Executives often tout acquisitions as a way to reinvigorate a maturing business. Intel (US:INTC) investors will hope they're right: the microchip giant has now completed its $16.7bn (£11.2bn) takeover of programmable microchip specialist Altera.
The deal represents Intel's latest effort to diversify away from the declining PC business. Altera's customisable chips are used in industries such as communications and industrial automation and promise to bolster Intel's foothold in data centres, connected devices and other growth markets. Together with its growing share of the PC market and higher average selling prices, that leads management to forecast revenue growth of about 5 per cent in 2016.
Broker JPMorgan expects EPS of $2.22 in 2015, rising to $2.34 in 2016.
