Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) reported mixed financial results for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. Quarterly revenue of $2.69 billion was down 19% year-over-year and was down 2% sequentially. This was primarily due to lower sales of the company’s wireless chipsets and other related technologies. Fourth quarter revenue was also below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.71 billion. On a GAAP basis, quarterly net income was $803 million or 48 cents per share. This was down 9% year-over-year and also down 9% sequentially. Fourth quarter adjusted (excluding special items) EPS was also 48 cents, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 46 cents. Quarterly operating income was $597 million, down 55% year-over-year and down 33% sequentially. This was mainly due to a charge of $230 million related to an estimated fine expected to be levied by the Korea Fair Trade Commission and another $35 million charge resulting from the ...

Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) yesterday reported revenues of $1.254 billion in the third quarter, down 3.4% year over year but up 20.6% sequentially and surpassed its previously provided guidance of sequential revenue growth in the range of 7% – 14%.

Product revenues came in at $1.19 billion, down 4.7% year over year but up 24% sequentially. License revenue came in at $59.5 million, up 33.9% year over year. The sequential growth in revenues was broad- based driven by a return to normal order patterns from customers and a number of new product ramps. In terms of end markets, growth in broadband communications was driven by growth in the broadband modems and digital set-top box end-markets. In the digital TV market, revenues were adversely impacted by one large customer losing market share in North America and some share loss with other customers.

In mobile and wireless targeted end markets, the company experienced revenue

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Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) is expected to report its third quarter results on Oct 22. The company expects revenues to grow by 7% – 14% sequentially in the third quarter fueled by growth within the mobile and wireless targeted end market, which in turn is driven by new product ramps and the upcoming holiday season. This implies revenue guidance between $1.11 billion and $1.18 billion.  Revenues from the Broadband Communications market is expected to grow across all targeted markets. Enterprise Networking business is also expected to stabilize driven by improving customer order patterns particularly in the Ethernet switching area. The revenue guidance includes $55 million of license revenues.

Broadcom had earlier reported encouraging second quarter results in July but margins took a beating due to a decrease in product gross margin. However, product gross margin is also expected to increase in the third quarter. Operating expenses are projected to increase

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Atheros Communications (ATHR) recently reported revenues of $156.6 million for the third quarter, up 13% year over year and up 40% sequentially and surpassed management’s guidance of revenues around $145 million – $150 million. The strong growth in revenues came from personal computers and wireless handsets.

Gross margin came in at 48.4% compared to 47.4% in the prior quarter and 49.4% in the year-ago quarter. Operating margin came in at 19.4% compared to 10.8% in the previous quarter and 17.7% in the year-ago quarter. Net income almost quadrupled to $38.6 million in the reported quarter from $10.0 million in the year-ago quarter and a loss of $0.2 million in the previous quarter and due to growth in sales and orders. EPS of 46 cents easily beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 25 cents.

Management stated that the economic environment remained challenging but the strength of the company’s product cycles and increasing

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Conexant Systems Inc. (CNXT) recently announced that Oppenheimer & Co. Inc, the underwriter for its recently concluded public offering of 7,000,000 shares, exercised its option to purchase an additional 1,050,000 shares. As a result of this exercise, Conexant was able to sell a total of 8,050,000 shares at a price of $2.85 per share. After deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses, Conexant received approximately $21.2 million from the allotment of the shares. Conexant had earlier granted Oppenheimer & Co Inc a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,050,000 additional shares to cover over-allotments. Conexant intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes. Management has stated that the company will use all proceeds to strengthen its balance sheet by retiring debt. Conexant had already announced plans to retire $80 million in the aggregate principal amount of floating-rate senior secured notes ...

Major cable MSOs (multi service operators) in the U.S. are aggressively deploying DCOSIS 3.0 technology. Intense competition among cable operators, satellite carriers and telecom service providers for broadband market share has forced the cable MSOs to opt for cost effective bandwidth enhancing technology for high-speed network. DOCSIS 3.0 (also called Wideband network) is a digital channel bonding technique that creates one larger and faster logical pipe to support throughput of at least 100 Mbit/second. With DOCSIS 3.0, cable operators are now able to offer one of the fastest Internet speeds available in the market. Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), the largest MSO in the U.S., has announced that it will upgrade around 40 million homes and businesses of the company’s existing networks with next-generation super-fast wideband technology by the end of 2009. Cablevision System Corp. (CVC) is also increasingly deploying DOCSIS 3.0. Time Warner Cable Inc. (...

Conexant Systems (CNXT) announced that it will offer seven million shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. The company also stated that it would grant Oppenheimer & Co Inc, the underwriter for the offering, a 30-day option to purchase up to 1.05 million additional shares to cover over-allotments. The company plans to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes which include repaying, redeeming, or repurchasing existing debt, and for working capital, capital expenditures, and acquisitions. Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, Conexant Systems designs and develops semiconductor solutions that enable consumers to access the digital world. It operates in an intensely competitive market with many rivals in and outside the United States, including Analog Devices (ADI), Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) and Texas Instruments (TXN). Last month, Conexant sold its Broadband Access product lines to Ikanos Communications Inc. for ...

Moody’s senior analyst Ken Chan put Chartered Semiconductor’s (CHRT) speculative-grade Ba2 rating under review for a possible downgrade after Abu Dhabi’s nationalized investment firm, ATIC, proposed to buy the Singapore-based company for $1.8 billion.

The acquisition would transfer the majority holding from Singapore investment agency, Temasek (Moody’s rating Aaa) to ATIC (Abu Dhabi’s sovereign rating Aa2).

Analysts differed on how the acquisition would affect Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which had earlier united with ATIC to form Globalfoundries. Although Chartered and Globalfoundries will continue to operate as separate entities, increased scale of operations could result in cost synergies. Since AMD includes Globalfoundries in its consolidated results, the deal could shorten its road to profitability.

The deal would also open up Globalfoundries to several big customers, such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Broadcom Corp. (BRCM), Marvell Technology Group (MRVL) and Texas Instruments (TXN). Its end market

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I don’t care what investing legend you idolize and try to emulate – Buffett, Graham, Rogers, Lynch – they all share a common recommendation.

Always buy undervalued stocks and sell them when they’re overvalued. Or more commonly: “Buy low, sell high.” Of course, if you’ve invested for more than a week, you know this is easier said than done.

Undervalued (cheap) and overvalued (expensive) are such subjective measures when it comes to investing. Most times we end up guessing and most times we end up overpaying.

But today, let me show you one amazingly simple way to always buy stocks that are truly cheap…

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All you have to do in order to invest like Warren Buffett, or any of America’s most successful investors – and rack up easy double-digit gains – is to buy what I call “low-density” stocks.

I define density like this:

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Conexant Systems Inc. (CNXT) recently completed the sale of its Broadband Access product lines to Ikanos Communications Inc. for $54 million. Conexant received about $47 million in cash, while the remaining payment is subject to an escrow to be released in one year. The company expects to record a gain of approximately $35 million in the current quarter from the sale.

With the sale of its broadband access business, the company completed a major part of its restructuring and now plans to concentrate solely on providing solutions for imaging, audio, video and various embedded-modem applications.

Management said that the company will use all proceeds to strengthen its balance sheet by retiring debt. Conexant had already announced plans to retire $80 million aggregate principal amount of floating rate senior secured notes due in November 2010. It will commence a tender offer for $73 million notes and intends to buy

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