TI posts quarterly loss on write-downs

SAN FRANCISCO: Texas Instruments Inc (TI), the top maker of semiconductors for cell phones, has posted a fourth-quarter net loss after a large investment write-down, but otherwise beat expectations with strong sales of chips for wireless handsets. 

For the fourth quarter of 2002, the company incurred a net loss of US$589mil, compared with a loss of US$116mil a year earlier. It said the loss was primarily due to a US$638mil write-down of shares in Micron Technology Inc, which it received when it sold its memory business unit to Micron in 1998.