Qimonda Swings to a Profit

DRAM memory products supplier Qimonda(QI Quote) swung late Tuesday to a first-quarter profit on rising sales largely attributable to an overall increase in bit shipments.

Net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31 rose to 177 million euros ($230.7 million), or 68 cents a share. A year ago, the DRAM memory products supplier lost 42 cents a share.

The Germany-based company said first-quarter revenue increased to $1.5 billion from $882.8 million a year ago.

CEO Kin Wah Loh said his company was "able to further increase productivity with more than 50% of our total capacity now converted to technologies with feature sizes of 90nm and below."

For the coming quarter, the company expects its bit production to grow 8% to 12%, driven by increased productivity from the capacity conversion.

Qimonda forecasts bit demand to be driven by robust growth of DRAM in consumer and communication applications and also by the introduction of Microsoft's(MSFT Quote) Windows Vista operating system.

Shares of the company rose 4 cents in extended trading to $16.09.