While the figure fell below forecasts made last autumn, a profits warning in December prompted analysts to trim their expectations. Relatively speaking, it looks like a pretty solid quarter.
Revenues are respectable in the circumstances.
Nasdaq surge The data underpinned the hopes of US investors who have bought shares in technology, media and telecoms firms this year despite warnings from firms such as Dell. The undertone of the market is not weakening due to the disappointments in earnings. It is a market that wants to go higher. On Monday, Texas Instruments, the world's top ranking manufacturer of chips for mobile phones, blamed weak sales in the first quarter of 2001 on stockpiling. Makers of mobile phones and communications infrastructure equipment are often working through excess inventory rather than ordering new chips, the firm said.