On Monday, Intel (INTC) followed the path of other chipmakers like Texas Instruments (TXN), Altera (ALTR), and Lattice Semi (LSCC) and lowered its fourth-quarter revenue and gross margin outlook, blaming hard disk drive supply shortages from the recent flooding in
Intel said it now expects fourth-quarter revenue to be about $13.7 billion (+/- $300 million) versus its previous expectation of $14.7 billion (+/- $500 million). Intel also indicated that it now expects non-GAAP gross margin to be 65.5% (+/- a couple percentage points) in the fourth quarter, modestly lower than its previous expectation of 66% (+/- a couple percentage points). And while Intel noted that sales of personal computers are expected to be up sequentially in the fourth quarter, it mentioned that the worldwide PC supply chain continues to reduce inventories and microprocessor purchases due to ongoing hard disk drive supply shortages, a trend it expects to last through the first quarter of next year. The chipmaker, however, is optimistic that a rebuilding of microprocessor inventories will recover during the first half of 2012, and we agree.
Though we weren’t pleased with the news today, it wasn’t totally unexpected given recent moves by its chipmaker peers in recent days and the well-documented flooding in