q42012
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HTC made just $34 million last quarter, its lowest profit since 2004
Think back to the days of Windows Mobile, to when PDAs were a thing, to when HTC barely had enough clout to put its name on its own hardware. That was the last time the Taiwanese manufacturer reported a profit as measly as today's. Despite Peter Chou's recent bout of hopefulness, the Taiwanese manufacturer says it took home just NT$1 billion ($34 million) in net income in Q4 of 2012 -- which is less than a tenth of what it made in the same quarter of 2011. Revenue was at least in line with HTC's pessimistic forecast of NT$60 billion, which equates to a 41 percent drop year-over-year, so the stock market won't find any of this particularly shocking -- even though history says it is.
AT&T says it's on record pace for smartphone sales this quarter, 6.4 million sold already
We don't always get mid-quarter updates on sales from carriers, but AT&T's Ralph de le Vega was apparently eager to spill a few numbers during an investor conference today. As CNET reports, de la Vega revealed that AT&T has sold 6.4 million smartphones during the first two months of Q4, which he says puts the carrier on a "record pace" for the quarter. It's also caused the carrier to revise its projections for the full year, with it now forecasting smartphone sales of 26 million for all of 2012 (one million more than it had previously expected). De la Vega is also said to be "bullish" on tablets, but didn't go into specific numbers there, noting only that he "can't fathom how many tablets will be under the Christmas tree." He also didn't break down those smartphone sales by specific devices, but he said that AT&T had improved its supply of iPhones, and also remarked that he's "really excited" about Windows Phone sales (again, without getting into specifics).
HP takes a $9 billion hit due to Autonomy 'improprieties', reports Q4 earnings down 7 percent
This sounds scarily like the $8 billion write-off that tainted HP's Q3 balance sheet, but the source of the company's woes is different this time. It's had to take a nearly $9 billion writedown on the value of one of its biggest assets, the British software company Autonomy, following the discovery of serious accounting "improprieties." These concerns cast major doubt over the $11 billion sum that HP coughed up to purchase Autonomy last year, and have a direct impact on both these Q4 earnings and the reported earnings for 2012. Nevertheless, fourth-quarter net revenue still hit $30 billion, which is a 7 percent fall year-over-year, or just a 4 percent fall if you're kind enough to factor in the effects of currency. Of that income, the company managed to clutch onto $2.3 billion as profit -- a 3 percent fall compared to the end of 2011. Speaking during the earnings call, CEO Meg Whitman stressed that HP remains "100 percent committed to Autonomy and its industry leading technology," and more generally described HP's turnaround strategy as a "multi-year journey" that "will not be linear."
Qualcomm Q4 2012 earnings: $4.87 billion in revenue, $1.27 billion net profit
With Qualcomm's powerful, versatile and efficient Snapdragon S4 taking the mobile world by storm, it should come as no surprise that the company's accountants are smiling more than ever. Today, the firm posted earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012, which includes a net income of $1.27 billion with revenues of $4.87 billion. In terms of profit, these figures represent a 20 percent year-over-year increase and a five percent bump when compared to the previous quarter. A peek inside Qualcomm's books reveal that the company is now sitting on $43 billion in assets and $9.4 billion in liabilities -- if only our own pocketbooks were overflowing in similar fashion. Feel free to count some beans for yourself at the source link below.
Liveblog of Apple 4Q 2012 earnings call
Today's the day for Apple's fourth-quarter 2012 earnings call. We'll be liveblogging the event, providing commentary on the event as it occurs. The fun starts at 5 PM ET sharp. Apple will be providing an audio stream of the earnings call, and the recording will be available for two weeks after.
