Staff reductions at Freescale and Cymer
Cymer's CEO Bob Akins comments: "Over the past few weeks, the reported decline in chip fab utilisation has caused some chipmakers to begin delaying equipment purchases, including the purchase of lithography tools."
Freescale chairman/CEO Michel Mayer believes that "reducing our infrastructure costs and rebalancing our resources generates savings that allow us to accelerate new product development, enhance technology leadership and drive greater customer intimacy across all our business".
Freescale reported Q3 net sales of $1.43bn, compared with $1.23bn in Q3 2003 (+16%). Net income was $57mn, compared with last year's net loss of $106mn.
Cymer's total revenue was $107.14mn (+68% on Q3 2003) and net income was $15.42mn compared with a net loss of $8.52mn in Q3 2003. Despite this, Akins says: "Based on expected lower quarterly revenue levels in the near term, and the high degree of unpredictability moving forward, we have decided to take action now to align our cost structure with these uncertain industry conditions."
Siemens has moved from using Freescale chips exclusively for its 3G phones, adding ICs from Qualcomm to its mix in a deal made this week. The German firm plans to launch 3G phones using Qualcomm WCDMA (UMTS) Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipsets in H2 2005.
