RF Micro just reported earnings, warning about weak demand for their products (read: GaAs HBT power amplifiers - they don't sell a whole lot else in spite of all their press releases) going forward. The stock's getting annihilated in after hours trading, as one might expect. I think that half of their sales, if not more, come from Nokia. However, if I remember correctly, a lot of the amplifiers that Nokia buys from them go into their 6100 series phones, and so RF Micro's warning could just be a result of the transition taking place within Nokia's product line. On the other hand, there might be a number of other Nokia phones for which RF Micro sells amplifiers for, something for which it's difficult to find info. on given how Nokia demands that its suppliers keep their mouths shut on such issues; and since, if this is merely the result of a product transition, one would expect RF Micro to chose to blame the industry in general (as they have) rather than say that the problem's isolated to the company, it's tough to know exactly what's going on:
biz.yahoo.com
Business Outlook
RF Micro Devices experienced lower than expected order activity in the September quarter, which it anticipates will negatively impact revenues in the December quarter. This level of order activity is believed to be largely the result of three factors.
First, as has been announced by some of the largest handset manufacturers, an overly optimistic forecast earlier in the year for the growth of the market has led to excess inventories of handsets. This has reduced component demand while these inventories are being reduced. Second, introduction delays for some next-generation, highly complex handsets have also delayed component demand. And third, the Company experienced a delay in the introduction of a next-generation product that it believes will begin shipping in high volume in the March 2001 quarter.
As a result of these factors, the Company currently expects revenues for the December quarter to be down sequentially approximately twenty percent, which would result in diluted earnings per share in the range of approximately $0.04 to $0.05. |
