Taiwan's top chipset maker, VIA Technologies (
The world's second largest chipset designer said sales will reach NT$3.3 billion (US$31 million) in October, nearly 10 percent lower than sales in September and the second straight month of earnings declines. After posting record August sales of NT$3.8 billion, VIA's sales have steadily dropped, as the company earned only NT$3.5 billion in September.
"We expect that revenue per month in the fourth quarter will be between NT$3 billion and NT$3.5 billion," said William Lee, a spokesman for VIA. "But the last month will be a little slower."
VIA's string of monthly sales decreases comes at time of year when demand is usually high. The back-to-school and holiday seasons usually keep demand high for personal computers through December, but this year appears to be different.
VIA sells chipsets for use in personal computers, the sets manage the flow of information between the CPU and other parts of the computer. The company has grabbed almost 50 percent of the world market for the product at Intel's expense this year, and better than expected third quarter earnings appeared to put the company on course for a record breaking year.
"We believe we will get a new record in the fourth quarter. I think it may happen in October," Richard Cheng, manager of VIA president's office said in September. The company has since dropped predictions of a record fourth quarter due to slow demand for PCs.
"We downgraded the stock seven weeks ago because of more competition and the slowed PC market," said Liu Chi-tung, an analyst at UBS Warburg who rates the stock, 'hold.' He also warned VIA will soon face more competition in the chipset business as manufacturers Nvidia Corp and Micron Technology have said they will enter the business.
Although VIA's share price has fallen 47 percent from a high of NT$466 on Sept. 5 to the closing price of NT$245 today, the stock rose NT$16 today despite news of revised Oct. earnings.
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