q2-2013
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NCsoft sales are up, income is down
NCsoft may be in a more secure position with its financials at the present, as the company released its Q2 2013 earnings report with uplifting data. Overall, the publisher and its combined subsidiaries has increased its sales by 4% over last quarter and seen a healthy bump in operating profit as well. It's not all good news; NCsoft's net income has taken a 35% nosedive quarter-over-quarter. If you strip away the subsidiaries, however, NCsoft is doing well across the board. So what's fueling these numbers? Lineage 1 remains the backbone of NCsoft's financials, boasting "an all-time high" in the sales department. Aion is reportedly doing well in China, and Guild Wars 2 is providing "stable" profits. It looks as though North American sales has decreased from Q1, but an increase in Japanese and Korean sales has more than made up for the loss.
Activision reports $1.05 billion net revenue in Q2, $4.6 billion in cash
Activision Blizzard reported net revenue of $1.05 billion for the second quarter of 2013, down from $1.08 billion in 2012's quarter. The company has no debt and $4.6 billion in cash and assets, and raised $466 million in cashflow so far this year, it said during its financial call. Activision attributes its revenue from sales of Skylanders: Giants, which was the No. 1 console game, in dollars, in the US and Europe during the first half of 2013, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The Skylanders franchise passed $1.5 billion in retail sales worldwide since launch. Activision raised its outlook for the year, now expecting to earn $4.31 billion in net revenue, rather than $4.22 billion. The outlook doesn't include impact from its deal with Vivendi, where Activision bought back most of Vivendi's shares for $8 billion. The public holds the majority of shares in Activision.
Verizon smartphone revenue up in Q2 2013, half of all 7.5 million activations were iPhones (updated)
Verizon's latest quarterly report reveals a carrier chugging along nicely, thank you very much. Total revenue (including wireless and wireline) is up slightly to $29.8 billion, while wireless service revenue on its own grew by 8.3 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Nearly a million (941,000) new retail postpaid customers joined the VZW brigade, some of whom may have been drawn to the carrier's expanding LTE service, which is now available to 301 million Americans, as well as to new handsets like the Nokia Lumia 928 and possibly even the BlackBerry Q10 (or maybe not). In any case, those high-margin subscribers helped to increase profit by 14 percent -- so long as you're the kind of person who's content to be guided by "non-GAAP consolidated adjusted earnings per share." There's also no sign of the pension-related issues that affected the company last quarter, which leaves this carrier high and dry, regardless of how smartphone saturation may be affecting others along the food chain. Update: In its earnings call, Verizon added that 59 percent of traffic on its network is on 4G LTE, and 52 percent of its smartphone activations (around 3.8 million device activations) were iPhones.
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.
HP Q2 2013 financials: $1.1 billion in profits on revenue of $27.6 billion, earnings down 32 percent
HP just posted its Q2 financial report, and despite somber news of falling profits and revenue, the company managed to beat consensus estimates and the stock has jumped more than 10 percent in after-hours trading. As for concrete figures, HP pulled in $1.1 billion in profit, which is down 32 percent from just one year ago. Revenue of $27.6 billion reveals a similar story, which is down 10 percent year over year. With respect to HP's Personal Systems group, the company is pulling in a 3.2 percent margin, where revenue is down 20 percent year over year. Here, total unit shipments are down 21 percent, with an 18 percent decline for desktops and a 24 percent hit for notebooks. Just three months ago, company CEO Meg Whitman promised a bright future for HP with plans to bring "a number of new programs and disruptive innovations to market in the coming quarters," which likely includes such products as the Split x2. Whether consumers will respond remains to be seen, but for the moment, HP is keeping investors happy by returning $1.1 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases. Meanwhile, in a move to further set expectations, Whitman reiterated her confidence for the rest of the year, but followed with, "As I have said many times before, this is a multi-year journey." The future remains just that, but for the moment, you can hit up the source link for a peek into the current financial health of HP.
Disney Interactive down $54 million in Q2
By the end of the second quarter of its fiscal year, Disney Interactive was once again the media conglomerate's only unprofitable sector, reporting a $54 million operating income (read: pre-tax) loss for the three month period ending March 31, 2013. This is, however, a 22 percent year-over-year improvement when compared to Q2 2012's reported operating income loss of $70 million. Disney contributes the loss to "growth at our Japan mobile business from a licensing agreement that started in February 2012 and lower acquisition accounting expense at our social games business." No mention is made of Junction Point Studios, which Disney closed in January after lackluster sales of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, or of the company's forthcoming game/toy platform Disney Infinity.
Fortune: Apple may see first quarter of negative income growth since 2003
Apple investors may want to brace themselves for an onslaught of negative headlines when Apple reports its Q2 2013 earnings in the coming month. According to Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog, Apple is expected to report its first year-over-year decline in income in 10 years. Much of this decline can attributed to lowered gross margins on products. As noted by DeWitt, Apple's gross margin in Q2 2012 sat at an impressive 47.37 percent, while analyst estimates for the 2013 quarter suggest it could fall to as low as 37.5 percent. Though Apple is projected to deliver another quarter of record revenue, this drop in profit margin threatens to drag down Apple's quarterly income. You can read a brief analysis on Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog and then hop over to Posts At Eventide for a detailed analysis of Apple's current quarter from Robert Paul Leitao.
