Freescale Semiconductor Inc. reported third quarter sales of $1.21 billion, up 2 percent from the second quarter of this year and up 12 percent compared to the third quarter of 2013.
In the first three quarters of 2014, overall revenues for Freescale are up 14 percent with each of the company’s five business units growing at double digit rates compared to the same three quarters in 2013. Specifically, microcontrollers (MCUs) is up 19 percent, digital networking is up 23 percent, auto microcontrollers are up 15 percent, analog and sensors is up 11 percent and RF is up 52 percent, according to Gregg Lowe, president and CEO of Freescale.
“This performance indicates we are on track to gain share again in 2014 and would mark the second year in a row of share growth,” Lowe said during Freescale’s earnings conference call.
Specific business unit revenue breakdowns included MCU net sales of $250 million for the quarter, up 2 percent sequentially and 19 percent year-over-year driven by sales of 32-bit MCUs in the industrial and medical markets. Digital networking revenue was $281 million in the third quarter, down modestly from Q2 and up 18 percent year-over-year driven by wireless base stations in China.
Automotive MCU revenue was $303 million, again down slightly from Q2 but up 12 percent year-over-year. Analog and sensor revenues came in at $201 million down sequentially but up 11 percent year-over-year due to increased semiconductor content in automobiles and increase auto sales, Freescale said. Finally, RF revenues were $157 million in the third quarter up 31 percent from the second quarter and up 76 percent from last year due to a strong increase due to strong wireless infrastructure investment in China. Other product sales were $21 million, flat with the second quarter and below last year’s $77 million, due to lower intellectual property (IP) revenue.
Dan Durn, senior VP and CFO at Freescale, said in the earnings calls that the revenue outlook for the fourth quarter would be between $1.075 billion to $1.125 billion. Based on this guidance, Durn said RF revenues will increase due to wireless infrastructure growth, specifically LTE. The remaining businesses will decline due to seasonality in the automobile business, weakness in industrial demand and inventory management from Freescale as the year ends. Durn added Freescale expects operating experiences to be down slightly on a sequential basis.
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