To: etchmeister who wrote (28194 ) 1/24/2006 3:18:20 PM From: Donald Wennerstrom Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 95622 For the record - synopsis of TXN report of last night by Briefing.com <<09:07 ET Texas Instruments: 31.70: Texas Instruments, the world's largest maker of mobile phone chips, reported a 34% rise in fourth quarter profits, but its top line came in shy of analysts' expectations. Net income rose to $655 mln, or $0.43, ex-items, which was a penny ahead of consensus. Revenues grew 14% from last year to $3.59 bln, but that was $50 mln short of what the street was anticipating. Shares traded lower in the after-hours, following comments by TI that revenues in the current quarter may miss estimates. TI, which dominants the wireless and analog semiconductor market, reported flat sequential sales that were slightly below the mid-point of revised guidance due to assembly and testing constraints. Semiconductor sales rose 3% quarter/quarter, with wireless revenues up 4% and DSP up 2% quarter/quarter. TI demonstrated seasonal strength in the handset market led by WCDMA (2/2.5G baseband), GSM chipsets, and OMAP shipments. Analog sales rose 2% quarter/quarter, while the semiconductor category sales rose 7% quarter/quarter. With bookings up 2% quarter/quarter and a book to bill of 1.05, management forecasts semiconductor revenues are likely to be down in the first quarter by 1.6% at the mid-point of its guidance range of $3.05-3.30 bln and total revenues to be down 9.5% at the midpoint of its guidance range of $3.11-3.38 billion. Expectations have been running high for TI due to the strength of the handset market. TI, like several other tech names, has fallen short of these heightened expectations, but considering its solid bookings and in-line guidance, TI's prospects remain strong, supported by demand for GSM and DLPs used in high-def TV. TI's largest competitor, Qualcomm (QCOM), trades at a premium at 31.4x versus 18.4x for TI due in part to the outperformance of the 3G market worldwide over GSM. Separately, TI also announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the company to repurchase an additional $5 billion of common stock. --Kimberly DuBord, Briefing.com>>