Apple Q4 2012 earnings: $36 billion in revenue, $8.2 billion net profit
Just a day after introducing the iPad mini, a revised iMac, a 4th-generation iPad and a retooled Mac mini, the company is outing its Q4 2012 earnings -- and it looks as if it has narrowly fell short of Wall Street estimates. Revenue was pegged at $36 billion (compared to estimates of $35.08 billion), with net profit at $8.2 billion. For the sake of comparison, the outfit's fourth quarter of 2011 saw $28.27 billion in revenue alongside $6.62 billion net profit -- at the time, those comically large numbers were actually not up to Wall Street's comical expectations. If you're looking for a quarter-over-quarter comparison, the company's Q3 2012 report showed $35 billion in total revenue, with $8.8 billion in net profits. The company is guiding for $52 billion in revenues for Q1 2013, while announcing that it sold 26.9 million iPhones (up from 17.01 million a year ago), 14 million iPads (up from 11.12 million) and 5 million Macs (up from 4.89 million) in this quarter. As for the waning iPod business? Predictably, it sold just 5.3 million of those, representing a 19 percent drop from the year-ago quarter. Naturally, the company is expecting its next earnings report to be the one that blows everyone away, with holiday sales -- combined with a slew of new kit -- to propel things leading into 2013. Apple also announced that shareholders that hold stock as of November 12th will pick up a $2.65 / share dividend. As for other specifics, we're told that gross margin was 40.0 percent compared to 40.3 percent in the year-ago quarter, while international sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter's revenue. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, proudly boasted: "We're pleased to have generated over $41 billion in net income and over $50 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2012. Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75." As for the outfit's current stash of on-hand cash? $121.3 billion. Yeah. The financial results call will get going at 5PM ET, and we'll be liveblogging it right here!
Barnes & Noble's Q4 and FY 2012: revenue up, losses up, hopes Microsoft hurries up
Barnes & Noble has released its financial results for both the final quarter and full financial year of 2012. It's a picture of a company that's holding steady in the face of continued onslaught from its rivals, albeit with some hope on the horizon. In preparation for its as-yet-unnamed venture with Microsoft, the company has begun the process of spinning off its Nook and College businesses -- while sales from stores and BN.com now come under the umbrella term of "retail." On that front, it sold $1.1 billion worth of books in the quarter and $4.85 billion for the year -- down from $4.92 billion in 2011. Nook-wise, the company had turnover of $933 million, with device sales increasing 1 percent for the quarter and 45 percent of the year -- but had to eat a loss on taking back unsold Simple Touch readers. Content sales on its various devices increased 65 percent in the quarter and 119 percent in the year -- clearly showing where the market is headed.
Logitech president celebrates end-of-year earnings with management cull
Logitech's Q4 and full-year report makes for uncomfortable reading. Despite profits increasing by a factor of nine in the last quarter of the year, overall annual profit fell 44 percent from $143 million to $71 million. The company has already parachuted in former Whirlpool exec. Bracken P. Darrel to turn things around and recover the losses made when the company went big on Google TV. His first action has been to kick-start a restructuring operation that will save $80 million in costs, starting by cutting a whole management layer -- demoting current product VP Junien Labrousse and firing sales VP Werner Heid. Mr. Darrell is now working directly with his team on a new lineup of "stronger" products to be unveiled later this quarter, with an emphasis on Windows 8 peripherals and LifeSize video conferencing gear. [Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]
RIM announces Q4 2012 earnings, Jim Balsillie resigns from board, company plans to refocus on enterprise
