Intel Fourth-Quarter Sales Drop 23%, Missing Forecast (Update4)

Intel Fourth-Quarter Sales Drop 23%, Missing Forecast (Update4)
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By Ian King

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker, said fourth-quarter sales dropped 23 percent, missing a forecast that it cut by $1 billion less than two months ago as the global recession kills demand for personal computers.

The stock declined as much as 6.7 percent after Intel said revenue fell to $8.2 billion from $10.7 billion a year earlier. In November, Intel forecast sales of about $9 billion, compared with an earlier prediction of at least $10.1 billion.

Plummeting revenue at Intel, whose chips run about 80 percent of the world’s PCs, signals falling demand across the technology industry. Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini, 58, has said he expects the current U.S. recession to be the worst of his lifetime. Intel’s dominance of the processor market makes it a bellwether for technology spending, since its chips are among the first components ordered by computer manufacturers.

“If Intel is having such a tough time, I am bracing for what we will see from its peers,” said Hakim Kriout, a portfolio manager at Grigsby & Associates, a New York-based securities trading firm. “Intel’s numbers are a bad augury for things to come.”

There was “further weakness” in demand, Intel said in a statement today. The company also wrote down the value of its investment in Clearwire Corp. by $950 million.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, fell 76 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $14.61 on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 1:55 p.m. New York time. It dropped as low as $14.34 and pulled down shares of customers including Hewlett-Packard Co. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 2.5 percent to 911.13.

Industry Indicator

Intel’s sales decline surpassed the 20 percent drop it had in the fourth quarter of 2001, after the technology bubble burst. Analysts had estimated

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bah! i just posted this. i should have paid attention lol. maybe i can have Turpit delete it if i cant.

anyways...looks like a bad time to be a chip maker.

i think even that market will get affected. we havent even seen the peak of layoffs and companies going tits up. unemployed= not buying tech toys