TI’s Second-Quarter Profit Falls 90%

Texas Instruments Inc., the world’s No. 1 maker of computer chips for mobile phones, said second-quarter earnings excluding one-time items fell 90% as customer demand remained low after plunging earlier this year.

TI also warned it expected a pro forma loss in the third quarter of “a few cents” a share and that third-quarter revenue would decline 10% to 15% from the second quarter.

The Dallas-based manufacturer of the chips used in about two-thirds of the world’s digital cellular phones said that on a pro forma basis, second-quarter income was $50 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with $543 million, or 30 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. The consensus analyst profit forecast was 2 cents a share, with a range between zero and 5 cents.

Revenue was down 31% to $2.04 billion from $2.93 billion a year earlier. Including those one-time charges and costs, TI said, it recorded a net loss of $197 million, or 11 cents a diluted share, compared with a net profit of $1.296 billion, or 72 cents a share, a year earlier.