Lattice Semi's Loss Widens

Lattice Semiconductor(LSCC Quote) posted a wider loss in its third quarter, as restructuring charges weighed down the company's bottom line.

The Hillsboro, Ore., chipmaker said sales for the three months ended Sept. 27 totaled $57.6 million, inline with analyst expectations and down about 1% year over year.

Lattice lost $6.9 million, or 6 cents a share, vs. a loss of $4.5 million, or 4 cents a share, at this time last year.

The company's results included a $3.9 millioncharge to cover severance and other costs stemming from its announcement in September that it was slashing 14% of its workforce.

Excluding the restructuring charges, as well as stock compensation and other special expenses, Lattice said it earned one penny a share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected Lattice to break even, excluding stock compensation expenses.

Bruno Guilmart, who became CEO in June, said in a statement that Lattice is making progress with its restructuring, including lowering the company's break-even point to $57 million and focusing the company's efforts on expanding sales of programmable logic chips.

He noted that it is difficult to predict what effect the current macroeconomic crisis will have on customer demand in the coming quarters.

Lattice rivals Xilinx(XLNX Quote) and Altera(ALTR Quote) each offered disappointing sales forecasts for the fourth quarter during earnings reports last week.

Lattice projected that sales in the fourth quarter will be flat to down 4% sequentially, which translates to a range of $55.3 million to $57.6 million.