst]

That's helpful. Understood on the timing. I guess, turning over to the instrument side of the equation. Obviously, you saw weakness in China. But what were you seeing in markets outside of China?

[Michael Egholm, executive]

We're doing well in the Americas. The rest of Asia, like, in particular, Japan and Korea, it's been a tough backdrop for a long time, sort of macroeconomics. And in Europe, we just installed a new leader there, and we'll focus on rebuilding the funnels there.

[Operator]

That concludes our question-and-answer session. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.