Posted on Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 18:01 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Intel announced preliminary fourth-quarter financial results today, the chip giant expects a revenue of $8.2 billion, down 20 percent sequentially and down 23 percent year-over-year. The company explains the revenue will be lower than previous expectations, because of further weakness in demand and inventory reductions by its customers in the global PC supply chain.
The preliminary estimate of gross margin for the fourth quarter is at the bottom of the previous expectation of 55 percent, plus or minus a couple of points.
As a result of the year-end market price of Clearwire Corporation stock, Intel will impair the value of its investment, resulting in a non-cash charge to fourth-quarter earnings of approximately $950 million. The company now expects the net gain or loss from equity investments and interest and other to be a loss of between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion versus a previous expectation of a loss of approximately $50 million.
Spending (R&D plus MG&A) is expected to be approximately $2.6 billion, lower than the previous expectation of approximately $2.8 billion.
Restructuring and asset impairment charges are expected to be approximately $250 million, unchanged.
Intel will announce its fourth-quarter earnings on January 15.
