Intel Raises Revenue Projections

Intel Corp. officials on Thursday narrowed their fourth-quarter financial projections, and said they expect revenues to come in between $8.5 billion and $8.7 billion.

At its third-quarter earnings announcement in October, officials with the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker predicted revenue of $8.1 billion to $8.7 billion.

In a prepared statement, Intel officials said the Intel Architecture business—which includes processors and chip sets for computers and servers—is seeing strong growth during the holiday buying season while demand for its communications products is where they expected.

Intel executives recently offered a peek at their 2004 processor roadmap. To read the story, click here.

However, they pulled back on the expectations for Wireless Communications and Computing Group, saying the long-term projection for the products growth is not as strong as initially expected. During the third-quarter earnings calls, Intel executives said the group—which makes such products as flash memory chips—lost market share.

Earlier in the fall, Intel unveiled StrataFlash, new flash memory technology that can reduce power consumption, space and cost for flash memory in mobile devices.

Intel will take an impairment charge of about $600 million due to the slow wireless business, thanks in large part to the weakness in the flash memory market. Chief Financial Officer Andy Bryant said that other issues—including the fact that some baseband chipsets have been late coming to market and that the next generations of cell phones also are arriving later than usual—also contributed.

"This is unfolding as an unusual quarter," Bryant said, noting the growing strength of the Intel Architecture business but continued weakness in the wireless area. Editors Note: This story was updated to include information and comments from a press conference with analysts.