Q12012
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LG's Q1 2012 earnings show greater profits on strong TV, phone sales
LG has released its Q1 2012 numbers, and there's plenty of good news to go around, with TV profits that nearly doubled and profit from cellphones for the second quarter in a row following six straight quarters of losses. Despite slightly lower sales, more of the units that did sell had higher prices and made more profit. In its press release, the company claimed to have "turned the corner" with a net profit of $215 million, blaming the slower sales of TVs on the European economy and cellphones on declining featurephone sales. We don't have specific numbers, but it called out the popularity of the Optimus LTE and Optimus Vu as part of the reason for increased revenues. Of course, the year is only just getting under way, and the company is expected to introduce its first 55-inch OLED HDTV soon, as well as quad-core smartphones and a new L-style series of phones. Before that however, it will have to deal with the competition from fellow Korean giant Samsung which will report its earnings later this week and has a few high profile releases up its sleeves as well. There's more details in the press release after the break, and PDF linked below.
AT&T reports Q1 earnings: $31.8 billion in revenue, 5.5 million smartphones sold
Sure, there was no new iPhone to boost its smartphone sales this quarter, but the carrier still managed to push 5.5 million of the devices out the door, while activating 4.3 million Apple-branded handsets. The company beat analyst predictions by raking in $31.8 billion in revenue and pocketing $3.6 billion of that as income, up from $3.4 billion over the same time period last year. Things are looking good for the company as both U-Verse and its wireless business grew revenues dramatically -- by 38.2 percent and 19.9 percent, respectively. Growth on the cellular side is in large part thanks to the 726,000 net subscriber adds. Of particular interest is the growth in so-called "branded-computing" subscriptions, which includes tethering plans and tablets. There, AT&T has seen a growth of 70 percent over last year, reaching 5.8 million customers (including 460,000 added last quarter). For more financial fun check out the PR after the break.
ARM reports revenues up 13 percent, bicep-curling profits up 22 percent
UK-based chip designer ARM just announced another booming quarter, with revenue up by 13 percent to $209.4 million. Pre-tax profits were even stronger, growing 22 percent year-over-year to $100 million. Not a bad profit margin by anyone's standards, and due to entirely to the Cambridge outfit's business model, which has seen 22 new processor licenses signed this quarter. That includes everything from the smallest Cortex-M class chips for use in the "Internet of Things" right through to the mini-monster Cortex-A15. There were also two new signings for the Mali graphics core, which is still proving its worth in some of the latest Samsung Galaxy devices. Overall, the number of chips that went into mobile phones and mobile computers remained steady, but the shipment of chips for other types of consumer and embedded devices grew by 15 percent year-on-year, proving that ARM not only has muscle, but also fingers in pies.
Netflix Q1 results: 3 million new streaming subscribers worldwide, record viewing hours
Netflix has posted its earnings report for Q1 of 2012, and reveals its streaming subscriber count in the US is currently 23.4 million, after reaching 21.67 million back in January. While the company noted a net loss of about $5 million, the letter from CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells claimed it is still on a "rapid return" to profitability after last year's missteps and international expansions. Worldwide it now counts a total of 26 million subscribers to the streaming service, although it lost another million or so subscribers to discs, which currently number 10.09 million. That old disc business is still highly profitable however, adding $146 million to the bottom line. Internationally, Netflix added more customers in its first three months of UK / Ireland availability than it did in the same period for Latin America or Canada, and expects its Canadian service to be profitable a quarter earlier than expected. Reed Hastings also took the opportunity to toss another barb at Comcast for its bandwidth cap-exempt Xfinity TV Xbox 360 app, claiming it should either raise its caps, make them apply to all services including its own or eliminate them entirely. Another development in Q1 was the loss of streaming titles from Starz but it claims that caused no discernible change in viewing or subscriber hours, while customers continue to lean towards streaming TV episodes over movies. Hit the source links below to paw through the PDF and spreadsheet for yourself, we'll let you know if any interesting tidbits are revealed on the earnings call later today.
