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LG smartphone boom follows major R&D reshuffling, says analyst
South Korean electronics giant LG came out swinging with its line of Optimus products at Mobile World Congress this year, delivering the 4X HD, 3D Max, Vu and a trinity of L-series handsets. So how does one shop deliver six handsets to the public, you ask? Resources. A recent note to investors from Nomura Securities reveals that in 2011, the Life's Good gang assigned a larger portion of its R&D team to its smartphone division. The report claims that the company had 60 to 70 percent of its 8,000 person research outfit assigned to the Optimus-making arm at the end of last year. That's up from the 20 percent share of a 6,800 person staff it boasted just 365 days earlier. There's no doubt LG will be looking to steal the smartphone thunder of Samsung and HTC in 2012, but is this lineup of products enough? Only time (and sell-through figures) will tell.
Nexon's Japanese IPO aims at raising $1.3 billion
When Nexon is finally added to the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December, the company has to be planning a massive "We're in the money!" song-and-dance to celebrate. TechCrunch reports that this will be the biggest IPO in Japan in 2011, with a corporate goal of raising $1.3 billion (100 billion yen) from the listing. The Korean company recently moved its headquarters from Seoul to Tokyo, and is well-known for its popular MMOs such as MapleStory, Mabinogi, and Vindictus. Nexon has over 3,000 people in its employ across the world, and previously said that it is open to purchasing more companies in Japan after the IPO. The company commented on its post-IPO strategy in a brief statement: "As we pursue our strategic objectives, we regularly review our options for accelerating our growth. We have made no decisions or announcements about any specific financing or other plans and cannot comment on rumors." The IPO will be handled by Nomura Securities, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. Nexon is hoping that the move will raise its market cap to $9 billion, which will make it the biggest online gaming company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company is currently worth $7.7 billion.
Nintendo expects falling profits for fiscal 2009
As predicted by analysts late last year, Nintendo is forecasting a drop in annual profits for the first time since the Nintendo DS's 2004 introduction. It's not a loss, just a reduction in profits -- Nintendo is still forecasting profits of ¥230 billion ($2.43 billion), compared to fiscal 2009's ¥279.1 billion ($2.95 billion). The AP's Yuri Kageyama notes that the Wii price drop, as well as slower sales early in the fiscal year (reflected in the first half earnings report), negatively impacted Nintendo's profits. Analyst Yuta Sakurai thinks Nintendo is being too pessimistic (or just not optimistic enough, considering that the subject is enormous profit). "We are expecting the results to be better than the company forecasts for the Wii," the Nomura Securities analyst said. "Christmas shopping was strong." Nintendo did have an extraordinary December, with both the Wii and the DS breaking three million units each just in the US. It then went on to break sales records in the first two months of 2010. Perhaps Sakurai is correct, and Nintendo is just being modest about its profits. We'll find out on Thursday when Nintendo releases its annual earnings. [Via 1UP]
Sony admits: "poor sales" of the PS3 in America
Japanese analyst group Nomura Securities has gone over Sony's sales predictions and outcomes for the holiday season and say that the company will miss its sales goal for the fiscal year by 25 percent. The leading factor for the drop? Nomura claims its the poor sales felt in America over the holidays. Instead of selling 6 million units, Nomura estimates Sony might come through with 4.5 million units sold. As for the next couple of fiscal years, the sales expectations have been lowered from 16 million to 10 million for the 2007-2008 fiscal year and 18 million to 11 million for the fiscal year ending in '09. Sony remains steadfast in its plan to sell six million units by the end of March, but we've got to step outside of the box and think: is this bad? The answer, of course, is yes. This is a sour prediction of Sony's future, but the sales numbers don't lie. However, looking simply at the numbers doesn't tell you the whole truth. We've gone over the factors of Sony's poor sales already and think that, given time (of course, that ol' excuse, right?), these factors will disappear and Sony's machine will get adopted by many more people. Now, avid readers, be ye haters or lovers, leave us your thoughts. Extra brownie points if you use proper grammar and actually try to make a point![via Gamasutra]
