Intel chief foresees gloom for next 3 months

LONDON: Craig Barrett, chief executive of top US computer chip maker Intel

Corp., said on Thursday that the company's outlook for next three months was not

bright, while the US markets had entered uncharted territory.

"We don't know how long this slowdown is going to last. It may last six

months, 12 months or 18 months," Barrett told Britain's Channel Four

television station in a report from San Francisco.

"As far as our visibility is today - and that's only three months or so

- the picture doesn't look particularly bright," he said.

Wall Street took another tumble on Thursday as the blue-chip Dow Jones

industrial average dropped more than 20 per cent below its high. The Nasdaq

Composite Index, the battered tech barometer, in bear territory for months, was

faring a little better, nudging higher.

"I would be hopeful that we're near the bottom, and there's some degree

of stability, but nothing surprises me in this market. Nobody's ever seen this

before, it's uncharted territory," Barrett said.

"You know, I'm sure that (US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan) Greenspan

doesn't know exactly what's going to happen. And I put as much faith in his

opinion as anybody," he said.

Greenspan and the US Federal Reserve have cut US interest rates three times

so far this year, but the steps have failed to inspire investor confidence in

the market.

Counting the cost



Barrett said he was counting the cost of the recent plunge in Intel's shares,
which traded at $28-11/16 at 2050 GMT, not far off this week's lowest level

since November 1998 of $24-9/16, down from last August's peak of $75-13/16.

"It's rather painful. Actually, I've been considering starting the

200-Club, which is those CEOs who have lost over $200 billion of market

cap," he said, adding that the group could include Microsoft Corp's Steve

Ballmer and Cisco Systems Inc's John Chambers.

"It's not something to be particularly proud of. It's a shock if you're

the CEO of a company. But I think it's a shock if you are an employee of the

company. All my employees have stock options," he said.

A key issue was whether the slowdown U.S. economy would spread to Europe and

Asia, he said, adding that the outlook remained unclear.

"The dark side of this cloud has a synchronous recession in the four

major economies - Europe, US, Japan and Asia."

But the Intel chief said his firm would continue to create more value through

innovation.

"We'll still be driving more value in microelectronics, bring the

consumer more memory, more capability, more capacity per unit dollar spent for

at least another 15 or 20 years," he said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.