(Reuters) – Advanced Micro Devices Inc may make some of its largest inroads into the fast-growing laptop computer market thanks to a new generation of power-efficient chips to be unveiled next week.

People familiar with the matter who work for AMD said the company’s latest microprocessors are expected to be included in 109 mainstream laptop models in the coming months, the company’s best showing during the crucial back-to-school sales season. Last year, AMD’s chips were available in 40 laptop models.

“This is the first time we’ve seen this much attention to our notebooks,” the source said, referencing the company’s laptop chips.

And while shifts in market share are yet to be seen, “typically more design wins dictates more sales,” the source said, adding the company’s offerings are growing steadily across the major PC manufacturers.

The perennial second-fiddle to market giant Intel Corp has struggled to gain market share within laptop PCs, which have outpaced the growth of desktop PCs in recent years.

AMD’s stock has underperformed Intel since the beginning of the year, losing 14.57 percent of its value, where Intel has gained 5.44 percent.

However, AMD’s stock more than doubled off its 52-week low of $3.22 to close Thursday’s session at $8.27 on the New York Stock Exchange.

GROWTH AND RECOGNITION

Early signs are that the new range of chips to be unveiled next week are getting positive responses from top PC makers due to AMD’s attempts to simplify its numerous offerings under its new “Vision” brand, as well as improved battery life and performance across the line, according to one of the sources.

In the first quarter of 2010, AMD represented 12.1 percent of worldwide mobile chip sales, according to IDC. Intel’s market share was 87.8 percent.

While AMD has been slowly gaining market share over the past year for both desktops and notebooks, its strength slipped in the lucrative server market, ending 2009 with 10.1 percent share compared to 13.4 percent in 2008.

Now, AMD says it’s focusing on the consumer segment, which is expected to fuel PC growth.

Latest figures from industry watcher iSuppli peg notebook PC shipments growing 25.5 percent in 2010, to 209.5 million units from last year’s 166.9 million.

The sources also told Reuters that all of the microprocessors in the forthcoming laptops will be matched with AMD’s chipsets — collections of chips that connect the microprocessing brain to other parts of the computer.

That means AMD can collect more revenue for each laptop sold than it can when its microprocessors are paired with chipsets from other companies like Nvidia Corp.

The PC makers expected to feature AMD’s new chips as early as June include Hewlett-Packard Co, Lenovo, Acer Inc, and Dell Inc, the sources said.

(Reporting by Ian Sherr; editing by Carol Bishopric)

(Originally published May 6, 2010 on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

Related posts:

1. Intel earnings good for sector despite selloff
2. INTERVIEW-GlobalFoundries merging operations with Chartered-CEO
3. Can Nvidia power through a fading product line?

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – As Apple Inc gears up for the crush of customers expected for Saturday’s iPad launch, employees who staff its retail stores are just as curious about the tablet as the fans who will line up outside.

Apple store workers say they have yet to see or touch the iPad, even though the launch is just days away and they are being trained and encouraged to talk about Apple’s newest device with customers.

“We haven’t seen it; we never do” before a product is launched, said one employee, who asked not to be identified because workers are barred from speaking with the media. “Every store employee I know, including the managers, they haven’t seen it.”

With its notoriously secretive corporate culture, Apple is loathe to circulate any iPads among retail troops ahead of the debut. Even in-store Apple repair techs — known as “geniuses” — don’t yet know how to fix the gadget.

Since the iPhone launch in June 2007, Apple product releases have played out like concert tours, with fans sleeping in lines overnight and blanket media coverage that generates plenty of free advertising.

But amidst all the hype, the company’s ethos of secrecy extends from its corporate perch in Cupertino, California, to its component suppliers and its network of more than 200 U.S. stores.

“We did not see or hold an iPhone until an hour before it went on sale,” said a former Apple store employee. “We didn’t know much more about it than people asking us.”

Major products are usually unveiled by Chief Executive Steve Jobs at special media events, and most retail employees are kept in the dark until the devices are publicly available.

“There was really no word on anything,” said another former store worker of the iPhone launch. “We saw a video of the keynote, and that was basically all you knew.”

GUARDS AND DECOYS

The iPad is Apple’s most significant product launch since the iPhone. Starting at $499, analysts estimate Apple could sell from 850,000 to 1.2 million units of the 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet in the April-June quarter.

