Wolfson

I've seen shares fall on good results before but this is just silly!

Surely this has got to be a buying opportunity!

Financial Highlights

Revenue increased by 94% to $56.9m (H1 2003, $29.3m)
Gross margin improved to 50% (H1 2003, 46.4%)
Profit before tax increased by 123% to $9.3m (H1 2003, $4.2m)
Diluted earnings per share increased 94% to 5.77c (H1 2003: 2.98c)

Operational Highlights

158 design wins in the period
9 new products introduced in the period
Continued strong uptake of products by major OEMs
Increased sales in Japan and Korea to 29% of group turnover
31 new technical and commercial staff

director bought 15,000 shares today @$2.93 ( 1.559). I think its time to buy in. Any views?

Wolfson Microelectronics (LSE: WLF.L - news) (WLF) Director name: Mr Robert Eckelmann Amount purchased: 15,000 @ 156.43p Value: 23,463

Apple's Profit Up On Sales Of IPods
Music Players Help Increase Interest in Macs

By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 14, 2005; Page E06

Apple Computer Inc. reported yesterday that sales of its iPod music player increased six-fold in the second fiscal quarter from the comparable period last year and said the gadget's popularity is helping push computer sales.

The phenomenally selling music player was largely responsible for boosting Apple's quarterly profit to $290 million, up from the $46 million profit it reported a year ago. Revenue for the quarter was $3.24 billion, up 70 percent.

_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____

TechNews Daily Report
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
Personal Finance
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
Personal Tech
See a Sample | Sign Up Now




Most consumer-electronics products experience a sales peak during the end-of-year holiday season before dropping off in January. But sales of the iPod increased in the first calendar quarter of this year, thanks to the introduction of the iPod Shuffle and price cuts on existing models.

In the three months ended March 26, the company sold 5.3 million iPods, up from 4.6 million in the previous quarter and 807,000 year-over-year. Despite a program that has competitor Hewlett-Packard Co. selling iPods, the company said yesterday that less than 3 percent of the iPods sold in the quarter were sold through HP.

Company officials said the music player is steering new customers to Apple's computers, which have held under 5 percent of the U.S. computer market in recent years. Apple's computer sales in the second quarter were up 43 percent, with more than 1 million Macs sold.

Timothy D. Cook, Apple's executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations, said in a conference call with analysts yesterday that computer purchases surged, driven largely by first-time Mac buyers, who accounted for more than 40 percent of sales.

Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at the research firm Creative Strategies Inc. called the iPod's impact on Mac computer sales a "halo effect" and credited customer service at Apple's retail stores for the increase in computer sales. "These guys are really good at helping you not only focus on the iPod, but on how well it works with a Mac, too," he said.

From January 2004 to February 2005, Apple's stock price soared, to $40 a share from about $10, outpacing the rest of the tech sector. After a stock split in February, the share price has remained flat. The stock closed yesterday at $41.04 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Apple announced this week that its latest major update for the Mac operating system, code-named Tiger, will be released on April 29. The software boasts 200 new features, according to the company, and will cost $129.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51786-2005Apr13.html

PSP sales of over half a million in US ...General
Posted on Friday, April 08, 2005 at 14:12 by Laurence Norah

Sony has announced that their new hand held gaming console, the PSP, has had record sales figures in its first week in the US, with over 500,000 units sold already.

The demand for the console brought in a record $150 million in the first week of sales, which is more than any other console has made in its launch week. No doubt Sony were delighted by this, as can be seen by the comments made by Kaz Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America:

The launch of PSP was everything we hoped for, with extraordinary consumer demand driving sales of hardware units alone upwards of $150 million in first week sales, far and away above those generated by any other product in the space. In only two weeks, PSP is having an immediate impact across the entire industry as consumers are clearly voting it the product of the year in 2005.

With more features looking to be added to the handheld device, and certain users having already figured out how surf the web from the PSP, we don't expect to see Sony's sales figures dipping away any time soon.


http://itvibe.com/news/3434/

Things begining to look very interesting here again guys. One of the best stock to buy and hold IMO for 2005. Any views?

old news but interesting

Wolfson Safe From Digital Camera Slowdown

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 7:39:20 AM

1119 GMT [Dow Jones] Despite the dip in digital camera sales in Feb, Wolfson (WLF.LN) is protected, says Baird. Says digital cameras will be one of the main growth drivers in 2005, but sales have been slowing for some time. Plus, Wolfson's chips have been designed into a number of new breed of combined still/handycam devices which could breathe life into the market in 2H. Rates Wolfson at outperform.

http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_762616.html

Monday April 18, 01:15 PM
New Consumer Markets and Feature Integration to Drive Wolfson Growth; Wolfson to Release ''Audio-plus'' Solutions Featuring Increased Mixed-Signal Int

By Business Wire

Wolfson Microelectronics plc (LSE: WLF.L - news) (LSE:WLF) believes that growth in new and existing classes of high volume digital consumer electronics,

requiring high fidelity audio, will drive demand for mixed-signal semiconductors. New applications like DVD-RW, wireless-enabled Hi-Fi, LCD-TV, VoIP and automotive entertainment are continuing to emerge. Portable multimedia devices, like multi-media phones, DSC and MP3 players, are being differentiated with improved performance and functionality, driving a need for more integrated mixed-signal solutions.

