Parthus loss of $7.5m

Parthus Technologies has announced a $7.5 million (€8.1 million) loss for its first quarter operation as a publicly quoted company on the Nasdaq and London stock exchanges.

The Irish founded semiconductor chip design company beat analysts expectations by two cents after Firstcall had predicted an 8 cent per share loss.

Parthus played down the operating loss of $10.3 million for the first half of this year, saying $4.4 million of it represented a once-off non-cash stock compensation charge for the issuance of employee stock options before the firm's flotation.

The company in which ARM Holdings, 3Com and Goldman Sachs have equity stakes is valued at more than $1.2 billion.

The company announced it signed seven new licence deals, two of which are multimillion dollar contracts. One of the larger contracts is for Parthus' new Bluetooth industry standard product, BlueStream, and is likely to incorporate Parthus technology in the products of a leading international telecommunications equipment manufacturer.

Parthus' total revenues for the first six months grew 57 per cent to $14 million, while research and development expenditure rose to $7.7 million.