Tag Archives: chief financial officer

May 23

Dell profit plunges

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Dell profit plunges

Dell, now the world’s third placed PC maker, posts disappointing quarterly results with profit down 33 per cent.

The company, which has slipped to third place in the global PC market, said its profit in the first fiscal quarter fell to $US635 million ($A642.81 million).

Revenue in the quarter was $US14.4 billion ($A14.58 billion), a four per cent fall from the same period the previous year.

Dell said, however, the firm was moving away from its traditional PC base to services.

‘We continued to shift the mix of our business during a challenging environment,’ said Brian Gladden, Dell’s chief financial officer.

‘Our enterprise solutions and services businesses now account for 50 per cent of our gross margin, and we’ll continue to make the necessary investments to maintain our progress.’

Texas-based Dell, once the biggest PC maker, has fallen to third place behind market leader Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, and is just barely ahead of fourth place Acer Group.

Dell last month said it was buying Wyse Technology to expand its business offerings in the internet ‘cloud’ in the face of softening demand for traditional computing hardware.

Last year, Dell said it would halt sales of its Android tablet computer in the US market, failing to gain traction against rivals such as Amazon’s Kindle fire and Apple’s iPad. – AAP

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Dell profit plunges

Dec 25

Computers Special: PC’s future is in ...

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Rory Read, president and CEO of AMD. provided to China Daily

The US’ Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) has planed to increase its China sales in smaller cities and rural areas because it believes less-developed areas are a future goldmine for the personal computer business, according to its new head.

China’s information technology (IT) industry has reached an important point, with the rise of cloud computing and the government pushing the integration of the Internet, broadcasting, and communications, explained Rory Read, the president and CEO of AMD, a multinational semi-conductor company.

“The next billion personal computer (PC) customers will come from emerging markets, especially China,” Read went on to explain.

And AMD’s China business is crucial to its growth and future success, he said.

Read was appointed top executive in August, when the interim CEO, Thomas Seifert, returned to his original role as chief financial officer. Read is AMD’s third CEO, since 2008.

“I’m really pleased to be joining AMD at this important time in its history,” said the 49-year-old Read. He said he saw the job as a “once in a lifetime opportunity”, a chance to be a part of a technology team at this crucial point in the computing industry.

Read said he does not think that desktops and laptops are going to die any time soon and that the PC market will continue to grow over the next five years, despite the addition of tablet PCs.

AMD teamed up with Chinese PC makers, such as the Lenovo Group, Asus, and Acer Inc to penetrate the country’s smaller cities and even rural areas.

It plans to build a stronger relationship with PC manufacturers by giving them what they need, Read explained.

The company has approximately 2,500 employees in China.

The Lenovo Group, one of AMD’s most important partners in China, and in fact Read’s previous employer, also plans to boost laptop sales in smaller cities and rural areas, according to Tang Jie, its vice-president.

Taiwan’s Acer, the world’s fourth-largest PC maker by sales, expects sales to grow by 20-25 percent in 2012, said Oliver Ahrens, who heads its China operation.

In commenting on this, Read said, “Our APUs and processors will help them gain market share.”

In contrast to its bold strategy in emerging markets, the microprocessor maker announced on Nov 3 that, Reuters has reported, it plans to save about $200 million in operating costs in 2012 by cutting 10 percent of its global workforce and streamlining its internal business processes.

The savings generated by that move will help bankroll research and expansion in areas such as low-power chips, emerging markets, and cloud computing, according to a company statement.

(China Daily 12/09/2011 page14)

Computers Special: PC’s future is in emerging markets, especially China

Oct 31

ASE predicts lower Q4 earnings on correction cycle

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Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s largest supplier of chip packaging and testing services, yesterday said the global technology correction cycle would continue to impede its earnings in the current quarter because revenues may drop slightly from last quarter.

The Greater Kaohsiung-based company expects revenues to weaken a sequential 3 percent to 4 percent in the fourth quarter, because falling demand from integrated device manufacturers would cut into the market share gains it has made from smartphone and tablet makers, chief financial officer Joseph Tung (董宏思) told an investors’ meeting.

