Wireless stars in strong Q1 for Intersil

Intersil has reported strong financial results for the quarter ended 29th March 2002.

Intersil has reported strong financial results for the quarter ended 29th March 2002.

Sales grew to $134.1 million, an increase of 10% sequentially and 5% compared with 2001, exceeding previous guidance.

Adjusted net income was $15.4 million or $.14 per diluted share of common stock versus adjusted net income of $8.1 million or $.07 per share for the same quarter of 2001.

Including amortisation of intangibles, the company recorded net income of $13.8 million or $.13 per share for the first quarter of 2002.

Intersil's gross margins reached a record high 53%, an increase of 100 basis points from the previous quarter and 500 basis points from a year ago, with improvement across all business groups.

The company continues to focus on driving down costs while delivering highly differentiated, innovative products.

The first quarter results marked the fourth consecutive quarterly improvement in gross margins.

Intersil's wireless LAN chipset sales were $49.0 million, an increase of 30% from the previous quarter and up more than 36% from a year ago.

Gross margins for this business improved to 50.6%, up 230 basis points from the previous quarter and up 850 basis points from a year ago.

Intersil continues to successfully launch new generations of its industry-leading Prism wireless local area networking (WLAN) solutions and is well positioned for future growth as the market leader.

The WLAN market is expected to grow by nearly 50% in each of the next two years, according to a report published in March 2002 by market analyst In-Stat/MDR.

Intersil's communications analogue sales were $50.1 million during the first quarter, a slight increase over the prior quarter and up almost 18% from a year ago.

Gross margins for the communications analogue business improved to 54.9%, up 120 basis points from the previous quarter and 590 basis points from the same quarter last year.

Intersil expects to introduce 100 new analogue products during 2002, up more than 50% from last year.

These new high performance analogue products are aimed at existing and new markets for the company.

"We are very pleased with our performance during the first quarter of 2002.

Intersil exceeded expectations with strong sequential growth in orders, sales and profit", said Intersil President and CEO Greg Williams.

"Orders increased 40% sequentially and 50% on an annual basis.

With revenues up 5% over 2001, Intersil is one of the few semiconductor companies delivering year-over-year growth.

We continue to grow EPS while investing in research and development and launching exciting new products which should lead to additional orders and sales growth in the second half of 2002".

Adds Williams, "Intersil has established leadership positions and expertise in wireless networking and power management, and continues to win new designs for desktops and peripherals, notebooks and residential gateways.

We are now successfully applying that knowledge and experience to even more customer platforms such as handhelds, smartphones, printers, flat panel displays and other emerging applications".

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