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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: willcousa who wrote (51676)	9/7/2001 11:25:34 AM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Some more good news for the sector... From last nights Nightly Business Report... +++++++++ 09/06/01: The Future of Fairchild Semiconductor According To CEO, Kirk Pond SUSIE GHARIB: Another update today, also from the semiconductor industry, Fairchild Semiconductor raised its revenue estimates for the third quarter, saying order rates are increasing. But the company, based in Portland, Maine, reiterated that gross margins will come in at the low end of expectations, around 20 percent. Joining me now to talk more about the outlook, Fairchild Chairman and CEO Kirk Pond. And it's a pleasure to have you on the program. KIRK POND, CHAIRMAN & CEO, FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. GHARIB: Thanks for coming all the way from Maine. POND: All the way. GHARIB: So, things are improving. Do you see that the orders, that you'll see sustained pick up in orders? POND: Yes. We started seeing orders improving in the June/July time period. Our book to bills are now above 1 and that opposed to .7 that they ran a few quarters ago. So we're now beginning to build a little backlog, which has implications for the future. GHARIB: Is this an actual pickup or do you think it's seasonal? POND: Well, I think certainly part of it is seasonal. But I think also the inventories that existed in the industry have come down quite a bit. And in product demand is still moving along smartly so people are still buying computers and cell phones and automobiles and it's still moving along. GHARIB: Now, Intel, we as just reported, reported today that things are stabilizing. National Semiconductor came out with its fiscal technique numbers and said things are improving. How much longer before we see revenues and real growth for semiconductors? POND: Well, I think we'll look back on the September ending quarter as the bottom of the bookings and as the book to bills now are approaching 1, backlogs will begin building and I think we'll start to see some sequential revenue growth quarter to quarter. GHARIB: Now, Fairchild Semiconductor, a lot of its business depends on how things are going on in personal computers, consumer electronics, telecommunications equipment, because you supply those industries. What kind of forecast, what kind of outlook is ahead for those sectors? POND: Well, I think overall industry is expected to grow about 15 or 16 percent next year. We have very broad exposure to all of those segments, not only computer, but telecom and automotive and consumer. And I think we're probably supporting that estimate by SIE for about a 15 percent growth next year. GHARIB: How about the telecommunications equipment area? POND: Well, the large telcos, by all the discussions I've had with them, are pretty stagnant until mid-next year. They really won't start having business return to normal till probably mid-next year. GHARIB: Let's talk a little bit about your stock. It's half of the level it was a year ago. You did have a loss in the second quarter. What can we expect for your stock? POND: Well, I guess it is half of what it was a year ago but it's also 50 percent higher than it was at the beginning of this year. So it's made a nice run. We, our stock never did sink as low as a lot of them did. And so we expect, as our earnings come up, why, then our stock will respond. GHARIB: When do you think we'll see a profitable quarter? POND: Well, I think as we move into next year we should be able to see profitable quarters. GHARIB: OK, well, thank you very much for coming on the program tonight. POND: Thank you. GHARIB: We appreciate it. We've been speaking with Kirk Pond, Chairman and CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor.