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Join us for a liveblog of Apple's fiscal year 2014 first-quarter earnings call
Today's the day that all of the Wall Street analysts have been waiting for -- Apple's first earnings call of the year will happen at 5 PM ET, and TUAW will be liveblogging the event. To join us, come back at that time and we'll provide you with commentary on what's being announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer and anyone else who is on tap for the call. Click here to link to the liveblog page, and you can listen in on the conversation by joining this Apple webcast. As soon as Apple announces the earnings -- usually about a half-hour before the start of the call -- we'll have that information posted on TUAW.
Apple to pay quarterly dividend today for AAPL shareholders
AAPL investors take note: Today is the company's payday for AAPL shareholders. By the close of market today, Apple will pay shareholders of record its quarterly dividend of US$3.05 per share. Shareholders must have held the stock no later than Wednesday, November 11 to get this quarter's dividend. As AppleInsider notes, at AAPL's current price of around $520 a share, the company is paying a dividend yield of 2.35 percent, which is not at all bad for its investors. What's especially interesting is that since Apple upped its share buyback program by $50 billion earlier this year, the company will actually be paying out $143 million less in dividends this quarter due to fewer shares of AAPL on the market. That buyback isn't enough for some people however, as Carl Icahn is pushing Apple to buy back shares worth $150 billion.
Apple reports Q4 2013 earnings
Apple fourth-quarter earnings for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, have just been announced. Earnings per share are reported as US$8.26, while the Wall Street estimate was $7.92 per share. Other highlights: iPad sales: 14.1 million iPhone sales: 33.8 million Mac sales: 4.6 million iPod sales: 3.5 million Sales: $37.5 billion Net Income: $7.5 billion We'll have more information as it comes in. Our liveblog of the Apple earnings call begins at about 4:55 PM ET today. Be sure to join in for commentary and analysis of the event as it occurs. You can listen in to the earnings call at this link. Show full PR text Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results iPhone Sales Grow 26% to Establish New September Quarter Record CUPERTINO, California-October 28, 2013-Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter ended September 28, 2013. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $37.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $7.5 billion, or $8.26 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $36 billion and net profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 37 percent compared to 40 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter's revenue. The Company sold 33.8 million iPhones, a record for the September quarter, compared to 26.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 14.1 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 14 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.6 million Macs, compared to 4.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple's Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $3.05 per share of the Company's common stock. The dividend is payable on November 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 11, 2013. "We're pleased to report a strong finish to an amazing year with record fourth quarter revenue, including sales of almost 34 million iPhones," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We're excited to go into the holidays with our new iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, iOS 7, the new iPad mini with Retina Display and the incredibly thin and light iPad Air, new MacBook Pros, the radical new Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks and the next generation iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS." "We generated $9.9 billion in cash flow from operations and returned an additional $7.8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the September quarter, bringing cumulative payments under our capital return program to $36 billion," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 first quarter: revenue between $55 billion and $58 billion gross margin between 36.5 percent and 37.5 percent operating expenses between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion other income/(expense) of $200 million tax rate of 26.25 percent Apple will provide live streaming of its Q4 2013 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on October 28, 2013 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq413. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter. This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those about the Company's estimated revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, other income/(expense), and tax rate. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company's reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company's products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product introductions and transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company's gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company's need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company's business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company's dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; risks associated with the Company's international operations; the Company's reliance on third-party intellectual property and digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the Company's dependency on the performance of distributors, carriers and other resellers of the Company's products; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company's sales and operating profits; the continued service and availability of key executives and employees; war, terrorism, public health issues, natural disasters, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; and unfavorable results of other legal proceedings. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company's financial results is included from time to time in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of the Company's public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 29, 2012, its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 29, 2012, its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 30, 2013, its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 29, 2013, and its Form 10-K for the year ended September 28, 2013 to be filed with the SEC. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
BlackBerry's open letter to customers: 'You can continue to count on us'
In a move that's about as useful as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, BlackBerry has issued an open letter to customers and partners designed to quell their fears. Despite a recent spate of well-publicized ill fortune, the company claims that its loyal customers "can continue to count on Blackberry." To anyone with eyes or ears, the effort may seem overly optimistic, considering the harsh reality of BlackBerry's dire straits. The past few months haven't been the cheeriest; the Z10's disappointing launch was recently blamed for a loss of almost one billion dollars, massive layoffs are expected by the end of the year, and the company's future is anything but certain. But in spite of all that, BlackBerry claims that it still offers customers the best in mobile productivity, security, social networking and enterprise management. Essentially, the company is trying to put a sunny spin on its plans to cut costs by 50 percent through its restructuring efforts. "These are no doubt challenging times for us," the letter reads, "and we don't underestimate the situation or ignore the challenges. We are making the difficult changes necessary to strengthen BlackBerry." You can check out the full missive for yourself at the source link below.
