Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) mainly competes with Intel Corporation (INTC) in the server processor market. By our estimates, server processors constitute around 20% of AMD's stock price.

AMD's market share in server processors was at its peak in 2006, at around 25%, driven by the success of its Opteron series of processors. But very soon Intel regained its lost share by introducing the Xeon processor and releasing upgrades and newer products in the following years. AMD's loss was compounded when it was late in its launch of the Barcelona chip in 2008.

Continue reading Can AMD Regain Lost Server Processor Share?

Can AMD Regain Lost Server Processor Share? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mobile chips leader Qualcomm (QCOM) is planning to launch a variety of 'augmented reality' software for use in different consumer applications, according to Bloomberg/Businessweek.

Qualcomm wants to drive demand for its powerful processors that can handle high speed computing tasks for mobile devices. To do that, it intends to promote processor intensive augmented reality applications. Augmented reality aims to aid consumers with what they see. By pointing the phone's camera to objects and scanning them, the application can then identify them in the database, and find relevant material.

Continue reading Qualcomm to Launch 'Augmented Reality' Software Applications

Qualcomm to Launch 'Augmented Reality' Software Applications originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tuesday, chipmaker Xilinx (XLNX) announced that it was cutting its current-quarter (third quarter) revenue forecast thanks to weaker-than-expected sales to some of its larger communications customers. This announcement comes during a series of quarters in which the company has seen record sales, thanks to rising demand stemming from a perceived economic rebound.

One analyst calls this news, "evidence of a cyclical inventory correction that we'd been expecting and have talked about previously." Nevertheless, the same analyst said that it could take longer than Xilinx had previously estimated for inventory to come back to better levels.

Continue reading Xilinx Cuts Third-Quarter Sales Forecast

Xilinx Cuts Third-Quarter Sales Forecast originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Three Tech Game Changers You Don't Want to Miss Out On

Three Tech Game Changers You Don't Want to Miss Out On originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Make a Quick 35-40% in Tower Semiconductor

Make a Quick 35-40% in Tower Semiconductor originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Intel in Uptrend

Intel in Uptrend originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

True entrepreneurs will go to any length to get their companies off the ground. And, they're known for accepting the consequences of the risks they take. Some businesses never make it to launch, never bring in a dime, never lead to that killer IPO. In even rarer cases, these adventures can put two people behind the defendants' table on charges of corporate espionage. Lan Lee, an American, and Yuefei Ge, a Chinese citizen, allegedly swiped computer chip blueprints and tried to gain Chinese government support for a startup using these illicit goods. Now, they could face up to 65 years on charges of corporate espionage.

Continue reading Economic espionage comes to trial, first time with a jury

Economic espionage comes to trial, first time with a jury originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Some Intel (INTC) sales tactics exposed

Some Intel (INTC) sales tactics exposed originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) reported first-quarter earnings on Thursday after the bell. Net sales came in at $314 million, and net income was 13 cents per diluted share. According to our earnings preview, that 13-cent profit beat analyst expectations by a whopping six pennies. I'll tell you, I always enjoy when a company can beat by a little more than the boring penny. The top line also went beyond projections. The call was for roughly $300 million in sales.

Although these numbers represented steep drops when compared to year-ago data, it should be noted that, on a sequential basis, National Semiconductor showed significant improvement. Gross margin went up sequentially on better product mix and a benefit from a plant closing in China.

Continue reading National Semiconductor tops analyst projections in Q1

National Semiconductor tops analyst projections in Q1 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Late yesterday, Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) reported a lower second-quarter profit, thanks to a large drop in sales amid struggles throughout the chip sector. That said, the company did vault higher after its announcement, thanks to its sales forecast.

The chipmaker reported second-quarter earnings of nine cents per share, down from 11 cents per share a year ago. Adjusted quarterly income checked in at 18 cents per share. Quarterly revenue slipped to $640.6 million, which was down from $842.6 million in the second quarter a year ago. Expectations called for earnings of 13 cents per share on revenue of $615 million.

Continue reading Marvell Technology jumps after its earnings report and forecast

Marvell Technology jumps after its earnings report and forecast originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), whose colleagues include Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), gave shareholders quite a boost in morale on Monday. The chip company issued a nice outlook for the bottom line.

Here are the stats. Net sales in Q2 should come in between $2.3 billion and $2.5 billion versus the old guidance of between $1.95 billion and $2.4 billion. The bottom line should come in between 14 cents per share and 22 cents per share, versus previous estimates of between 1 cent per share and 15 cents per share.

Continue reading Texas Instruments issues optimistic new guidance

Texas Instruments issues optimistic new guidance originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Nvidia issues a countersuit against Intel

Nvidia issues a countersuit against Intel originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), the arch competitor of fellow chip maker Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), continues to be nothing more than a short-sale candidate. Its Q4 was horrible. Net sales nosedived 33% on a year-over-year basis, coming in at roughly $1.2 billion. On a GAAP basis, the net loss from continuing operations was $2.32 per diluted share versus $2.24 per diluted share in Q4 2007. According to this source, on an adjusted basis (which excludes write-downs related to the ATI transaction), the loss was $0.69 per share, and that missed Wall Street's expectations by a wide amount. The call was for a loss of $0.54 per share.

