2013年11月21日

Broadcom's shares plunge 15% on concerns about prospects July,24 2013

Broadcom's shares plunge 15% on concerns about prospects

Investors are worried that smartphones and tablets will be increasingly outfitted with chips made by Broadcom's rivals.

July 24, 2013|By Paresh Dave
 
Shares of Irvine chip maker Broadcom Corp. plunged to their lowest price in three years as investors worried that smartphones and tablets will be increasingly outfitted with wireless chips made by rivals.
Nearly all Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy users who connect to a Wi-Fi network or turn on Bluetooth are able to do so because of a Broadcom wireless networking chip that costs about $5 a phone. A third of Broadcom's business comes from those two device makers.
 
 
But in recent weeks, analyst reports related to Samsung and Apple have suggested that the number of first-time buyers of smartphones is slowing. Both companies have also made moves signaling an interest in making their own chips.
On Tuesday, Broadcom reported lackluster quarterly results for its wireless chip unit and estimated that revenue would be stagnant in the current quarter. The other half of Broadcom's business — broadband, television and networking equipment — surged about 12% quarter-over-quarter in the period ended June 30, Broadcom reported. But analysts said that wasn't enough to assuage investors' anxiety over the company's prospects.
"Just these ideas and the fact that Broadcom has been primarily been driven by wireless connectivity is significant," said Tristan Gerra, semiconductor analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. "Market share is going down instead of going up."
Broadcom shares slipped $4.82, or 15.1%, to $27.01 on Wednesday, the biggest drop since October 2007, according to Bloomberg. The decline prompted analysts to raise the possibility of the company cutting costs or spinning off units to pump up the stock.
"The quarter was weak, but the market may be overreacting to concerns about their competitive positioning," said Romit Shah, managing director and senior analyst at Nomura Securities.
Yet the analysis firm Chipworks recently reported that one variant of the new Galaxy S 4 Mini uses a Qualcomm Inc. chip instead of one from Broadcom, which has typically been the chip maker of choice for Samsung.
Broadcom Chief Executive Scott McGregor rebuffed the mounting concerns in a call with analysts Tuesday, saying the company's market share would be stable.
"A lot of these reports have made a big deal of the [contracts] we don't win, but they fail to point out the ones that used to be our competitor that we are winning," he said. "And so we're gaining share in some of the customers other than the one that some of those reports have pointed out."
Broadcom also makes the so-called baseband chips that connects devices to cellular networks. But it's at least another year away from delivering significant revenue from a chip capable of connecting to the newer 4G LTE networks.
In terms of worldwide sales, Qualcomm holds 52% of the baseband market and has more than 75% of the LTE market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Broadcom's numbers: 5% and nonexistent. The effect of falling behind started to show this week.
Cowen and Co. analyst Timothy Arcuri pointed to a nearly 40% decline in the last year in sales of cheaper, older 3G chips.
"That's an incredible decline," he said. "Usually, you think maybe 10%."
McGregor acknowledged on the call that the company doesn't have many 3G customers because many smartphones have transitioned to the faster 4G service.
Broadcom may have to pull out of the cellular-chip business, said Cody Acree, Williams Financial Group's director of equity research.
"Does it make sense to spend this kind of capital to fight this volatility?" he said of the hundreds of millions Broadcom has spent on LTE research.
To add to the concerns, Shah said it has been "more or less confirmed" that Apple has purchased chip technology from Texas Instruments, which recently dropped out of that market. It's unclear what Apple plans to do with the purchase.
"This could be something that just helps improve their other services," Shah said. "They might just be getting some technology that would help them improve their inferior Maps product."
A year ago, Samsung bought British chip maker CSR and analysts remain worried that Samsung could slowly move some chip-making in-house.
Still, some analysts see potential in Broadcom. Its high-end chips could soon power upcoming devices such as Apple's rumored iWatch or other "wearable" computers.
"Apple and Samsung over the next couple of years will proliferate the number of the devices they're selling to bigger-size phones, wearable devices and mid-range phones," Shah said. "For Broadcom to sustain growth, it has to be driven by new product categories, like wearables, and improved traction in the baseband business."