Microsoft fiscal 2013, Q2: Xbox still on top, Entertainment revenue down
Microsoft's financial statement for the three month period ending December 31, 2012 (aka Q2 fiscal 2013) has been released, and amid the breakdowns of the Windows Division's revenue increase and the Server & Tool division's year-over-year whatever is some information our readers actually care about.Specifically, the Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes everything Xbox, experienced an 11 percent year-over-year decrease in revenue as compared with 2011; $3.77 billion versus $4.23 billion, respectively. Still, the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in the United States, as it has been for the last 22 months.As a whole, Microsoft's Q2 revenue (read: gross income) rang up at $21.45 billion, up three percent when compared to 2011, but its operating (read: net) income went down by three percent to $7.77 billion, which is only enough to buy about 26.7 billion mechanical pencils.
Blizzard 'working hard' to launch StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm in first half of 2013
Blizzard is hoping to push the first StarCraft 2 expansion, Heart of the Swarm, out the door during the first half of 2013. Blizzard head Mike Morhaime made the announcement during Activision's earnings call, saying the studio is "working hard towards a first half 2013 launch."Heart of the Swarm is set to add several improvements to StarCraft 2, including multiplayer progression and new social features.
THQ's Q2 sees $107 million in net sales, needs more money for delays
THQ posted net sales of $107 million and an operating loss of $19 million in fiscal 2013's second quarter, which ended September 30. This is compared with 2012's Q2 results of $146 million in net sales, and an operating loss of $97 million.In a bid to stay afloat, in 2012 THQ has undergone corporate reshuffling, has closed studios, laid off staff, rearranged its product line and enacted a reverse stock split. THQ's most recent mainstream launch was Darksiders 2, which sold 1.4 million copies in Q2 2013. THQ CEO Brian Farrell said these sales were "below our expectations."THQ delayed South Park: The Stick of Truth, Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light today, citing a need for more time to realize the games' full potentials. This means THQ may seek more money from outside investors and through internal shake-ups in the interim, the fiscal report said."The calendar movement for the release of games will likely create a need for additional capital. THQ has engaged Centerview Partners LLC to assist the company in evaluating strategic and financing alternatives intended to improve THQ's overall liquidity, including raising additional capital, preserve the company's ability to bring the best possible games to market during the most advantageous release windows and to help address the $100 million 5% convertible senior notes due August 2014."
Nikon nudges Q2 net earnings to $203 million, DSLRs and Nikon 1 get all the credit
Nikon might be treading water in Q2 2013 (its fiscal year is time-shifted) with a slight gain to $203 million from Q1, but in the current imaging market climate, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Revenue fell $200 million to $3 billion for the period, which Nikon chalked up to a "sluggish" economy and poor performance in its business, chip and science divisions, along with a rapidly shrinking compact camera market (smartphones, anyone?). Fortunately, the company fared better in the interchangeable lens game, singling out the Nikon 1 mirrorless brand as a "solid performer" as well as its popular DSLR line. Nikon predicts more of the same for the rest of the year, with interchangeable lens camera sales growing while other divisions waffle, resulting in a $750 million profit for the year -- a mirror-image of 2012. [Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]
Dell reports Q2 earnings: rakes in $14.5 billion of revenue, nets $732 million in profit
After a couple of down quarters in a row, Dell needed to come out strong in Q2 of fiscal year 2013. Well, it's probably not as glowing a quarter as the company was hoping for, but a slight rebound in profits from last quarter should give it something to smile about. Revenue was up roughly $100 million sequentially, which translated into an equal amount of additional profit. After netting just $635 million in income during Q1, Dell banked $732 million in Q2 of 2013. Year-over-year, however, things are a little less rosy. Revenue was down eight percent and net income a worrisome 18 percent. Still, while its consumer arm continues to struggle (where revenue is down 22 percent), its enterprise services division continues to grow, raking in $4.9 billion this quarter -- up six percent from the same time last year and matching its previous record. The company expects revenue to continue to fall next quarter, but expects good things from it Enterprise Solutions, Services and Software division going forward. For more financial particulars check out the PR after the break. Update: Dell's slide deck -- partially shown above -- unsurprisingly points out that Windows 8-based Ultrabooks, all-in-one desktops and tablets are on deck, but it also mentions a mysterious "converged device" segment as well. Hmm.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon delayed to 'first half of 2013'
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon apparently won't be spooking Nintendo 3DS owners until some point in the 'first half of 2013," says Nintendo. The game was originally planned for a holiday 2012 launch, per an announcement at this year's E3, but now won't be making that window. It's unclear if the game was delayed outside of "The Americas," as Nintendo only released information on that version.Nintendo didn't give a reason for the delay, nor did the company give any more specific of a launch date for the game. Spooky business indeed.
