After yesterday’s round of woe about dismal figures for the quarter to June 30, covering companies in almost every sector of the industry, there’s another string of warnings today which only make it clear that even niche markets in the US like computer-aided design and Gallium Arsenide circuitry are hurting: Wilsonville, Oregon-based Mentor Graphics Corp warns that it will report a net loss for the quarter with an operating loss of 10 cents to 15 cents a share, and primarily blames the weak Japanese economy; Vitesse Semiconductor Corp in Camarillo says that sales and profits will both be below expectations with break-even at best and perhaps a loss; it again blames Japan; Carpinteria, California-based Digital Sound Corp says that sales will be about $6m for the quarter against $9.6m in the first quarter, leading to a loss for the quarter, and blames slowdown in the customer premises telecommunications equipment market; Network General Corp, doing local area network diagnostic software and systems in Menlo Park, says that sales for the quarter were about $15m, down 21% from the first quarter and 15% on the year-ago quarter, leading to a plunge in profits; Easel Corp, the Burlington, Massachusetts-based developer of client-server software development products expects a loss of 8 cents to 12 cents a share in the quarter; and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Sunnyvale says that severe price pressures on 386 microprocessors more than offset significant quarter-to-quarter revenue gains in the company’s other product lines during the quarter, so that while it will be solidly profitable, revenues will be about 15% down on the record first quarter figure.
