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发帖数: 54 | 1 How many of them will be local at Irvine?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/22/us-broadcom-results-i
(Reuters) - Broadcom Corp said on Tuesday it is winding down its money-
losing cellular baseband chip business and cutting one-fifth of its total
workforce, instead of selling the unit.
Chief Executive Scott McGregor told analysts on a conference call that after
Broadcom said in early June it would exit baseband and then tested the
market for a possible sale, the company decided to shut it down.
"We made the decision to pursue a wind-down, which minimizes the ongoing
losses from the business, and enables us to focus on our core strengths that
much more quickly," McGregor said.
Broadcom said it has cut 250 sales and administrative jobs and expects to
reduce worldwide headcount by another 2,250 employees. Those jobs are
equivalent to about 20 percent of the 12,550 employees Broadcom cited in its
2013 annual report.
Earlier on Tuesday, Broadcom reported stronger-than-expected adjusted second
-quarter earnings and gave a third-quarter gross margin forecast that pushed
the chipmaker's stock higher.
Broadcom's connectivity chips are used widely in smartphones including Apple
's iPhones. But the company lost market share in baseband chips and made
slow progress in leading-edge 4G technology, which is dominated by Qualcomm
Inc.
The Irvine, California company is the latest chipmaker to abandon the
baseband market. Texas Instruments Inc cut 1,700 jobs in 2012 after failing
to sell its mobile chip business.
Developing baseband technology to combine with its connectivity chips had
been seen as Broadcom's response to low-cost smartphone makers in China.
Abandoning baseband will reduce Broadcom's costs, but it may leave the
chipmaker at a competitive disadvantage.
Broadcom forecast an adjusted gross margin of 55 percent for the third
quarter, higher than the 53 percent expected by Wall Street.
“This tells me that getting out of (baseband) was the right news,” RBC
analyst Doug Freedman said of Broadcom's outlook.
Smartphone chipmakers have been adjusting as industry growth shifts away
from North America toward China and other developing countries, where
consumers favor handsets selling for under $200 rather than such top-tier
devices as the iPhone.
Broadcom reported second-quarter revenue of $2.04 billion, down 2.3 percent
from the year-ago period. It said revenue in the third quarter would be
between $2.10 billion and $2.25 billion. The midpoint of its forecast is $2.
175 billion. Analysts on average had expected second-quarter revenue of $2.
05 billion and third-quarter revenue of $2.19 billion, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S. In the second quarter, Broadcom lost $1 million, or 0 cents
a share, compared with a loss of $251 million, or 43 cents a share, last
year. Non-GAAP earnings per share were 65 cents in the second quarter.
Analysts on average expected 61 cents.
Broadcom's stock rose 3.23 percent in extended trading after closing up 0.31
percent at $38.75 in regular Nasdaq trade.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) |
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