Intel Corp (INTC)

[winston]

not vested.

Intel sees no slowdown in world PC market

LISBON - Intel Corp, the world's biggest microchip producer, expects no slowdown in global demand for personal computers despite economic problems in the United States and in other countries, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said on Wednesday.

He also told reporters in Lisbon, where he was to sign a draft deal with the Portuguese government to make 500,000 cheap portable computers for schools, that the company was upbeat on demand prospects for low-cost computers and broadband wireless systems.

'We gave a relatively upbeat business forecast, saying that despite the economic problems in the United States our business is so international that we didn't see any slowdown in the PC market,' he said.

Mr Barrett said a range of economies have not been seriously affected by the US slowdown, providing hope that the crisis will have limited implications.

'We are seeing ... that the slowdown in the US hasn't spilled everywhere else. The world's economy is not as robust as it could be, but it's not a disaster.'

Apart from broadband wireless, and the next generation of low-cost computers, Intel also remains bullish about the introduction of more digital capability in health care.

'There's a huge opportunity to use it not just in the back-office but in remote diagnostics,' he added.

Referring to the European Union's recent antitrust charges against Intel, Barrett said price reductions for microprocessors and computers have an 'anti-inflationary nature' while prices are rising globally and also said that was a testimony to high competition in the sector.

'It looks as the market is functioning as it should, because every year consumers are getting more for less. We continue to say that, please just look at the facts, don't just listen to a competitor complaint,' he said.

Intel lawyers have previously said that that new charges filed against the company by the European Commission could lead to higher prices for consumers.

The Commission issued additional charges against Intel earlier this month, saying the US company had paid a retailer to refrain from selling computers with chips made by competitor Advanced Micro Devices.

Last year, the Commission accused Intel of giving computer makers rebates to limit their use of rival AMD's chips or avoid them altogether.

Source: REUTERS

[mocca_com]

Intel Cuts $1 Billion From Sales Forecast Amid Slump

By Ian King

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp., the largest computer- chip maker, lowered its fourth-quarter sales forecast by about $1 billion amid ``significantly weaker'' demand across its entire product line. The shares dropped 6.8 percent in late trading.

Revenue will be $9 billion, plus or minus $300 million, and profit margins will be short of projections, Intel said today in a statement. The Santa Clara, California-based company originally predicted sales of between $10.1 billion and $10.9 billion.

Intel, whose chips run more than three-quarters of the world's computers, said its customers worldwide are ``aggressively'' chopping orders as they cope with falling sales. That signals that the U.S. economic slump, which Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini already expects to be the worst of his lifetime, is spreading overseas.

``I didn't think things were anywhere near this bad,'' said David Wu, an analyst at Global Crown Capital in San Francisco. ``There was a lot of noise about things getting worse, but it's still shockingly bad guidance.''

Worldwide technology spending will grow less than predicted next year, research firm IDC said today, as the industry faces its worst slump since the dot-com bust. Spending will rise 2.6 percent in 2009, down from an earlier estimate of 5.9 percent, the Framingham, Massachusetts-based research firm said. Growth in the U.S. will probably slow to 0.9 percent, less than a quarter the pace IDC forecast in August.

Profit Margin

Intel's gross margin, the percentage of sales left after production costs, will total about 55 percent, ``plus or minus a couple of points.'' The chipmaker had earlier anticipated about 59 percent. The margin is the only measure of profit that Intel forecasts publicly.

Intel fell 92 cents to $12.60 in late trading after the report. The stock, which has lost almost half its value this year, had dropped 41 cents to $13.52 in regular Nasdaq Stock Market trading.

Analysts had anticipated fourth-quarter profit of 37 cents a share on revenue of $10.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey. Intel intends to report full results Jan. 15.

Intel cut its spending plans by $100 million, to $2.8 billion in the fourth quarter. The company previously had planned to update investors on sales trends on Dec. 4. It canceled that update today.

Job Cuts

Intel's report came minutes after National Semiconductor Corp., the maker of chips for the five largest mobile-phone manufacturers, reduced its revenue forecast and announced plans to cut about 5 percent of workers. Applied Materials Inc., the largest maker of chip-production machinery, reported a 45 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit and said it will cut 1,800 jobs.

``This will be an extended downturn, lasting a year or longer,'' Applied CEO Mike Splinter, a former Intel executive, said today.

