TI agreas with INTC:rebound in second half of 1998:
(notice that LAM and KLAC had no such positive forecasts)
Texas Instruments Sees Stronger Chip Market
DALLAS (Reuters) - The semiconductor market, currently struck by inventory reductions and the Asian economic crisis, is likely to begin improving in the second half of this year and could enjoy strong growth in 1999, Texas Instruments chief financial officer Bill Aylesworth said today.
"We see that as these inventory corrections are completed and to the extent that there's more stability in Asia...1999 has the potential of being a strong growth year for the semiconductor industry," he told Reuters in an interview.
Aylesworth's comments came today as Texas Instruments reported its first-quarter net income tumbled 90 percent, reflecting special charges totaling $244 million and lower revenues, and predicted continued pressure on its semiconductor revenues and margins in the second quarter.
The company, a leading maker of computer chips, said net income fell to $11 million, or three cents per share, from $102 million, or 26 cents a share a year ago.
Excluding the charges, diluted earnings per share were 44 cents, up from 35 cents in the year ago quarter, and matching the First Call consensus estimate for earnings from continuing operations.
Severe price declines of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips pushed down first-quarter revenues to $2.187 billion, from $2.263 billion in the 1997 period, the company said. Orders dropped to $2.137 billion, from $2.5 billion a year ago.
The average unit prices of DRAMs tumbled by 60 percent, leading to a loss in the company's memory operations that was more than double that of a year ago. The quarterly charge was primarily for discontinuing the DRAM manufacturing joint venture with Hitachi, it said.
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