INDUSTRY

Intel reported a profit of US$1.5 billion for the fourth quarter, down 39 percent compared to the same period last year. Fourth-quarter revenue declined 5 percent to $9.7 billion, from $10.2 billion a year ago. Intel lost significant market share to rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) over the year, but many analysts felt the company rebounded in recent months with the launch of many new chips, including the Core 2 Duo & quad-core Xeon chips. The company posted quarterly earnings of $0.26 per share. Intel said its earnings were inflated by about $0.01 per share because of one-time actions in its reorganization, such as the sale of its communications and application processor unit to Marvell Technology Group and the layoffs of 10,500 workers. Shares of Intel fell almost 6 percent in trading Wednesday, a day after announcing fourth-quarter earnings that matched estimates but failed to excite investors on Wall Street. Intel said its sales of microprocessor units reached a record high, led by flash memory units. But that success was offset by soft sales of chipset and motherboard units, Intel said. Overall, the company said it had a poor performance because it was unable to reduce its fixed costs or forecast product demand, while its competitors launched new products and exerted price pressure. As expected, the company's profit also slumped when comparing the 2006 fiscal year to 2005. Intel reported an annual profit of $5 billion, which was 42 percent below its number last year. For fiscal year 2006, Intel posted revenue of $35.4 billion -- 9 percent less than fiscal 2005 -- and earnings of $0.86 per share -- 39 percent less than 2005. The figures were slightly higher than analysts' expectations of $35.13 billion annual revenue and $0.84 earnings per share, according to Thomson. The annual numbers fell short of Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini's own estimate, however. When he announced his plan to restructure the company in April, Otellini had predicted the company's operating income would tumble from $12.1 billion in 2005 to $9.3 billion in 2006. In fact, it reached only $5.7 billion. The company will produce better results in 2007, he promised. The reorganization plan has already cut Intel's employee headcount from 102,500 in the middle of 2006 to 94,100 at the end of the year. Once the company is no longer paying the cost of those extra workers, it will reap greater profits from new technology launches, Otellini said.