Both Applied and National are located within three miles of Intel in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel's only rival in the market for personal- computer processors, will hold a briefing for analysts tomorrow at its headquarters in nearby Sunnyvale.

Last week, Otellini said unemployment will be worse in about a year, since job creation lags behind improvements in gross domestic product. That will weigh on consumer confidence, he said, hurting demand for computers and electronics.

Source: Bloomberg

[millionairemind]

Intel warns second time on quarter
Wed Jan 7, 2009 4:39pm EST
By Ritsuko Ando and David Lawsky

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microchip maker Intel Corp on Wednesday issued its second revenue warning on the fourth quarter, saying demand for personal computers was even worse than it feared and sparking wide concerns about tech companies.

Shares of the world's biggest maker of the central processing units (CPUs) at the heart of every PC dropped 6 percent, and stocks of other companies in the industry swooned as well.

Intel dropped its fourth-quarter revenue forecast to $8.2 billion from $9 billion in November. In October, the company had expected a range of $10.1 billion to $10.9 billion.

"Clearly we are going to be in an ugly period for corporate earnings," said Tim Ghriskey, an analyst with Solaris Asset Management. "Intel being a bellwether for the industry it will take the industry down as well."

[kennynah]

this means taiwan's computer/electronics sector will be facing tough challenges this year

[millionairemind]

Jan 16, 2009
Intel profits plunge 90%

SAN JOSE - INTEL Corp's fourth-quarter profit plunged 90 per cent but still met Wall Street's subdued expectations on Thursday, as the chip maker was hurt by wheezing PC sales that have crimped demand for microprocessors. Sales slumped 23 per cent, in line with Intel's previous guidance.

That was good enough to send Intel's shares up 2.1 per cent in after-hours trading.

Net income was US$234 million (S$349 million), or 4 cents per share, compared with US$2.3 billion, or 38 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

The Santa Clara, California-based company's profits are being squeezed by a freeze in information-technology spending and a shift toward low-margin processors for a class of little laptops known as 'netbooks.'

A big reason for the severity of the fourth-quarter drop, though, was a US$1 billion writedown of the value of Intel's investment in Internet provider Clearwire Corp.

Clearwire specialises in a new type of wireless broadband technology called WiMax that Intel is building into its chips, and has stumbled on fears the credit crunch will derail its ambitious network buildout plans.

Intel's sales were US$8.2 billion, a 23 per cent shortfall from last year. Intel blunted the shock of the big declines by lowering its guidance twice, including an announcement just last week.

For all of 2008, Intel earned US$5.3 billion, 24 per cent lower than a year ago, on sales of US$37.6 billion, a 2 per cent decline.

PC demand is sinking fast, which takes its toll on Intel because Intel owns 80 per cent of the market for microprocessors, the brains of personal computers. Market research firms IDC and Gartner Inc reported this week that PC sales growth in the fourth quarter was the worst it's been in six years, with the slump expected to drag out until possibly 2010.

Intel's first-quarter forecast of around US$7 billion in sales might have helped soothe some investors' nerves. The guidance was murky - Intel said it wouldn't give a precise estimate because of the economic uncertainty - but the figure was at the low end of what analysts were expecting.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting US$7.3 billion, on average, but estimates ranged from US$6.6 billion to as high as US$9.3 billion.

'I don't think they're good numbers, but they're good numbers to start from,' said Cody Acree, senior semiconductor analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. 'We all knew they would be bad, and that they'd come down, but they've set a base to work from.'

Intel's Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith said in an interview that computer-makers' inventory levels fell in the fourth quarter and continued falling into the first quarter, which means they're not buying as many new chips.

He said Intel's product lineup positions the company well to take advantage when demand starts rising again, but Smith cautioned that no one knows yet when that might be.

'It's very difficult to precisely call when we'll hit the bottom,' he said.

One area where Intel shines is controlling its manufacturing costs, where it enjoys a big advantage over smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices. Intel's quicker transition than AMD to 45-nanometer manufacturing technology, which shrinks the size of the chips' circuitry, has made each chip cheaper to produce, which has helped cushion the blow of falling sales.

AMD - which has lost billions of dollars over the past two years, recently changed CEOs, and is spinning off its factories to save money - warned that its fourth-quarter sales will likely come in 33 per cent lower than last year. AMD reports quarterly results Jan. 22.

