STMicroelectronics Reports 2009 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results

PARIS — STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) reported financial results for the 2009 fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2009.

Fourth Quarter Review

ST’s net revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009 total $2,583 million and include sales recorded by ST-Ericsson as consolidated by ST. Net revenues increased 13.6% sequentially, reflecting an increase in demand across all of ST’s served market segments, as well as in all regions, with particular strength in Japan, Greater China and the Americas. Net revenues increased in comparison to the year-ago quarter in all market segments except Consumer and Industrial, and in all regions except Japan, reflecting the broad-based recovery in the semiconductor market.

On a sequential basis, all market segments posted growth, with Computer increasing by 22%, Industrial by 19%, Automotive by 19%, Consumer by 12% and Telecom by 1%. Distribution increased 35%, reflecting strong demand and improving market conditions. In comparison to the year-ago quarter, all segments increased except for Consumer and Industrial, down by 11% and 7%, respectively. Automotive was up by 23%, Telecom by 17% and Computer by 37%. Distribution increased 12% in comparison to the year-ago period reflecting the realignment of stock with demand and improved industry conditions.

Q4 2009 Products, Technology and Design Wins – Consumer

• In home entertainment applications, ST announced its adoption of the ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ processor, in addition to the Mali®-400 graphics processor, for its upcoming set-top-box and digital TV System-on-Chip (SoC) ICs. The Cortex-A9 processor will provide the scalable high performance required to enable the high-bandwidth broadband and broadcast content being streamed into homes, while also enabling ST to leverage its expertise in mobile markets, in close cooperation with ST-Ericsson, to deliver world-class power efficiency.
• In set-top-box (STB) applications, ST has several projects in development with key players, based on the STi7105 HD decoder running middleware from NDS, allowing ST to gain an important piece of this market. ST is also winning new designs on the STi7105, including, most recently, a key broadcaster in France. ST also announced that its highly integrated STi5197 cable STB decoder is now shipping in high volume to leading STB makers in China.
• Also in STBs, ST’s satellite front-end STB demodulator ICs are now being used by a leading US broadcaster in outdoor dish units, which gives it the potential to be installed in every new subscriber’s home in the US. ST also achieved EuroDOCSIS 2.0 certification for its production-ready reference design for feature-rich cable STBs using the STi7141 SoC.
• In digital TV chips, ST launched a new generation of high-performance, full high-definition (HD) H.264/MPEG SoCs with world-class Faroudja™ video/audio enhancements, delivering full high-definition processing and accelerated Internet-TV support for the next-generation of integrated broadcast and broadband digital TVs. The new ‘Freeman’ SoCs will enable compelling services and new business models for premium content, and will deliver a rich and intuitive user experience.
• Additionally, ST gained a design win for an advanced H.264/MPEG decoder to increase its penetration of the emerging ISDB-T DTV market in Latin America.
• In multimedia display chips, ST announced two new families of Faroudja-based LCD controller SoCs with advanced color processing and DisplayPort and HDMI receivers to support full-HD sources, such as Blu-ray. The DisplayPort-based STDP8028 SoC is being designed into multi-function monitors and public displays by leading OEMs around the world, with two tier-one manufacturers starting mass production in the quarter. In addition, two tier-one makers also started production with the new STDP6000 SoC.
• Also in displays, ST, in collaboration with LG Display, proposed the iDP (Internal DisplayPort) interface standard, which is designed to replace the current LVDS (Low Voltage Differential Signaling) standard, to the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) TV Panel Task Group. This new standard is being driven by the requirements for richer graphics, 3D video and enhanced picture quality.

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