Hasta La Gadget!

For now, RIM’s looming mindshare problem is more theoretical than it is practical — as far as Wall Street’s concerned, at least — on today’s news that they’ve beaten the consensus estimates for fiscal Q3 revenue and income with $5.49 billion and $911.1 million, respectively. The company also shipped a record 14.2 million units in the three-month period, up a whopping 40 percent year-over-year, but subscriber additions fell a bit short — 5.1 million versus the 5.2 million that analysts had counted on. Interestingly, RIM has elected not to report adds anymore, which means they’re not offering guidance on adds for the next fiscal quarter, either — which certainly doesn’t seem like a good sign. Be that as it may, Waterloo’s confidence in its long-running leaders seems stronger than ever before, because co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have just been made co-chairmen of the board… presumably just so they can crack jokes about running “dual-core” board meetings. Anyhow, they’re looking at revenue for the next quarter of $5.5 to $5.7 billion and earnings per share of $1.74 to $1.80, both of which outstrip estimates, on device sales of 14 million. Any PlayBooks in that figure, do you suppose?

RIM beats earnings estimates, falls just shy on subscriber growth; co-CEOs now co-chairmen, too originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s Windows division has been on something of a roll recently, but a deeper look into the company’s financials seems to indicate that the reported numbers might look better than reality. Information Week has done some deep digging into Microsoft’s recent SEC filings and found that several bookkeeping changes resulted in significantly increased reportings of revenues in the company’s Windows division. Revenues that had been assigned in previous quarters to other divisions within the company — mostly the Entertainment and Devices unit which includes highly successful businesses such as Xbox — were, in this past quarter, re-assigned to the Windows operating system division.

So just how much money was moved? Well, according to Information Week and the relevant SEC filings statements, about $259 million, or a boost of 6.5% in revenue to the division overall for a total of $4.24 billion rather than the $3.98 billion originally stated for Q1 2010. This also resulted in a 25% reduction in revenue for EDD, while the total — $12.92 billion — stayed exactly the same. Of course, all these bookkeeping maneuvers mean that Redmond’s Windows division looked like it was making a decent amount more cash than it actually was, and when taking into account another complex move — that of deferring $1.5 billion in upgrade revenues from Windows Vista machines sold in Q4 2009 to Windows 7 in Q1 2010 — the resulting picture is a bit different than it would appear on the surface. Ultimately, it looks like Microsoft raked in an 11% increase in Windows revenue rather than the 66% reported, when removing both the bookkeeping changes from other units and the upgrade deferrals. Of course, this is all apparently technically on the up-and-up, in terms of financial reporting is concerned, but it does give some insight into the stunning profits recorded in the Windows division as of late.

Microsoft accounting shuffling resulted in higher revenues for Windows division originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though it reported record growth in both revenue and subscriber count, Clearwire’s bad news outweighed the good as it announced its fourth quarter earnings today. Here’s the meat of it:

“The Company is actively pursuing a number of options to resolve its need for additional capital. The Company is in discussions with a number of its major shareholders and other third parties about a number of options, including potential strategic transactions, additional debt or equity financings and/or asset sales. While the Company is cautiously optimistic it will resolve its short-term funding needs in the near future, there can be no assurances. Thus, it is implementing a series of significant cash conservation measures to reduce costs, including: a substantial reduction in sales and marketing spending, a suspension of additional retail channel market launches of the CLEAR-branded operations in select markets including Denver and Miami, delays in the introduction of CLEAR-branded smartphones, a substantial reduction in the contractor workforce, a 15% reduction in the number of employees, and the discontinuation of development activities for sites not required for its current build plan. The Company currently has thousands of sites in various stages of planning and construction beyond its current build plan, and it intends to suspend zoning and permitting in a portion of those sites until such time as additional funding becomes available.”

Translation: they’re running low on cash, they’re looking for ways to raise more of it, and until they do, they aren’t launching those promised Clear-branded phones or opening any more retail locations. They’re also cutting staff by 15 percent, scaling back Clear marketing, and suspending network planning beyond stuff that’s already in the works — a pretty drastic step considering how much build-out Clearwire’s network still needs. Though Sprint depends heavily on Clearwire for its current WiMAX setup, it’s unclear whether Sprint would be willing to continue to dump cash into the partnership — particularly considering the recent rumors that they’re looking to reach out to other carriers — and Comcast has already gone on record saying they don’t see themselves turning into a Clearwire ATM.

Obviously, both Clearwire’s spectrum holdings and its infrastructure are extraordinarily valuable and we wouldn’t sound any alarms that Sprint’s WiMAX network is in any danger of disappearing, but we’re sure this is sounding some alarms at Sprint headquarters that it’s time to make some strategic moves. Should be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Clearwire reports Q4 earnings: staff, marketing, stores, and handset plans all scaled back originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My, how a year changes things. Q3 2009 was a nightmare for mega-corps in terms of earnings, but things have definitely been on the up and up just 12 months later. After Sony pushed out a glowing quarterly report this morning, rival Samsung has done likewise. The company saw record breaking revenues of ₩40.23 trillion ($35.8 billion) as well as profits (₩4.46 trillion; $3.96 billion) in this most recent quarter, with Sammy crediting strong semiconductor performance for the bulk of its newfound fortune. A tip of the hat was also given to its mobile communications business, with the outfit moving a staggering 71.4 million phones during Q3 2010 (a 19 percent boost year-over-year). Reports are noting that between five and seven million of those were of the Galaxy S variety, and it’s hoping to sell ten million of ’em before the close of this year. All that said, the firm isn’t expecting an equally rosy Q4, noting that a strengthening won and heightened price pressures around LCD panels and DRAM could put a damper on skyrocketing profits. So much for taking a day to celebrate, eh?

[Thanks, Rajendra]

Continue reading Samsung notches record profits, aims to sell ten million Galaxy S phones this year

Samsung notches record profits, aims to sell ten million Galaxy S phones this year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft just beat analyst expectations, announcing $16.20 billion in revenue for the first quarter of its 2011 fiscal year, with $5.41 billion in profit. Microsoft cites Office 2010, the sustained “PC refresh cycle,” and 38 percent growth in the Xbox 360 biz for its good news, with overall revenue up 25 percent over the same quarter last year and a 51 percent gain in profit. The Xbox 360 has been at the top of the console heap for four months running, which can’t hurt. Microsoft will have an earnings call to discuss its results at 5:30PM EDT, so we’ll be keeping our ears peeled for Steve Ballmer to pull a Steve Jobs, hijack the call, and rag hard on the competition — if only we lived in a world of such beautiful symmetry.

Microsoft announces a record first-quarter revenue of $16.20 billion, $5.41 billion in profit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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