While Apple posted strong financial numbers on Wednesday, its computer chip supplier, Intel, on the same day said that its second quarter profit of US$885 million was less than half of the $2 billion in the year-ago period. Its $0.15 EPS on $8 billion in revenue was also down from the $0.33 EPS on $9.2 billion in revenue last year.
"The company cited decreases in the number of microprocessors sold, their average selling price, and the number of motherboards sold," according to an IDG News article. "The sole bright spot was a rise in the number of flash memory units sold, but that was not enough to rescue Intel from sinking revenues around the globe."
In response to the results, Intel on Thursday said that it would shuffle its top management. The company is already in the midst of a reorganization that will likely result in layoffs.
IDG News quoted The Envisioneering Group analyst Rick Doherty as saying: "People who have been at the company awhile knew that there was duplication in departments, and they were not as lean and mean as they could be. This was not a surprise so much as recognition. Undoubtedly, this will help."
Intel spokesman Robert Manetta said that the reshuffling will reduce the number of people reporting to CEO Paul Otellini, which "frees him up to do more strategic thinking."