We've already seen a bit of big news slip out ahead of RIM's earnings announcement, and the company's now dropped another bombshell itself. Former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has resigned from his position on the company's board of directors. In a statement, Balsillie said simply: "As I complete my retirement from RIM, I'm grateful for this remarkable experience and for the opportunity to have worked with outstanding professionals who helped turn a Canadian idea into a global success." RIM also confirmed that CTO David Yach would be retiring as well, and that COO Jim Rowan has "decided to pursue other interests," but it hasn't offered any indication of a broader shakeup beyond those three departures. As for the fourth quarter earnings, RIM is reporting revenue of $4.2 billion, down 19 percent from the third quarter, and a GAAP net loss of $125 million. Total BlackBerry shipments for the quarter dipped 21 percent to 11.1 million units, while PlayBook shipments totaled 500,000, which is actually a new high water mark for the tablet (1.3 million were shipped during the fiscal year). This is also notably the company's first quarterly earnings under the leadership of new CEO Thorsten Heins, who admits that the RIM faces some "significant" business challenges over the "next several quarters," and says that he's "taking the necessary steps to address them." That includes "increased management accountability and process discipline," as well as what he describes as a "comprehensive review of strategic opportunities including partnerships and joint ventures, licensing, and other ways to leverage RIM's assets and maximize value for our stakeholders." On the company's earnings call, Heins further added that he intends to refocus on the company's enterprise business, and not try to be "all things to all people." He went on to offer an even more frank assessment of RIM's current state than he had earlier, stating that these are "difficult times" and that there's "no guarantee of success," while also adding that he's open to exploring "all opportunities." That includes the possibility of licensing BB10 which, incidentally, will apparently address the company's current LTE deficit "later this year." Asked on the call whether he would consider getting out of the hardware business altogether, Heins says that he prefers an "integrated" approach, but left the door open a little to that being done through partnerships instead of completely in-house -- he also repeatedly noted that he wants RIM devices to be high-end, "aspirational" products. In short: the company's focus now is on BB10 and enterprise, but it's seemingly leaving just about everything on the table.
TiVo releases Q4 results, announces transcoder and IP set-top box on the way
Today TiVo announced its earnings for Q4 2011 and the full year, however the most interesting note was word of a few new boxes on the way. From the sound of things, the company will deliver a four stream transcoder similar to the one we saw demonstrated at CES (pictured above) capable of dishing out video to multiple devices (phones, tablets, etc.) within the home simultaneously. Also on the way is an IP set-top box coming to retail that sounds very much like the TiVo Preview multiroom extender, however it could include access to internet video services as well. As mentioned on Tech of the Hub, CEO Tom Rogers' statements indicate the transcoder will enable both live streaming and DirecTV Nomad-style "high speed" sideloading of recorded content for offline viewing. More concrete are its positive numbers from the partnership with Virgin Media in the UK, and progress on a plan for Pace to develop TiVo-compatible set-top boxes for cable operators here and abroad. The Comcast partnership is also apparently progressing, with VOD access in beta trials and preparing to launch "soon" in the San Francisco area.
Dell falls short on Q4 earnings: $16 billion in revenue, only $764 million in profit
Q4 of fiscal year 2012 was another rough one for Dell. The company fell short of expectations yet again, collecting roughly three quarters of a billion dollars in net income on revenues of $16 billion. The one bright spot was its enterprise division, which had another record quarter -- accounting for 30 percent of revenues ($4.9 billion). While there was some growth in high end systems, Dell has clearly seen the writing on the wall and plans to refocus primarily on enterprise products and services in 2013. Interestingly, despite the disappointment on Wall Street, Dell still managed to rake in almost a $1 billion more in profit this year than it did last, making 2012 both a record breaker and a let down. Check out the complete PR after the break.
NVIDIA reports Q4 2012 earnings: annual revenue up 12.8 percent, net income doubles
If you thought we were done with the numbers game, think again. NVIDIA has just pushed out its figures for Q4 of FY 2012 and things are looking good. Revenue for the quarter was $953 million, a 10.6 percent decline over Q3, but if you look over the entire year revenue increased 12.8 percent over fiscal 2011. Net income, too, was down compared to Q3, but looking annually, when compared to 2011 income more than doubled, from 253 million to 581. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was predictably pleased with the outcome, saying: "We expect continued growth ahead, as Tegra 3 powers a new wave of quad-core super phones and Kepler, our next-generation GPU architecture, sets new standards in visual and parallel computing." We're expecting plenty of great devices too -- the Transformer Prime TF700T in particular.