BlackBerry loses a billion dollars in three months, blames it on failed Z10
BlackBerry has just reported a $935 million hit in Q2 due entirely to what it's calling a "Z10 Inventory Charge" -- in other words, a loss associated with creating a stock of flagship handsets that subsequently failed to sell. Echoing Microsoft's catastrophic write-down due to unsold Surface RT inventory, this single loss was enough to wipe out much of the company's quarterly revenue of $1.6 billion. When added to a further loss due to corporate restructuring, it resulted in a final GAAP loss for BlackBerry of $965 million. It's hard to gauge exactly how many of the newer BB 10 handsets (namely the Z10 and Q10) sold during the quarter, but BlackBerry admits that "most" of the 3.7 million units that reached end users were older BlackBerry 7 devices, so the figures can't be pretty. For his part, Thorsten Heins says he's "very disappointed" with the results, but he claims the company saw growth in enterprise server (BES 10) customers and he insists there's still a future in that side of the business -- a future that could soon belong to someone else.
Fidelity Market Monitor app brings stock alerts, news and fanciful financials to Google Glass
You know, it makes sense: an app for the one percent, tailor-made for a $1,500 headset. Fidelity's Market Monitor app for Google Glass might just be the most impressive program to debut for the device, particularly considering the class of individual who would take advantage. In the trading world, missing an alert or notification by even three seconds could be the difference between million and millions, with this app enabling Fidelity customers to request real-time stock quotes and receive alerts dealing with companies in their portfolio. In a concept video describing what's possible (embedded just after the break), we even see a wearer snap a photo of a Google logo, and the app translates the photo into a stock quote for GOOG. We're guessing that it's only a matter of time before every other financial institution follows suit, which will likely lead to each and every CNBC anchor wearing a set whilst on air. Also, we're hearing from a "reliable source" that both Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf will be joined by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Wall Street: Glass on Glass on Glass.
Nintendo reports quarterly revenue down, only 160,000 Wii U consoles sold
Nintendo has just revealed its consolidated results for the April-June quarter, and they show a significant 3.8 percent decline in sales compared to the same quarter last year -- despite (or perhaps because of) the release of the semi-next-gen Wii U. This console sold just 160,000 units during the quarter, or less than half the number of units shifted between January and March. The company's original sales projections for the device, and its hope of selling nine million units by March 2014, are now a distant dream -- we're looking at a lifetime total of just 3.61 million sales. On a more positive note, however, it still managed to sell a million Wii U games, and 1.4 million 3DS handhelds. In addition, the year-over-year fall in revenue was much smaller than the one Nintendo suffered in Q2 2012, and its operating loss was much smaller too -- just under five billion yen in the red. Factoring in all the company's various sources of income, it managed to eke out a net profit of 8.6 billion yen, or $88 million, so there's some life in this playful old outfit yet.