Apple’s U.S. stores will open at 9 a.m. on Saturday but the company has provided few details about the launch.

If the iPhone debut is any guideline, Apple will have guards and decoys in place to hold the iPad’s secrets.

At one store, Apple arranged to have two pallets arrive the day before the iPhone launch, placing one in the manager’s office and the other in the stock room, both under the watchful eye of security cameras. Staff said one was filled with iPhones and the other was a decoy to discourage nosy employees.

A former assistant manager at an Apple store was ordered to remain at work all night before the iPhone launch, and given strict directions that only managers were allowed to see the smartphone, right up until just before they went on sale.

“We were told to stay overnight to guard them, to make sure nobody broke in and got to them. It was all a bit insane, but it wasn’t really surprising at the time,” he said. “It did put me off a little, but then you would read about something being leaked and you realize why they did it.”

Retail employees are in many ways the public face of Apple, charged with spreading the gospel about the company’s products to tens of millions of shoppers every year. Store staff, including part-time workers, have to sign nondisclosure agreements and can be fired for talking to outsiders.

They are paid around $10 an hour for entry-level work to over $30 a hour for those who staff the “Genius Bars” where customers come looking for help.

Tech savviness is not necessarily the top priority when it comes to hiring, according to the former assistant manager. He said there was a running joke about “Gapple” because his store often mined The Gap casual wear retail chain for potential employees.

“We looked for people who were passionate about Apple, people who would be comfortable selling the product,” he said.

Employees get a 25 percent discount on iPods and Macs, but none for the iPhone. Employees said they have not yet been told whether they will get a discount for the iPad.

One of the former employees said Apple stores were a fun, upbeat place to work, despite the strictness over secrecy.

“I understand why they do it. They give you just a little bit of a peek, just to tease you,” he said. “It drives people crazy but at the same time it generates all this interest. It’s human nature.”

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway and Ian Sherr; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Richard Chang)

(Originally published March 30, 2010 on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – To get accurate projections for Intel Corp, Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang often finds himself hopping on a plane to Asia.

Wang — who normally crafts complex mathematical models and pores over financial statements — finds, in Intel’s case, it helps to use his fluent Chinese to gather information directly from its customers: top computer manufacturers in the Orient.

“They’re just such a large semiconductor company and to get color in terms of the overall scale, you need that,” he said.

Wang and many other analysts’ predicament may underscore why the world’s top chip maker has beaten expectations in six of the last eight quarters. More than 80 percent of its sales are abroad. Analysts estimate over half its revenue comes from less transparent markets such as China, Africa and India.

Many analysts rely on “channel checks” — surveys of vendors and distributors to gauge supply and demand — but Intel’s case is further complicated by the preponderance of “white-box” manufacturers in those emerging markets: local mass producers of unbranded computers.

Unlike more developed markets such as North America and Europe, where large computer manufacturers release regular sales numbers, many Asian, African and South American countries are dominated by smaller local players.

Intel estimates white-box outfits buy 25 percent to 30 percent of all the chips it sells each quarter.

On April 13, Intel is expected to post $9.80 billion in revenue, and earnings of roughly 37 cents per share, excluding items, in the first quarter of 2010, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“There are countries that analysts tend to overlook because you only have a finite amount of time,” said Real World Technologies analyst David Kanter. “It’s hard to get information there because you’re not going to go to Brazil to talk to a bunch of white-box vendors.”

Yet that’s exactly what many, like Wang, have to do.

RISING DEMAND, LOWER CLARITY

According to Thomson Reuters Starmine, an earnings surprise is likely in the first quarter. Starmine’s SmartEstimate, which places more weight on recent forecasts by top-rated analysts, predicts Intel will post earnings per share about 1 percent above the Street’s average projection.

Demand is rising for computers as more of the world comes online. But many of the Internet’s newest entrants are in locations remote enough that larger manufacturers haven’t yet established a presence, so their market is instead flooded with small generic manufacturers — the veritable black hole of sales into which analysts rarely see.

“It’s so diverse and there are so many different channel players in all different segments in so many different countries, and that’s what makes it complicated to put a sticker on,” admitted Maurits Tichelman, Intel’s director of channel sales.

Markets tend to become easier to read as the industry develops. Insiders at both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc say consumers in developing markets tend to prefer white-box computers, but as their quality of life improves, so, too, does their hunger for portable devices.

