Texas Instruments CEO -2: Wireless Demand Strong
Wednesday September 4, 10:02 am ET
By Marcelo Prince, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Tom Engibous, chairman and chief executive of Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN - News) , said Wednesday his outlook for the third quarter " remains unchanged" despite Wall Street's concern about the health of the semiconductor industry.
The Dallas chip maker still expects third-quarter revenue to increase about 5% from the second quarter's $2.16 billion, Engibous said. He still projects earnings of 9 cents a share, under generally accepted accounting principles, for the September-ending period.
"The quarter's linearity is exactly as we would have expected," Engibous said after a keynote address at the Salomon Smith Barney technology conference here.
Texas Instruments stood by targets that were set in mid-July. However, several semiconductor analysts and some companies, including the chief executive of Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) , have warned of continued market weakness in recent weeks.
Although the personal-computer market has been weaker than anticipated this summer, Engibous said strong demand for chips used in wireless devices and cellular phones has offset that weakness.
Engibous predicted Texas Instruments' wireless business will continue to outpace the growth of the terminal market, partly because next-generation cellular phones require additional, more expensive chips. Also, Texas Instruments is now selling chip sets to overseas manufacturers.
The chief executive also said that customers have now mostly used up their excess inventory of chips and order rates have been improving, particularly for chips used in cellular phones and DSL modems.
Shares of Texas Instruments were recently at $19.12, up 60 cents, or 3.3%. |
