Profit Slumps at Rambus

But revenue grows from a year earlier.

Author:: Katie Dean
Publish date:: Apr 19, 2006 5:04 PM EDT

It was a mixed bag for

Rambus

this quarter, as the company saw its earnings drop and revenue rise.

The Los Altos, Calif., company, which manufacturers and licenses chip-interface technologies, made $1.8 million, which includes $5.2 million of after tax noncash stock-based compensation, the first time the company has recognized this figure in its results. For the same quarter last year, Rambus earned $4.4 million.

The company earned 2 cents a share, down from the 4 cents a share earned last year.

Revenue tallied $47.2 million, up from the $39.6 million in sales from the year-ago quarter. The company said the increase was due mainly to the royalty fees received as a result of deals with

Advanced Micro Devices

(AMD) - Get Report

and

Fujitsu

, signed in the fourth quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006, respectively.

The company posted an operating loss of $464,000 (including $8.4 million of noncash stock-based compensation) for the quarter. A year ago, Rambus had operating income of $4.9 million.

Rambus shares took a dive in after-hours trading on Instinet, slumping 2.6%, or $1.22, to $45.38. During the regular session of trading shares closed down 20 cents to $46.60.

"Achieving back to back record revenue is a great accomplishment and showcases the growing market appreciation of the value delivered by Rambus' innovations," Harold Hughes, Rambus CEO, said in a statement. "We continue to make solid progress with our patent licensing efforts and are pleased with our results for the first quarter of 2006."