ARM Taking Market Share on Strong Orders: CEO

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Chip designer ARM Holdings is increasing its market share as the rest of the industry experiences a flat start to the year, Warren East, CEO of ARM Holdings, told CNBC on Tuesday.

ARM Holdings announced an adjusted pre-tax profit of 89.4 million pounds ($136.3 million) in the first three months of 2013, up 44 percent from a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of 77.6 million pounds or a 25 percent gain.

First quarter revenue rose 28 percent to 170.3 million from 132.5 million a year earlier.

ARM shares were up 6.4 percent after the results.

U.K.-based ARM designs and licenses chip designs that use less energy, making them popular among smartphone and tablet manufacturers.

"We've had a very good start to the year, we're ahead on revenue, ahead on profit and ahead on earnings, on the back of strong licensing in the first quarter and strong volume shipments of 2.6 billion chips," East told CNBC Europe's "Squawk Box."

"We exit the first quarter with the order backlog up 5 percent," East said. "That said, the first quarter for the industry at large does appear to have been ten percent down."

"ARM's increasing market share against a slightly flat quarter for the industry at large and that's why we're still comfortable with expectations for the second quarter and, at least, expectations for the year," he said.

ARM shares have risen 45.8 percent over the last 12 months.

East is due to stand down as chairman of ARM in July. He told CNBC that his decision was based on not wanting the company to get used to "too much stability and not enough excitement" for another 20 years if he were to remain chairman.

"I am hugely excited [about ARM's future] but what drives ARM's success is that drive and edginess…None of these smartphones are going to work without the infrastructure behind them and our phone technology is designed with exactly this in mind."

"If this digital world is going to be a reality then it's got to be efficient and that will be good for ARM," he said. East said his legacy was to make people aware of ARM's potential. "We translated that into a very sustainable future with a long-term future of growth."