Our revenue and earnings for the fiscal year are given below, compared with those of the prior year:

(In thousands, except per-share data)

Fourth-quarter revenue declined 2.9% sequentially in a seasonally soft semiconductor market. This performance was in line with the high end of our guidance. We remained ahead of our three-year merger synergy plan of $160 million in cost synergies, achieving $137.7 million in annualized synergies as of the end of the first year. Gross margin dropped to 39.8% due primarily to our lean inventory initiative, under which we are running our wafer fabs at a rate lower than actual demand capacity to burn off excess inventory.

Cypress remains committed to the task of building on our position as a leading provider of high-performance embedded solutions for the automotive and industrial markets and other promising markets such as Home Appliances and the Internet of Things (IoT). Our revenue in automotive and industrial continues to grow: Revenue from these segments increased to 55% of our total revenues in the fourth quarter, up from 52% in the fourth quarter of 2014. We continue to be a source of technology leadership in these markets. For example, our IoT wireless beacon solution, which is discussed in the new-product section below, was named one of the 10 best technologies at the CES tradeshow earlier this month.

We remain committed to the return of capital to our shareholders through quarterly dividends and stock repurchases. The return of capital this quarter was $93.4 million, with a dividend payout of $36.9 million and a $56.5 million buyback.

BUSINESS REVIEW

• Our non-GAAP consolidated gross margin for the fourth quarter was 39.8%, consistent with the lower fab utilization inherent in our lean inventory initiative, which will run through the third quarter of 2016. In addition, excluding our Emerging Technologies Division (ETD), our core semiconductor gross margin was 40.3%. Fab utilization was roughly 60% in the fourth quarter. It will drop to approximately 50% in the first quarter of 2016, reducing gross margin.
• Net inventory at the end of the fourth quarter was $243.6 million, down 12.7% from the third quarter and down 37.4% from the first quarter. This steep inventory reduction is the intended benefit of our lean inventory initiative.
• Cypress announced that its Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.11 per share, payable to holders of record of the company's common stock as of the close of business on December 31, 2015 . This dividend was paid on January 21, 2016 .

FIRST QUARTER 2016 FINANCIAL OUTLOOK