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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Green who wrote (32029)	10/13/1999 12:33:00 AM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

O.T. Intel news ( Rambus related) ??? Mercury News 8:12 p.m. PDT Tuesday, October 12, 1999 Intel earnings not good enough BY TOM QUINLAN Staff Writer Despite a 21 percent increase in operating profits, Intel Corp. failed to meet analysts' expectations Tuesday for third-quarter earnings, sending its shares down as much as 8.7 percent in after-hours trading. The Santa Clara-based chip giant attributed the shortfall to delays in shipping its newest high-end Pentium III chips and to lower profit margins on its other semiconductor lines. On sales of $7.33 billion, Intel racked up earnings of $1.9 billion, or 55 cents per share, excluding effects from the acquisition of a number of communications chip companies during the quarter. According to First Call, Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to post operating earnings of 57 cents per share in the quarter, which ended Sept. 25. Including all one-time factors, Intel earned $1.46 billion, or 42 cents a share. In the year-ago quarter, Intel earned $1.56 billion, or 44 cents share. Intel executives said they were pleased with the third-quarter results, which roughly met their internal projections and were significantly better than the company's year-earlier results. ''This is a strong, solid third quarter,'' said Paul S. Otellini, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Architecture Business Group. But company executives acknowledged that profit margins were lower than expected, and the average selling price of its chips continued to fall. Intel's earnings were released after the stock market's close Tuesday. In Nasdaq trading, Intel shares closed at $76.69, up 19 cents. But in after-hours trading, shares traded as low as $70. Intel's results were surprising, given that a number of computer-related hardware companies, including Seagate Technologies Inc. and Novellus Systems Inc., have recently posted results that were much better than expected. Generally, Intel's performance is seen as the leading indicator for the high-tech industry. ''Given the fact that a number of companies have posted strong results for this quarter, I think Intel is an anomaly this time around,'' said Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst MarK Edelstone. Edelstone, who had projected Intel's third-quarter sales and earnings would come in at $7.4 billion and 60 cents a share, said the results were ''obviously a slight disappointment.'' ''But the outlook is pretty good,'' he added. ''The product road map looks solid.'' Edelstone said Intel's shortfall was caused by problems in getting its most advanced processor out to the market rather than fundamental weakness in Intel's business. Intel blamed its difficulties on problems putting a new, more efficient manufacturing process in place. The company had planned to start shipping smaller, more powerful chips made using a 0.18 micron process in August. Instead, Intel won't be shipping that product line -- codenamed Coppermine and running at 650 MHz, 700 MHz and 750 MHz -- until Oct. 25. ''I think if Intel had had those products in the market when they originally planned, the shape of this quarter could have been a lot different,'' said Gregory Mischou, an analyst for Warburg Dillon Read LLC, who continues to rate Intel a ''buy.'' Separately, the company also announced Tuesday that it would work with the American Medical Association to create a service that would let authorized doctors to access patient records over the Internet. In many ways Intel's earnings reflected the somewhat topsy-turvy nature of the quarter for the company as a whole. The successful acquisition of a slew of communications chip companies helped pave the way for Intel's introduction of a network processor chip that gives the company a strong entry into the market for telecommunications products -- one of the fastest-growing markets for semiconductors. The company also scored a number of wins in the nascent market for cable set-top boxes by winning processor supply contracts from Hughes Network Systems, NEC Corp., Pacific Century Group and on Tuesday, Nokia Oy. In addition, Intel strengthened its Internet offerings with Intel OnLine Services Inc., a Web hosting service that will be marketed directly to business customers who want to set set up e-shops on the Web. However, the company also had its share of setbacks during the quarter. Even as it was entering the market for a stand-alone network processor, it acknowledged that it was abandoning the market for discrete graphics chips that it entered last year. Intel was also hurt at the high end of the processor market when design problems prompted computer companies to delay shipping machines that used as many as eight Pentium III Xeon processors in a single box. More recently, Intel had to delay the introduction of a new chip set using a new memory design from Rambus Inc. when some PCs using the chip set didn't work properly.

To: Don Green who wrote (32029)	10/13/1999 12:38:00 AM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

Rambus Stk Up 8%; Online Talk Of Intel Chipset Fix Cited Dow Jones NewswiresOctober 12, 1999 By Mark Boslet PALO ALTO, Calif., -- Speculation that Intel Corp. (INTC) repaired its ailing 820 Camino chipset sent shares of Rambus Inc. (RMBS) sailing upward as much as 8.6%. But analysts questioned whether Intel could have repaired the 820 so rapidly. The company had postponed a late September introduction of the chipset because it had produced memory errors in some computers. Rambus is promoting a new kind of high-speed computer memory chip, called an RDRAM, and the product depends on the Intel chipset to communicate with a computer's central processor. The delay in the 820 had been a blow to Rambus. But on its Web site Tuesday, Forbes Magazine published an article suggesting the chip had been repaired. The news story said Intel had plans to introduce the 820 as soon as Friday. Intel and Rambus spokespersons had no comment on the claim. But analysts said such a rapid correction of the problem was unlikely, especially as reports circulated that memory makers Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Q.SSE) and Hitachi Ltd. (HIT) had switched production lines from Rambus DRAMs, or dynamic random access memory, chips to other types of DRAMs. Intel hasn't yet fully identified the source of the problem, said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. Instead, the company has found a quick way to eliminate the problem in some computer configurations - reducing the use of three memory slots to two at the expense of memory performance, analysts said. Computer makers, such as Dell Computer Corp. (DELL), are evaluating this quick fix and have begun to use it in prototype machines, they said. But they said they know of no more permanent repair. By late afternoon, Rambus shares were up 5 1/8, or 7.4%, at 74 5/8 on Nasdaq volume of 2.8 million shares. Average daily volume is 1.6 million. -By Mark Boslet, Dow Jones Newswires