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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.
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.
China Unicom says partnering with Apple was a good thing, we feign surprise
China Unicom saw a 14 percent bump in profits for 2011, with company execs attributing much of that gain to its exclusivity deal on the iPhone. Despite the increased income, China's second largest network still fell short of analyst estimates, with much of the blame being pinned on the carrier's need to increase capital spending. New customers means network expansion and more handset subsidies, and the firm's augmenting its spending by 30 percent to 100 billion Yuan (about $16 billion) to keep up. This extra expense caused stock in the network to cool a little, falling 3.1 percent after the announcement. Not so good news then, considering what's around the corner.
ChangYou reports record profits for the year
If you live in China and play online, you know the name ChangYou. The company is a bit less well-known over in the US, but it's still made a name for itself with quirky titles like Zentia and Duke of Mount Deer. It's also apparently making a massive amount of money. According to the company's fourth quarter financial report, ChangYou wound up with a total gross revenue of $435.5 million, with profits surging to $248 million. CEO Tao Wang says the company can thank a variety of games for its success -- the aforementioned Duke of Mount Deer, an expansion for Tian Long Ba Bu, and the browser-based DDTank. The success of the company in the online market is just part of the ever-expanding Chinese marketplace, which generated over $5 billion dollars last year alone. That's good news for ChangYou and its fans, since the company will enter the next year with plenty of money to generate more games.
ARM boosts profits by 45 percent, strengthens grip on the universe
The British chip designer continued last year's growth streak with a 45 percent surge in quarterly normalized pre-tax profits compared to Q4 2010. Revenues also rose by 21 percent to £137.8 million ($217 million) -- not bad for a company that started out with twelve engineers in a barn. There's nothing complicated about CEO Warren East's explanation of the results -- he simply says that his company sold more designs to "more new customers" and also raked in more royalties from existing deals. Unless the global economies suffers badly in 2012, ARM says it expects to meet market expectations, targeting an annual profit of $860 million this year.
Samsung 2011 Q4 earnings official: $42 billion in sales, $4.7 billion operating profit
It might not be making as much money as the competition in Cupertino, but that doesn't mean Samsung isn't raking in cash at an astonishing clip. We reported earnings estimates a few weeks ago, but now it's official that the firm posted a 5.3 trillion won ($4.7 billion) operating profit in Q4 2011. That represents over a 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) increase year over year. In all, it pulled in 47.3 trillion won ($42 billion) in sales, thanks in no small part to the over 300 million phones Sammy sold last year. While mobile accounted for roughly 40 percent of company sales and half of its operating profit (2.6 trillion won, or $2.3 billion), its semiconductor business did almost as well, raking in 2.3 trillion won ($2 billion) in profit over the same period. Samsung's Display Panel business outperformed 2010 -- buoyed by strong sales in LED televisions -- as sales were up almost 20 percent, to 8.55 trillion won ($7.6 billion).Well the call just finished up, and Sammy provided some prognosication for 2012. It anticipates the mobile business to continue to grow, with LTE and and new market segments (read: Galaxy Note) helping drive sales. TV sales are also expected to remain on the uptick, as Samsung anticipates demand to continue growing due in part to the London Olympics and roll-out of more Smart TVs. Feel free to check out all the numbers giving Samsung reason for its optimism at the source link below.
'Staunchly British' Jagex sets the record straight about its new ownership
Jagex doesn't take kindly to being called an American company these days, it appears. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, CEO Mark Gerhard set the record straight about the recently reported deal that put the British game studio under the purview of an American investment firm. Because the deal was made earlier last year, Gerhard sees this as old news and stressed that the company was trucking on much the same as it ever was. "The insinuation that this is a company that somehow now is run by bankers in the US again couldn't be further from the truth," he said. "Sure we therefore have some American shareholders, but the management and the culture and the ethos and everything else is the same people, in the same hands, and staunchly British." He also clarified why the studio's profits were reported to be down: "If you look at our company's house filings, revenues are up but profits are down, and those aren't because we're doing a crap job, that's because we're consciously taking those profits and ploughing them back into the business." Gerhard said that the company was "very, very selective" when it came to investors, and that it feels completely comfortable with the current board of directors. He said that the new investors were not interfering with the day-to-day development and operations of Jagex's ever-expanding library of titles: "I'm very excited for the year ahead and everyone in the studio is very focused on, not just making RuneScape and 8Realms a financial success, but our work on Stellar Dawn and even Transformers coming together to make truly great games for this year."
