NXP Semiconductors reported first quarter revenues of $1.085bn which is 11% up on this quarter last year.
The company’s strongest business continues to be the high performance mixed signal (HPMS) IC business which includes NXP’s ranges of ARM microcontrollers and RF ID chips.
The weakest business was the standard products business, which includes discretes and power chips.
According to company CEO Richard Clemmer, this reflects NXP’s change in business strategy over the last four years.
“We were a broad-based semiconductor company playing in many market areas and we have changed into a more focused company,” Clemmer told Electronics Weekly.
Clemmer said he had no plans to narrow the focus even further, and get out of the weak performing standard products business “at this time”.
"Our revenue results for the first quarter of 2013 came in at the higher end of our guidance," said Richard Clemmer, NXP CEO.
“I expect product revenues to grow in the range 6 to 12% in Q2,” said Clemmer.
In terms of profits, there was better than expected performance in the HPMS business.
There was weaker than expected financial performance in the standard products business, which includes discretes and power chips, due to increased pricing pressure and “poor factory performance, resulting from a slower recovery than expected from our recent quality issues”, said Clemmer.
“We must take steps to improve the standard products business,” said Clemmer.
First quarter revenues were 3% down on the previous quarter (Q4 2012).
Clemmer also pointed to the “momentum in our identification [smartcard and RFID] business, in addition to more normal seasonal demand trends in our automotive OEM business”.