Broadcom announces job cuts, weaker sales forecast

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-broadcom-layoffs-20131022,0,4395560.story#axzz2lCX8arU9
 
Broadcom Corp. said it is cutting as many as 1,150 jobs and forecast fourth-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates as demand slows for its chips that connect mobile phones to the Internet.
The Irvine company's shares fell as much as 8.6% in late trading. Sales will be about $1.98 billion, plus or minus 3%, the company said Tuesday. That indicates revenue of $1.92 billion to $2.03 billion, while analysts on average had predicted $2.13 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
While Broadcom dominates the market for chips that provide short-distance wireless connections in devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad, its struggle to roll out new cellular technologies has hurt its ability to grab more orders in smartphones. The lack of a chip that supports LTE, or long-term evolution, may tempt customers to switch to rivals, said Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities in San Francisco.
"Right now they're losing market share, but it's not a cliff," Gauna said. "What's very clear now is that what the market wants is a road map to LTE."
Broadcom shares slid as low as $24.80 in extended trading after the announcement, after closing down 18 cents at $27.14. That left them down 18% this year.
The company is eliminating employees to pare expenses, with a third of the reductions coming among workers gained with its acquisition of a Renesas Electronics Corp. business unit. Broadcom had a staff of 11,300 at the end of 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Some of Broadcom's 3G-chip customers are cutting inventory, and the company is facing "ferocious" price competition for that product, Chief Executive Scott McGregor said.
Broadcom also needs to field LTE modems to help it regain some connectivity business because some phone makers, particularly those building cheaper handsets for markets such as China, prefer to buy both chips from the same provider, he said.
"Long term, I believe this business is pretty vibrant," McGregor said.
Third-quarter net income rose 44% to $316 million, or 55 cents a share, from $220 million, or 38 cents, a year earlier, Broadcom said. Sales were little changed at $2.15 billion. Excluding certain items, profit was 76 cents. On that basis, analysts had predicted profit of 68 cents and sales of $2.13 billion.
McGregor is moving Broadcom into the market for baseband chips used to connect phones to cellular networks, a business dominated by Qualcomm Inc. This month, Broadcom said it bought LTE-related capabilities from Japanese chip maker Renesas, a move that some analysts took as an admission that the company's in-house efforts to develop that technology had fallen behind schedule.

2013年11月20日

Broadcom and Intel pose challenges to Qualcomm in mobile baseband processor chipset market

5/1/2013
Telecom Lead India: Broadcom and Intel will pose significant challenges to Qualcomm in the mobile baseband processor chipset market over the next few years.
ABI Research says the chip major Qualcomm is dominating LTE chipset sales with over two-thirds of shipments in 2012.
Though established mobile baseband processor chipset vendors will remain key players as the shift towards LTE continues, some of the smaller LTE baseband vendors will grab a part of the LTE chipset market.
ABI Research predicted that the size of the LTE chipset market will grow to well over 850 million shipments in 2018 for handsets alone.
“We expect Broadcom and Intel to be significant challengers to Qualcomm over the next few years,” said research director Philip Solis.
4 vendors are focusing on various features, while another 4 are offering integrated platforms; and 4 are offering carrier aggregation now.

12 vendors offer 23 products supporting Category 3, and five offer ten products supporting Category 4. There are no Category 5 products on the market yet, which would have a more limited potential since they require 4X4 MIMO. 9 vendors have LTE baseband products supporting TD-SCDMA to target China.
Different levels of integration and standalone components will be required for some time because of the timing of various technology shifts across the different components. Combined with the single-mode LTE opportunity for non-handset mobile devices and the wider Internet of Everything in the near term and even handsets in the long term, single-mode LTE baseband vendors have an opportunity.
Altair, GCT, Innofidei, Leadcore, and Sequans offer single-mode LTE chipsets.
ABI Research says larger vendors will offer single-mode LTE products, but only after the opportunity for those products becomes much more sizable.
According to a report by IHS in February 2013, the competitive landscape of the cellphone core integrated circuit (IC) business has completely transformed over the past five years, with Qualcomm and Samsung capitalizing on the rise of smartphones and 4G.
IHS analyst for consumer & communications Brad Shaffer said recently: “As smartphones and LTE have gained popularity, the corresponding influences from both forces have created paradigm shifts that transformed competition in the mobile handset core IC market.”
Meanwhile, Strategy Analytics in a November 2012 report said that  Qualcomm, MediaTek, Intel, Broadcom and ST-Ericsson captured top-five revenue share rankings in the cellular baseband processor market in H1 2012.
The report says Qualcomm led the cellular baseband market with 51 percent revenue share in the first half of 2012 on the strength of its leading position in CDMA, W-CDMA and LTE basebands. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor momentum has significantly helped. Qualcomm’s LTE basebands have been adopted by almost all top-tier handset manufacturers.
MediaTek ranked number two with 12.8 percent revenue share in the cellular baseband market in 1H 2012 with the help of its strong 3G smartphone processor shipments. MediaTek made a significant progress in 3G basebands in H1 2012.
Intel grabbed the number three spot with 12.1 percent revenue share in the cellular baseband market in H1 2012 as the company’s strong 2G baseband shipments significantly helped during the quarter. Intel also did well in the 3G baseband market and ranked number two in the W-CDMA baseband market in H1 2012.
Strategy Analytics believes Intel’s upcoming first LTE baseband platform, XMM7060, has the potential to cut into Qualcomm’s LTE baseband lead in future.

