VIA said this morning it had returned to profitability during its third fiscal quarter after posting a Q3 net income of just TWD 46 million ($1.36 million) on sales of TWD 5.47 billion ($162.19 million).

For the previous quarter, the chipset maker posted a net loss of TWD 1.12 billion ($33.03 million). Q2 sales totalled TWD 4.04 billion ($119.14 million). The TWD 1.43 billion sequential increase on sales - a rise of 35.3 per cent - fuelled the return to profitability, but a 20 per cent fall in operating expenses helped too.

However, the third quarter improvement nevertheless leaves VIA with a running 2003 loss of TWD 1.72 billion ($50.72 million) for the nine months to 30 September. ®