The world's largest chip equipment maker, Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) announced its results for the quarter ended April 2009 on Tuesday (see conference call transcript). Sales dropped 53% y/y to $1.02 billion, its lowest levels since 2002, but were higher than the average Wall Street estimate of $905.3 million. Operating loss widen to $293 million from $196 million in the prior quarter. GAAP loss per share stood at $0.19 compared to an income of $0.22 in the year-ago quarter.

Results include pretax charges totaling $166 million, comprising of $77 million for equity investment impairments, $47 million for inventory write downs, $27 million for restructuring and asset impairment charges, and $15 million for bad debt provisions.

Constant Contact (CTCT), a leading email marketing solutions provider, announced its results for Q1 FY09 last week (see conference call transcript). Revenues were $28.1 M, up 55% y/y and above the high-end revenue guidance of $27.9 M. Revenues were primarily driven by record net email customer adds of over 27,500, up 11% sequentially and 29% on a year-on-year basis.