"We are seeing two trends in the market that we believe we can build on positively for the next phase of our growth strategy," said David Milne, CEO of Wolfson Microelectronics. "The first is the emergence of new classes of high volume digital consumer electronics, with a need for quality audio. The second is that portable devices like multi-media phones, DSC and MP3 players will require more integrated mixed-signal solutions, to support improved performance and increased functionality with no compromise on cost, size or battery life. In the next year, Wolfson intends to not only release new, integrated mixed-signal audio semiconductors to leverage our existing analogue technologies into emerging markets, but we will also be developing complementary analogue strengths to extend our reach into existing markets."

Audio-plus(TM) strategy

Wolfson's new "Integrated Sound and Power(TM)" devices, which will be announced later this year, will be the first examples of Wolfson's 'audio-plus' strategy of using its strength in mixed-signal engineering strategy to integrate other analogue-intensive mixed-signal functions with audio.

"We see the combination of audio and power management functions to be an obvious integration path. Wolfson's passion for audio translates well into the portable market, and resonates with rising consumer expectation for the sound quality associated with new multimedia experiences," Milne explained. "This is one of a number of paths for mixed-signal integration that we can see that should allow Wolfson to build new strengths alongside audio silicon engineering. In each of these paths, the audio quality is the element that most directly influences the customer experience, and the key challenge is always to achieve the benefits of integration without degrading that experience."

In order to support the trend for integrated audio-power solutions for portable applications, Wolfson has built a power-focussed design team in Swindon, UK, which complements its audio engineers in Edinburgh, UK.

About Wolfson Microelectronics

Wolfson Microelectronics plc (LSE:WLF) is an award winning, fabless semiconductor company based in Edinburgh, UK. Wolfson develops and markets high performance mixed signal semiconductors for multimedia and communications applications worldwide. The company currently has sales offices in the USA, Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea. For further information please contact: sales@wolfsonmicro.com.

For more information about Wolfson Microelectronics products and services in the US, Call: 858-676-5090. For additional information, visit: http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/.

Wolfson Microelectronics plc
Anne Connolly, +44 (0) 131 272 7000
anne.connolly@wolfsonmicro.com
or
VitalCom PR
Karen Tyrrell, 650-637-8212 ext. 204
Karen@vitalcompr.com
or
Neesham PR
Peter van der Sluijs, +44 (0) 1442 879222
peterv@neesham.co.uk

Monday April 18, 01:15 PM
Wolfson Expands in Asia Pacific Region; Adds Office in Singapore, Expands in Japan, Korea and China
By Business Wire

Wolfson Microelectronics plc (LSE: WLF.L - news) (LSE:WLF), is expanding its operations in the Asia Pacific region with the opening of an office
in Singapore, and in Osaka, Japan and the expansion of its teams in Tokyo, Shenzhen and Seoul. Wolfson recently opened a logistics hub in Ipoh, Malaysia.

"The Asia Pacific region including Korea and Japan now accounts for 88% of Wolfson's worldwide sales," commented David Milne, CEO of Wolfson Microelectronics. "Specifically we saw very strong growth in Japan in 2004, tripling our sales over 2003 levels. Our expanded presence in the region is intended to strengthen our relationships with existing customers and assist us in winning new designs."

The new office in Osaka will support Wolfson's growing business in the Kansai region of Japan, and complements the expanded Tokyo office. Mr. Toshiya Kunita has been appointed as the Sales Manager for the Osaka office.

With the opening of the Singapore office, Wolfson will be able to offer more local sales and engineering applications support to customers in the South East Asia region, and hopes to increase its business in India. Mr. Eugene Goh has been recruited to lead the office and he brings to Wolfson extensive experience in the semiconductor industry in South East Asia, including time spent at AMD and Arrow.

Other expansions to the Wolfson team in Asia include new applications engineers in Tokyo, Shenzhen and Seoul. In Tokyo, Keiji Mitsushita has joined Wolfson from Olympus as an applications engineer and Mr. Kanzunori Hori further strengthens the sales team. Two new applications engineers have been added in the Seoul, Korea office, and three to the Shenzhen, China office.

About Wolfson Microelectronics

Wolfson Microelectronics plc (LSE:WLF) is an award winning, fabless semiconductor company based in Edinburgh, UK. Wolfson develops and markets high performance mixed signal semiconductors for multimedia and communications applications worldwide. The company currently has sales offices in the USA, Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea. For further information please contact: sales@wolfsonmicro.com.

