Paul and all,
I bring you more good news!!
Jules
SYDNEY, April 3 (Reuters) - Intel Corp said on Friday that
it expected strong sales in the second half of this year.
"We are looking for strong second half sales," Intel
president and chief operating officer Craig Barrett told
reporters in Sydney, during his one-day visit to Australia.
A month ago, the chip-maker stunned Wall Street with a
warning that its first quarter results would be below
expectations due to weaker-than-anticipated demand from personal
computer makers.
Barrett said he was optimistic the computer industry would
continue its double digit growth into the foreseeable future.
"Our industry has history over 10 years of jagged growth of
a common trajectory, that common trajectory is about 15 to 18
percent growth on an annual basis. We still see the market
growing very rapidly in Eastern Europe, China, India, Latin
America, so I think that trajectory will continue," he said.
Barrett, who will take over from current Intel chief
executive officer Andrew Grove after the company's annual
meeting in May, said Intel's recent product launches should also
helped boost its volumes this year.
This week, Intel launched a new Pentium II processor,
targetting the mobile computer market.
Barrett said he could not comment any further on the first
quarter performance. Wall Street analysts had been expecting
Intel to report first quarter earnings of 93 cents a share.
For the fourth quarter of last year, Intel reported net
income of US$1.7 billion, or 98 U.S. cents a share - beating
Wall Street expectations of 90 cents.
Intel said on March 4, 1998 it now expected its first
quarter revenue to be about 10 percent below fourth quarter
revenue of US$6.5 billion and gross profit margins in the range
of 53 percent of revenue "plus or minus a few points."
((Kevin Morrison, Sydney newsroom, 61-2 9373-1813 fax 61-2
9262-4727, sydney.newsroom@reuters.com))
Sent: 23:31 ET |
