SiliconBeat

Amid the flurry of tech company earnings reports recently, the financial update provided by chip-maker Linear Technology of Milpitas got a bit overlooked this week. So we at SiliconBeat felt obligated to give you the highlights.

The company posted a profit of $54.5 million for its third fiscal quarter, which ended March 29. That was a 45 percent decrease from the same period a year ago.Its revenue was $200.9 million, off 33 percent from a year ago.

Analysts offered a mixed picture about the company’s prospects going forward.

J. P. Morgan analyst Christopher Danely took issue with Linear’s reluctance to reduce its chip inventory, declaring in a note to his clients, “we do not share Linear’s optimism” that sales will bounce back soon.

But in a note of his own, GC Research analyst David Wu said Linear’s management so far “has proved the skeptics wrong and we would give them the benefit of the doubt, at least over the next two to three years.”

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 »

Monolithic Power says it was victorious in a contract dispute with Linear Technology, according to a press release it sent out late Tuesday evening.

Monolithic did not breach an October 1, 2005, agreement with Linear Technology that was a subject of the litigation, according to the release. Nor did it “willfully infringe” against the patent claims in the case of two patents asserted by Linear that were used in a Monolithic Power product that had been discontinued “more than 18 months earlier.”

However, Read the rest of this entry »