SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. today said first-quarter bookings were at their highest levels since Q4 of 2000. The increase in orders pushed bookings higher by 28% from the prior quarter and drove the company's book-to-bill over 1.3 for the Q1 period.
"The step up in bookings we saw in the second half of the quarter was a pleasant surprise and drove us to increase our guidance at the end of February," said Kirk Pond, president, CEO, and chairman of Fairchild. "We're extremely encouraged to see such broad-based demand at this early point in the industry recovery."
Fairchild's sales grew sequentially by 4% to $336.9 million in the first quarter from $324.6 million in Q4 of 2001. Sales were 13% below $367.8 million in the first quarter last year.
The South Portland-based chip maker said its net income for the first quarter was $2.7 million, including a $20.5 million gain on the sale of its military and space discrete power line to International Rectifier Corp. (see March 28 story). On a pro-forma basis--excluding special items--Fairchild has a loss of $1.1 million for the first quarter, or $0.01 per share, which beat Wall Street's consensus of a $0.03 loss per share, based on First Call/Thomson Financial.
"Merchant power supply demand and wireless handset orders were weak in January but strengthened through February and March," Pond said. "Computing and consumer demand remained strong throughout the quarter, driven by notebooks, desktop PCs, hard disk drives, DVD players, monitors, and displays.
"Resales in our worldwide distribution channels increased more than 4% on a sequential basis, while distribution inventory levels dropped," added the chief executive officer. "While we continue to validate true end market run rates with our customers, the overall breadth of demand we're seeing has given us the confidence to begin hiring again globally to increase our worldwide wafer fab capacity levels."
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