Amazon hit by surprise loss last quarter, despite 22 percent rise in sales
The retail game is all about scraping a living out of tiny margins, and nowhere is that more evident than in Amazon's latest financial report. The company managed to grow revenue by 22 percent year-over-year between April and June, to $15.7 billion, and yet it confounded analysts' predictions by making a loss of $7 million, versus a $7 million profit in the same quarter last year. Then again, this knock has been attributed to the fact that Amazon is pushing to expand beyond the retail game, by investing heavily in its Kindle business, digital downloads and streaming products, as well as in building a bigger presence in China. This has been the strategy for a while, of course, and it's not the first time the company has been pushed into the red as a result. But Jeff Bezos says that Amazon's top ten bestselling products last quarter were all either Kindles, accessories for Kindles, or digital content for Kindles, which suggests the transformation is steadily having an impact, even if it's proving expensive.
Five hackers indicted for largest known financial data breach in US history
There are your everyday run-of-the-mill hackers, and then there are the hackers who set the bar for everyone else. Though we'd hardly call them exemplary individuals, the five culprits recently indicted for the largest known financial hack in US history would certainly belong in the latter category. Comprised of four Russians and a Ukrainian, the quintet's unsavory accomplishments include breaking into networks belonging to major corporations like Nasdaq, Dow Jones, 7-Eleven and JCPenney -- siphoning more than 160 million credit card numbers and bringing about millions of dollars in losses. They did so with SQL injection attacks to install malware that let them crack passwords and snag other sensitive data. Two of them -- Vladimir Drinkman and Dmitriy Smilianets -- have been arrested, while the rest -- Alexandr Kalinin, Roman Kotov and Mikhail Rytikov -- remain at large. All five could be behind bars for decades if found guilty. For the nitty gritty as to just how and which companies were affected, hit up the source link below. It's enough to make you want to change your password several times over.
Apple announces Q3 2013 financial results
Today, Apple announced its quarterly earnings for Q3 2013. In this latest quarter, Apple recorded revenue of US$35.3 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.9 billion. International sales accounted for more than half (57 percent) of the quarter's revenue. In all, Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones, up 20 percent year over year. The company also sold 14.6 million iPads and 3.8 million Macs in the quarter. These two numbers are down from the same quarter last year when Apple sold 17 million iPads and 4 million Macs. We'll be starting our liveblog at 4:50 PM ET. Join us! Show full PR text Apple Reports Third Quarter Results Sales of 31 Million iPhones Set New June Quarter Record CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 third quarter ended June 29, 2013. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $35.3 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.9 billion, or $7.47 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $35 billion and net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 42.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter's revenue. "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" The Company sold 31.2 million iPhones, a record for the June quarter, compared to 26 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 14.6 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 17 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.8 million Macs, compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple's Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $3.05 per share of the Company's common stock. The dividend is payable on August 15, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 12, 2013. "We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014." "We generated $7.8 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter and are pleased to have returned $18.8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter: • revenue between $34 billion and $37 billion • gross margin between 36 percent and 37 percent • operating expenses between $3.9 billion and $3.95 billion • other income/(expense) of $200 million • tax rate of 26.5% Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2013 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on July 23, 2013 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq313. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.
Join us for a TUAW liveblog of the Apple Q3 2013 earnings call
Later today, Apple will hold its quarterly earnings conference call. The call will cover Apple's Q3, which ended on June 30, 2013. As always, TUAW is hosting a liveblog of the event, during which we'll provide commentary on the actual results, questions from the financial community and thoughts on how the results are likely to affect Apple's share price, if at all. To get an overview of what the Street is expecting, check out the numbers here. The call is scheduled at 5 PM ET today and our liveblog will begin at 4:50 PM ET. If you're an IRC user, we'll have a chat room set up on server irc.freenode.net, chat room #tuaw so you can converse with the TUAW team and others. You can also listen to a live audio stream of the event here.
