VIA April sales down

VIA's sales in April were US$59m, 12 per cent down on March and 36.57 per cent down on April ($92.698m)last year.

For the first four months of this year, sales were US $270.355m, 31 per cent down on the same period in 2001 ($391.259m). According to VIA, the April sales figures
'largely exceeded' market expectations. But that's not saying much.

More meaningfully, VIA shows it can continue to make a profit, at a time of falling sales. For Q1, 2001, (i.e. January through March) the company maintained a gross margin of 40.1 per cent, the best in five quarters and net profits of $30.9m on sales of US$210.3m.

The Taiwanese firm currently derives 50 per cent of its turnover from chipsets. It faces increased competition, most notably from SiS, and roadblocks for P4 business, because of the threat of Intel litigation hanging over its head.

VIA is busy extending business lines to less reliance on chipsets. Yesterday, the company took a step into semiconductor design for mobile phones and PDAs, by buying the San Diego-based CDMA standards product Design Center from LSI Logic. ®