Laptops tend to be the domain of major brands, so visibility into sales channels typically improve. Companies like Hewlett-Packard Co, Acer Inc, Toshiba Corp, Dell Inc and Apple Inc all report data that help analysts peer into Intel’s sales volumes.

But if multinationals don’t — or can’t — immediately move in, dominant local players rise instead. After all, Intel’s Tichelman said, Lenovo Group started as a local Intel partner in China; now it’s the world’s No. 4 computer maker.

IDC analyst Shane Rau said the sheer size of the Chinese market, and the country’s own efforts to build as many computer parts as possible within its borders, is leaving another opportunity for surprise.

IDC employs dozens of analysts on the ground, providing first-hand knowledge of the market. But if demand were to surge or drop abruptly, analysts could still miss it, he said.

“There are so many little channel players out there that it’s not entirely clear where all the processors are going.”

Hence Wang’s willingness to cross half the globe from his base in New York to Shanghai.

On a chilly November day in 2009, the 29-year-old sat in a taxi in bumper-to-bumper traffic, preparing for a meeting with product managers for several distributors and, of course, an appointment with Intel.

But even that may not be enough.

“There’s no way to get a good cross section of how those sales are doing,” he said. “You’ll never get a full picture of things.”

(Editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)

(Originally published Sunday, March 28 on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

Related posts:

1. Intel earnings good for sector despite selloff
2. Apple’s iPad: trouble for Intel’s mobile push?
3. AMD chips to be in many more PCs this summer – sources

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – ANALYSIS – When Apple Inc unveiled its iPad last month, one crucial detail almost got drowned out in the hoopla: the new tablet computer will be powered by an in-house chip called the A4.

While Apple likely will not market the chip publicly, analysts say the new processor underscores how rival chip designs may eventually win out over Intel Corp’s designs in the emergent hot category of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

Intel says the first smartphones using its chips go on sale by 2010′s second half, as it tries to stake out a corner in the wireless market and replicate what it did for the formerly red-hot netbook category it now almost completely dominates.

But analysts point to an uphill battle against Nvidia Corp, Marvell and Qualcomm Inc, already making headway with cheaper, low-power processors based on designs by ARM Holdings PLC.

“They (Intel) don’t have a track record in delivering these types of chips,” said Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang. “They haven’t been successful in the past, and they’re trying to get in.”

Not much is known of the A4 — the brainchild of Apple design teams including recently acquired PA Semi — except that it gives the iPad a long battery life and is considered comparable to rival processors in both speed and performance.

That Apple went its own way illustrates how specialized chip design may be more suitable for the burgeoning mobile market than Intel’s do-everything approach.

The difficulty, analysts say, is Intel keeps trying to leverage its x86 technology, on which the more powerful processors that drive eight out of 10 personal computers worldwide is based.

“If you look at the stuff Intel’s put out there at previous press events and developer forums, you see mobile Internet devices that are kind of clunky, really thick, low-battery life type of devices,” Wang said. “They’ve been worried.”

Intel-based tablet laptops have been sold without huge success for nearly a decade. Apple uses Intel chips in its Macintosh personal computers and servers.

A NEW FRONTIER

Since 2007, Intel has been making a strong push into mobile devices with processors designed specifically for wireless products like netbook PCs and handheld Internet gadgets. Its Atom mobile chip began selling in 2008, and has taken the low-cost, no-frills netbook market by storm, powering tiny computers just enough to run Microsoft Corp’s Windows system to check email, surf the Web, and create documents.

But with analysts predicting slowing netbook sales growth, Intel wants to convince device makers that its chips are the best bet for the new breed of handheld gadgets.

And there is a reason: at an investor meeting in May, Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said the smartphone chip market and the low-cost netbook chip market each will amount to $10 billion in 2011.

To date, Intel has sold just shy of 55 million chips for netbooks and other mobile devices. About 3 million were targeted at handheld Internet products, although Mercury Research analyst Dean McCarron said many of them most likely ended up in low-end netbooks instead.

Now Apple’s iPad is expected to cement consumer demand for a new class of tablet-style computers and e-readers. IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell said his firm predicted Apple will sell 3 million to 4 million iPads this year compared to an estimated 35 million netbooks and 165 million notebooks expected to be sold in 2010.

But sales of mobile Internet gadgets like tablets are expected to leap several-fold over the course of coming years — an emerging battleground for chipmakers.

