Qualcomm posts lower profit, cuts 2009 outlook

Qualcomm posted a lower fiscal first-quarter profit, despite a gain in revenue, as the economic downturn hurt demand and the company's investment portfolio weakened. The chipmaker reported net income of $341 million, down 56 percent from $767 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 3 percent to $2.52 billion.

The company took a hit on its investments in the quarter, and posted a loss of $294 million during the quarter, compared to a gain of $173 million in the fiscal first quarter of 2008. 

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said he was pleased with the rate of migration of customers from 2G cellular technology to 3G CDMA technology. However, he said weakening demand in 2009 has caused the company to drop its estimates for 2009.

"The CDMA inventory channel has contracted as we expected, and the business environment continues to remain uncertain," he said in a statement. "Reduced visibility in the marketplace makes it difficult to forecast future inventory levels or predict when a recovery will begin. As a result, while we continue to estimate healthy growth in the CDMA-device market, we have lowered our shipment estimate for calendar year 2009."

The company's plans for 2009 include launching its Snapdragon chipsets on mobile phones based on Google's Android platform as well as expanding it's reach into the Mobile Internet Device (MID) market.

For more:
- see this article [1]
- see this post
[2]- see this release [3] [2]

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