Facebook updates S-1, adds Q1 earnings, revenue up 45% over last year
Facebook just filed an amended S-1 (that all important document that officially announces its public offering plans) with some new financial info. Now included in the charts and graphs is everything you wanted to know about Q1 of 2012 at Facebook (but were afraid to ask). The new SEC filing reveals that revenues are way up at the social network over last year (a whopping 45 percent higher than Q1 of 2011), but down slightly from last quarter (six percent), settling at a more than respectable $1.058 billion. Of the cash it took in, $872 million of it was ad revenue, which is down from Q4 of 2011 ($943 million) but up significantly from Q1 of last year ($731 million). Facebook was even able to slap a per-user amount on its 900 million active monthly members -- $1.21 -- that's the average revenue for each person with an account at the site. Of course, membership has continued to grow, with 532 million stopping by daily, up from 372 million just a year ago. As for that Instagram purchase, it looks like the widely reported $1 billion figure wasn't entirely accurate -- at least not when talking cold, hard cash. Only $300 million was turned over in immediately spendable currency, the rest of the deal involved 23 million shares of common stock. If you're a sucker for financials hit up the source link.
AMD reports net loss of $590 million for Q1 2012, calls that 'solid results'
We're not sure about you, but we wouldn't call losing over half a billion dollars "solid results." Still, we're not 100 percent ready to rain on AMD's parade yet. The non-GAAP results (which disregard a pile of one-time charges and investments) turn the $590 million loss into a $92 million profit. Still, the GAAP results do make two straight quarters of losses and revenue clearly continued to decline, falling to $1.59 billion. That's down six percent from last quarter and two percent from the same time period last year. Revenue from the graphics division held steady from last quarter, though, it's down seven percent year-over-year. For more financial fun hit up the PR after the break.
Verizon's vitals: quarterly revenue up five percent to $28 billion, earnings of $1.7 billion
Verizon is remembering how to turn to subscribers into cash, reporting consolidated revenues up 4.6 percent year-over-year to $28 billion and earnings of $1.7 billion -- boosting earnings-per-share by 15 percent. By comparison, revenues were $27 billion in Q1 2011, and a mere $18 billion last quarter, which resulted in a $2 billion net loss. Big Red's performance is now as strong as ever, with subscriber numbers up five percent to 93 million, and with 47 percent of those customers using insanely profitable devices called smartphones. On the TV and broadband side side, its FiOS unit now tops five million internet customers, and added a net total of 180,000 video subscribers. And that new $30 upgrade fee hasn't even kicked in yet.
Nokia's Q1 2012 financials: $9 billion in sales can't stop a $1.7 billion loss
Nokia's released the bundle of spreadsheets that comprise its 2012 Q1 financials, just a week after it acknowledged that it would make a loss, despite bullish sales of the new Lumia 900. The numbers reveal that the company had net sales of €7.4 billion ($9.7 billion), down from €10.4 billion ($13.6 billion) at the start of last year. Net sales are down 30 percent year-on-year, which means the company's posting a loss of €1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) for the first three months of 2012. That loss is broken down as €772 million to restructure Nokia Siemens Networks, €101 million to restructure the Devices & Services and Location & Commerce departments, principally in shedding employees and relocating its factories to Asia. It had forecasted an operating margin of three percent below "break even," and says it's likely to remain that way well into the second quarter. Stephen Elop pointed out that much of the loss is due to both increased competition and the costs of restructuring, but also seemed to tacitly confirm rumors we'd heard that UK carriers have been resistant to Nokia's new direction, saying that establishing momentum in the country has been "challenging." However, it's still promising to arrest the slump and in a statement to Moody's on Monday, the company pledged that it was prioritizing "cash conservation" exercises, although its liquid cash reserves have fallen 24% in a year, meaning that the company's only got €4.8 billion ($6.3 billion) put aside for a rainy day.
Intel reports $12.9 billion in revenue for Q1 of 2012, breaks no records
While it's hard to get upset when your company is raking in just shy of $13 billion over just three months, we're sure Intel's investors are a little sad to see revenue drop across all business divisions. With a net income of $2.7 billion, profits dropped nearly 19 percent from last quarter and everyone from the data center group to the PC client group saw revenues fall by significant margins. There's no reason to worry about Chipzilla, though. The company's seemingly constant record smashing quarters had to come to an end sometime and we're sure with its entrance into the smartphone market this year new streams of revenue will start pouring in shortly. Check out the source link for all the financial nitty gritty.
