financials
Latest
Sony returns to profitability as core electronics business struggles
Finally, after closing 18% of its manufacturing facilities and cutting 20,000 heads across its global organization, Sony just posted a profit for the quarter. We're talking an operating profit of ¥146 billion ($1.5 billion) for the quarter on ¥2.2 trillion in sales. Sony's net profitability came in at ¥79.2 billion after three straight quarters of losses, handily beating The Street's mean estimate of ¥33.73 billion sending stock up some 4% at the time of this post. Unfortunately for us gadget nerds, Sony's return to prosperity is largely due to a doubling of sales at Sony's financial unit and a 16% rise in its movie business -- sales from its consumer products and devices division were off 11% thanks to flat-panel TV price competition and component costs. VAIO PC sales were up a slight 2% worldwide while sales of its venerable PS2 (2.1 million units vs. 2.5 million a year earlier) and PSP (4.2 million vs 5.1 million a year earlier) were both off for the quarter. At least the price cuts on the PS3 helped push sales up to 6.5 million from 4.5 million. Still, profit is profit and profit must grow regardless of crummy consumer sales, you know.
Nokia grows profits and smartphone share in Q4
Pretty good news for Nokia today as it announces its Q4 results. Net income jumped 65% to €948 million (on €12 billion in sales) or 26 eurocents per share, from €576 million euros, or 15 eurocents a share, earned in Q4 2008. That handily beat the consensus forecast of 19 eurocents per share. Importantly, Nokia grew its smartphone (or "converged devices" in Nokia parlance) marketshare to a healthy 40%, up from 35% just last quarter. Looking forward, Nokia cautioned that it expects its adjusted operating margin in Devices & Services in Q1 2010 will be at the low end of its 12% to 14% target. At the time of this posting, Nokia stock has jumped about 9% in recognition of these good times.
Verizon lost $653 million last quarter in spite of increasing revenues
91.2 million total customers, 2.2 million of whom joined in Q4, $27.1 billion operating revenue in the quarter, and you still make a loss? Well, in fact Verizon made a tidy profit, which may be considered comparable to Google and Intel's latest results, but its culling of jobs at the end of last year cost it a whopping $3 billion (presumably in redundancy settlements). Still, the company looks buoyant with that quarterly revenue number growing by 9.9 percent year-on-year, and CEO Ivan Seidenberg noting that significant costs were incurred in setting up for a 4G network deployment in 2010. Our favorite nugget of info? The "cash expense per customer" per month number: $27.62, which presumably includes Droid subsidies and the like. How does that compare to what you're giving VZW each month? [Thanks, Josta]
Intel profits recover to $2.3 billion in Q4 2009, company describes it as 875 percent jump
Yo Intel, when your 2008 fourth quarter was one of the worst you ever recorded, it's slightly, just slightly, facetious to go trumpeting an 875 percent improvement in your 2009 fortunes. The self-appointed chipmaking rock star has clocked up $10.6 billion in revenues for the last quarter, which filters down to $2.3 billion in pure, unadulterated, mother-loving profit. That's good and indeed technically nearly nine times what the company achieved in the same period the previous year -- we'd just appreciate this to be represented as the recovery it is, rather than some major leap forward in the face of a global financial meltdown. Either way, the Santa Clara checkbook is now well and truly balanced, even if it would've looked fatter still but for the small matter of a $1.25 billion settlement reflected in last quarter's results.
GameStop cuts profit forecast, still expects massive year
GameStop cut its profit forecast for this fiscal year, impacting the company with the same devastating force that a single snowflake has on the Gobi Desert. The retailer stated in its holiday sales report that revenue hit $2.86 billion, which was actually flat compared to last year. Putting this into perspective, Gamestop expects to have its "second highest earnings year" in its history for fiscal 2009, which places it behind last year's record-breaker. During the nine-week period ending January 2, 2010, new game sales were up four percent, while hardware declined eight percent, due to "recent console price cuts" and a decline in unit sales. Used products, the company's profit bread and butter, increased 10 percent. GameStop plans on having almost $700 million in cash when it ends its fiscal year later this month. [Via IndustryGamers]
BlackBerry shipments break record in Q3, RIM profits jump 59 percent
RIM being a thriving and profitable company is hardly a new story -- as confirmed by third quarter earnings of $628 million off the back of a record-breaking 10 million units sold -- but the way it's making its money seems to be changing. More than 80 percent of new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter were private customers, marking a distinct shift -- maybe not away from the corporate arena, but definitely toward embracing the consumer market. In an effort to further consolidate its global empire, RIM has also announced a partnership with China Telecom to go along with its earlier China Mobile deal. Oh, and there's the small matter of the 75 millionth BlackBerry being sold, but we're sure the cool cats up in BB HQ aren't counting handsets, they're probably too busy rolling around in piles of money.