Nvidia recently became popular for this new generation of mobile devices with its Tegra platform, which offers graphics married to a processing brain based on designs licensed from ARM. Nvidia expects its mobile-focused platform will pull in at least $200 million in revenue in 2010, and to represent as much as half the company’s revenue in a few years. In fiscal 2009 the company had overall revenue of $3.45 billion.

But just as Apple shunned Intel for the iPad, most tablet and smartphone manufacturers have chosen to build products containing ARM-based products.

“For Intel, there’s an implication that there’s a lot of the computing world you don’t need an x86 for,” said Auriga analyst Daniel Berenbaum.

Instead of relying on Intel’s trademark power, performance, and multi-tasking technologies, he said, most smartphones and mobile devices marketed in the last year have primarily been designed around simple tasks such as watching movies, listening to music, surfing the Web, or flipping through photos — all without draining too much battery power.

That includes Apple, whose self-designed A4 is rumored to be included in the next iPhone, expected this summer.

“If it’s a reminder that Intel is not ready for this kind of prime time, it is a sign that ARM is upscaling,” said IDC analyst Shane Rau. “It’s a sign that the ARM ecosystem is executing.”

(Reporting by Ian Sherr; Editing by Edwin Chan, Phil Berlowitz)

(Originally published February 3, 2010 on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

Related posts:

1. Nvidia changing direction
2. Delving into Intel’s results? Try flying to China
3. INTERVIEW – Intel sees corporate PC recovery in 18 months

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Stellar results from Intel Corp could signal brighter tech earnings results in coming weeks, but analysts warn stocks themselves may be stuck in a short-term correction.

Intel shares fell more than 3 percent even after analysts from Credit Suisse, Raymond James and JMP Securities, among others, raised their price targets on the stock. JMP Securities and Thinkequity raised their ratings to “outperform” and “buy” respectively.

The broader market was down on Friday as losses from JP Morgan Chase & Co helped drag the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite down 1.24 percent.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang expected a short-term correction for Intel and many other semiconductor stocks as Wall Street locks in profits after a solid fourth-quarter showing from the world’s largest chipmaker.

“Buy on the rumor, sell on the news,” he said, adding that semiconductor stocks have had a good run when put in the perspective of downgrades from both Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch before Intel reported stellar earnings.

“There’s no rhyme or reason behind the weakness here except that expectations are up and people are taking profits,” Wang said.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rallied almost more than 15 percent over the holiday quarter and the intervening days before Intel’s earnings announcement; the Nasdaq Composite rallied almost 12 percent.

But, despite indicators of strong demand and low inventories heading into the Chinese New Year, semiconductor stocks fell uniformly across the board, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down 3.44 percent to 344.67. The shares of Intel arch-foe Advanced Micro Devices Inc closed down 1.78 percent at $8.84, graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp was down 2.95 percent to $17.11 and Xilinx Inc was down 2.45 percent to $23.52.

TECH OUTLOOK TO IMPROVE

Longer term, Intel’s better-than-expected outlook and results helped cement hopes of a strong tech sector recovery, as corporations join consumers in opening their coffers in a rebounding economy.

“Intel set the tone,” said Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Tristan Gerra.

He expected to see most semiconductor stocks beat fourth quarter earnings expectations, with guidance for the first quarter that will push consensus numbers to rise. But “I don’t think it’s going to be nearly with the same type of magnitude that Intel reported last night.”

In a post-earnings note to investors, FBR Capital Markets’ Craig Berger expected Intel’s earnings to foreshadow good news for its rivals and peers.

“We upgraded shares of AMD from Market Perform to Outperform,” he wrote, adding that Intel’s blowout revenue and profit results gave him more confidence that Advanced Micro Devices was also benefiting from a robust PC market.

(Reporting by Ian Sherr; editing by Andre Grenon)

(Originally published Jan. 15, 2009, on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

Related posts:

1. Delving into Intel’s results? Try flying to China
2. INTERVIEW – Intel sees corporate PC recovery in 18 months
3. Brocade’s late earnings release raises eyebrows

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – GlobalFoundries plans to merge its operations with recently acquired Chartered Semiconductor, creating a single contract chipmaker with more than $2 billion of revenue to take on market leaders TSMC and UMC.

GlobalFoundries, a joint venture of Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Abu Dhabi-backed Advanced Technology Investment Co, is already beginning to work with suppliers and partners as one company, GlobalFoundries Chief Executive Doug Grose told Reuters in an interview.

