By Stevie Smith Jan 16, 2009, 12:57 GMT
With market demand for semiconductors stuck in a slump, Intel Corp., the world’s biggest chipmaker, has today confirmed a whopping 90 percent plunge in its fourth quarter earnings.
Arriving as the latest technology heavyweight to show the strain of ongoing economic pressures, Santa Clara-based Intel has reported Q4 net income of $234 million USD (ending on December 27), which is a sizeable year-on-year drop when measured against the $2.27 billion USD it posted in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Sales for Q4, 2008, amounted to $8.2 billion USD, a year-on-year drop of $2.5 billion USD, which equates to a significant failing of 23 percent.
According to Intel, “slowing of the worldwide economy resulted in a weak fourth quarter,” for the company, which marked the first time in two decades that its third-quarter earnings were not surpassed by the fourth quarter.
While Intel is showing something of a reticence to issue an official revenue outlook for the first quarter of 2009, Wall Street analysts are predicting that the microchip manufacturer will report Q1 figures of around $7.3 billion USD, reports CNN Money.
Although poor demand for semiconductor technology is expected to continue, Intel maintains that its profits could well regain a “healthy range” during the latter half of 2009.
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