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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (104580)	4/12/2000 6:36:00 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577893

UPDATE 1- Athlon leads AMD to better-than-expected Q1 SUNNYVALE, Calif. (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc Wednesday reported first quarter earnings, driven by its speedy Athlon chip, that blew past Wall Street recently upgraded estimates, saying it was the best quarter in the company's history. Advanced Micro, Intel Corp.'s chief rival in the microprocessor business, said its first quarter net income rose to $189.3 million, or $1.15 a share, vs. a loss of $128.4 million, or 88 cents a share a year ago. Sales soared 73 percent versus the same period last year and reached $1.09 billion, driven by demand for its Athlon processors and flash memory chips, vs. $631.6 million in the year ago quarter. On a sequential basis, sales jumped 13 percent from the seasonally-strong fourth quarter. Wall Street analysts had expected the company to post earnings of 58 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial. These estimates were recently upgraded by most analysts, after the company pre-announced last week that it expected to report record sales in excess of $1 billion. ``AMD had the best quarter in its history,' said W.J. (Jerry) Sanders III, chairman and chief executive, in a statement. ``Each of our product groups reported significant growth in the first quarter. Led by strength in PC processors and Flash memory sales, sales from AMD's three product groups grew by more than 13 percent sequentially and by more than 83 percent over the comparable period of 1999.' ``Unit sales of AMD Athlon processors increased by 50 percent to 1.2 million units,' Sanders said. He said total PC processor revenues rose 14 percent from the first quarter and by more than 65 percent over the first quarter of 1999. Total unit sales, including the AMD Athlon and AMD-K6 processors, reached a record at nearly 6.5 million units, and revenues from AMD Athlon processors exceeded revenues from AMD-K6 family processors, Sanders said. In addition to a strong market for personal computers, AMD is also benefiting from torrid growth in the flash memory business, where it also competes with Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel. Flash memory chips, which retain data stored in them after the power is cut off, are widely used in hand-held devices and mobile phones. The chip industry, known for its boom-and-bust cycles, is in full recovery from its worst-ever slump. Factories are churning out chips at close to capacity, supplies are tight, and chip stocks are surging. AMD projected that overall sales in the second quarter would be modestly higher than the first quarter's record $1.09 billion. The company said it expected unit shipments of PC processors could approach the record level of the first quarter. It said unit shipments of AMD Athlon processors were expected to rise to 1.8 million units, which would mean a higher blended average selling price and higher revenues for PC processors. AMD said it expected total sales growth of more than 50 percent for the year as a whole, outpacing the overall industry. 18:09 04-12-00 Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.