The company is working to consolidate all its relationships where possible over the next few months, he said.

GlobalFoundries will officially announce its merger plans on Wednesday.

“We’re on a very fast pace to build a pretty good sized company with a full breadth of capability,” Grose added. “We feel really good about bringing the capabilities at Chartered and what we had at GlobalFoundries.”

Grose also said that GlobalFoundries is not eyeing any more mergers or acquisitions, nor an initial public offering for now. Currently, the manufacturer represents roughly $10 billion in investments.

Although chips rolling off former Chartered assembly lines will be marked with the new company’s name within the month, Grose said the two entities are not entirely integrated.

“We’ve got to get the investments correct, get the  capacity in place, satisfy the customers that we do have, get the two companies integrated,” he said. “We’ve got enough operational things to focus on and get those investments in place so that the point that we can show profitability.”

Grose added that where the two companies had previous relationships with the same customer, the merger will simply expand that agreement.

THE FAB AND THE FABLESS

Grose also said that AMD will reduce its stake in the company over time, and continue to focus on chip design.

GlobalFoundries will not only produce the computer’s brains, called microprocessors, for AMD, but it will also manufacture separate graphics chips for AMD’s ATI visual chip division sometime in the future.

“Broadening the customer base, as we now have with a combined entity, helps AMD from the standpoint of pushing capacity and more and more capability,” Grose said. “Customers are willing to pay for entry into leading-edge capability.”

(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

(Originally published on Jan 12,  2009, on the wire at Reuters News as exclusive “INTERVIEW” content.)

Related posts:

1. AMD chips to be in many more PCs this summer – sources

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Graphics microchip maker Nvidia Corp is a company in transition.

The Santa Clara-based company halted development for one of its largest units in October, raising questions about whether the unit’s product sales would slowly tail off or sales would drop off a cliff.

And, if they did, could the company’s products in new market segments gain enough traction to make up the difference?

A FUTURE UNCERTAIN

“People are hoping for too much from the company, and aren’t incorporating enough risk into the view of the company’s future,” said FTN Capital Markets analyst Joanne Feeney, who is one of three analysts with “sell” or “underperform” ratings on the stock, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Sixteen say to hold.

Shares are closing at nearly 18 times consensus earnings estimates for 2011, she said, which is at the very high end of its historical range, excluding bubble years.

Feeney, who does not hold any shares of the stock, also said there was considerable uncertainty around Nvidia’s new products for supercomputing and mobile devices.

Executives told analysts earlier in the year they expect Nvidia’s “Tegra” mobile device products to pull in at least $200 million in revenues next year, with a run-rate of $125 million in next year’s fourth quarter. Additionally, Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang told Reuters in October that the company’s “Tesla” supercomputing chips were netting $10 million.

But, Feeney said, that is all stacked against what she calls the “forthcoming demise” of Nvidia’s chipset business due to a legal dispute with Intel Corp.

Chipsets are collections of chips on a board that connect a microprocessing brain to other parts of a computer.

As a result, Feeney expects profits next year to be roughly half the Wall Street consensus forecast. On average, Wall Street analysts are expecting Nvidia to earn 73 cents per share for fiscal 2011, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Feeney expects 42 cents.

As Intel begins to integrate the central microprocessor, or computer’s brain, with lower-performance basic, or integrated, graphics chips in the near future, Nvidia’s products will likely suffer, she said.

Unless the graphics maker is able to resolve its disputes with Intel, its chipset business could fade in a little more than a year.

And, she expects the company to lose share on its core consumer graphics card business as well, which could only add to lost business from the higher-margin professional chips, which saw a drop due to recessionary spending freezes.

“Their only hope is that workstation comes back and Tesla does well,” she said.

BETTER THAN YOU WOULD EXPECT

Needham & Co analyst Rajvindra Gill takes a different view of Nvidia’s chipset business.

While he still sees a decline similar to other analysts, he believes that it will happen slowly, over a couple of years, and that the product’s likely demise has already been factored into the stock price.

And, he adds, Nvidia has a strong customer in Apple Inc, which is not likely to use Intel’s basic integrated graphics.

“There are no signs Apple is moving to Intel’s integrated graphics,” Gill said, adding that Apple’s computers represent 51 percent of Nvidia’s chipset business.