Wolfson Microelectronics plc
Anne Connolly, +44 (0) 131 272 7000
anne.connolly@wolfsonmicro.com
or
VitalCom PR
Karen Tyrrell, 650-637-8212 x204
Karen@vitalcompr.com
or
Neesham PR
Peter van der Sluijs, +44 (0) 1442 879222
peterv@neesham.co.uk

Wolfson Microelectronics says orders on track to deliver H1 and FY targets
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Wolfson Microelectronics PLC chief executive David Milne said current order bookings are on track to deliver increased sales for the first half and full year.

In an AGM statement, Milne said the trading outlook for 2005 is in line with the preliminary results announcement of Feb 22.

20% growth it will be then. Not bad

Thx Azhar,

Appreciate your input on this BB.

;-)

May 10, The Times.

Wolfson Microelectronics dipped 3p at 140p, despite suggestions that it has extended its reach in the consumer electronics market it supplies Apples iPod and Sonys PlayStation Portable by providing semiconductors for Microsofts Xbox 360, which will be unveiled on Thursday.

Financial Times

The Lex Column:
..
..
..
..
*Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - news) contract hopes lift Wolfson Microelectronics (LSE: WLF.L - news)

Thanks Azhar for consistant newsflow. Do you know if the micrsoft contract is based on the Xbox and whether this has been confirmed? I understand the Playstation chips are both visably identifiable on the unit and are to be based on a royalty deal of around $1 per unit to be sold, so perhaps a similar arrangement with Xbox?
Last month but very enouraging write-up: http://www.masshightech.com/displayarticledetail.asp?art_id=68325

Begining to look good again. Any views or further confirmations whether Xbox has the chip?

up 5% today. The chart is looking similar to same period last year, possibly have a nice build up in SP until results in july. we need to break 180 as this failed last time. Good luck all holders.

June 20, 2005 08:15 AM US Eastern Timezone

Wolfson ADCs Bring High-Performance Recording to Portable Consumer Electronics

SAN DIEGO & EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 20, 2005--Wolfson Microelectronics plc (LSE:WLF) has extended its ADC range with the addition of two new devices for consumer electronics with record functionality, such as digital still and video cameras, games console accessories and wireless microphones.


The Wolfson WM8950 and WM8951 offer highly integrated microphone support solutions characterized by low-power consumption, compact size and an excellent audio performance with a signal-noise ratio of 90dB at 3.3V.

The Wolfson WM8950 mono ADC supports both differential and single-ended microphones and has microphone pre-amplifiers to reduce external part count. Key features include advanced sigma-delta converters, which are used alongside digital decimation filters, to give high quality audio at sample rates from 8kHz to 48 kHz. Additional filtering options include a programmable high-pass filter, for wind noise and other extraneous noise reduction, a programmable IIR filter and an advanced programmable ALC with noise gate in the ADC path.

The WM8950 also supports A-law and u-law compounding for reduced data rates over a wireless link and an integrated PLL allows support for a wider range of clocking rates. Wolfson offers the WM8950 in a highly compact 4mm x 4mm QFN package, and it can be powered from a 3V supply.

The WM8951 is a high-performance stereo ADC which can operate at digital voltages down to 1.42v and analog voltages of 1.8v. Packaged in a compact 5mm x 5mm QFN, the WM8591 achieves an SNR of 90dB at 3.3V, 85dB at 1.8V, and supports sampling rates of 8kHz to 96kHz. It also features a selectable ADC high-pass filter, a serial audio interface and 2/3 wire control interface for software access to all features including volume controls, mute and power management.

Price and Availability

The WM8950 and the WM8951 are available to sample now and are priced at $1.27 and $1.12 respectively in volumes of 10,000.

Thursday Jul 14 2005. All times are London Time.

uk:wlf

Wolfson bigger Apple bite buoys shares
Shares in Wolfson were 0.6 per cent higher at 165.8p in afternoon trade on Thursday after the company reported stronger than expected sales, with higher demand for microchip components from Apple. The Californian computer hardware manufacturer uses Wolfsons chips in its iconic iPod personal music player. Apple is expected to launch a new iPod model later this year and this could provide a further boost to Wolfson. Analysts at Citigroup estimate that demand from Apple could account for 11 per cent of Wolfsons total sales this year. Wolfson is due to report its first half results on July 27. 15:1

Chip group Wolfson Microelectronics saw its shares climb 16p to 182p after the company posted a solid set of interim numbers. The company, which supplies mixed-signal semiconductors for the consumer electronics industry, unveiled pre-tax profits of 9.2 million dollars for the 6-month period to June 30th, up from 8.5 million dollars a year earlier, as sales climbed 12% to 63.8 million dollars. In an accompanying statement, chief executive David Milne said that sales for portable devices in particular had been robust. The growth in portable products stemmed from strong end-user demand for portable music players such as the Apple iPod and iPod mini, alongside games consoles, PDAs and portable GPS devices. Going forward, Wolfson remained largely upbeat, as it said it expected its portable segment to continue to account for more than half of total revenues.