Palm loses $85.4 million in latest reported quarter -- hey, it's an improvement
We don't know just how quickly Palm (or Elevation Partners, for that matter) thought it'd become profitable following the release of webOS, but it's not there quite yet -- the company is in the process of outing its earnings for the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 right now, and in a word, they're still in the red. The good news is that it's a marked improvement from last quarter -- they've gone from a $164.5M GAAP net loss to an $85.4M one this time around. On a non-GAAP gross basis, they actually made $5.5M, which is up from $2.8M a quarter earlier. They've got $590 million in cash and other "short-term investments" on the book right now, which seems like it should be enough to keep the company going without a profit or additional cash infusion for at least a few additional quarters, but then again, burn rate is going to vary with just how much hardware and software R&D they're doing and the kinds of carrier deals they're scoring. We bet they're looking forward to this Verizon business going down, eh? Update: Palm's specifically saying that they're looking to grow carrier and geographic coverage right now -- a good plan, if we say so ourselves. Update 2: They've sold 784,000 phones in the quarter, which compares to 823,000 in the last -- a 5 percent drop. That's up 41 percent from the same quarter a year ago... but yeah, of course it's going to be way up from the pre-webOS days. Update 3: Over 800 apps in the catalog so far, once they graduate from the Early Access Program exclusivity, Palm foresees a "flood" of apps. No plans right now to change SDK strategy to a more native development environment.
Losses, layoffs in EA's Q2 earnings report
EA announced a net loss of $391 million in its Q2 2010, which ended September 2009. The losses have increased from last year's $310 million. In addition, sales, at $788 million, are down $106 million in Q2 2010 from the same period last year. EA CEO John Riccitiello remains positive about EA's outlook, explaining, "EA is performing well, with quality, sales and segment share up so far this year." CFO Eric Brown echoed Riccitiello with his own confusingly half-upbeat statement, saying "We met our second quarter expectations and delivered a record quarter for revenue. Today we are announcing a significant cut in our operating expenses and the acquisition of a leader in social games, Playfish." Those cuts, revealed earlier today, will result in the loss of around 1,500 jobs by March 31, 2010. Last year's restructuring planned only 1,000 layoffs. EA estimates that the restructuring plan will save around $100 million after about $130 - 150 million of restructuring costs. We hope that, this time, the company arrives at a structure that works.
Namco Bandai posts $66.7 million loss for first half of year
Namco Bandai has reported a net loss of ¥6.04 billion ($66.7 million) for the first half of its fiscal year, which began in April. During the same period last year, the company posted a net income of ¥1.28 billion ($14.14 million). Despite this year's first-half hiccup, the publisher still expects to earn ¥8.5 billion ($93.6 million) in net income by the end of its fiscal year (ending March 31, 2010). After all, there are those 2.5 million copies of Tekken 6 waiting to be sold. Namco Bandai's software sales for the period were led by the Ben 10 franchise, as Alien Force and Protector of the Earth combined to sell approximately 810,000 units (not exactly Guitar Hero numbers, eh?). Even with Tekken 6 in its second-half roster, Namco must be pulling for a miracle. But then, the holidays are a magical time. Source – Financial Highlights [PDF] Source – Consolidated Financial Report [PDF]
Nexon America's financials continue to impress in Q3
We reported back in August that Nexon America had begun the third Quarter of 2009 with a very solid July; their revenue for the month grew 35% over the numbers for July 2008. Now that Q3 is over, they are happily touting some additional (and still impressive) figures. August 2009 beat out last year's August revenues by 32%, and September hit a lofty 44% growth in revenues compared to the same time in 2008. Overall, Nexon America's third quarter revenue grew 36% compared to Q3 2008.Nexon America's CEO David Kim pointed out that this success comes without the bump that releasing a new game often brings: "Increasing our revenues without having added any new games to the company's portfolio for more than a year tells me that we are on the right track. Dungeon Fighter Online is just ramping up, so no revenues generated by that game are reflected in the outstanding third quarter we've had.Dungeon Fighter Online is still in open beta, but an item mall has just been launched for the game. We can only imagine that Nexon's growth will continue when these revenues begin to show up on future financial reports.
