Intel Stuns Wall Street With Nine-fold Increase In Profits

The Santa Clara, California based company mentioned that its net income in the fourth quarter came out to be $2.3 billion or 40 cents a share, 875 percent more than the $234 million or 4 cents per share net profit which was achieved during Q4 in 2008.  

Intel also posted a 28 percent rise in its revenue from sales in the fourth quarter of 2009, which was reported to be $10.6 billion. The financial results have come as a surprise to Wall Street analysis who had predicted a net income of $1.9 billion or 30 cents per share and sales revenue of $10.2 billion. 

Commenting on one of the most profitable quarters in Intel’s history, Paul Otellini, Intel's chief executive officer, during a conference call with analysts, said that “We started the year in one of the deepest recessions in our history and emerged from it with better products and technology driving new demand for computing world-wide.” 

Interestingly, Intel’s strong financial markers come despite the payment of $1.25 billion to its rival Advanced Micro Devices in order to settle a legal battle between the competitors.

AMD had accused Intel of undertaking anti-competitive strategies to edge out AMD from the computer chip market.