Intel's Q4 earnings up, but next quarter to dip

According to Cahners Business Information (New York, NY; www.cahners.com), Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, CA; www.intel.com) reported a net income of $2.6 billion, or $0.38/share, for Q4 2000, up 10% from 1999 but down 9% from the previous quarter. Financial analysts had estimated that Intel would earn $0.37/share. However, the company declared that Q1 revenues for 2001 would be lower by about 15% from the fourth quarter because of economic uncertainty. Revenues for the Q4 2000, were $8.7 billion, up 6% from last year�s numbers and almost flat compared with Q3 2000.

Intel and other high-technology companies had warned investors late last year about depressed earnings from sluggish PC sales. As a result, analysts were expecting weak results but were looking for an indicator of future sales might go.

Intel says gross margins for the first quarter are expected to be about 58%, down from 63% in Q4 2000, because of lower revenues. The company is raising its research-and-development spending to about $4.3 billion for 2001, up from $3.9 billion last year.

Intel�s capital spending is also slated to increase to $7.5 billion from $6.7 billion because of its transition to 0.13-micron and 300-mm wafer process technologies. This spending is projected to reduce processor costs by about 30% in 2002.