Looks like 2012 is shaping up like 2011 as we enter the semiconductor summer buying season. One stock to keep on your radar is Atmel (ATML). Atmel is a diversified semiconductor company that makes microcontrollers, non-volatile memories, RF and auto integrated circuits, and ASICS. After two quarters of negative revenue growth, the midpoint of Atmel’s revenue guidance for the June quarter is $372M up 4% sequentially, Non-GAAP gross margin guidance of 44%, Non-GAAP operating expense guidance of $123M, and a diluted Non-GAAP share count guidance of 450M shares.
Atmel is now the 4th largest microcontroller supplier in the market, excluding Smart Cards it’s 3rd according to Gartner. This is up from 8th place in 2008. Touch products generated $375M in revenue (1/3rd of microcontroller revenues) for Atmel in 2011. Its competitors in the touchscreen controller market are Cypress Semiconductor (CY) and Synaptics (SYNA). According to Atmel’s statement at a recent tech conference, excluding Apple products its market share has risen from less than 5% back in 2009 to over 40% in 2011.