SiliconBeat

Affymetrix, the Santa Clara maker of consumables for the life sciences and health care industry, said that its preliminary results for its third quarter showed sales of about $75 million, down from the $91.5 million most analysts were expecting. That’s an 18 percent miss, about the same size drop as the company’s stock price today, which fell 94 cents, or 17 percent, to $4.50, near an all-time low. The company cited “increased competition for academic research funding and continued softness in industrial spending.”

“We are disappointed with our results for the third quarter. Over the coming weeks we’ll complete our analysis of the shortfall and will be prepared to discuss the specific actions that we intend to take to improve our operating results,” stated Kevin King, president of Affymetrix.

“While in the near term we expect that research budgets will remain tight, we believe the long term growth opportunity in the genetic analysis markets remains attractive,” said Stephen P.A. Fodor, chairman and chief executive officer of Affymetrix. “We believe that the Company’s priorities are aligned to meet this challenge. We are re-engineering our platform to offer our customers a range of new products that are more flexible and cost effective in 2009. In addition, our strong balance sheet will enable us to continue to invest in our business.”