Stock of San Jose-based semiconductor maker PortalPlayer tumbled on Thursday after news surfaced the company’s chips would not be used in future Apple iPods.
PortalPlayer hoped its new chip, which is the follow-up to its PP5021 System-on-Chip (SoC) expected to be available in the second half of 2006, would be selected by Apple. PortalPlayer said they believe that the PP5021 will continue to be used in other members of the iPod family.
Not being selected for new iPod models had a dramatic effect on PortalPlayer’s stock on Thursday. Closing yesterday at $22.59, the stock plummeted 41.88 percent in trading closing at $13.13. In after hours trading the stock dropped a further 0.61 percent to $13.05.
Industry analysts have called the news a disaster for PortalPlayer. Analysts have estimated some 90 percent of PortalPlayer’s sales came from Apple.