Newport Beach-based Jazz Technologies Inc., the holding company that bought Jazz Semiconductor Inc. earlier this year, reported a wider first-quarter loss and lower sales amid the chip sector’s ongoing slump.
Jazz Technologies, whose main business is making chips under contract for other companies, lost $21 million, assuming Jazz Semiconductor had been part of the company for the whole quarter.
The chip plant operator was acquired on Feb. 16. About $3.8 million of the loss came from acquisition-related charges.
A year ago, the combined company would have lost $11.2 million.
Revenue was $48 million, down 14% from a year earlier.
An oversupply of chips and tepid buying by computer and consumer electronics makers was blamed for the slowdown.
Jazz said it cut about 55 jobs during the quarter.
“The underlying industry weakness and operating inefficiencies inherited from Jazz Semiconductor have presented the new management team with temporary challenges,” said Chief Executive Gil Amelio. “We believe that the inventory correction is largely behind us and expect to have sequential revenue growth during the rest of 2007 as we gradually exit the correction.”
For the current quarter, the company projected sales of $48 million to $50 million. The company didn’t offer a profit or loss outlook.
Former Apple Inc. chief executive Amelio, cofounder Steve Wozniak and former executive Ellen Hancock raised money last year to acquire a technology business.
Earlier this year, Amelio replaced Shu Li at the helm of Jazz Semiconductor. Li had run the company since its 2002 break from Conexant Systems Inc.
Conexant spun off Jazz, its former chip plant, in 2002.