God save the green: Deal makes Jagex a US company
Jagex is trading up the Union Jack for the Stars and Stripes, as controlling interest in the studio has changed hands to a US firm. Insight Venture Partners, a venture capital firm from the US, completed a deal last year to increase its ownership to 55% of the UK-based company. Previously, the firm had 35% interest in Jagex. Now that the scales have tipped to the new ownership, this technically makes Jagex a US-controlled company and has US investors leading its board of directors. While revenues were up 2% for Jagex in 2011, both operating and net profits were significantly down from the previous financial year. Jagex is a major player in the MMO free-to-play market, with RuneScape, Transformers Universe, and 8Realms as part of its project portfilio. Develop reports that the controlling interest was made possible by Jagex co-founder Andrew Gower selling off his ownership claims to the firm for $115.65 million. As part of the deal, Jagex paid $3.85 million in expenses. The studio will remain in Cambridge while its controlling firm is in NYC.
HTC's growth streak is over: quarterly revenue down 2.5 per cent, profits even worse
Difficult times for a company that had grown used to a gleaming record of growth. As predicted after that serious stutter in November sales, HTC's unaudited revenue for Q4 2011 shows a 2.49 percent fall on the same quarter in 2010. Unaudited operating income was just shy of 13 billion Taiwanese dollars (about $430 million), which represents a 22 percent decline on the year before. Prior to this, the company had seen nothing but upward movement after springing out of nowhere a few years ago and delivering us some rather nice handsets, but it looks like competition in the Android sphere (read: Samsung) is starting to make life harder for the Taiwanese manufacturer -- although none of its recent statements betray much in the way of self-reflection.
Samsung estimates operating profit of $4.5 billion on cellphone, hard drive biz sales
Fourth quarter estimates for Samsung's earnings are out and wouldn't you know it, selling a record number of mobile phones -- more than three times over what it sold in the same period last year -- is a pretty good way to turn a profit. Businessweek notes it closed the three months ending in December with an operating profit of 5.2 trillion won ($4.5 billion), beating analyst estimates. Other than the more than 300 million phones it sold, there was also a bump from the $1.38 billion sale of its hard drive business to Seagate that helped overcome drops in profits from its chipmaking and flat-screen units. Detailed results are expected later on this month, but The Wall Street Journal reports Samsung expects to notch an operating profit of 16.2 trillion won ($14 billion). Here's hoping it takes a break from counting up all that cash to show off a few things better and brighter next week at CES.
Infinity Blade franchise pulls in $30 million in 2011
Angry Birds isn't the only iOS brand that did well over the holiday season: Chair Entertainment reports that Infinity Blade also raked in the money this past holiday season (and the year previous). The franchise as a whole has picked up a whopping $30 million so far. That includes both the original Infinity Blade game and the great Infinity Blade 2, but it also includes a digital novel based in the game's setting, an original soundtrack release, and even Infinity Blade FX, which is an arcade version of the touchscreen game at places like Dave and Buster's. That's a solid franchise, and a solid chunk of money the company has picked up so far. More important than the total, however, is what all of this money means: That you can build a successful and solid high-definition franchise on iOS. Lots of traditional and mainstream companies (like Chair, and Epic, which owns them) have been looking at iOS as a platform, and many of them have dismissed it as a smaller environment for more casual or low-profile games. That may be true (Infinity Blade could be called more casual than, say, Chair's own Shadow Complex on the Xbox 360), but Chair's also proven here that iOS gamers do want (and are willing to pay for) more in-depth, well-produced titles also. There's no question that we'll see more next-gen studios dipping their production toes in iOS in the future as well, going after exactly this kind of money. Show full PR text EPIC GAMES AND CHAIR ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCE EARNINGS FROM INFINITY BLADE FRANCHISE EXCEED $30 MILLION Accolades, Strong Sales of Infinity Blade II Further Propel Blockbuster Game Franchise CARY, N.C. and SALT LAKE CITY (January 5, 2012) – Epic Games, Inc. and its award-winning Salt Lake City-based development studio, ChAIR Entertainment, today announced that earnings from ChAIR's blockbuster Infinity Blade video game franchise have eclipsed $30 million in just one year since the introduction of the original game. One of the most popular gaming franchises to be launched on the App Store, the award-winning series has also created significant licensing interest in the underlying Unreal Engine 3 technology from developers worldwide. Further fueling franchise momentum is the recent release of Infinity Blade II, which has seen net earnings in excess of $5 million in just one month since release on Dec. 1, 