TI Q2 Rises on Strong Mobile Phone Chips

Texas Instruments (TI), the world’s largest maker of chips for mobile phones, posted strong sales and net profit growth during the second quarter on brisk sales of chips for handsets and other electronic devices.

Sales of the company’s third-generation (3G) chips soared 70 percent from a year ago, while sales of its wireless chips overall grew 27 percent, TI said on Monday. The company is considered a bellwether for the mobile phone industry because of its dominant share of sales of chips to the industry.

“All regions of the world showed strong revenue growth from a year ago,” the company said.

The company’s sales and net profit for the three months that ended June 30 met its updated guidance, which it raised early last month, and also met analysts’ expectations.

TI’s net profit rose to US$2.39 billion, or $1.50 per share, the bulk of which came from the sale of its sensors and controls business, which accounted for $1.65 billion of the profit figure.

The company’s profit from continuing operations was $739 million, or $0.47 per share, up from $584 million, or $0.35 per share last year. In June, it revised up its forecast for second-quarter earnings per share from continuing operations to between $0.46 to $0.48.

Sales rose 24 percent to $3.7 billion in the second quarter of 2006.

TI expects business to remain strong in the third quarter, which started in July. Revenue is expected to range between $3.63 billion and $3.95 billion, while earnings per share from continuing operations is forecast at $0.42 to $0.48.

TI said it will issue a mid-quarter update to its financial guidance on Sept. 11.

-Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau)

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