2013年11月18日

Dubai Air Show: Boeing leads order books race 11/17/2013

Airlines in the Gulf have placed a number of high value plane orders on the first day of the Dubai Air Show, with US giant Boeing a major winner.

Dubai-based Emirates airline placed an order for 150 of Boeing's new 777 mini-jumbos, in a $76bn (£47bn) deal.

Other orders from Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Lufthansa for some 109 of the new 777, previously codenamed 777X, brought its sales total to $95bn.

Emirates has also ordered 50 Airbus A380s, in a deal worth $23bn.

The airline is already the biggest customer of the A380 and the new deal will bring its total orders for the plane to 140.

And local rival Etihad Airways has also announced a firm order for 87 Airbus aircraft - some 50 A350 XWBs, 36 A320neo aircraft and one A330-200F as part of its fleet modernization strategy.

The deal - valued at $19bn - includes options for 30 more planes.
'Astounding'
Boeing said its 777 mini-jumbo sales represented "the largest product launch in commercial jetliner history by dollar value".

"The response to the 777X has been astounding," Boeing chairman James McNerney added at the official launch the new plane in Dubai.

The 777 will come in two models, one seating 350 passengers, and another seating 406 people.

Boeing's new aircraft is designed to compete with the largest version of Airbus's A350 in the mini-jumbo market.

European rival Airbus has launched a campaign for a minimum standard seat width of 18 inches on long trips, as it seeks to draw the focus of airlines to what it says will be the 777's narrower seats.

Meanwhile, Airbus will be looking to sell more of its A380 super-jumbo aircraft, the world's biggest passenger aircraft, which is facing a potential cut in production unless some more orders are secured.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has visited the airshow site, with the UK competing with France for a potential 60-plane fighter jet deal with the United Arab Emirates.

At Dubai Airshow, Boeing Scores Huge $130B Payday

Its 777X appears to be big winner, with at least 225 orders

By the Associated Press


Posted Nov 17, 2013 6:11 AM CST
(AP) – Boeing Co.'s planned 777X long-haul airliner grabbed the bulk of orders today at the first day of the Dubai Airshow, with at least 225 planes on the books in an eye-popping display of the spending power and aggressive expansion efforts of Gulf carriers. In total, Boeing says that it netted at least 367 orders in deals believed to exceed $130 billion at the Middle East's premier aviation fair. Boeing CEO James McNerney Jr. called it part of the "largest commercial launch in aviation history" for a planned aircraft: the bigger and more fuel-efficient model of the company's popular 777 wide-body.
European rival Airbus opened the five-day airshow by announcing a $23 billion order for 50 A380s—its main competition for the 777X—by Dubai-based Emirates. This year's airshow appears on track to surpass the record $155 billion in deals in the 2007 event before the global economic downturn. Boeing received orders for 150 777X planes from Emirates, 50 from Qatar Airways and 25 from Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways; it also inked deals with Etihad for 30 of its 787-10 Dreamliners and one cargo plane, and with budget carrier flydubai for 111 of its single-aisle 737 models. Boeing is still finalizing plans for the 777X—aiming to deliver the first aircraft by the end of the decade—but it has said it is expected to carry as many as 400 passengers and to be 20% more fuel efficient than the current 777.