Gill, who does not own Nvidia stock, expects Apple’s portion of the graphics company’s chipset sales to grow 6 percent to 8 percent annually in the next year, thanks to the iPod maker’s laptop sales.

He added that while Nvidia’s non-Apple business will likely decline some 15 percent over the same period, it won’t be dramatic.

“I don’t think a third of their revenue is going to fall off a cliff — that’s a completely unrealistic knee-jerk reaction,” Gill said.

He is one of eight analysts with a “buy” or “strong buy” rating on the stock, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S,

Gill also said that demand for Nvidia’s main product — graphics chips for editing video, playing games, and other high performance computing tasks — will increase in 2010 because of the needs of Microsoft Corp’s Windows 7 and Apple OS X “Snow Leopard” operating systems.

And, he said, Nvidia also stands to benefit when shoppers start buying more notebooks again, instead of netbooks, as prices of better components fall.

Nvidia shares rose 2.5 percent to $14.18 — down 14.5 percent from their 12-month high of $16.58 — on the Nasdaq. (Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

(Originally published December 4, 2009, on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

Related posts:

1. Nvidia changing direction
2. Apple’s iPad: trouble for Intel’s mobile push?
3. AMD chips to be in many more PCs this summer – sources

MILPITAS, Calif. (Reuters) – The rapid proliferation of multimedia and Web-ready consumer devices such as smartphones is underpinning a gradual uptick in corporate spending and spurring growth for specialty chipmakers, the top executive at industry player LSI Corp said.

The company, which competes with the likes of Marvell Technology Group Ltd to make chips for computer servers and storage devices, wants to continue to hitch a ride on that wave of consumer devices by providing chips for network and data infrastructure, said Chief Executive Abhi Talwalkar.

“There’s richer content flowing through networks,” he said in an interview at LSI’s offices in Silicon Valley.

“Just the push of richer PDAs (handheld devices), and the growing mix of PDAs as a percentage of overall mobile subscribers — that in itself is driving tremendous requirements,” he added, referring to both network infrastructure and data storage for Internet-centric devices.

Analysts say the “smartphone” segments are poised for more growth. Competition from the likes of Apple Inc’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and Palm Inc’s Pre have turned a once nascent market into a thriving business with billions of dollars in sales.

The growing demands of video communication and Internet-centric portable devices have increasingly spurred demand for more servers, communications equipment and storage in past years, and the trend is set to continue, he said.

Talwalkar declined to predict when industry revenues will return to pre-recession levels.

In 2008, LSI’s revenue exceeded $2.67 billion in a market worth $11 billion to $12 billion. Analysts expect LSI to rack up just under $2.21 billion in revenue in 2009, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“We’re penetrating 20, maybe 22 percent in our market,” Talwalkar said. “We’ve got plenty of room to grow across all our categories in storage and networking.”

He also said that while the technology sector has seen a spate of recent acquisitions, LSI does not plan to make any more in the near future.

“After nine acquisitions and two divestitures in the last four years, we’re in the best position the company’s been in years,” he said.

(Reporting by Ian Sherr; Editing by Richard Chang)

(Originally published December 3, 2009, on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

Related posts:

1. INTERVIEW-GlobalFoundries merging operations with Chartered-CEO

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Brocade Communications Systems Inc has pushed its fourth-quarter earnings release to three hours after the close of market on Monday, an unusual move that surprised some analysts and investors.

Most large technology companies report their results and hold their conference calls on the same day.

Analysts were left puzzled by the decision to post the results at 7 p.m. EST (2400 GMT), long after most U.S. traders have left the office. The company said its conference call with analysts will follow at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) on Tuesday.

“They’ve never done that before,” said Robert Baird analyst Jayson Noland, adding that he declined to speculate on why the change had happened. “There are companies that do that every quarter but most don’t.”

Brocade could not immediately be reached for comment.

Analysts on average expect Brocade to report earnings per share of 13 cents, excluding items, and revenue of $521.09 million for its fiscal fourth quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. That would compare to 20 cents per share and revenue of 398.50 million a year ago.

The company recently drew a lot of interest from Wall Street when rumors about a possible acquisition by Hewlett-Packard drove up the stock. But Brocade shares plunged nearly 13 percent after HP’s announcement last week that it would buy 3Com Corp.

HP is also scheduled to report quarterly results after the market closes on Monday.

JMP Securities equities researcher Douglas Ireland suggested that Brocade might be trying to avoid an HP clash.

