TI revenues drop
However, revenue and orders for DSPS increase from the same period a year ago, driven by record orders for wireless communications.
TI said however, that revenue and orders for digital signal processing solutions (DSPS) increased in the first quarter from the same period a year ago, driven by record orders for wireless communications.
Average unit prices for DRAMs dropped 60 percent from the first quarter of 1997 to the first quarter of 1998, resulting in a loss in TI's memory operations that was more than double that of the year-ago quarter. The memory operating loss was $129 million.
The turmoil in Asia and customer inventory reductions during the first quarter of 1998 affected its semiconductor business.
Net revenues for the first quarter of 1998 were $2.19 billion, compared with $2.26 billion in the first quarter of 1997. Revenues in the first quarter of 1997 included revenues from TI businesses that have since been sold, primarily software. Excluding sold businesses, TI's revenues were down 1 percent from a year ago.
Results for the first quarter include special charges of $244 million, primarily for discontinuing the DRAM manufacturing joint venture with Hitachi.