Intel Profits Take a Big Bounce

Intel’s fourth quarter results from 2009 have gone beyond all expectations, with the global leader of chip design reporting fourth-quarter revenue of $10.6 billion, which is a whopping a 28% rise from the same quarter last year. Operating income for the quarter was $2.5 billion and net income $2.3bn, topping Wall Street estimates. While for those of you with shares, the good news is that Intel’s share price jumped over 2.7% after the announcement to $22.07 per share before settling back to $21.45 at close of markets.

Intel... they're everywhere...

According to TheRegister.co.uk the net income increase was “a brawny 875% improvement year-on-year, a $2 billion rise”. However, they note that as impressive as these figures may sound, the fourth quarter of 2008 was about as bad as it ever got for Intel, when they reported profits nose-diving by 90%. This was due in part to the company’s $1 billion write-off of its stake in the WiMax service provider Clearwire.

Intel CFO Stacy Smith commented that, the fourth quarter was “a strong ending to a year with a very difficult beginning”. Indeed Intel had a very good festive season with Smith noting that “nearly twice the average seasonal sequential growth” was seen in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Smiling broadly Smith projected revenue for the current quarter will be $9.7bn (give or take $400 million… no, seriously). Intel CEO, Paul Otellini said of the figures, “Our ability to weather this business cycle demonstrates that microprocessors are indispensable in our modern world. Looking forward, we plan to deliver the benefits of computing to an expanding set of products, markets and customers.”

Tags: chip, economy, intel, Paul Otellini, wimax