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Technology Stocks : Texas Instruments - Good buy now or should we wait? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Keith Fauci who wrote (4401)	4/20/1999 7:39:00 PM
From: Patriarch	Respond to of 6180

INTERVIEW-TI sees digital, analog growth April 20, 1999 06:46 PM By Marcus Kabel DALLAS, April 20 (Reuters) - Computer chip maker, Texas Instruments, flush from a strong first quarter, expects sales of its main digital and analog products to outpace the growth of the overall market this year, Chief Financial Officer Bill Aylesworth said Tuesday. Aylesworth for the first time named numbers for that sales growth, saying TI aimed to raise revenues from so-called digital signal processors (DSP) more than 25 percent for the year and from analog chips more than 16 percent. Digital signal processors, chips that translate electronic signals into digital data that computers understand, and analog semiconductors, are core components of mobile phones and a host of other communications devices. Ayelsworth said he endorsed industry estimates that the overall DSP market would grow by 25 percent this year, as against "higher single digit" growth in 1998, and analog sales would increase 16 percent after declining 3-4 percent last year. "Our intention is for TI's revenues to grow faster than each of those market spaces in DSP and analog in 1999," Aylesworth told Reuters after the company released its first quarter results. "The way we are positioned, we are confident that we can do that," he added. Texas Instruments on Tuesday posted first-quarter results that easily exceeded Wall Street estimates and the company predicted a stronger second quarter with increased revenues and semiconductor orders. Excluding a special charge of $41 million, earnings were $233 million, or 65 cents per share - an increase of 48 percent from 44 cents in the year-ago quarter, the company said. The First Call consensus of Wall Street analysts for operating earnings was 61 cents per share. Net income rose to $233 million from $11 million in the year-earlier quarter, but net income for the first quarter of 1998 included a pretax charge of $244 million for discontinuance of the company's U.S. DRAM manufacturing unit. Aylesworth said the heart of TI's growth was its DSP and analog business, which became the company's strategic focus after it sold its large but loss-making DRAM memory chip division last year. "The market for digital cell phones especially is continuing to grow at very rapid rates and TI is benefiting from that," he said, noting industry estimates that the number of digital phones sold worldwide would grow 50 percent this year. "The other related thing that we will take some credit for is that TI is the clear leader in terms of being the chip supplier of choice to that wireless market," he said. Aylesworth said TI already provides the DSP chip at the heart of digital cellphones in six out of 10 units sold around the world. "We think we're actually increasing that share over time," he said. "In addition, we ship a significant number of the analog chips that go in in various functions in a digital cell phone." ((Dallas newsroom, 972 980 4192, fax 972 233 3165)) REUTERS