Intel profits boom as PC sales surge worldwide

Intel reported net income of $2.3 billion on Thursday for the fourth quarter, a staggering 875 per cent rise over the same period a year ago.

Intel reported net income of $2.3 billion on Thursday for the fourth quarter, a staggering 875 per cent rise over the same period a year ago.

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The world's dominant maker of computer chips said it had sales of $10.6 billion, up $2.3 billion or 28 per cent from the year-ago period. Intel forecast sales of about $9.7 billion for the current quarter, compared with the $9.3-billion average estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of Wall Street analysts.

Intel's earnings kicked off two weeks of quarterly reports from the largest US technology companies, including International Business Machines Corp, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp.

It came after research firm IDC reported that worldwide sales of personal computers rose 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. Sales were particularly strong in the US, where the number of computers shipped surged by 24 percent, IDC reported.