Nokia posts $834 million quarterly loss, smartphone share down to 35%
Nokia just posted a net loss of 559 million euro (834 million dollars) for the third quarter -- its first quarterly loss in a decade according to the AFP. The loss comes after a reported 20% drop in sales and 1.17 billion euros in write-downs, mostly for impairment charges on Nokia Siemens Networks. Nokia also said that its smartphone market share dropped to 35% versus 41% in the previous quarter. With fierce competition from Apple and RIM, and Palm just launching its Pre into Nokia's European stronghold, well, it's a good thing Nokia's branching out into untapped markets like single-core Atom-based netbooks. Read -- Smartphone slip Read -- First loss in a decade Read -- Nokia Q3 statement
Apple pushes to change subscription accounting rules
Apple's pretty famous for using subscription accounting for the iPhone and Apple TV as a way to bend the rules and offer free software updates after purchase -- basically, instead of putting all the money from the sale on the books at once, the company's accountants spread the revenue out over two years, extending the "transaction" to cover upgrades. That's great for iPhone owners, but it's not so great for Apple or its investors, since the company's stock price doesn't always reflect the true amount of iPhone money coming in -- in fact, Apple earnings reports now include a second, unofficial balance sheet that does away with subscription accounting to show off the real numbers. Yeah, it's confusing, but it might finally be about to change, since the Financial Accounting Standards Board just tentatively approved new rules that could allow Apple to do away with subscription accounting and still deliver free updates. That means Apple's quarterly earnings will now feature much larger official revenue and profit figures -- last quarter's official revenue was $8.34 billion, while the unofficial number was $9.74 billion -- the lawyers and accountants will be happy, and we'll still get free iPhone updates. Good deal all around -- except for iPod touch owners, who will still have to pay $9.95 and not get a camera. [Via Yahoo]
Blizzard on the Battle.net update
Activision-Blizzard held their second quarter conference call yesterday, and in addition to addressing the Starcraft II delay, both Mike Morhaime and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick shared some insight into what the revamped Battle.net will be like. The brand new system (which is currently up and working, albeit in a very skeleton form so far) will have "social networking features, cross-game communication, [and] unified account management," in addition to features that will let players "share experiences" with each other online (we'd presume that means things like screenshot galleries and leaderboards, but who knows?). Kotick also spoke up, and compared the service to that other popular online community, Xbox Live.Blizzard is still saying the new Battle.net will come in conjunction with the new Starcraft, so we'll have to keep an eye out for them both in the first half of 2010. It'll be interesting to see what other features Blizzard adds in, and exactly what form features like "cross-game communication" take -- do they mean actual in-game messaging across games, or just status updates and messages on a social network? Kotick's comparison to Xbox Live raises some questions, too, as that's a much wider service than you'd think Battle.net would be. But then again, the guy's a CEO, and all CEOs have a tendency to overestimate exactly what their company is doing. Like most of Blizzard's upcoming releases, we'll have to wait and see on Battle.net.
Sprint loses $384m, 257k subscribers in first quarter of Pre availability
The Pre might have slowed the drain at Sprint but it hasn't managed to turn things around completely -- America's number three carrier posted a second-quarter loss of $384m as it lost another 257,000 subscribers. That just continues Sprint's trend of bleeding customers to the competition, and we doubt this balance sheet will turn around anytime soon -- not only will next quarter reflect the $483m purchase of Virgin Mobile USA, it's pretty clear that Verizon will get the Pre and AT&T will carry another webOS handset, leaving Mr. Hesse and crew without their shiny halo device to lure new subs to the fold. We'll see what Sprint does to turn this all around -- did someone say they need a Hero?
Funcom's Q1 2009 report shows solid revenue
Funcom has released a report detailing their financials for the first quarter of 2009. They brought in over US$7 million in revenue for the period, and although this figure is slightly less than the previous quarter (but without the disastrous US$23 million depreciation loss), they are pleased with the stability of their earnings during the economic turbulence of recent times. The report also mentions some positive trends in their flagship game Age of Conan: Longer average subscription periods, demonstrating customer loyalty The number of new customers per month is much higher than Q4 '08 (the introduction of free trials helped here) A solid and stable customer base for the quarter Higher levels of activity in game than in previous periods Not to be left out, The Secret World made it into the report as well, mostly just to say that the recent reveal was well-received, and the project is on track. Anarchy Online only really had a one-line entry in the report, and it was to say that revenues from the game were slowly declining. The casual and free-to-play games that Funcom referred to in their Q4 '08 report are also keeping to their development schedules -- the screenshot above is from a java-based MMO that is currently in the focus-testing and gameplay tweaking stages. For now though, with TSW and the other casual games still on the horizon, the overall success of Q2 '09 will once again hinge on the performance of AoC.
