The market reacted well to Texas Instruments Inc’s second quarter numbers which were announced before the market opened on Tuesday, sending the stock up $2.00 on the day to close just shy of $61.00, and again at $61.00 Wednesday. This happened in spite of the fact that the company reported net income down 82% at $43m compared with $249m, on revenue down 15% at $2.21bn over $2.55bn. The quarter included a $233m restructuring charge for eliminating 3,500 jobs and consolidating operations; an $83m gain for the sale of shares in the TI-Acer venture; a $44m charge for terminating joint venture agreements in Thailand and a $66m gain on the sale of three software businesses. Excluding the charges earnings per share would have been $0.35, a couple of pennies behind Wall Street estimates. TI blamed declining DRAM memory- chip prices for the fall in revenue; it’s selling its memory-chip operation – which turned in an operating loss of $222m compared with a loss of $20m in the same period last year – to rival Micron Technology Inc for $830m. TI says prices for DRAM chips fell 30%% from the previous quarter while sales of DSPs and wireless products were up. TI says it doesn’t expect third quarter prospects for the semiconductor market to improve much.
á
