SUNNYVALE, CALIF.-AMD joined a growing list of companies blaming poor PC sales as the primary reason it will miss its fourth-quarter numbers.
Company officials said it will have lower than expected earnings for the quarter ended Jan. 1, although sales may possibly be higher compared with the third quarter ended Oct. 1. Net income for the fourth quarter will be between 50 cents and 60 cents per share, depending on how well PC sales fair during the latter half of December.
“While this slowdown in demand for PCs has been attributed variously to excess channel inventory, a slowing economy or buyer apathy, we believe it is temporary,” said CEO W. J. Sanders. “The PC in wired and wireless forms will continue to be the hub of the digital universe.”
AMD also downgraded the number of processors it expects to ship for this period to about 6.8 million units from the 8 million to 9 million originally anticipated. Despite this reversal, the company reported that demand for its 1GHz Athlon family of chips has remained high.
In addition, more orders for the low-cost Duron processors should come in during first-quarter 2001.
