Note 5 - Property And Equipment

3 Months Ended

Aug. 31, 2013

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment Disclosure [Text Block]

5.     PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT

Property and equipment consists of the following (in thousands):

	As of
	August 31, 2013			May 31, 2013
Land	$	297			301
Buildings and improvements		2,527			2,575
Leasehold improvements		20,649			20,629
Capital work-in-progress		5,198			5,047
Furniture and fixtures		3,319			3,282
Machinery, equipment and instruments		78,644			75,480
		110,634			107,314
Less accumulated depreciation		(35,294	)		(30,933	)
Property and equipment, net	$	75,340			76,381

Depreciation expense was $4.4 million in the three months ended August 31, 2013, and was $4.8 million in the three months ended August 31, 2012. The estimated useful lives of the Company’s instrument equipment assets were reevaluated in the first three months of fiscal 2014. The evaluation indicated that the actual lives of our instrument equipment were longer than the estimated useful lives used for depreciation purposes in the Company’s financial statements. As a result, the Company changed its estimates of the useful lives of its instrument equipment to better reflect the estimated periods during which these assets will remain in service effective June 1, 2013. The estimated useful lives of these assets increased from approximately 5 years to 10 years. The effect of this change in estimate was a reduction in depreciation expense of $1.6 million for the three months ended August 31, 2013. On an annual basis, the effect of this change is expected to decrease depreciation expense by approximately $6.3 million. Depreciation expense is primarily included in cost of sales in the consolidated statements of operations.

For the three months ended August 31, 2012, certain amounts within property and equipment have been reclassified to be consistent with the August 31, 2013 presentation. However, there has been no change in either total property and equipment or accumulated depreciation.