Slower PC Card Sales Dampen Xircom Revenue

Xircom Inc. in Thousand Oaks said earnings and sales in its fiscal third quarter missed analysts’ projections because of disappointing sales of its networking cards for computers.

The networking products company said revenue in the quarter ended Monday was about $50 million and earnings from continuing operations broke even.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 18 cents a share.

In the third quarter last year, Xircom earned 13 cents a share on sales of $52.2 million.

Xircom’s revenue is lagging because of slow growth in demand for its PC cards. Personal computer sales have been hampered by the limited availability of models equipped with Intel Corp.’s Pentium MMX chip, Xircom Chairman Dirk Gates said.

The problem of MMX availability should be solved in the next two quarters, Gates said.

Xircom is seeking a buyer for its Netaccess unit, which makes equipment to link telephone lines to the Internet.