Intel profit rises despite flat chip sales
Intel posted a profit of $1.6 billion for the first quarter, a rise of 19 percent over that quarter last year, thanks to reduced personnel costs after recent layoffs and a $300 million tax reversal, the company said Tuesday.
Intel reported $8.9 billion in revenue for the quarter ending March 31, a drop of 1 percent from that period last year and narrowly below the average Wall Street expectation of $9 billion, according to analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Intel reported earnings per share of $0.27, an increase of 17 percent over its performance in the first quarter of 2006 and well above the average analyst forecast of $0.22 per share. However, the company reported that the tax reversal inflated its earnings figure by $0.05, so Intel would have matched the forecast exactly without that charge.
Under the strain of a price war with competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel said it had a decline in microprocessor unit sales and selling prices compared to the fourth quarter of 2006.
Prices for the new Core microarchitecture chip family “held up well in a very competitive environment,” CEO Paul Otellini said. Still, much of the company’s profit came from cost reductions, since Intel was one quarter ahead of schedule in reducing its workforce from 102,000 to 92,000.
Although there's a lot of grumbling in the UK about that £135 ($270) yearly television license fee (only $87 for a black and white set!), it's hard to complain that the BBC doesn't try to use all that money in cool ways. Adding to their already-ambitious plans to distribute HDTV through torrent, datacasting, and IPTV, the Beeb announced today that, after years of delays, they've been approved to pair up with ITV and launch a free 200-channel HD-capable satellite service called Freesat in the spring of 2008. The move is designed to provide digital service to the estimated 25% of the British public that can't get the successful Freeview DVB-T service, but it'll also be free to any license payer who ponys up for one of the several available interactive receivers. Hmm, that's an interesting version of "free," must be the British spelling.
