The giant chip maker Intel is blaming slow spending on computers for the fact that its profits tumbled precipitously in the last quarter of 2008. The company saw a 90% fall, going from a profit of $2.3 billion all the way down to $234 million.
Earlier this month Intel had warned of lower sales, and they have indeed slumped 23% to $8.2bn, the BBC reports. It also said it expects sales of just $7bn billion in the first quarter of 2009.
Although Intel’s news wasn’t good, it still helped boost its share price 2.1% in after-hours trading, simply because it wasn’t as bad as most people feared. Part of the profit drop was due to Intel writing down a $1bn investment in Clearwire Corp., which is working on a new type of wireless broadband that Intel is building into its chips.
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