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Panasonic remembers how to make money, reports $667 million profit last quarter
Just as Sharp offered a slightly more hopeful glimpse at its balance sheet this morning, so too does Panasonic have something worth celebrating: a net profit of 61.4 billion yen ($667 million) in the last three months of 2012. Much of this profit stems from a weaker yen and previous cost-cutting exercises, however, rather than any surge in demand for Panny products -- in fact, underlying sales continued to slip, with cameras, TVs and Blu-ray recorders proving especially hard to shift. Nevertheless, compared to the meager $164 million Panasonic made at the start of 2012, or the ego-crushing $2.1 billion net loss it suffered in the last three months of 2011, no one in that big HQ is likely to be complaining.
RIM's Q3 2013 earnings: $2.7 billion revenue, $114 million adjusted net loss, CIO to retire
RIM has just announced its earnings for Q3 2013 (the three months ending December 1, 2012 in non-RIM terms), including a five percent drop in revenue to $2.7 billion and an adjusted net loss of $114 million. GAAP net income from "continuing operations" was $14 million, though, or $9 million when taking into account the loss from discontinued operations, and it's also reporting a cash increase of about $600 million to $2.9 billion. In terms of devices, RIM says it shipped 6.9 million smartphones and 255,000 PlayBooks during the quarter, although it's again only talking in terms of devices "shipped," not actual sales to consumers. Along with the earnings, the company has also announced that its CIO, Robin Bienfait, has decided to retire, although RIM says she will stay on in an "advisory capacity to enable a smooth launch and seamless transition." As for BlackBerry 10, CEO Thorsten Heins unsurprisingly reiterated that the company is all set for the January 30th launch date, and noted that more than 150 now completing technical acceptance programs for the first BlackBerry 10 products. The company also says it will be "significantly increasing its marketing spending this quarter" to support the launch of BB10, which it warns will contribute to a loss for the fourth quarter, as will the likely slowdown of BlackBerry 7 product sales as consumers hold off for BB10. Update: During the company's earnings call, Heins confirmed that RIM's global subscriber base now stands at 79 million worldwide, which is a slight decline from the previous quarter but still an increase year-over-year. Not surprisingly, he says the biggest losses came from North America. RIM also confirmed on the call that its BlackBerry sell-through for the quarter was 8.4 million, or actually higher than the number of new devices shipped.
Dell reports Q3 earnings: $13.7 billion in revenue, net income drops 47% year-over-year
Dell's revenues and profits continued to shrink in Q3 of fiscal year 2013. While the manufacturer did manage to rake in revenues of $13.7 billion, that marks a significant drop from Q2's $14.5 billion and the $15.5 billion it pulled in over the same period last year. Profits also took a sharp downturn, with only $475 million of the money coming in boosting the bottom line. By comparison, Q3 of 2012 saw Dell padding its pockets with $893 million in net income -- that's a 47 percent drop. One of the few bright spots for the Texas company continues to be its Enterprise Solutions division, which has seen its revenues grow three-percent year-over-year. Unfortunately, that may not be enough to stave off losses for much longer as its consumer division continues its dramatic slide, posting a total loss of $65 million for the quarter. The drop off was global as well, with revenues falling by double digits in Europe and Asia and 9 percent here in the US. With its small and medium business units holding steady and the enterprise services accounting for almost 50 percent of the company's gross margin, we wouldn't be surprised if Dell further shifted its focus from the consumer sector.
NVIDIA's revenue hits a record $1.20 billion for Q3 powered by Tegra 3 tablets, Kepler GPUs
Just as it predicted, NVIDIA's earnings show revenue rose again in Q3, to a new record high of $1.20 billion, 15.3 percent higher than in Q2 up 12.9 percent from the same period last year. Its profits also grew accordingly, to $209.1 million, which should be no surprise thanks to its Tegra 3 chip's place at the heart of tablets including Google's Nexus 7 and Microsoft's Surface for Windows RT, with more arriving daily. The Consumer Products division that includes the Tegra family and other hardware had a 27.6 percent rise in revenue for the quarter. Despite predictions of a slumping PC market, its consumer GPU unit had revenue up 10 percent from last quarter as Kepler based products reached into lower price points and notebook revenue rose. Riding high, the company has decided to issue dividends to shareholders as well as extend its current stock repurchasing program. Hit the source links for the full breakdown, but so far NVIDIA's bets on the future of its chips in PCs and post-PC devices seem to be paying off.
