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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GVTucker who wrote (80421)	5/4/1999 10:06:00 PM
From: VICTORIA GATE, MD	Respond to of 186894

''We are calling it a Q4 financial update,'' said a spokesman for National, Tuesday May 4 9:17 PM ET National Semi Plans Financial Update Wednesday SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM - news), a maker of diverse computer chips, said it will host a conference call with analysts Wednesday morning, amid rumors that it is looking at selling off parts of its Cyrix business. The company said it will issue a press release at 745 EDT, to be followed by a conference call with analysts at 830 EDT. ''We are calling it a Q4 financial update,'' said a spokesman for National, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif. National's fourth quarter ends May 31 and it is expected to report fourth quarter earnings on June 11. Some analysts said that they expect National to say that its struggling Cyrix processor business is losing market share and performing worse than expected, due to tougher price competition with Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news) Its analog chip business is believed to be robust. Analysts also said they are anticipating the company to unveil its strategy for its Cyrix unit, which makes clones of Intel processors, amid a slew of rumors in recent weeks. ''There have been rumors in the last few weeks about the Cyrix business,'' said Scott Randall, an analyst with SoundView Financial Group. ''The rumors have ranged from selling the whole thing to parts of it.'' Another analyst who asked not to be named said it is also possible that National could announce the sale of its state-of-the-art fabrication facility in Portland, Maine, or potentially more layoffs. ''We do think there will be some strategic action, we just don't know the nature of the action,'' said the analyst. Analysts said they would be surprised if National sold off the entire Cyrix business, because National is developing system-on-a-chip products with Cyrix technology -- processors with many functions for low-cost appliances and computers. ''I'd expect them to keep the system-on-a-chip products, however the commodity clone products are likely to go elsewhere, or who knows what they plan to do with it,'' said the analyst.