LONDON — Processor intellectual property licensor ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) saw its sales and profits decline in the second quarter of 2009 compared with the same quarter a year before.

However, the company said it took comfort from the fact that it is outperforming the semiconductor industry as a whole, and predicted that its second half would improve and that the full year would be in in-line with market expectations. This is thought to imply a contraction in revenues of between 10 and 20 percent.

Sales in Q2 in dollar terms were down 18 percent at $105.5 million however when translated into sterling figures looked better with essentially flat performance at £64.8 million compared with £65.0 million a year before.

The company made a net profit of £6.4 million compared with a net profit of £8.7 million in Q2 2008. This represents a fall of 26.4 percent.

"The resilience of ARM in a difficult trading environment is demonstrated by these results for the first half of 2009. We continue to outperform the semiconductor industry; whilst ARM H1 dollar revenues declined 14 percent, overall industry revenues declined 30 percent," said CEO Warren East, in a statement. "ARM technology-based chips continue to gain market share in both mobile and non-mobile applications." East said demand for ARM technology remains robust. "With recent signs of increasing industry activity we expect that ARM's trading performance will be on an improving trend in the second half of the year."