SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Wednesday that was twice as big as a year ago, hurt by weaker sales in the face of an industry memory chip supply glut.
"The global memory market continues to experience severe oversupply and price degradation, and it remains a challenging period for all of us competing in the industry," Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Appleton said in a statement.
To further reduce costs, Micron said it was cutting the salaries of its senior executive team by 20 percent.
Micron said during its fourth quarter ended in August that it had taken a charge of $4 million for employee severance and another $33 million for related costs, and a write down of facilities and relocation and retention bonuses. During fiscal 2008, Micron has incurred restructuring costs of $52 million.
Shares of Micron had gained 6 percent, or 25 cents in anticipation of the report during trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Following the results, which came after the close of regular session trading, the stock fell 4.7 percent, or 20 cents, to $4.10.
The Boise, Idaho-based company reported a net loss for its fourth quarter ended August 28, 2008 of $344 million, or 45 cents per diluted share, compared with the year-earlier loss of $158 million, or 21 cents per diluted share.
The latest results included a noncash writedown of $205 million, or 27 cents a share, and a gain of $70 million, or 9 cents a share, for price adjustments on flash memory products from other suppliers. Excluding one-time items, Micron reported a loss of $209 million, or 27 cents per diluted share.
Net sales inched up 0.8 percent to $1.45 billion.
Analysts were looking for an adjusted loss, on average, of 23 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates. Wall Street had expected net sales, on average of $1.54 billion. Forecasts ranged from $1.40 billion to $1.75 billion.
(Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Bernard Orr)