During the regular trading session before the earnings report, Intel stock rose 21 cents, 1.6 per cent, to close at US$13.29. The shares hit US$13.58 in after-hours trading. -- AP

[iam802]

lelong chips .... cheaper notebooks to come


----
Intel cuts processor prices up to 48 pct


http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTech ... 2620090120

Jan 20 (Reuters) - Intel (INTC.O), the world's largest chip maker, has cut the price of some processors by as much as 48 percent as it confronts slumping demand and new lower-cost chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N), Bloomberg reported.

The price of Celeron 570 processors, designed for laptops, dropped 48 percent to $70 whereas one of the company's quad-core desktop-computer models, which have four processors on one piece of silicon, dropped 40 percent to $316, the news agency said.

Intel kept the price of its three most expensive desktop chips unchanged, the report said on Tuesday.

Intel was not immediately available for comment.

The U.S. company had said it expects margins to bounce back to "healthy" levels by the second half of 2009, but held back on giving detailed quarterly forecasts when it issued earnings on Jan. 15, citing economic uncertainty.

[kennynah]

sui lah...time to consider replacing my single core notebook bought 4 years ago....hahaha....

[millionairemind]

Intel chairman Barrett to step down
Former CEO to leave in May, ending a 35-year career at No. 1 chipmaker.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Intel Chairman Craig Barrett will step down from his post in May, ending a 35-year stint at the world's No. 1 chipmaker, the company announced Friday.

Barrett, who joined Intel in 1974, also served as the chief executive of the company from 1998 through 2005.

"Intel became the world's largest and most successful semiconductor company in 1992 and has maintained that position ever since," said Barrett. "I'm extremely proud to have helped achieve that accomplishment."

Barrett said he was confident that Intel has the right management in place to continue its leadership in the chip making industry.

Jane Shaw, a board member since 1993, will replace Barrett as non-executive chairman in May.

Earlier this week, Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced that last quarter's profit tumbled 90% to $234 million, and reportedly told employees that he couldn't rule out the possibility that Intel might actually lose money in the current quarter. It would be the first time that's happened in more than 20 years.

The company also announced Wednesday that it will be cutting production at two U.S. silicon wafer facilities and closing three facilities in Asia, affecting between 5,000 and 6,000 workers.

Shares of Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) rose 3% in mid-afternoon trading, but the company's stock has lost more than 40% since August. To top of page

[winston]

A GOOD SIGN FROM THE TECH SECTOR

Our chart of the week is a small bit of good news from the tech sector. It's the past year's trading in Intel (INTC).

Intel is the dominant player in the semiconductor industry. It supplies over 80% of the chips used in the computers produced by Hewlett-Packard and Dell... so its stock price is a quick read on the health of tech spending. In this day and age, the "health of tech spending" is the "health of the economy."

Intel fell nearly 50% in 2008 to its low of $12 a share. After a rally to $15 in December, shares fell back down to the $12 area. In just the past week, however, Intel has "held the bottom" and climbed above $14.

Read most any financial headline today, and you'll be tempted to crawl into a bomb shelter. But make sure to read the market as well. The fact that INTC has "held the bottom" is a positive sign for the economy. A sustained rally beyond $15 is a sign things are getting "less bad."

[winston]

ANOTHER BREAKOUT WORTH WATCHING by Brian Hunt

One more "breakout" we're keeping an eye on... technology giant Intel (INTC).

Like Cummins and Dr. Copper, Intel is an easy-to-follow, real-world indicator of global economic health. Intel produces tiny "engines" for most of the world's computers. And in today's day and age, that's equivalent to saying Intel powers the globe.

Like most every other asset, Intel was slammed to a panic low in November 2008. It's wandered aimlessly between $12 and $15 per share since then. But a few weeks ago, it bounced off its low to approach a three-month high. Of course, INTC's rally could be fleeting... but a sustained turnaround would lead us to believe things are getting "less bad" in the world.

And remember this: The market always leads the news... not the other way around. What you see happen in the market today will be in the newspapers three to six months from now. If Intel "holds the line" and works its way above $15, you'll be reading things like "semiconductor demand falls less than expected" and "global economy showing tiny signs of life" in September.