After a disappointing three-year downturn, we are at the beginning of a substantial semiconductor industry up-cycle, in our view. As the use of semiconductors is shifting from PC-centric products to Internet infrastructure and wireless communications such as cellular phones, the industry is enjoying a communications driven boom. |
Given that less than one million of these motherboards have been shipped, we do not foresee the reserve being above a few hundred million. The timing of the reserve will match when the shipments were made, resulting in a restatement of first quarter 2000 results. |
Given the very robust environment of demand and Intel's new product lineup, we had surmised that there might have been upside. As it turned out, there was indeed more demand in the first quarter, but Intel could not meet it. |
I think the reason that the stock is up today is because people are beginning to believe that the K6 [chip] is a reality. |
In our view, investors are wondering if Intel has taken its eye off the ball. The number of mistakes that the company has made in the recent months is truly alarming. |
It's important for Intel in the sense that it should accelerate their overall revenue and earnings growth. It's important for the semiconductor industry because its introduction is likely to spur additional PC demand. |
Micron's earnings per share did benefit by 5 cents from a one-time refinancing of a joint venture arrangement. Even excluding this one-time gain, results were outstanding. Sales were $1.79 billion, compared with sales of $864 million a year ago. |
Personal-computer unit demand should grow at least 18 to 19 percent in 1997 versus 1996, and Intel is truly a pure play on that. |
We expect this strong outlook to be reiterated during second-quarter conference calls. We expect companies to discuss a very strong outlook for second-half of 2000 and 2001. |
While this news is likely to cause further doubt in investor minds as to the company's ability to execute without flaws, we believe the memory translator hub issue will likely be temporary. |