The new balancing in the airline industry

波灣航空闊綽 千億購波音777


中央社 (2013-11-17 20:57)

(中央社杜拜17日綜合外電報導)波斯灣各國航空公司出手大方,今天在杜拜航空展首日就下了1000多億美元訂單,購買總計259架波音777長程客機,對手空中巴士A380超級巨無霸客機也有斬獲。

阿酋航空(Emirates Airlines)今天訂購150架波音(Boeing)777長程噴射客機,照報價計算的總價約760億美元。阿酋航空也訂購了50架空中巴士(Airbus)A380巨型客機,總價230億美元。

法新社報導,阿布達比(Abu Dhabi)的聯合航空公司(Etihad Airways)今天訂購56架波音(Boeing)客機,包括25架波音777X長程噴射客機。

聯合航空公司執行長霍根(James Hogan)在杜拜航空展的記者會上說,這筆訂單總價252億美元,包括可再購26架客機的優先選擇權

美聯社報導,這筆訂單還包括30架波音787-10夢幻客機(Dreamliner),這為近來因電池問題而遭打擊的夢幻客機提振了士氣。

路透社報導,加上聯合航空公司和卡達航空(Qatar Airways)的需求,波音公司宣布,新型波音777客機共售出259架,根據報價計算的總價約1000億美元,這是歷來聯合訂單中最大一筆。新型波音777長程客機,之前稱為波音777X。

新型波音777客機有兩款,350座的波音777-8將會是世界航程最遠的噴射客機。較大型406座的波音777-9會是主流機型,將於2020年開始交機。

波音董事長麥納尼(James McNerney)在人潮洶湧的新型波音777客機推出記者會上說:「對波音777X的反應令人震驚。」杜拜元首穆罕默德(Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum)也出席記者會。

波斯灣處於東方與西方間的戰略位置,區內各國航空公司在載客量上競爭激烈,由於受衰退影響的歐洲航空公司資金受限,對波音和空中巴士來說波斯灣的生意日益重要。

業界一位高層消息人士不願具名說:「空中巴士竭力緩和波音777X造成的衝擊。」

在今天之前,空中巴士A380客機今年沒賣出半架,空中巴士銷售長雷希(John Leahy)承受重振銷售壓力。除非2015年閒置的生產線收到訂單,恐怕得要考慮減少產能。

阿酋航空今天再訂了50架A380,使其訂購總數達到140架。在此之前,阿酋航空就已經是A380最大客戶。

代表美國航空公司機師的團體警告,銷售數百架客機給與美國航空公司競爭的波斯灣航空公司,將對「美國經濟和美國航空公司員工造成嚴重後果」。這會對美國航空業帶來激烈競爭。


詳全文 波灣航空闊綽 千億購波音777-財經新聞-新浪新聞中心 http://news.sina.com.tw/article/20131117/11137767.html

2013年11月13日

食藥署證實西國4年前示警假油 Span warned Taiwan government twice on problem olive oli since 2009

食藥署證實西國4年前示警假油

(中央社記者陳清芳台北13日電)衛福部食藥署長葉明功今天證實,西班牙4年前即示警衛生署橄欖油有假,但是當時檢驗能力不足,僅輔導改善標示。
5日才接掌衛生福利部食品藥物管理署新上任署長葉明功說,上午緊急清查歷年公文,證實西班牙駐台辦事處確實在2009、2011年兩度來文,提出調查報告並點名泰山、福壽的進口西班牙橄欖油可疑。
葉明功說,相關文件由時任食品衛生處長(現任新北市衛生局長)林雪蓉蓋章決行,當時查核泰山和福壽確實是西班牙進口、台灣分裝橄欖油,責成地方衛生局輔導業者改善產地標示,處理結果回函西班牙駐台辦事處,並未怠惰。
葉明功表示,以當時的油品脂肪酸組成比例檢驗技術,沒有辦法查清楚。
壹週刊報導指出,西班牙2009年、2011年兩度行文衛生署(現改制為衛生福利部),台灣代理商慣用低等級的花生油、葵花籽油、椰子油等,與少量橄欖渣混合,卻裝瓶標示100%初榨橄欖油,並點名泰山、福壽的西班牙橄欖油可疑。