2011, a mark which took the original title three months to achieve. Infinity Blade II is on pace to exceed the record success of the original Infinity Blade game, which has grossed more than $23 million to date. Additional franchise extensions include Infinity Blade: Awakening, a digital novella from best-selling author Brandon Sanderson, Infinity Blade: Original Soundtrack, which features original music from the games, and Infinity Blade FX, a big screen, coin-op version of Infinity Blade now featured in arcades nationwide. Infinity Blade II was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2011 and received dozens of accolades, including several perfect scores and Editors Choice awards. IGN scored the game a "Perfect 10" and named it their 2011 Mobile Game of the Year. USA Today awarded Infinity Blade II another perfect score, calling it "A Masterful Mobile Epic." Infinity Blade II was crowned Game of the Year by Slide to Play and Touch Gen, and named Mobile Game of the Year by GameSpot and G4TV, among others. Infinity Blade II was also named among E! Online's 'Top 10 Games of 2011,' one of the 'Best Apps of 2011' by Entertainment Weekly, and was cited by Mashable in its '5 Major Trends that Changed Digital Entertainment in 2011' feature. "The success of the Infinity Blade franchise is testament to our talented team who is devoted to making games we want to play, all while using Unreal Engine technology to redefine what is expected from games on iOS devices," Epic Games President Dr. Michael Capps said. "We have so much more in store for players, and will continue to make great content for Apple's evolving platforms." Infinity Blade II is available for download from the App Store (www.itunes.com/appstore) for $6.99 and is a universal app. The game is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad, iPad 2, iPod touch 3 (16GB+) and iPod touch 4. To learn more about the Infinity Blade games and novella, follow @InfinityBlade on Twitter, 'Like' "Infinity Blade" on Facebook at www.facebook.com/InfinityBladeGame or visit the official website at www.InfinityBladeGame.com.
Acer will stop making cheap crap, but keep selling netbooks. Discuss.
Here's a bit of a head-scratcher: Acer has said it will stand by its man, which in this case is the netbook, but CEO J.T. Wang also recently told Dow Jones that his company will stop making "cheap and unprofitable products." So, which is it? Will the manufacturer keep churning out the low cost (and even lower specced) machines that it managed to sell 1.7 million of last quarter? Or will it stop "[blindly] pursuing market share" with affordable, but poorly made crap? Wang specifically said that Ultrabooks would become the company's "key growth driver next year" and hopefully return Acer to profitability. If that fails, we're sure there's plenty of room for some of its pastel wares over at the Home Shopping Network.
Perfect World explains third quarter financial performance
It looks like Cryptic Studios is in stable financial hands according to a news blurb at Gamasutra. Parent company Perfect World Entertainment saw a rise in third quarter revenue compared to the same period last year. However, GamesIndustry.biz reports that PWE's net profits declined during the same period, primarily due to the Cryptic acquisition and the decision to temper in-game monetization activities in certain titles. "While focusing on further enhancing the content of our portfolio is necessary for our healthy long-term growth, this decision did slow our revenues for the third quarter on a sequential basis. But our third quarter results still represent solid year-over-year revenue growth of 22.4 percent," explained chairman and CEO Michael Chi.
Zynga reports record quarterly revenue, profits still down year-over-year
Never underestimate the addictive power of microtransaction infused farms, apparently, as Zynga has disclosed a record quarter for the period between July 1 and September 30: Over $306 million, an 80 percent increase in revenue over that same period in 2010. The social megalith attributes the increase in revenue to the successful launches of Adventure World and the Facebook version of Words with Friends, which took place during this quarter. Revenue is a very different beast than profit, however, where Zynga continues to decline. Following a 95 percent year-over-year profit decrease in Q2, the SEC filing shows a 54 percent decrease year-over-year in Q3 after a total of $12.5 million in net profits. Hey Zynga, want a tip? It's on the house: Monetize letter tiles in Words with Friends. We'll pay you fifteen dollars to get rid of "MXLCZDL."
Zynga reports record revenue in last quarter
A recent SEC filing from Zynga, creator of the social gaming epidemic known as FarmVille, revealed that the company is reporting a record quarterly revenue of over 306 million USD, though -- bizarrely enough -- profits are almost 54 percent lower than they were this time last year. Revenue isn't the only thing that's on the rise, either. The company reports 152 million unique monthly players, compared to the 151 million the company reported in June. The average number of daily players, however, dropped from 59 million to 54 million. At any rate, the company seems to be going strong, with new titles such as the recently announced (supposed MMO) CastleVille just on the horizon.
