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Silicon Integrated Systems Strived to Grow Market Share in a Downturn PC Market
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July 29, 2002 Taipei -Silicon Integrated Systems Corporation (SiS), a leading core logic and graphics chip supplier, today reported revenues of NT$3,262 million for the 3-month period ended June. 30, 2002, down 9% from the first quarter and up 29% compared with the same quarter of last year. Revenues for the first half of 2002 were NT$6,838, an increase of 39% compared with the same period of 2001.
A SiS spokesman explained that in the second quarter soft worldwide demand for PCs resulted in a drop of global shipment volume, but SiS's chipset unit shipment increased nearly 10% to over 5 million sets, indicating a clear gain in market share. However, lower average selling prices caused by sharp competition resulted in some contraction in revenues and profits. SiS's second quarter bottom line showed a net loss of NT$87 million, compared with a net profit of NT$26 million in the previous quarter, and a net loss of NT$171 million the same period of 2001.
SiS's CEO, Dr. Samuel Liu, stated that the company is building market share despite a difficult market environment, and the company continues to strengthen its market position. Over time, SiS expects to reap benefits from its well-developed ability to rapidly introduce first-to-market products, and effectively reduce cost and product cycle time with its own state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities.
The company has enjoyed fast growth of Pentium® 4-compaitible chipset volumes, operating under a license from Intel? During the second quarter, SiS launched a new chipset, the SiS648, featuring the world's first AGP8X graphics interface, an industry-leading DDR400 memory interface, as well as an IEEE 1394a interface which supports high-speed video and audio data transmission from consumer electronics products. These functions and features enable Pentium 4 PCs to deliver to users the best available graphics and multimedia experience and optimal multi-tasking performance. The SiS648 chipset has received numerous positive reviews from third-party test sites worldwide, and has garnered design wins at virtually all leading motherboard makers to rapidly become an industry standard.
On the GPU front, SiS's new "Xabre" brand, launched in the second quarter, flags its newest series of high-performance stand-alone graphics processors. Leading third-party test sites have given Xabre products high marks, and the industry response has been strong. Supporting both DirectX8.1 and an APG8X interface, the top-of-the-line Xabre 400 is positioned as the best price/performance alternative in the mainstream graphics card market. Among a wide range of accolades, the product has recently been awarded the "Best Choice of COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2002 - LSI Product" in Taiwan and the "Best of COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2002" by the [Nikkei Byte Magazine and Nikkei WinPC Magazine].
In addition, international investors have recently indicated a strong vote of confidence in SiS's prospects. On July 25 the company closed a successful Euro Convertible Bond financing totaling US$100 million, including the exercise of a US$20 million over-subscription option beyond the original US$80 million offering. The proceeds of the ECB issue will be used in part to repay term debt, improving the company's financial position, and in part to finance the construction of a new R&D facility, further strengthening SiS's core technological advancement and time-to-market product launch capability. |
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