Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe’s largest maker of consumer electronics, posted its first quarterly loss in almost six years after writing down the value of stakes in LG Display Co and NXP BV.
Philips said it would stop buying back stock to preserve cash. The fourth-quarter net loss was 1.47 billion euros (US$1.9 billion), or 1.57 euros a share, compared with a profit of 1.39 billion euros, or 1.30 euros, a year earlier, the Amsterdam-based company said in a statement yesterday. It was the company’s first quarterly loss since the first quarter of 2003, Bloomberg data shows.
Philips, led by chief executive officer Gerard Kleisterlee, said on Dec. 4 it would write down its stakes in LG Display, the world’s second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, and NXP, Europe’s third-biggest maker of semiconductors, by 1.1 billion euros. Markets for the consumer lifestyle and lighting businesses were deteriorating, the company said at the time.
The net loss had been seen at 1.24 billion euros, the median estimate of nine analysts Bloomberg News surveyed by telephone and e-mail. Fourth-quarter sales fell to 7.6 billion euros, from 8.37 billion euros a year earlier, beating the median estimate of 7.2 billion euros.
Philips shares dropped 51 percent in the past year in Amsterdam trading, compared with a 47 percent slide for the benchmark Amsterdam Exchanges Index.
“Our fourth-quarter results confirm the expectation we expressed early December that the short-term economic outlook is worsening and that 2009 is likely to be a very challenging year,” the company said in the statement.
Philips will pay a dividend of 70 euro cents a share, unchanged from last year.
The company will cut 6,000 jobs this year, Kleisterlee said in a conference call with reporters yesterday.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment. The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam today, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said. The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power
Taiwan would remain in the same international network for carrying out cross-border payments and would not be marginalized on the world stage, despite jostling among international powers, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday. Yang made the remarks during a speech at an annual event organized by Financial Information Service Co (財金資訊), which oversees Taiwan’s banking, payment and settlement systems. “The US dollar will remain the world’s major cross-border payment tool, given its high liquidity, legality and safe-haven status,” Yang said. Russia is pushing for a new cross-border payment system and highlighted the issue during a BRICS summit in October. The existing system