Atmel to concentrate capital expenditures on .25mu and .35mu processes:
PR Newswire, Tuesday, January 06, 1998 at 16:50
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML)
announced today that revenues for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 1997
are expected to be flat with that reported for its third quarter, ended
September 30, 1997. In the September quarter, the Company reported revenues
of $240,050,000. The Company also expects to report a loss in the fourth
quarter due to charges relating to accounts receivable, inventory and
consolidation of its Fab operations in France. It is estimated that these
charges will amount to approximately $160,000,000.
These statements are preliminary and subject to final audit by the
Company's independent accountants. The Company will announce actual results
for the fourth quarter on January 15, 1998 after the close of market.
The Company attributed the fourth quarter revenue outlook to the inability
of certain Asian customers to open letters of credit for orders previously
scheduled for shipment in December. Commenting on the charges in the fourth
quarter, George Perlegos, President and Cheif Executive Officer, stated, "Due
to the uncertain outlook in Asia, we felt it prudent to take a charge against
our receivables and write down our inventory to reflect lower market prices.
In addition, we are taking steps to improve the productivity and efficiency of
our French operations by concentrating all the investments and resources in
our leading edge .35 micron, eight inch fabrication plant.
"We have also taken steps to reduce our expense growth in the near term
and have lowered our capital expenditure plan to $250,000,000 in 1998 from the
original budget of $400,000,000. The expenditures in 1998 will be targeted
towards implementing .35 micron, .25 micron and CMP technologies in all of our
fabs," added Mr. Perlegos.
"The book-to-bill ratio for the quarter is expected to exceed 1.20, and
absent any further deterioration in the Asia situation, we expect to grow
revenues moderately in the first quarter of 1998. The outlook for 1998 is
somewhat uncertain at the present time, but we believe we can grow faster than
the industry average because of our focus in the wireless telecomm and
consumer markets with many of our new products, particularly the
microcontrollers, serial EEPROMs and custom ASICs," concluded Mr. Perlegos.
Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth
in this press release are forward looking statements that are subject to risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual result to differ materially,
including the impact of competitive products and pricing, timely design
acceptance by our customers, ability to ramp new products into volume,
industry wide shifts in supply and demand for semiconductor products and other
risks detailed from time to time in Atmel's SEC reports and filings.
Headquartered in San Jose, California, with principal manufacturing
facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado and in Rousset, France, Atmel
designs, develops, manufactures, and markets on a worldwide basis Flash,
EEPROMs, and EPROMs, as well as programmable logic, microcontrollers and
application-specific devices.
Atmel product and financial information can be retrieved from its
Fax-on-Demand service. In North America call 800-292-8635. International,
from a fax phone, call 408-441-0732. You can send your request via e-mail to
literature@atmel.com or visit Atmel's Web site at atmel.com
SOURCE Atmel Corporation -0- 01/06/98
/CONTACT: Kris Chellam, Chief Financial Officer, 408-436-4360, or
Suzanne Craig, Director of Investor Relations, 408-451-4811, both of Atmel
Corporation/ /Web site: atmel.com |
