Intel Fourth-Quarter Net Income Up 875%

The above is a news snip-it from the Intel web site. It looks like they are raking in the profits while other companies are going out of business. You can go to the Intel web site to read the entire news posting or you can click on the "read more" link below to see a (Commentary) about this announcement.

(Commentary):

Can manufacturing and product innovation be the real reason Intel is laughing all the way to the bank? One quarter is three months long. A company that can claim an 875% increase in profit during what has proven to be the worst economic down turn since the great depression of the 1930's is perplexing to say the least. How can a company earn $10.6 billion in three months while multitudes of other companies are closing their doors, sending legions of workers to the unemployment line?

Is Intel doing something or do they know something that the rest of us fools don't know? Does Intel have better management? Are their engineers and workers superior? They must be doing something right because I can't figure it out. Perhaps the reason is that they are a monopoly and own over 80% of the world wide chip market? That's the only explanation I can come up with.

The other computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices is languishing on deaths door struggling just to stay afloat. AMD makes a pretty good product so why are they doing so badly? Could it be that AMD's work force is comprised of a bunch of slackers? I don't think so. Sure they made a poor business decision when they bought nvidia. Everybody makes mistakes. AMD wasn't doing very good in the first place. They must have over extended when they shouldn't have which has proven to hurt them even more.

Intel is facing several lawsuits around the world due to their bullying and harsh business practice. They are also raking in the gold like pirates of old rampaging and plundering gold from a fleet of defenseless merchant ships.

I'm not saying Intel is an evil pirate. On the contrary, they are an extremely successful company that develops and manufactures a great product. This product allows all of us to have the computers, game consoles and other consumer products that we enjoy these days. I just can't understand how they can claim earnings of $10.6 billion and an 875% increase for a three-month period during an extremely bad economic time.

Maybe they are an evil monopoly and maybe they aren't. However it seems like having a monopolistic attitude and the power to actually be a monopoly is the only way to survive these days.

If Intel would like to improve their image, perhaps they could start up a division devoted to teaching other companies how not to be a monopoly. They could tell them how to better invest their money. They could follow up this course of study with classes on how to increase manufacturing productivity, management classes and on and on. Share some of the wealth and perhaps they can help create jobs and help the world get out of this bad economic situation we are in.

I simply do not understand why Intel is doing so good...

Rest In Peace (RIP) to all of the game companies and other businesses that have gone out of business during the past couple of years...