Google reports $10.65 billion in revenue for Q1 2012, splits stock
Google just announced its earnings for Q1 of 2012 and the company did not disappoint. It raked in $10.65 billion, a full 24 percent higher than last year for the same time period and a hefty improvement over last quarter. Of that rather sizable chunk of cash, $10.2 billion came from advertising revenues -- $7.3 billion of that placed on Google's own properties. GAAP net income for the quarter was $2.89 billion, more than twice that of Q1 2011, which brings its total war chest to $49.3 billion in cash on hand. Perhaps the biggest news for investors, though, is the 2-for-1 stock split, which is a perfect accompaniment for the skyrocketing price. It's worth noting however, that this new stock is a new class of non-voting shares. For more info check out the PR after the break and don't miss the letter from Larry Page and Sergey Brin at the source link.
Nokia: Two million Lumia phones sold in Q1 but profits still falling
Nokia's announced preliminary information on its forthcoming Q1 results due on April 19th. It's reportedly sold €4.2 billion worth of phones, €2.3 billion coming from the sale of 71 million dumbphones and €1.7 billion coming from smart devices. On the upside, sales of the Lumia handsets are still growing, selling two million of the series in the last three months alone. However, "competitive industry dynamics" and the cost of its painful transition into a modern smartphone player have meant the numbers aren't too pleasing. The figures mean that the company will make a loss of around three percent below "break even," but Stephen Elop remains bullish, saying that his team is "continuing to increase the clock speed of the company" and that "the change is tangible."
Samsung expects to double Q1 profit versus last year, sends itself a love note
Sammy has issued guidance for its financial performance between January and March 2012, ahead of a fuller earnings report due later this month. In contrast to HTC's latest news, the Korean giant looks rosy enough -- it's predicting an operating profit of 5.8 trillion won ($5 billion), which is almost double the quarterly profit from last year. Overall revenues continued to grow steadily too, rising nearly 22 percent to 45 trillion won ($40 billion). We'll need to wait for more detail to see where the growth is coming from, but it'd be cheesily nice to think our affection for the Galaxy Note had something to do with it.
HTC's unaudited Q1 2012 financials: revenue down by 35 percent
HTC's unaudited financials have just hit the wires and it looks like the negative trends from last year are continuing. For the first quarter of 2012, revenues are down nearly 35 percent year-on-year, with revenues of 67,790 million Taiwanese dollars (around $2.3 billion) for the period. Operating income was 5,099 million Taiwanese dollars (roughly $173 million) and profits after tax 4,464 million Taiwanese dollars ($151 million). The company must be hoping that this represents the end of the nasty hangover from its previous scatter-gun approach to phone production. Now that it's gone with the sleek and slender One series lineup, we'll see how well the company's about-turn does in the next two quarters.
HP reports Q1 2012 financials: $30 billion net revenue, $1.5 billion net earnings, big drop in PC sales
HP reported results for its first fiscal quarter of 2012 this afternoon, including $30 billion in net revenue (down seven percent from the previous year), and net earnings of $1.5 billion (down a full 44 percent). Partly contributing to that drop is a slump from its Personal Systems Group, which saw revenue slip 15 percent year-over-year, and total desktop and notebook units decline a rather drastic 19 and 18 percent, respectively. The company's Imaging and Printing Group also saw a seven percent decline in revenue, with the total number of printer units slipping 15 percent. HP's services business managed to eke out a one percent growth with revenue of $8.6 billion, though, while its software business saw the biggest growth in any one area at 30 percent (that includes results from the recently-acquired Autonomy). The company's full rundown can be found in the press release after the break, with additional numbers available at the source link below.Update: On the company's earnings call, CEO Meg Whitman laid some of the blame for PSG's decline on hard drive shortages, but also said that HP has "under-invested in innovation for the last several years" and "been late to market too often," adding that "we have to lead again." A transcript of Whitman's prepared remarks can be found here.
Qualcomm announces Q1 earnings: revenues up 40%, $1.4 billion in profit
The mobile revolution has been good to Qualcomm. Its Q4 2011 earnings were impressive enough, but the company is kicking off 2012 with even more staggering numbers. The Snapdragon creator pulled in $4.68 billion in revenue during Q1, a 40 percent increase over the same time last year and 14 percent higher than last quarter. Profits were also way up, hitting $1.4 billion, a 20 percent increase over last year and a whopping 33 percent higher sequentially. The company appears to have roundly beat analyst expectations, earning 97 cents per share. It's also worth noting that this doesn't include any boost from the spectrum deal with AT&T. Sales of its MSM chips were, of course, the big star here shipping 156 million units -- an impressive 23 percent more than last quarter. For all the financial finery check out the source link.
