Omnivision Cuts Revenue Guidance on Orders Drop

Wall Street Journal, Market Watch: Omnivision cut its fiscal second-quarter revenue outlook, pointing to an unexpected cutback in orders for certain key projects currently in production. The company warned it expects the business environment to remain volatile, especially in consumer-oriented product markets. As a result, it is expecting a more cautionary outlook for its current quarter.

For the period ended Oct. 31, the imaging-technology company projects revenue of $212M to $217M, down from its August estimate of $255M to $275M, which was already well short of Wall Street views at the time. OmniVision said the cutback has reduced the unit sales of OmniBSI and OmniPixel3-HS-based products.

OmniVision also said its board authorized a program to repurchase up to $100 million in stock. "We are disappointed by the recent demand falloff that has impacted our second-quarter revenues," CEO Shaw Hong said. "However, we believe our stock represents an attractive investment for OmniVision and its investors and that this action attests to our strong confidence in the long-term strength and viability of the company, its technology and its broad market and product portfolios."

Update: PR Newswire: On top of the revised guidance, Omnivision announced that towards the end of the second fiscal quarter it started to ship in very limited quantities the OV8830, the company's 8MP OmniBSI-2 based product - the chip that has been speculated to be a contender for iPhone 4S primary camera.