Intel shares slide after fourth quarter earnings report

Slower revenue growth in Intel's highly profitable data centre business led its shares to fall in New York

Shares of US tech giant Intel plunged about 5% in extended trading after its data centre revenue in the fourth quarter failed to impress investors.

Revenue for the business was $4.3bn (£3bn) in the fourth quarter, missing forecasts of $4.4bn. Revenue grew just 4% from the pervious quarter, compared with 8% growth in the third quarter.

Intel is the world's biggest chipmaker.

It has been looking for growth in the data centre unit to offset the slump in demand for chips used in computers.

Revenue in its personal computer (PC) business fell by 1% to $8.7bn from a year ago.

Earlier this week, market research firm IDC had announced that global demand for PC shipments fell by a record amount in the fourth quarter of last year.

Meanwhile, Intel's strong profit growth of $3.6bn in the three months to 26 December, which beat expectations, did little to ease concerns about weakness in the PC market. The unit is still the company's main business.

Its shares were down 4.7% in New York in after-hours trading.