Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest independent semiconductor foundry and chip maker for ATI, Altera, Broadcom, Conexant, Marvell, NVIDIA, and VIA products, recently posted its fourth-quarter financial results. TSMC reported revenue of NT$64.56 billion, net income of NT$12.45 billion, and earnings per share of NT$0.48 (US$0.07 per ADS unit) for the fourth-quarter that ended December 31, 2008. Year-over-year, the company's fourth-quarter revenue decreased 31.2% while net income and EPS decreased 63.9% and 62.3%, respectively. Compared to third-quarter of 2008, fourth-quarter results of TSMC represent a 30.6% decrease in revenue, a decrease of 59.3% in net income, and a decrease of 59% in EPS. That sharp decline in TSMC's finances is triggered by the contageous economic recession worldwide. Unfortunately it is taking money from literally everything and everyone.
"The global economic recession continues to worsen. Fourth quarter end-market sell-through was much below the already conservative expectations, and consumer demand remains very weak. This has led to a rising DOI for our customers, who continue to pare their inventories aggressively, resulting in a further significant cut back of wafer demand," said Lora Ho, VP and Chief Financial Officer of TSMC.