Optoelectronic parts maker Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday said it is expecting “moderate growth” for this quarter, after the past quarter’s results fell to their lowest in eight quarters.
The company said in a statement that it is confident in achieving solid performance from its core businesses for this quarter and there are signs of stable demand in the global PC market.
The company's six major growth drivers — cloud computing, mobile devices, LED lighting, solid-state drives, automobile electronics, and game consoles — accounted for 50 percent of its total revenue in the first quarter.
“Moderate growth of both sales and profit are expected in the second quarter, as a result of core business development,” the Neihu Science Park-based firm said.
Given lower seasonal demand, fewer working days in February and corporate restructuring, Lite-On’s net income fell to NT$1.43 billion (US$47.3 million) with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$0.62 for the first three months of the year — the lowest since the second quarter of 2012.
The results were 43 percent less than the NT$2.52 billion profit in the final quarter of last year and 9.5 percent lower than the NT$1.58 billion profit in the same period of last year.
Ahead of the release of its results, UBS Securities estimated a net income of NT$1.38 billion or NT$0.6 per share for Lite-On, compared with the NT$1.57 billion or NT$0.67 per share forecast by Capital Securities Corp (群益證券).
Lite-On Technology has integrated its two subsidiaries — Finland-based subsidiary Lite-On Mobile Corp and Taiwan's Silitech Technology Corp (閎暉) — into a new business unit as the company is seeking better profitability in the mobile device business. But analysts said it would take time to see real progress in its restructuring efforts.
In the first three months, consolidated revenue was NT$51.74 billion with a growth of 10.6 percent year-on-year, but that figure was down 12.84 percent quarterly.
Despite the annual increase in revenue in the first quarter, gross margin fell by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year to 12.4 percent for the quarter and operating margin dropped by 1.8 percentage points to 2.7 percent over the same period, the company said.
Lite-On Technology shares closed 0.64 percent higher at NT$47 yesterday in Taipei trading ahead of the release of its first-quarter results. The stock has declined 8.91 percent over the past 12 months, compared with the broader market’s 6.91 percent increase over the same period.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to