ChangYou reports record revenue, registered accounts
With all the layoffs that seem to be going around the MMO industry as of late, it's about time we hear some good news from a developer. ChangYou, known in North America primarily for its quirky title Zentia and the bizarrely named Duke of Mount Deer, reports a 119 million USD revenue for its third fiscal quarter. The company's amount of registered users rose as well, with the company citing 159 million current gamers inhabiting ChangYou's titles. CEO Tao Wang is understandably pleased with these results and says that "we believe these results once again demonstrate our ability to understand and fulfill gamers' needs and showcase our content development and game operation strengths." For the full details, check out the article over at Gamasutra.
Verizon 'on track' in Q3, revenues up 5.4 percent to $27.9 billion
VZW's upward mobility shows no signs of slowing, as the carrier just reported total Q3 revenues of $27.9 billion -- up 5.4 percent on last year. As usual, much of the growth comes from pulling in new smartphone customers, who were among 882,000 new retail postpaid connections and who helped to bring Big Red's average revenue per user (ARPU) up to $54.89, which is 2.3 percent higher than the same quarter last year. We'll have to wait for the Q4 results to see any impact from the iPhone 4S or the new Droid RAZR, but, in the meantime, there are plenty of double-digits in Verizon's data revenue figures: it made $22.22 from each postpaid retail customer for data usage alone, which adds up to a 15.7 percent leap year-on-year. Read on for the full green-tinged breakdown in the PR.
AT&T's profits are down, but the carrier is still smiling
There's good news and bad news in AT&T's third quarter report. The carrier's profit dropped to $3.6 billion for the quarter -- that's down from $12.32 billion from this time last year. That drop could be due in part to the loss of iPhone exclusivity (a matter recently compounded with the addition of Sprint as a carrier for the 4S) and the fact that the company pulled in profits from the sale of assets in 2010. AT&T activated 2.7 million iPhones during Q3, a marked drop over previous quarters. (Though, admittedly, last Q3 saw the launch of the iPhone 4 -- this Q3 saw people waiting for an iPhone 5.). On the up side of things, the sale of Android devices has more than doubled, year over year. AT&T added 2.1 million wireless subscribers, passing 100 million, which the carrier seems quite pleased with, as evidenced by the exceedingly chipper video below. Update: AT&T dropped us a line to point out that the gains from a one-time tax settlement also significantly contributed to the company's 2010 profit and by extension the drop in profits year-over-year. According to an AT&T spokesperson, "If you take those one-time items out of the mix, profit was actually up 13-percent year-over-year. In addition, wireless margins were up significantly, which means wireless profits increased." Update 2: AT&T also announced this morning that it had activated one million units of the iPhone 4S as of Tuesday. Press release is included underneath the video below.
Sony Ericsson posts lower Q3 profits, will shift 'entire portfolio' to smartphones in 2012
It's been a rough couple of quarters for Sony Ericsson, but things are looking slightly rosier, according to its Q3 earnings report. Today, the company announced break even year-on-year results for the third quarter of 2011, blaming the outcome on lower profit margins and higher taxes, which rose from €12 million to €17 million over the course of a year. According to the report, net profits fell to zero this quarter after reaching €49 million ($67.26 million) during Q3 2010, while sales dropped to €1.59 billion ($2.18 billion) from €1.6 billion ($2.2 billion) last year. It's not exactly an encouraging trend, but it's certainly an improvement over the last quarter, when Sony Ericsson posted a net loss of €50 million. As far as its portfolio goes, the company says its Xperia smartphones now comprise 80 percent of all sales, with some 22 million handsets already shipped to consumers. President and CEO Bert Nordberg, meanwhile, confirmed that his company will focus on this market with even more intensity, next year: "We will continue to invest in the smartphone market, shifting the entire portfolio to smartphones during 2012." You can dig through the numbers for yourself, in the full PR after the break.
HTC's unaudited Q3 results keep the revenue train a-rollin'
HTC clearly couldn't wait for a pesky audit to tell let the world about its continued financial successes. The Taiwanese handset maker posted unaudited consolidated results for the third quarter -- and, not surprisingly, things are (continuing) to look good for the company. HTC marked a 79.07-percent growth over this time last year, with NT$135,821 million ($4.4 billion) total revenue. And according to HTC, the company's net income post-taxes was NT$18,638 million ($612 million) for the quarter. We'll update the results when we get something a bit more official.
