1999-01-08 , ESC-9951
Business News From Philips Semiconductors

Preliminary Dataquest semiconductor ranking puts Philips Semiconductors up one place to eighth for 1998

Philips Semiconductors has maintained its position as Europe's leading semiconductor company in the preliminary Dataquest 1998 figures and moved up the world-wide ranking to eighth place, from ninth in 1997.

"We are delighted with these results," said Arthur van der Poel, chairman and chief executive officer of Philips Semiconductors. "The industry, as a whole, has been hard hit in 1998 with revenues dropping by around 8 to 10% and all of the companies above of us, apart from Intel, recorded severe losses. Even in the most troubled market of Asia/Pacific, we increased our 1997 ranking from sixth to third place for 1998. We outperformed most competitors in this reduced market due to our long-term investments in this region, which give us a very strong position especially in China."

"We have delivered this year-on-year growth because we have a very strong, broad product portfolio, unrivalled analogue and digital skills, and in-depth systems knowledge. Our customers rely on us to provide innovative solutions to help them create outstanding products. For example, in 1998, we announced our new, ultra fast QUBiC3 process for high frequency mobile communications that sets new standards for silicon performance; our R.E.A.L. digital signal processing cores that enable us to create advanced systems on silicon solutions, and successful design wins for our outstanding TriMedia™ processor that is now being used by six of the leading manufacturers of digital TVs for the American ATSC market."

"Our 1998 successes were supported by a multi-million dollar investment program in our fabs around the world that went against last year's general industry trend of cutting back on fab investments. For example, in September 1998, we announced a joint venture with TSMC and the Economic Development Board Investments of Singapore to start building a billion-dollar, state-of-the-art, ASIC fab in Singapore."

"We anticipate that there will be a growth of five to ten percent in the world semiconductor industry this year. Philips Semiconductors is ideally placed to ride the crest of this new wave, to continue growing from strength to strength, and to maintain or improve yet further its position in the top ten."

Source: Dataquest (December 1998)

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier in the world (according to Dataquest's preliminary 1998 ranking by sales). Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs.