Shares of Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) continue to lose ground today, even though the Austin-based company beat Wall Street’s earnings forecast by a slight margin last week. One reason could be the top line: Freescale said sales for the 4th quarter were $1.01 billion, down 11% from the previous quarter, and down 14% from the previous year. For the full year, sales were up 2.5% to $4.57 billion.
The company said weakness in the wireless infrastructure market weighed on sales in the fourth quarter. Sluggish demand from network equipment companies hurt sales in Freescale’s networking and multimedia segment, with revenues falling 4% from Q3 to $279 million. CFO Alan Campbell said a slowdown in wireless capital expenditure spending led to a drop in RF, analog, and sensor product net sales. Sales for this segment were $292 million, down 5% from Q3 but up 2% from Q4 of 2011.
Freescale is winding down its cellular business. Cellular product sales fell 58% quarter-on-quarter to $41 million, and the company says that was consistent with expectations.
Freescale CEO Rich Beyer highlighted the automotive market as a bright spot for Freescale. Sales of sensor and analog products into the automotive market increased year-on-year, and earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show, General Motors said it has chosen Freescale’s i.MX 6 solo apps processor as the primary processing engine for the next generation OnStar Telematic system. Freescale underlined teh importance of the automotive market in its recently announced recently restructuring, creating an automotive and industrial group and a networking and multimedia group.
