Chip giant Intel has reported fourth-quarter revenues of US$13.5bn, bringing full-year revenues for 2012 to US$53.3bn. The fourth-quarter profits of US$2.5bn brought full-year net income to US$11bn.
The company, which employs more than 4,000 people in Ireland, generated about US$18.9bn in cash from operations, paid dividends of US$4.4bn, and used US$4.8bn to repurchase 191m shares of stock.
However, it has been a challenging year for the company, reflecting downward trends in the PC industry around the world. Intel’s PC client group’s full-year revenues of US$34bn were down 3pc on 2011 and Intel’s architecture group’s US$4.4bn revenues were down 13pc on the previous year.
But, in reflection of the ongoing march of the internet economy and growth of cloud-based computing, Intel’s data centre group reported a 6pc increase in revenues to reach US$10.7bn.
“The fourth quarter played out largely as expected as we continued to execute through a challenging environment,” said Paul Otellini, Intel’s outgoing CEO.
“We made tremendous progress across the business in 2012 as we entered the market for smartphones and tablets, worked with our partners to reinvent the PC, and drove continued innovation and growth in the data centre. As we enter 2013, our strong product pipeline has us well positioned to bring a new wave of Intel innovations across the spectrum of computing,” Otellini said.
Intel’s outlook for 2013 appears conservative, with the company anticipating a low single-digit increase in revenues during the year.