With reports that PC sales for the fourth quarter of 2012 were down compared to a year, many were expecting that Intel"s financial results would also be down. Today, Intel confirmed those speculations but in the end their results still managed to beat the expectations of Wall Street.
Intel"s press release states that the PC processor maker brought in $13.5 billion for the quarter in revenue, which is down three percent compared to the same quarter in 2011. It also had a net income if $2.5 billion for the quarter, down a whopping 27 percent from the same period a year ago.
Earnings were 48 cents a share, compared to estimates of 45 cents a share. The PC Client Group had revenues of $8.5 billion for the quarter, down six percent from the same period a year ago.
Paul Otellini, the soon-to-retire CEO of Intel, said in today"s press release that the results "played out largely as expected as we continued to execute through a challenging environment." Intel"s current expectations for 2013 are that its revenues will only grow in "single-digits" for the year.
Intel certainly has a lot to lose if sales of Windows 8 PCs don"t come in as expected. We should learn a lot more about the current state of the PC market, and of Windows 8 in particular, when Microsoft announced its fourth quarter 2012 financial result one week from today on January 24th.
Source: Intel | Image via Intel