(1) The problem with Intel was with guidance.
For whatever reason, Intel gave overly rosy outlook with 10% sequential growth forecast. Instead it is realizing 3-5%.
MSFT guided that sequentially revenue would decline 5%. Now if they come with flat or up sequentially, that is a surprise.
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Last week, Intel said it was still comfortable with predictions it made in July, when it said sales in the current period would rise from the second quarter's. The forecast was Intel's most positive outlook for the third quarter in more than five years. In previous years, it said only that sales would be ``up slightly'' or ``flat to slightly up.''
``Intel has maintained up until now that everything was fine for the quarter, and indeed as the Piper analyst said, all is not right,'' Banc of America Securities analyst Rick Whittington said, referring to U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Ashok Kumar.
(2) Euro effect:
Good financial management involves currency hedging. MSFT did good hedging and prevented adverse effect of euro as CFO said last week
(3) Microsoft could still have a great Q as
- W2K and ME upgrades or office upgrades don't necessarily need a new processor
- Intel could be loosing to AMD
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IDC, DELL, PCdata, Microsoft, FHI gave/giving strong PC demand guidance. So I think the problem is unique to Intel |