“Everyone who would be listening to the Brocade call will be listening to the HP call instead,” Ireland said. “Nobody’s going to pay attention to Brocade and ignore HP.”

Tobacco makers Philip Morris International and Reynolds American had conference calls scheduled for the same time this summer, until one finally rescheduled.

With HP buying 3Com, analysts say Brocade is likely to focus on its new relationship with Dell Inc .

“They’re going to hope to get some of that HP-love that they lost through this Dell story,” said Ireland.

But that is not expected to stop investors from raising concerns over the fallout from the HP-3Com deal.

“Questioning from investors will be around what happens, and ‘You don’t have HP now, does that change your strategy?’” said Jefferies & Co analyst Munjal Shah. “The questioning will be around HP, but at the end of the day the results will matter next week.”

While it is unusual for a technology company to report earnings and hold a conference call the next day, public real estate companies see this practice as the rule rather than the exception. Companies from Boston Properties to Jones Lang LaSalle to SL Green all hold their conference calls the day after they release earnings.

(Reporting by Ian Sherr; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

(Originally published November 23, 2009 on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

Related posts:

1. Intel earnings good for sector despite selloff

SANTA CLARA, California (Reuters) – Intel Corp’s (INTC.O) chief financial officer said the chipmaker is on track to meet its fourth-quarter outlook and said a recovery in corporate spending on PCs could happen in the next 18 months.

“I think the ingredients are being put in place that will lead to a PC refresh cycle in large enterprises,” Stacy Smith told Reuters on Friday, adding that when the buying starts, it tends to include a lot of demand.

“The question is: is that the second half of 2010, is it 2011?” Smith, 47, said in an interview at Intel’s headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley. “I don’t think anybody can tell you they know the answer to that question.”

Analysts have said that Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) release of its Windows 7 operating system last month could trigger demand for new personal computers, but that it would take time due to the weak economy.

Smith said Windows 7 has had only a “slight net positive” impact so far in the fourth quarter, which is seasonally strong due to the end-year holiday shopping season.

“For the PC market, or for the segment of the market we play in, we would typically see a fourth quarter that’s up about 7 percent in terms of revenue,” he said. “That’s the mid-point of our guidance and everything we’ve seen so far is consistent with that guidance.”

Intel, whose microprocessors are found in 80 percent of the world’s personal computers, has forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $10.1 billion plus or minus $400 million, and said gross margin should be 62 percent plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The company blew past Wall Street forecasts when it announced third-quarter earnings in October, setting the stage for a PC sector recovery.

Smith said spending on server hardware has remained relatively strong, with much of the rest of coming from consumers.

PHONES STOPPED RINGING

During the recession, Intel had seen an “extraordinary falloff” of business in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year, leading the supply chain to react quickly, Smith said.

“We saw that as this kind of bullwhip effect where the phones just stopped ringing and the order desk just went quiet,” he said.

Throughout the economic downturn, the one bright spot in the PC industry has been netbooks, which are mini-laptops.

While netbooks typically sell at lower prices than their laptop brethren, Smith said Intel’s Atom chips — which are designed for use in smaller mobile devices — have helped to solidify some of the company’s long-term outlook.

“A year ago, I would have been much more vague, or much less convinced in my conviction that the gross margin profile would have been the same,” he said, speaking of the company’s Atom chip. “As we’ve ramped and as we’ve seen the market tick up, I have a much higher level of confidence.”

While Intel forecast its fourth-quarter gross margin of 62 percent, plus or minus 3 percentage points, an Intel spokeswoman said on Monday the company’s historically normal corporate gross margin is between 50 percent and 60 percent and likely will not change for the next five years.

“When I look out across the next five years in my crystal ball, I don’t see a gross margin profile that’s different from the profile we’ve seen in the past five years,” Smith said in the interview.

Intel’s factory utilization rates have begun to return to normal, from historically low levels during the downturn. The company is returning to its targeted “sweet spot” range of 80 percent to 90 percent, the executive said.

Shares of Intel closed up 0.71 percent at $19.82 on Friday, having gained 64 percent from their year-low in February.

(Reporting by Ian Sherr; Editing by Tiffany Wu, Matthew Lewis, Gary Hill and Carol Bishopric)

(Originally published November 13, 2009, on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

Related posts:

1. Intel earnings good for sector despite selloff