14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that A-Data is not the only company that had a less than excellent fourth quarter, as a recent report shows that MediaTek went through some financial decline, decline expected to last throughout Q1 2011 as well.
2010 may have been a year of overall recovery for the IT industry, but some segments did poorer than others, meaning that certain companies did not fare well.
One of the more troubled segments was that of DRAM chips, which led to a very sizable net loss in the case of A-Data.
MediaTek does not really deal in DRAM, but even as a company that specializes in wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions it still didn't have the best end of the year.
Digitimes' recent report deals with its situation, revealing that it did not perform overly well over the past months, leading to serious drops in gross margin and net income.
Gross margin slid to 49.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010, less than the 52.2% of Q3 and even lower than the 58.7% recorded the previous year.
Likewise, the net income was much reduced both on quarter and especially on year, mostly explaining the loss prediction for the ongoing Q1, 2011.
In other words, the sum was of NT$3.828 billion, 45.1% less than in Q3 and 56.2% less than in Q4, 2009.
For those interested in further numbers, the EPS for the three months prior to January 2011 was of NT$3.56, a significant stretch from the NT$6.4 and NT$8.03 of Q3 2010 and Q4 2009, respectively.
Moving forward, the company expects its revenues to drop by 10% in the January-March period of 2011.
If this happens, it will continue the trend started by the Q4, 2010 decline of 19.5% on quarter, which left the sum at NT$22.68 billion. Gross margin may also decline by 1 or 2% and the EPS may fall under NT$3.