01/08 21:16
Creative Shares Surge on Prospects of New Product (Update1)
By Linus Chua
quote.bloomberg.com
Singapore, Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Creative Technology Ltd. shares surged to a 10-month high on hopes that a new product that the biggest computer sound card maker introduced yesterday would give it greater reach beyond the personal computer market.
Creative unveiled the Sound Blaster Extigy, its first sound card that doesn't need to be installed into a PC to enhance audio. The new product, which will be shipped out this month and sold at $149.99, can also enhance sound for digital music, DVD movies and games.
With Creative's more than 150 million sound cards reaching six out of every 10 PCs worldwide that use such devices, the new external product gives the sound cards a new lease of life through the DVD and game console markets, analysts said.
``It's the ultimate crossover product,'' said Tejinder Sandhu, an analyst at HSBC Securities Asia Ltd. in Taipei, who rates the stock a ``buy.'' ``For DVD players and game consoles, there's no upgrade available now other than a good speaker system, so this is the missing link between the input and output in home entertainment systems.''
The stock surged as much as S$1.80, or 10 percent, to S$19.40, recently trading at S$19.00. Creative shares have risen for a seventh straight day, pushing the stock up 28 percent this year, the second-best performer on the Singapore benchmark Straits Times Index.
The new product will also target PC users who have resisted opening up their computers to install the sound cards, as well as notebook users who couldn't install the devices.
``We are excited to meet the demands of PC users who have been clamoring for a convenient external Sound Blaster solution,'' Sim Wong Hoo, Creative's chief executive, said in a PR Newswire release. |