AMD is in a terrible state. Sure, it's not necessarily all management's fault. What can they do about the sinking economy? Not much. Demand is down and everyone is going to have to live with it. The press release talks about lack of visibility and concentration on restructuring. That translates to "we're doing everything we can just to make it through the tough times." Gross margins, both on a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis, have been challenged. Considering the bad news recently reported by both Intel and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), it's not a stretch to say that shares of AMD are heading lower.

Although I alluded to shorting AMD at the top of this piece, I should point out that shorting is a risky proposition and not for everyone. My main point in saying this is that I believe the situation is so dark right now in this sector of tech that 52-week lows may certainly be retested. And then there is the price war between AMD and Intel that this article mentions. That's an important issue to consider when thinking about both of those companies. The worst of times brings out the fiercest of competitive natures. Since AMD's brand is arguably not as strong as the Intel name, one can see why it would be best to avoid AMD's stock at all costs.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Avoid Advanced Micro Devices originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Intel sells off following Q4 revenue guidance

Intel sells off following Q4 revenue guidance originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) was developing its new and powerful i7 chip, the economy was peachy. Today, it finally launched the microprocessor chip, but into a completely different economic environment, which may mean the payout from the chip will take years.

Intel does not seem to be concerned by the timing, but perhaps it should be. According to The Wall Street Journal, "You recover from a recession with tomorrow's products, not today's," said Sean Maloney, Intel's executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer.

Maloney's assessment may be flawed. After years of being behind Intel in product development, AMD (NYSE: AMD) seems to be finally catching up as it launches new chips of its own. If i7 sales are undercut by the tech recession, when the industry recovers, Intel will be faced with tough competition while it rebuilds its sales and earnings. In a strong economy it could build a market share lead during a period when the entire market is expanding. In a downturn, facing strong competition, its revenue could be significantly undermined

Intel also has to face a long payout cycle for the i7, which could hurt earnings. After many quarters of R&D costs, the world's largest chip company probably assumed it could recoup its investment in the i7 in a fairly short period of time. Now, that short period has become unpredictably long.

Intel's casual attitude about the i7 being an important product during a recovery is a smoke screen to hide the fact that its ROI plans have almost certainly been damaged.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Intel introduces new chip into jaws of tech downturn originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Semiconductor company Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) reported results for the second quarter, and the stock sold off during the after-hours session on Monday. At one point shares were down 11%.

I can sort of see why this happened. It wasn't an exciting earnings release at all, especially in a bad market. First, the top line decreased by about 2% to $3.35 billion. Earnings from continuing operations on a diluted basis grew by only 5% to 42 cents per share. Operational cash flow declined by 42% to $520 million. Nope, not my kind of earnings release, let me tell you. Texas Instruments doesn't seem to have the right stuff in terms of bottom-line growth. Management pointed out that the challenging economy has led to weak demand. Also, let me add that, according to this article, the results missed estimates by two pennies.

I don't really want to own Texas Instruments here. If I had to buy a tech stock, I'd be more inclined to look at a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple also reported earnings on Monday and saw its shares slide after delivering a much stronger quarter than the one delivered by Texas Instruments. That about says it all, doesn't it?

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Texas Instruments disappoints Wall Street during the second quarter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Intel (INTC) still has the intelligence edge

Intel (INTC) still has the intelligence edge originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Intel (INTC) introduces new cell-phone chips

Intel (INTC) introduces new cell-phone chips originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You are supposed to be able to own tech right up until the last week of this month. At least that's when the big institutions like to hold on until, with the last holdouts keeping the big techs on the sheets until the Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) (Cramer's Take) tech conference in February.

But the big downgrade of the semis such as National Semi (NYSE: NSM) (Cramer's Take), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) (Cramer's Take) and AMD (NYSE: AMD) (Cramer's Take) -- insult to injury there for all of you year-end tax-loss buyers -- by Bank of America smacks of gun-jumping: legal gun-jumping to get out of a group before a consumer-led slowdown.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Semis' downgrade ignores killer fourth quarter

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Semis' downgrade ignores killer fourth quarter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A federal judge has told Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) that it can no longer make chips based on three patents held by rival Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM). The company can make use of the intellectual property for another year, giving its some time to reach resolution with its rival.

Qualcomm will almost certainly have to pay royalties if it wants to keep marketing chips based on the Broadcom patents.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "The chips are used in two kinds of third-generation cellular networks -- one called EV-DO, which Qualcomm developed, and another called WCDMA that is supported by a broader array of chip makers."

Reuters quotes Broadcom's general counsel as saying, "Broadcom should not have to compete against companies that use Broadcom's own patented technology against us, and this injunction puts a stop to Qualcomm doing just that."

It now appears that Qualcomm's strategy of leaning on customers and rivals has come to an end.

Another court loss for Qualcomm originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.