Via First-Quarter Profit Probably Doubled on Growing Sales
Taipei, Taiwan, April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Via Technologies Inc. will probably say profit more than doubled in the first quarter as it expanded its main chipset business at the expense of Intel Corp., its biggest rival.
Net income probably rose to NT$1.98 billion ($60.3 million) between January and March, or $3.34 a share, from NT$939.73 million, or NT$2.50, a year ago, according to four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Taiwan Stock Exchange rules require Via to announce results by the end of April.
The company bucked slow demand in the personal computer business by more than doubling its market share for chipsets, which manage the flow of data between a computer's processor and other components such as memory chips and the display. That business is likely to keep growing, though its newer foray into making processors is making slow progress so far.
``Via will continue to gain market share,'' said Daniel Heyler, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. in Hong Kong. ``It should grow to 38 percent this year from 30 percent last year.''
Via's chipsets work with processors made by Intel and its next-largest rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Via's market share will increase as AMD contracts more of its chipset production to Via and Intel's share of the business keeps slipping, Heyler said.
The company's shares, up 83 percent so far this year, rose 1.5 percent today to NT$333.
Competition
Intel, which makes processors and chipsets, lost market as AMD and Via introduced products that outperformed Intel's. Santa Clara, California-based Intel last year delayed release dates and recalled defective products.
AMD and Via have cooperated in promoting a technology for high-speed memory chips. The so-called double data rate, or DDR, chips work with AMD's processors and Via's chipsets.
Intel has promoted an alternative memory chip standard for its latest Pentium 4 processor. Those chips, based on a design by Rambus Inc., cost more than DDR chips. Sales of Pentium 4 computers have languished as overall demand for PCs slowed this year and consumers chose cheaper alternatives.
Via Chief Executive Chen Wen-chi said in March that revenue should increase by half this year to $1.5 billion. While most of the increase will come from chipsets, Via said earlier this year it hopes to more than double its share of the processor business.
Via ventured beyond its main chipset business for the first time last year to make processors in competition with Intel and AMD. Via, which designs processors for PCs costing $500 or less, hopes to boost sales of the chips in Asia and Europe, expanding a market share that now stands at just 1 percent.
AMD increased its share of the PC-processor market to 21 percent in the first quarter from 17 percent in the previous quarter. Intel's share fell for a third straight quarter to 77 percent from 82 percent, according to preliminary data from Mercury Research.
Apr/20/2001 1:48 ET
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