This article is more than 1 year old

S3 loss narrows

But revenue remains static

Graphics chip vendor S3 released its Q1 1999 results yesterday, and while the company failed to show a profit, it's loss shrank considerably despite only a small rise in revenue. S3's loss for the quarter totalled $13.6 million, a big improvement on the $70.3 million loss it posted for the previous quarter. Revenue remained broadly static, rising just under three per cent to $44.3 million. For the same period last year, S3 reported a profit of $4.1 million, but that was accounted for by a special one-off gain of $26 million. The small rise in S3's Q1 99 revenue suggests that the success the company is having in persuading PC vendors to bundle S3-based cards in the products has yet to affect the company's figures. Still, the collapse of its loss to a fifth of its previous level implies that the attempt of CEO Ken Potasher to turn the company round is working. The company continues to face some tough opposition, particularly from nVidia, which, flushed on the success of its high-end cards, is pushing hard to get its earlier generation chips, most notably the Riva TNT, into vendors' mainstream PC designs. Meanwhile, S3's arch-rival, ATI, continues to dominate the PC OEM market -- its Rage 128 driving its recently announced Q2 results that dwarf S3's figures: it reported profits of $39 million on sales of $297.2 million, up 45 per cent and 63 per cent, respectively. See also S3, Via confirm chip cooperation S3 takes time to check The Register out S3 to power Intel PC-on-a-chip's 3D graphics

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