ARM beats revenue forecasts, swims in piles of gold coins

Mobile chip wunder-company and recent Microsoft BFF ARM Holdings has released its financial results for the second quarter, and the news is good. Real good. Revenues are up about 50 percent compared to the same period a year before and profits jumped a whopping 167 percent. ARM indicates its strong presence in the mobile market is the primary reason for this growth, citing an average of 2.6 ARM-based chips in every cellphone. New licensing deals, like the one with Microsoft, also buoyed that result. What's next for the company? 2.6 ARM-based chips in every baby, puppy, and kitty.

[imtired Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:13AM]

mmmm .... chips ... do they come in salsa flavor?

[Andrew5000 Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:38AM]

@imtired I guess cellphones are ARMed and ready, hehehe :-)

[Turbogame Posted Jul 27th 2010 9:33AM]

@Andrew5000

Yeah you're all smiling now... Just wait till ARMageddon arrives... We'll see who'll be smiling then...

[MrBigStuff Posted Jul 27th 2010 1:05PM]

@imtired
Apple should have bought this company to gain WS's respect. If Apple can't earn its own respectability, then it should buy it from another company.

[Sibuna Posted Jul 27th 2010 8:12PM]

@Andrew5000
They have a massive ARMada, for sure.

[buoy Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:13AM]

A simple business strategy is sometimes the best approach.

Step 1) License out chips
Step 2) ... ??? ...
Step 3) Profit

[Psyg Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:14AM]

In other news, LEG knocks out commodities!

[ad Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:17AM]

ARM FTW!

[ashwinkn Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:19AM]

Anyone have an idea what the other 1.6 ARM chips in cellphones are?

[ptoboley Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:38AM]

@ashwinkn Apps processor + baseband controller + WLAN = 3 for starters. Plus more microcontrollers in the touchscreen interface, Bluetooth, keypad, audio processor, etc. It all adds up.

[RincewindWiz Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:20AM]

With a P/E of > 88 they have to perform like that!

[arash Posted Jul 27th 2010 8:24AM]

@RincewindWiz Really? 88? what do they think? that ARM is going export chips to moon?

[nastro Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:26AM]

Capitalism...FTW!!!
Now hurry up with the dual core chips ok!

[Someguyperson Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:33AM]

After taxes and everything, ARM actually earned almost 3 times as much money as they did a year ago!

[Frasier Posted Jul 27th 2010 7:51AM]

Don't get it. Why doesn't ARM build chips them selfs, like Intel? They could make a lot more money than just with selling licenses.

[DefPoet Posted Jul 27th 2010 8:03AM]

@Frasier
not really
with over 50 companies making arm chips thats a fee for each one
50 companies can make more chips than 1

[xbit Posted Jul 27th 2010 8:11AM]

@Frasier
Manufacturing is an expensive and risky business. There's very few manufacturers (besides maybe Intel and Qualcomm) who regularly turn a profit.

[jiggpig Posted Jul 27th 2010 10:00AM]

@Frasier

A state of the art chip fab costs around $10 billion, and becomes obsolete within just a few years. You have to make chips like crazy in order to justify the cost. That's why AMD sold off it's manufacturing division. ARM might be able to pull it off, but this way they can just sell the license and let it's manufacturing partners take most of the risk.