Rambus ups Q3 guidance on shipment increase, royalty payments
Harold Hughes, Rambus president and CEO, says semiconductor shipments rose to meet current OEM demand, after an overcorrection earlier this year, driving an increase in teh company's variable royalty payments and consequently higher expected revenue for the quarter.
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- EDN, September 16, 2009
Rambus Inc has become the latest semiconductor industry company to raise its sales guidance for the September quarter.
The licensing company specializing in memory architectures now expects revenue for Q3 to be between $27 million and $28 million, compared to its prior revenue guidance calling for revenue between $22 million to $25 million. Rambus reported Q2 revenue of $27 million in July.
Rambus also revised its expected adjusted operating expenses for the quarter, based on a delay in a price-fixing trial and its litigation-related spending, as well as lower engineering expenses. The Los Altos, Calif-based company now expects operating expenses to be between $41 million and $44 million. Rambus’ previous guidance called for $44 million to $49 million in adjusted operating expenses.
“Semiconductor shipments rose to meet current OEM demand, after an overcorrection earlier this year, driving an increase in our variable royalty payments and consequently higher expected revenue for the quarter,” said Harold Hughes, Rambus president and CEO, in a statement. “Concurrently, the rescheduling of the price-fixing trial, combined with lower engineering spending, drove a downward revision in our anticipated operational expenses.”
Earlier this month, Texas Instruments upped its revenue guidance, now calling for Q3 revenue of $2.73 billion to $2.87 billion, compared with the prior range of $2.5 billion to $2.8 billion. Prior to that, Intel in late August bettered its September quarter guidance to call for Q3 revenue of $9 billion, plus or minus $200 million, as compared to the previous range of $8.5 billion, plus or minus $400 million. The improved guidance estimates a $1 billion sales gain on Intel's Q2 results.
