{complink 4267|Royal Philips Electronics N.V.} won't hit its sales and profit targets for the fourth quarter. This clearly confirms that Europe's economic malaise will hurt its leading electronics makers and possibly the entire industry. The Amsterdam company, which has extended interests in the consumer lighting, healthcare equipment, and domestic appliance markets, said in a press…
A familiar headline has been dominating the business pages for the last few days: A big company is planning to spin off part of its business as a standalone unit. This time it's not Hewlett-Packard and the PC business; it's Barnes & Noble Inc., and the business unit is the Nook. B&N is expecting a…
The {complink 6518|Yahoo Inc.} board of directors isn't getting roaring applause from investors for its appointment of PayPal president Scott Thompson as the Internet search engine provider's new CEO. After the announcement of Thompson's appointment, Yahoo's stock price fell 3 percent on Wednesday and continued the decline in pre-market trading on Thursday. Investors, it seems,…
Calendar 2011 sales for {complink 379|Apple Inc.} are forecast to jump 57 percent from 2010 (based on a optimistic analysts' consensus estimate for $37.9 billion in the December quarter). By contrast, the entire consumer electronics market where the company generates a huge portion of its revenue is forecast to grow 1.5 percent in 2011, according…
“This is a new Dell,” said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of the PC and consumer electronics company that bears his name, during a conference call Tuesday to discuss the latest quarterly results. I wasn't very convinced and I am not sure investors bought Dell's self-proclaimed verdict either. Certainly, Dell should have chosen a better…
Reporting season is nearly over for the third quarter, so we've taken a look at the leading OEMs based in Asia to see where things stand. It was a tough quarter for most, but continued strength for smartphones appears to have tempered some of the continuing effects of Japan's post-tsunami recovery, China's wage uncertainty, and…
With two global distributors weighing in on their most recent quarters, a couple of trends are becoming clear. Lead times will continue to remain short across all product lines, and prices are not likely to decrease dramatically. {complink 577|Avnet Inc.} experienced many of the same trends competitor {complink 453|Arrow Electronics Inc.} reported yesterday. Between the…
Michael Long, president and CEO of global distributor {complink 453|Arrow Electronics Inc.}, faced two big audiences this week: his peers at the annual Electronic Components Industry Association conference, and Wall Street analysts on today's earnings conference call. His message to both: “There is no better time to be in the electronics industry than right now.”…
Weak demand and a drop in customer orders made for a disappointing quarter for {complink 5218|STMicroelectronics NV}. Europe's largest chipmaker reported this week third quarter revenue of $2.4 billion, a decrease of 4.9 percent on a sequential basis. All regions were down except the Japan-Korea market, which was up 6.7 percent; sales in other key…
After reviewing the latest quarterly results from industry bellwether {complink 2657|Intel Corp.} and poring through comments by executives of the company during their conference call with analysts, I pulled out additional takeaways that I believe provide a clear picture of current market conditions and which will drive future purchases by enterprises and consumers. Let me…