Atheros Revenue Surges

Atheros Communications'(ATHR Quote) revenue surged in the first quarter, driven by demand for WLAN and Ethernet products.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company said Monday that revenue in the three months ended March 31 was $95.5 million, up 56% year over year from $61.1 million.

The wireless chipmaker's first-quarter income was $7.6 million, or 13 cents a share, reversing the previous quarter's loss of 2 cents a share, which included roughly $12.3 million in acquisition-related expenses. A year ago, Atheros reported a first-quarter profit of $6.8 million or 13 cents a share.

Excluding items, Atheros earned $13.6 million or 23 cents a share compared with 14 cents a year ago.

That beats the estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Financial of 21 cents a share on sales of $94.2 million.

CEO Craig Barratt attributed the strong earnings to "strong demand for both our WLAN and Ethernet products."

In October, Atheros acquired Taiwanese chip company Attansic Technology for roughly $72 million in cash and stock.

Shares of Atheros were off 23 cents at $26.56 in extended trading.