MediaTek Sees Feb. Revenue Hit Four-Year Low
2011/03/08 | By Ken LiuTaipei, March 8, 2011 (CENS)--MediaTek Inc. yesterday announced its February revenue hit a four-year low of NT$4.53 billion (US$151 million at US$1:NT$30) as a result of lackluster market for mobile phones in mainland China and long Chinese New Year holidays falling on the month.
Nevertheless, the company still shows no sign of cutting down its revenue projection for the first quarter of the year, which is set at NT$19.5-21.1 billion (US$650-703 million). To attain the goal, the company must rake in at least NT$7.4 billion (US$246 million) in March.
In the first two months of this year, the company scored total revenue of NT$12.06 billion (US$402 million), down 43.8% year on year.
The company's February revenue represented a 39.7% drop from a month earlier and a 42.47% slump from a year earlier. The company's share price lost NT$3.5 to close at NT$332 per share yesterday on the February result announcement.
Disappointed at MediaTek's February performance, some foreign institutional investors have touted that the company would not be able to achieve its goal for this quarter.
The invertors felt that the political uprising in Libya also hit MediaTek's February sales although mainland China is the company's biggest market for handset chips. They said MediaTek has depended on the Middle East for around 20% of its handset chip revenue. But MediaTek executives stressed the ongoing unrest in Libya did not much affect the company's February.
Handset retailers pointed out that whether or not the market for 2G mobile phones will pick up again in mainland China in March won't become clear until late March. This will be a crucial factor determining the MediaTek's chance to achieve its goal.
Industry watchers pointed out that the mainland's handset market was not particularly awful in February, but just normally slacken as it used to be in past years. They felt MediaTek's steep sales drop last month was an “unusual phenomenon” and its sales for this month would rebound smoothly.