To: Will Lyons who wrote (26802 ) 12/1/1998 9:22:00 PM From: Proud_Infidel Respond to of 70976
More guidance from INTC Tuesday regarding Asia: MADRAS, India, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Intel Corp INTC.O said on Tuesday sales of its computer chips in Asia was keeping pace with global sales growth in the fourth quarter of 1998. "In the fourth quarter, our business in Asia is definitely growing as fast as it is growing elsewhere," John Davies, Intel's vice-president and general manager, Asia Pacific, told a news conference in the southern Indian city of Madras. The world's largest computer chip maker said last month it expected fourth quarter revenues to be between eight and 10 percent above the third quarter level of $6.7 billion. Davies said the Asia Pacific region, which accounted for 20 percent of the firm's worldwide business, was seeing steady growth in personal computer (PC) sales. "PC sales is certainly growing, though not as fast as was predicted in 1997, when some people predicted growth of as much as 30 percent," he said. Intel revised its fourth quarter sales figures upward due to a rebound in demand. Davies said the Asia Pacific region had notched up a quarter of a billion dollars in Intel's electronic commerce billings since its launch in July, making it the world leader for Intel's new Internet-based business. "The goal is to get over 60 percent of our accounts online by end 1998 and we'll be adding a lot of countries from the region early next year and India is one of them." The chip-maker's director of South Asia, Atul Vijaykar, said the firm had held preliminary talks with the Indian authorities and was hopeful of clearances to start electronic commerce from the country, in early 1999. India currently does not permit commercial transactions overthe Internet. REUTERSRtr 12:50 12-01-98