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STM 1Q earnings double
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April 18, 2000: 4:50 a.m. ET
Chipmaker posts record profit amid 'unprecedented demand'; shares surge
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LONDON (CNNfn) - STMicroelectronics more than doubled its profit to a record level in the first quarter of 2000, and Europe's second-largest chipmaker boasted of further significant advances to come thanks to "unprecedented demand".
"We ended Q1 with record backlog and the highest level of incoming orders in our history," Chief Executive Pasquale Pistorio said in a statement.
Revenue in the three months ended April 1 rose 53 percent to $1.7 billion, while operating income surged 122 percent to $292 million and net earnings gained 76 percent to $238 million. Earnings per shares rose 117 percent to $0.78.
Pistorio pointed to a widespread recovery in the market for semiconductors, complemented by internal improvements at STM (formerly known as SGS-Thomson) and increased manufacturing capacity. 
In Paris, STM (PSTM) stock jumped 15 percent to  193. The shares have been among the top performers among the market's blue chips over the past few years. Reflecting this, STM proposed a three-for-one stock split, to take effect May 5.
While STM's chips are already popular in cellphone handsets, it is also seeing strong demand for newer applications. In the first quarter it sold 800,000 chips for use with Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology, a system that is expected to become one of the most popular means of offering high-speed Internet access to consumers. It also shipped more than 1 million chips for MP3 players, devices that allow Web users to play music that they download from the Internet. STM claims to be the largest supplier of chips for this application.
STM is Europe's second-biggest chip manufacturer, behind Philips Electronics of the Netherlands. 
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STMicroelectronics
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