SiliconBeat

Marvell Technology Group, the chip maker headquartered in the Bahamas with operations out of Santa Clara, became the latest chip maker to ratchet down expectations. The company now expects sales for its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter ending Jan. 31 to be in a range of $500-$520 million, down about 28 percent from its previous projection of $690-$720 million.

“The current macro economic environment is having a significant negative impact on our business,” said Marvell Chief Executive Sehat Sutardja in a statement. “There is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the duration and depth of the current worldwide economic slow-down. This is especially true within the PC and the consumer electronics markets.

“While visibility into future demand in these markets remains uncertain, it is clear an inventory correction process is underway in the near term. Consequently, we will continue to take actions to re-align our expense profile to the current environment.”

Intel said that it is uncertain whether or not it will be able to report a profit for its current quarter, according to a memo its chief executive, Paul Otellini, sent to the chip makers employees last week, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News Read the rest of this entry »

Agilent Technologies, the electronics instrument maker spun-off from Hewlett-Packard, joined a list of companies lowering forecasts “in response to deteriorating economic conditions, particularly in electronic measurement markets”, according to a regulatory filing made today.

The company said sales for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ending in January would be between $1.25 to $1.30 billion, down as much as 10 percent from the year-before quarter, and nearly 7 percent below its previous guidance.

Net profit, excluding some items, is expected to range from 28 to 32 cents per share, down more than 15 percent from previous guidance. The “some items” being excluded related “primarily the impacts of future restructuring and asset impairment charges” and “pertain to events that have not yet occurred.” Uh-oh.

Computer game-maker Electronic Arts said it expects sales and profits for its 2009 fiscal year ending next March to be below its previous guidance given on Oct. 30, when the company said it expected sales to come in “between $4.9 and $5.15 billion”, or 33 to 41 percent higher than the year before. Profit was forecast to range between a loss of 21 cents to a gain of 7 cents per diluted shares.

The downturn was primarily the result of Read the rest of this entry »

The Internet auctioneer, eBay, reported a sequential drop in quartlery quarterly sales Wednesday for the first time in its history as a public company. Sales totaled $2.12 billion in the 2008 third quarter, up 12.1 percent from the year before quarter, but down 3.6 percent from the quarter before, something that has never happened before.

The results included an accelerating sequential drop Read the rest of this entry »

Varian, the Palo Alto supplier of scientific instruments and vacuum technologies for life science and industrial applications, said Tuesday that its fiscal year 2008  results would be better than originally forecast. “Sales should exceed $1 billion, with strong orders and excellent execution during the fourth quarter,” the company crowed in its release this morning. Diluted earnings per share should exceed Read the rest of this entry »

Intel, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, and Linear Technology, one of its more profitable ones, both reported solid results Tuesday for their most recent quarters, but sounded notes of uncertainty going forward.

Intel, which reported a 12 percent jump  in profits for its third quarter on a 1 percent gain in revenue, said Read the rest of this entry »

Coherent, the Santa Clara maker of lasers and precision optics, scaled back its expectations sales during its most recently completed quarter. It reduced its range by about 9 percent from $141 to $142.5 million down from $154 to $157 million, citing “delivery push-outs and lower orders from the microelectronics market” as the main reason for the lowered guidance.

The company also announced “another major component” of its “EBITDA initiative” — first time we’ve heard a company plan called something like that — which was the closing of its excimer laser site in Munich, which will be consolidated into the company’s other German facilities in Goettingen.

Interwoven, the San Jose developer of Internet content management software, went against the apparent economic grain Thursday when it revised expectations for its recently completed quarter up, not down. It now expects to report sales in the range of $65 to $66 million, up from a range of $63 to $65 million, according to a regulatory filing.

Shares of Interwoven (ticker:IWOV) rose 25 cents, or 2 percent, to $12.99, according to Yahoo finance. They touched a 52-week high of $16.01 on Aug. 13.

Citing “continued economic uncertainties and expected continuing demand weakness in the second half of 2008,” Sirf Technology announced “further reductions in force” in its current quarter, according to its earnings release filed with the SEC today.

The company said it would layoff from between 7 percent to 9 percent of its workforce before this quarter is over. The job cuts come on top of a Read the rest of this entry »