Microsemi Says Earnings Grew 277% in Quarter

Microsemi Corp., a maker of high-reliability semiconductor chips for the defense and electronics industries, reported Friday that its earnings for the second quarter ended March 31 grew to $806,000--a 277% increase--despite a 10% decline in revenues.

The fiscal 1991 second-quarter earnings compared with $214,000 for the same period a year earlier. Revenues for the quarter were $20.1 million, down 10% from $22.4 million the previous year.

The revenue decline occurred because last year’s results included $4.9 million in sales from units that the company has since decided to sell, said David R. Sonksen, Microsemi’s vice president of finance.

Those units on the auction block include the company’s screening and testing, ceramics and surface mount assembly businesses. Sonksen said the company is still seeking buyers for the units, which have been up for sale for a year.

“Our profit is holding at respectable levels in our core businesses,” Sonksen said. “The defense business is holding up, because most generic weapons systems use our sophisticated electronics.”

Sales of the company’s core business--the manufacture and sale of high-performance chips--improved 15%, from $17.4 million to $20.1 million. Contract backlog fell 7% in the company’s core businesses for the second quarter, to $34.7 million, in contrast with a year earlier.

Sonksen said the company is taking unspecified cost-cutting measures but that employment would remain stable at about 1,200 in the company’s core businesses.