Apple Q1 2012 results liveblog
Today, TUAW liveblogs Apple's first quarter conference call. If you'd like to listen live, point your browser to Apple's dedicated page. I'll be doing live updates as they're discussed, including coverage of the Q&A followup. The liveblog appears in reverse chronological order, with newer updates higher on the page. This post will not auto-update, so keep refreshing your browser. Also note that I do not usually cover the Financials. Our usual suspects are all on planes on their way out to Macworld/iWorld today. So please bear with me, as Apple spokespersons have a tendency to talk very, very fast on these calls.
Apple announces Q1 2012 earnings, sells a record-breaking 37 million iPhones
Apple released its earnings statement and announced yet another banner quarter. Apple knocked it out of the park, with record quarterly revenue of US$46.33 billion compared to $27.64 billion in the year-ago quarter. As predicted, iPhone sales were through the roof with 37.04 million units sold. This is up from the 17.07 million the company sold last quarter and up 128 percent from the 16.24 million it sold this quarter in 2010. iPad sales were also up to another record-breaking level. The company sold 15.43 million iPads units, which is up from the 11.12 million iPads the company sold in Q4 2011. It's also an 111 percent increase from the year-ago quarter when it sold 7.33 million units. Mac sales remained strong. Apple sold 5.2 million Macs, which is up slightly from the 4.89 million it sold during the previous quarter. iPod sales continue their downward decline from 19.45 million in Q1 2011 to 15.4 million iPods this quarter, a 21 percent year over year decline. Apple will livestream its conference call later today, and we'll be liveblogging it as it happens.
Apple to announce Q1 2012 earnings on January 24
It's that time of the year again, folks. People are busy making resolutions and companies are busy preparing earnings statements. Apple updated its investor relations website and confirmed it will hold its Q1 2012 earnings conference call on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 2:00 pm PT. The press release with all the details will hit the wire shortly before the call starts. Expect Apple to announce a record quarter. Apple was one of the most visited online retailers during the holiday shopping season, which should help boost Mac and iPad sales. iPhone sales are also expected to increase now that the iPhone 4S is rolling out worldwide. Last quarter, iPhone sales slipped, an unusual hiccup which CEO Tim Cook blamed on rumor-mongering. You can listen to the conference call online and visit TUAW for all the analysis of Apple's holiday quarter.
Microsoft has record Q1, rakes in $17.37 billion in revenue (updated: Skype plans revealed)
Q1 of 2012 (don't ask...) was good to Microsoft. Very good in fact. The company posted a record first quarter revenue of $17.37 billion, a 7-percent increase over the same period last year and slightly higher than the $17.26 billion that was expected. The big hero was Office which accounted for $5.62 billion of that income, though sales of Windows stayed flat and fell somewhat short of expectations. The company's $5.74 billion in net income was also a significant jump of 6-percent over the same time last year. For a few more of the financial particulars check out the earnings report after the break and the spartan spreadsheets at the source link. Update: Wondering what Microsoft plans to do with the newly acquired Skype? Well, details are thin, but during today's earnings call the company revealed it did plan to integrate the VoIP service and its technologies into Lync, Live Messenger and Xbox Live. Soon you may not only have to listen to your friend gloat after every kill in Call of Duty, you might have to watch him do a celebratory dance in his Lazy Boy too.
Retina Display-equipped iPad 3 looking more and more likely for early 2012
Well, the Wall Street Journal's headline certainly isn't going to surprise you -- Apple Developing New iPad -- that has been a safe assumption since the iPad 2 was announced. Rumors are circulating though (some, for quite a while) that are painting an increasingly convincing picture of a Retina Display-equipped slate shipping in early 2012. Reports are in that suppliers have already received Q4 orders for parts that may eventually find their way into Apple's next tablet. Can we say for certain that the iPad 3 will hit shelves in Q1 of next year sporting a 2048 x 1536 screen? No, but it's starting to look more and more likely.
