Fairchild's total sales flat in Q4, but product bookings rise 8% in quarter

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. today reported sequentially flat total revenues for the fourth quarter, with product sales outside of its foundry business growing 3% from Q3.

Fairchild said its "trade sales" grew 3% to $313.2 million in Q4 from the prior quarter. Counting $11.4 million in foundry revenues, the company's total sales were $324.6 million in the period, ended Dec. 30, compared to $325.4 million in Q3.

Pro-forma earnings for Q4 were $400,000, excluding charges for restructuring, acquisition-related costs and other items, said the company. Including those charges, Fairchild's net loss totaled $16.2 million in the fourth quarter.

"We continue to believe that we saw the low point for our trade sales in the third quarter and that we are moving through the early stages of a market recovery," said Kirk Pond, president, CEO and chairman of Fairchild.

"During the quarter our trade bookings improved 8% sequentially, and our trade book-to-bill ratio was greater than 1:1. We turned 21% of our fourth quarter bookings into revenue during the quarter. Visibility improved slightly, but remains low," he said. "Our 13-week backlog remained flat through the quarter, while our 26-week backlog grew a few percentage points.

"In general, pricing seems to be bottoming for most of our product lines, even though our market environment remains very competitive," Pond added. "Because of the industry-wide drop in unit demand during 2001, we anticipate no real recovery in pricing for much of 2002."

The CEO said Fairchild expects a sequential increase in trade sales while foundry revenues continue to decline.