speaking of bananas...warning-->ESS Technology Revises Revenue and Earnings Guidance for Third Quarter 2002
FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
ESS Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESST), today announced that third quarter
revenue and earnings are anticipated to be below the company's previous
expectations. The company now expects revenue for the third quarter to be
between $60 million and $64 million, down from its earlier estimate of $86 to
$90 million. Gross margins are expected to be between 36% and 38% and earnings
per diluted share will range between $0.13 and $0.21, down from its previous
expectation of $0.35 to $0.38. The company is also revising its guidance for
the seasonally slower fourth quarter; it now expects revenue to be between
$53 and $57 million with gross margins of 32% to 35%, which results in
earnings per diluted share of $0.05 to $0.10.
Robert Blair, president and CEO of ESS Technology commented, "As we go
into the Christmas season, we are now finding worldwide demand has slowed down
surprisingly in the latter part of the quarter. We are also experiencing
increased competition from suppliers who offer an integrated front-end servo
and MPEG decoder solution and we are seeing a faster than expected transition
to this new integrated solution. This has increased pressure on average
selling prices, and we expect fourth quarter prices to fall 10% to 15% from
the third quarter. We plan to ship our own integrated solution, the Vibratto
II, in the fourth quarter."
Mr. Blair continued, "Although the industry is now facing an overall
slowdown, ESS continues to gain design wins in Japan and Korea with our
existing full-featured Vibratto family of products. We believe the
introduction of our new integrated Vibratto II servo-decoder product family
will enable ESS to gain market share and continue its leadership position in
the digital entertainment market."
About ESS Technology
ESS Technology, Inc., is a leading supplier of high-performance feature-
rich products for the rapidly growing DVD and digital entertainment markets.
The company is also a leading provider of products that enable the emergence
of digital home systems delivering and managing entertainment and information
in the home.
ESS, headquartered in Fremont, California, has R&D, sales, and technical
support offices worldwide. ESS Technology's common stock is traded on the
Nasdaq under the symbol ESST. ESS Technology's web site address is:
esstech.com . |
