VIA smiles over chipset sales growth

But doesn't expect it to continue

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 4th April 2001 14:04 GMT

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Updated VIA didn't seem too worried about the economic downturn when it announced it had sold 24 per cent more chips in March than February and 57 per cent up on March 2000.

The company clocked up sales of NT$4.03 billion ($124 million). For the first quarter, VIA's sales totalled NT$10.37 billion ($318.95 million) – an increase of 84 per cent over the same period last year.

Growth was driven by increased demand for PC chipsets, in particular those supporting AMD's processors and DDR SDRAM. And the company said demand for PC-133-based chipsets was "exceptionally high".

A sign of a rebound in the PC market? It's probably too soon to tell, but it does suggest a shift away from the high-end that Intel remains focused on.

Then again... VIA has now warned that Q2 sales will be flat. "Our customers think (their) sales in the second quarter will stay flat," the company said, and that means so too will VIA's sales.

VIA's shares fell NT$14 to NT$324 on the news. ®

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