Intel Misses Q4 Revenue Target

The world’s largest computer chip producer, Intel, missed its fourth quarter revenue target by $200 million, The New York Times reports.

Slower sales of desktop computers and decreasing prices kept the company from meeting its target, according to company officials, causing the stock to drop more than nine percent on Tuesday.

Intel’s reported fourth quarter revenue was $10.2 billion, up more than half a billion dollars from Q4 2004, for a six percent increase.  The company’s Q4 revenue forecast was $200 million less than its actual earnings, even though the target was set less than a month ago. Executives also predicted that the company’s 2005 first quarter revenues would fall short as well.

Andy Bryant, Intel’s CFO, attributed the miss to sluggish sales due to a shortage of chipsets, a component that functions with microprocessors. 

Yahoo! also missed its target on Tuesday, further sending technology stocks into a downward spiral.

Paul Otellini, Intel’s CEO, remained optimistic for the upcoming year.  “We will be able to retake share in 2006,” Otellini said.  “We’re starting out in more of a hole than we had thought.”

–Al Sacco