Sony posts $1b loss, first in 14 years
Here's the good news: Sony's ¥98.9b ($1.03b) loss is slightly less than the $1.1b the company told us it would lose in January. Sadly, all of the other news is bad, starting with the fact that the company just lost a freaking billion dollars, its first loss in 14 years, and it's predicting a similar $1.1b loss next year. Electronics sales were down 17 percent, the Sony-Ericsson phone partnership is struggling, and game division sales dropped 18 percent primarily due to Sony's continued reliance on falling PS2 sales. As for the PS3, it's actually a dim bright spot: hardware cost reductions and increased game sales slightly stemmed the tide, but Sony's still expecting the division to lose money in the coming year. Sony also says it has "extensive measures" in store to try and turn things around after that, so we're hoping Sir Howard's plans to embrace open formats and listen to consumers are kicking into gear, but we'll see.Read - Sony financials [Warning: PDF]Read - Reuters reportRead - MarketWatch
Microsoft Q309: Xbox division loses $31 million, 360 sales up 30%
Microsoft's third quarter may not have been the hotness, but the company's entertainment and devices division (that's Xbox) can have a very tiny fiesta to celebrate its sales victory. The mega-corp's revenues took a 6% beating, with net income down 32% over the prior year to $2.98 billion. The Xbox's (Zune, etc.) entertainment and devices division lost 31 million this quarter, after achieving a $106 million profit during the same time last year.On a happier note -- and pretty much the only relevant part for gamers -- the Xbox 360 console sold 1.7 million units during the quarter, an impressive year-over-year increase of 30 percent. The company also claims that the current tie ratio for the console is 8.3 games per owner. The company's chief financial officer said he was happy with the results given that this is the "most difficult economic environment" in the company's history.Source -- Microsoft's Xbox 360 division loses $31 millionSource -- Microsoft Reports Third-Quarter Results
Former Motorola CFO alleges that company lied about financial data, Santa Claus
There have been no shortage of legal wranglings in the electronics space lately, usually between two well-entrenched corporations, but this one's a little more interesting: a former officer taking the offensive against his former office. Paul Liska, previous head of all things financial at Motorola, is alleging that the company has been misleading investors for quite some time regarding the performance of its Mobile Devices unit, and that when he raised his concerns to the board he was given an escorted trip out the building for his troubles. Moto, on the other hand, is saying that the company's current financial mess is all thanks to a scheme concocted by Liska himself, who then attempted to blackmail the company before trying to paint himself as a whistleblower. That's an awful lot of intrigue, but given the thrilling, cut-throat world of chartered accountancy (as depicted in Monty Python's documentary The Meaning of Life), truly anything can happen. [Via Phone Arena]
Take-Two profits up slightly in Q109, GTA accounts for 40% of revenue
Take-Two Interactive today announced its financial results for Q1 2009, ended January 31. The company's Q1 net revenue was $256.8 million, up a modest $16.4M over Q108's $240.4M. Its net loss for the quarter was $50.4 million, $12.4M worse than Q108's $38M.Sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchise accounted for $60 million (40%) of Take-Two's Q1 revenue, although the company declined to break this number down by title -- specifically with regards to revenue from The Lost and Damned -- during an investor call. Other titles cited as Q1 bread-winners were Wii's Carnival Games, along with Midnight Club: Los Angeles and NBA 2K9. Key titles noted for FY09 include Red Dead Redemption and the second Xbox 360 exclusive DLC episode for Grand Theft Auto IV.In an official statement issued to investors, Take-Two chairman, Strauss Zelnick, said, "Looking to the balance of the year, the economy remains challenging and uncertain, and our industry will not be immune to this environment. Consumers will continue to be highly selective in their purchases, including interactive entertainment," adding, "We need to deliver innovative, exceptionally compelling products to compete for this more limited consumer spending, and we are confident in our ability to do so."
Namco Bandai reaches high 'calibur' profits of $99.7m
Swords and boobs helped propel Namco Bandai to $99.7 million in profit during the third quarter of its financial year. GameDaily reports that Soul Calibur IV has been the publisher's most successful title, selling 2.2m units this fiscal year, followed by Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit's 730k. Overall, the PS2 is the publisher's most successful platform for its software, followed by the Wii. Also, the PSP has been slightly kinder to the publisher than the DS.Namco Bandai's finances combine the company's video games, arcade machines and toy businesses. Despite a significant drop in revenue, it still plans to walk away with $143m in profit, when it closes the books for the year on March 31.