ASE, whose major customers include US chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, China’s top PC vendor, Lenovo Group (聯想), and Taiwan’s top handset chip designer, MediaTek Inc (聯發科), posted NT$3.47 billion (US$116.11 million) in net income in the third quarter, a decline of 36 percent from a year earlier and 5 percent from the second quarter.

That raised net profits to NT$11.09 billion for the first nine months, shrinking 18 percent from the year-ago level and translating into earnings of NT$1.63 per share, a company report said.

Gross margin narrowed from 25.6 percent last year to 22.9 percent as of Sept. 30, and it is expected to stagnate or edge down for the rest of the year, because the higher cost of gold would continue to pressure the firm’s profitability, Tung said.

ASE predicted that gold prices would climb to US$1,700 an ounce this quarter, from an average of US$1,548 last quarter.

To prop up its bottom line, the company aims to speed up the conversion to the more cost-efficient copper wirebonding technology that gives it an edge over 150 rivals worldwide, Tung said.

The company had 6,537 copper wirebonders last quarter, accounting for 49 percent of the total, Tung said, adding that the company plans to add 200 more this quarter and raise their ratio to 60 percent by June 30 next year to cut costs.

“The cost-saving strategy coupled with [planned] market share gains should be the growth driver, which can be achieved despite the macroeconomic condition,” Tung said.

The utilization rates for its packaging and testing operations are forecast to remain at 85 percent and 80 percent in the coming months respectively, Tung said.

ASE has no intention of reducing its capital expenditure and it plans to spend an extra US$80 million this quarter on copper wirebonder purchases. Total spending would be US$750 million this year as previously estimated, Tung said.

ASE has substantially increased its debt ratio — to 0.52 percent of equity last month from a year earlier after two bond issues — because it expects borrowing costs to rise going forward, Tung said.

“It is increasingly difficult to borrow money in China where the firm’s expansion will take place,” Tung said.

The company is using part of the funds to buy back ASE shares because it believes they are undervalued by the market given the firm’s financial performance, he said.

ASE shares closed up just 0.19 percent to NT$26.75 yesterday, lagging the TAIEX’s 0.67 percent advance, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.

ASE predicts lower Q4 earnings on correction cycle

Sep 05

Apple Supplier AAC Says It Won Orders for New ...

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September 01, 2011, 3:35 AM EDT

By mark Lee

(Adds Apple declined to comment in fifth paragraph.)

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) — AAC Technologies Holdings inc., a Hong Kong-listed supplier of microphones and mini-speakers to Apple inc., said it clinched orders to make components for new iPhone and iPad versions.

“We are one of the suppliers” for the next-generation iPhone, Richard Mok, chief financial officer at AAC, said in an interview in Hong Kong yesterday. AAC is “ready” to ship components for the next version of the iPad, Mok said. he didn’t say when Apple will release the new products.

Apple plans to introduce a new iPhone that boasts a stronger chip for processing data and a more advanced camera, two people familiar with the product said in June. Demand for the iPhone and iPad, Apple’s two best-selling products, helped the Cupertino, California-based company leapfrog Microsoft Corp. as the world’s most valuable technology company.

“The quality and reliability of our products satisfy the requirements of Apple,” Mok said. “Naturally we have a good opportunity to supply them for their next-generation phone.”

Carolyn Wu, a spokeswoman at Apple in Beijing, declined to comment on orders for AAC or when Apple will introduce new iPhone and iPad versions.

AAC, which competes with suppliers including Dover Corp.’s Knowles unit, last week said first-half profit jumped 33 percent as orders for parts used in phones and tablets surged.

The Chinese company, which started shipping parts for the iPad 2 this month, rose as much as 6 percent to HK$17.28 in Hong Kong trading today. Dover, based in Downers Grove, Illinois, rose 0.5 percent to $57.52 in new York yesterday.

Apple is AAC’s biggest customer, accounting for more than a quarter of first-half revenue, Mok said. AAC also supplies components for customers including Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia Oyj, he said.

First-half profit rose to 509.3 million yuan ($80 million) from 382.3 million yuan a year earlier, AAC reported on Aug. 26. Revenue rose 41 percent to 1.88 billion yuan.

–Editors: Dave McCombs, Anand Krishnamoorthy.

To contact the reporter on this story: mark Lee in Hong Kong at wlee37@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net

Apple Supplier AAC Says It Won Orders for New IPhone, IPad