Big guns suffer as downturn bites

IBM, Intel and AMD report drop in sales

Industry giants are feeling the effects of the continuing economic slowdown, with IBM posting a decline in turnover and profit for its third quarter.

Big Blue said that hardware sales fell by 21 per cent. The company reported a $1.6bn (£1.1bn) profit for the quarter ended 30 September, compared with $2bn a year ago. Turnover was down six per cent to $20.4bn, against $21.7bn the previous year.

Chip giant Intel has seen its third-quarter profit fall by 77 per cent, which it attributed to "slowing economies and weak PC sales". It reported turnover of $6.8bn, with a profit of $655m, compared with $2.9bn in the same period the previous year.

Rival AMD reported a 22 per cent drop in turnover. The firm posted third-quarter profits of $766m compared with $985m the previous year.

Apple reported a profit of $66m for its fourth quarter, against $170m the previous year. However, turnover was down 22 per cent to $1.4bn.

Software vendor Symantec bucked the trend by reporting an overall increase for its second quarter, posting turnover of $242.4m, compared with $226.4m the previous year. Profit fell from $47.9m to $42.3m.

Chief executive John Thompson said: "The new breed of security threats we experienced during the quarter raised the awareness of individuals and enterprises of the need for comprehensive security solutions."

Data storage vendor EMC is widening its planned job cuts by 1,600, on top of the 2,400 announced last month. This follows a loss of $945m, which included restructuring charges of $825m, while turnover fell by 47 per cent to $1.21bn for its third quarter ended 30 September.