Yahoo announces Q2 2013 earnings: $1.13b revenue, $137 million income
The closing bell has rung, and Yahoo has released its earnings for the second quarter of 2013. What's the final verdict? Compared year-to-year over the same quarter last year, it's mostly good news for the company: GAAP income is at $137 million (up 150 percent), while GAAP revenue comes in at $1.13 billion (down seven percent). GAAP net earnings came in at $331 million, which is a 46 percent increase from this time last year, while non-GAAP came out at $386 million, a six percent jump. Not bad, given the number of acquisitions the company made this quarter -- nine, to be precise, including Tumblr. In terms of other highlights from the earnings report, search revenue fell by nine percent year-over-year, while display revenue went down 12 percent. Net earnings per share jumped up 68 percent to $0.30. Full press release is below the break for your perusal.
April NPD: Injustice: Gods Among Us reigns supreme
Another hot, fresh loaf of financial data has been pulled out of The NPD Group's analytical oven, and its buttery goodness contains sales information for the four week period between April 4 and May 7, 2013. During that time, the physical retail sector of the games industry was down 25 percent when compared with its performance over the same four weeks in 2012, pulling in a grand total of $495.2 million. It's worth noting, however, that this figure does not include the sale of PC games. Hardware sales brought in $109.5 million, a 42 percent decrease from the $187.8 million seen last year, with the Xbox 360 once again enjoying the highest sales with 130,000 units moved. Meanwhile, the brief reprieve from year-over-year decline seen by the Accessories segment last month was short lived, as in April it by dropped 19 percent to a total of $131.4 million. Software sales (including PC games) topped out at $267.8 million, with NetherRealm Studios' Injustice: Gods Among Us taking top honors as the best-selling game for the period, the first time a fighting game has finished in first since 2011's Mortal Kombat. Dead Island: Riptide and BioShock Infinite rounded out the podium in spots two and three respectively – meanwhile MMO/Syfy series Defiance debuted in fifth. As always, scope the full list after the break.
iOS games spending overtakes dedicated games
App analytics firm App Annie has released a new report about portable gaming, and announced that iOS gamers are now spending more money on Apple's platform than on traditional handheld titles. The light blue above is last year's fourth quarter, the dark blue is this year's first quarter, and as you can see, both iOS and Google Play spending is up, and has actually topped spending on traditional handheld devices like the Nintendo 3DS and the PS Vita. This is mostly due, says App Annie, to a seasonal drop in traditional handheld game spending -- game sales always tend to go up over the holidays, and then drop in the new year. But it's also clear that iOS is growing a lot -- and in fact, in the chart above, it's actually higher than even traditional gaming was last quarter. We'll have to see how this plays out going forwards. Both the PS Vita (made by Sony) and the 3DS (made by Nintendo) have packed schedules for software releases this year, and the Sony handheld is set to be supported by the release of the new PS4 console. So this battle isn't over at all yet. But smartphones are clearly a dominant force in the world of portable gaming, and consumers are happy more and more to spend their money on iOS games rather than another traditional handheld title.
Dell announces Q1 2014 results: $14 billion revenue, 21 cents EPS
We doubt recent earnings reports at Dell have been met with balloons on the quad and sheet cake in the cafe. And that's likely the case this time around as well. The PC maker reported revenue of $14.07 billion, but earnings of just $372 million or 21 cents per share -- a bit shy of estimates. The company's stock price is hovering around the $13.65 mark, the amount shareholders have been promised once the firm goes private later this year. As you might imagine, Dell's books won't be open to public scrutiny once that transaction closes, making this one of the very last earnings reports. Things may not be looking so good for Q1 2014, but will the company end its public streak on a high note? We'll find out soon enough.
Apple's $17 billion bond deal is the largest in history
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple made the largest corporate-bond deal in history on Tuesday, when it raised US$17 billion in bonds -- the first time the company has offered bonds in 20 years. In response, The New York Times asks, why would cash-rich Apple do this in the first place? Analysts tell the NYT that the debt actually can boost returns to shareholders, something Apple has already taken steps to do when it announced its dividend and share-repurchase program last week and in March 2012. In the process, Apple was using historically low rates to its advantage. The company can step around the taxes it would need to pay by repatriating some of its overseas cash stockpile, buying the company more time to lobby Congress to its advantage. We reported shortly before the deal took place that Apple was filing the required SEC paperwork. The company plans to return $100 billion to stockholders by the end of 2015. Its next dividend payout is May 16.
