Posted 11/16/08 at 07:15:04 PM by Justin Kerr

The slowdown in the economy continues to trickle down into the technology sector and new warnings have been issued for both AMD and Intel.  According to the marketing research firm IDC; "The supply chain is telling us that there is strong concern for demand decline." As a result IDC, and many other firms are cutting their processor growth forecast to around 2-5 percent for fiscal 2009.

This negative outlook on the global PC market had a crushing effect on the earnings forecasts of both companies. Investment bank Friedman Billings Ramsey has slashed its fourth-quarter earnings expectations for Intel to a meager 30 cents per share, down from a previous estimate of 36 cents. AMD also takes a hit jumping from a 19 cent per share loss to as much as 24 cents.  Obviously the situation is much worse for AMD who continues to struggle to find its way out of the red, but both companies are facing challenges.

 Wall Street analyst firm ThinkEquity predicts much of the weakness will come from softer corporate notebook demand.  According to Avon Securities; "PC OEMs...are worried about having too much inventories if end-market demand comes in materially weaker than expectations this holiday season."

Are you holding back on your PC purchases amidst the economic uncertainty? Hit the jump and help us conduct our own informal survey.

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amd, intel, hardware, Processors, consumer electronics, economy, stocks, earnings

Posted 10/26/08 at 01:55:27 PM by Justin Kerr

 

Last week we looked at the financial results for AMD which reported a fairly positive financial outlook.  Even though the company was still losing money, they had managed to bring loses under control and investors were most likely hoping Q4 2008, or Q1 2009 would see the chip maker return to profit. These hopes are slowing being dashed by new market share numbers which according to Mercury Research saw AMD’s total share drop to 17.7 percent. This is a drop from 18.8 percent in the second quarter, and a huge plunge from 25.3 percent they enjoyed in the fourth quarter of 2006.

According to Mercury a large contributor to AMD’s drop is the shift from desktop processors to mobile. For the first time, shipments of mobile parts have exceeded their desktop counterparts in the CPU market. A market where Intel is extremely dominate. AMD drastically needs to improve innovation in the laptop arena if it is to slow Intel who is posting record breaking revenues. The processor market on a whole grew 13.3 percent and according to researchers, seems to be somewhat immune to the chaos in the financial markets. AMD managed to bring about a modest increase in the server and notebook markets but this is more the result of the market growth rather than share gains. AMD’s stock price has dropped to $3.03 in afterhours trading, down from its 52 week high of $13.80.

Do you think AMD can bounce back? Hit the jump and let us know.

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amd, intel, mobile, cpu, processor, hardware, stocks

Posted 10/23/08 at 08:43:34 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Samsung has withdrawn its offer to acquire SanDisk for $5.85 billion. The decision came after SanDisk continuously maintained that the $26 per share offer was inadequate and asked for an upwards revision. Yoon Woo Lee, vice chairman and CEO at Samsung Electronics, still clings onto the belief that “a combination of our two companies would have created a superior global brand, an unparalleled technology platform and the scale and resources to drive convergence in the marketplace.” In a letter to SanDisk’s board, Lee mentioned Samsung’s obligations towards its own shareholders and the volatile economic environment as the two main reasons for not revising the bid upwards.

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samsung, Sandisk, flash, stockholders, stocks, bid, offer, shares

Posted 10/18/08 at 07:08:02 PM by Justin Kerr

AMD posted better-than-expected earnings on Thursday and proved to its chief rival Intel that they may be down, but not out. The company which has been losing money for some time now managed to make a respectable 13 cents per share which far outstripped analyst expectations of a 39 cent loss. This is good news for AMD, but the semi conductor giant isn’t out of hot water just yet. The company still posted a $67 million dollar loss, though when you compare this to the $396 million it shed in the same quarter last year it suddenly doesn’t seem so bad.

Not surprisingly, sales and margins improved mostly on the back of its graphics chip division which has made significant gains in market share at the expensive of Nvidia. Revenues rose to $1.78 billion again pulling ahead of analyst expectations of a meager $1.48 billion. AMD has stated that it expects fourth quarter earnings to be flat, and given its current processor lineup vs. Intel, not losing any further market share will indeed be a challenge. The recent announcement that will split the company in two won’t take effect until year end. AMD stock is currently trading at $4.21 down almost 50% since the beginning of the year.

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amd, intel, cpu, nvidia, processor, stocks

Posted 09/01/08 at 02:52:43 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Dell’s second quarter results fell short of expectations as its year-over-year earnings fell by 17%. Its second quarter earnings stood at $616 million as opposed to $746 million last year. But Dell’s CFO Brian Gladden doesn’t see the dip in profits as a cause for concern. He labeled the second quarter as a “great growth quarter” and imputed the fall in earnings to the money spent on driving growth in Europe. Although the company’s revenue in the second quarter was up by 11% compared to the preceding year, Wall Street pundits are unsatisfied by the results. Dell is focusing on strengthening its retail presence around the globe and expects to profit from it in the long-run. Are you bullish or bearish about Dell’s prospects? Have your say.

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dell, hardware, analysts, results, q2 2008, stocks