The Chips Are Down At Intel
Tuesday, January 15, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: A big miss for Intel late today and its shares tumbled 15 percent in after hours trading. The world's largest computer chip maker reported quarterly results after the closing bell that fell short of analyst estimates. Excluding charges, Intel earned $0.38 a share in the fourth quarter, $0.02 below the Wall Street consensus. Revenues also came in below expectations, despite rising 10.5 percent to a record $10.7 billion. Intel sold a record number of microprocessors and chip sets in the fourth quarter, despite weakening demand for personal computers in the U.S. But Intel's chief financial officer Stacy Smith says there were no signs of a recession.
STACY SMITH, CFO, INTEL: Based on what we're seeing in the U.S., we're a little cautious as we start the New Year There's a kind of steady drumbeat of negative economic sentiment that we see. But we're not seeing it in our results today and you also have to keep in mind what a small percent the U.S. is of our total business. It's less than 25 percent of the PC market, so it's a relatively limited market.
GHARIB: As a result, Smith says that as the economy slows down, Intel is not that worried. But analysts were concerned about Intel's revenue forecast for the third quarter. The chip maker's prediction for as much as $10 billion in revenues is just shy of estimates.
