Shares of Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. dove Friday after the company warned of a slowdown in demand for its chip manufacturing equipment.
Kulicke & Soffa said it anticipates that revenue for the quarter ending in December will fall "significantly below" revenue from the quarter that ended Oct. 2. Back in June, the company was anticipating December quarter revenue would stay about flat from the quarter before.
The downward revision comes amid other signs of a wavering recovery in technology spending. In August, the semiconductor behemoth Intel Corp., one of Kulicke & Soffa's biggest customers, cut its quarterly sales forecast because of weaker-than-expected demand for consumer PCs.
For the quarter that just ended, Kulicke & Soffa, based in Fort Washington, Pa., said it expects to report revenue at the high end of its forecast for $250 million to $260 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting $255.8 million.
For the December quarter, analysts had been looking for a just slightly lower figure of $249.1 million.
Kulicke & Soffa shares fell 80 cents, or 12 percent, to $5.69 in morning trading.