Sony revises its 2012 earnings forecast, doubles expected net profits
Just like last year, we're reporting on a revision Sony's making to its expectations for last year's profits, but this time around there's some positive news. According to Sony, selling some of the buildings it owns and a weakening yen have doubled its expected net profit from 20 billion yen announced in February to 40 billion yen ($403 million). The complete results will be announced May 9th, and despite Sony managing its first profit since 2008 investors are hoping to hear how it plans to keep the streak going with business gains next year. The PlayStation 4 is expected to headline CEO Kaz Hirai's plans for future products, we should hear just how optimistic Sony is about those prospects in a couple of weeks.
Nintendo downloadable game sales more than double this year
Wii U sales may be struggling but Nintendo's download business is booming. As part of its financial briefing today, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed that the company's downloadable game sales surpassed ¥16 billion ($160.9 million), more than doubling sales of the previous year. Download sales also handily eclipsed the banner year of 2010, when "both the Wii and Nintendo DSi systems were actively used."Iwata noted that the majority of Nintendo customers have taken their 3DS online. That includes 87 percent of users in Japan and 83 percent in America. Europe's connection rate is significantly lower at 57 percent. The Wii U, meanwhile, has an 80 percent connection rate worldwide.Iwata also mentioned the surprising viewing habits for the company's Nintendo Direct presentations. For recent presentations, he said, "it became common to see total views for a single video reach five hundred to six hundred thousand in a matter of about 10 days on the Nintendo eShop while they did not show apparent growth on YouTube." In fact, it seems that the eShop is now the most popular source for Nintendo Direct, accounting for "approximately 60 to 70 percent" of total views. That might sound like a surprising statistic, especially given the immense presence of YouTube, but Iwata noted that the eShop appeals to viewers "who do not own their own PCs or smart devices."
Zynga sees revenues and users decline in Q1, Draw Something 2 out today
Social game publisher Zynga has revealed financial results for the first quarter of 2013. The company posted revenue of $263.5 million, a significant decline from the $320.9 million posted during the first quarter last year. Zynga saw its user numbers decline as well. Daily active, monthly active and monthly unique users fell across the board. Despite these losses, Zynga recorded a net income of $4.1 million, as compared to a $85.3 million loss during the same period last year. The company identified FarmVille 2 as "a breakout hit with daily audience engagement and bookings exceeding the company's expectations." For the second quarter, the publisher is predicting a net loss of $36.5 million to $26.5 million. Zynga posted a huge loss of over $200 million for 2012, and today's results follow a string of rocky news for the company, including high-profile departures, game shutdowns and multiple studio closures or consolidations. Earlier this year, J.P. Morgan sold the majority of its stock in the company. At the very least, Zynga is looking to keep its current stable of executives on board with the promise of larger salaries. Alongside its financials, Zynga announced that Draw Something 2 is launching today. Dan Porter, former CEO of Draw Something studio OMGPOP, left Zynga earlier this month.
Intel reports Q1 earnings: $12.6 billion revenue, $2 billion net income
Intel just reported a quarterly net income of $2 billion, with $12.6 billion in revenue for a total earnings of 40 cents per share. Net income is down 17 percent compared to Q4 2012, when the company reported $2.5 billion in profit. Revenue is also down by seven percent compared to the previous quarter's $13.5 billion. President and CEO Paul Otellini, who is stepping down in May, references the upcoming 14nm transition, saying that the technology will "will significantly increase the value provided by Intel architecture and process technology for our customers and in the marketplace." The earnings call is set to happen soon; we'll report back with any additional news -- on the CEO front or otherwise.
