earnings

Samsung expects first-quarter profits of $7.7B, up 53 percent

Samsung Electronics expects to record an operating profit of 8.7 trillion won ($7.7 billion) for the first quarter of 2013, a 53 percent increase over the year-ago period.

The guidance, released today by the South Korean electronics giant ahead of full earnings later this month, is better than many analysts had forecast but a slight decline over the fourth quarter of 2012, when the company posted a record $8.3 billion in operating profit. The guidance means the company expects to break its string of five consecutive quarters of record profits.

Though strong sales of the Galaxy S … Read more

Apple to reveal Q2 2013 earnings on April 23

Apple said today it will discuss its financial performance for its fiscal second quarter 2013 in a conference call on April 23.

The call, which as usual will be streamed, is expected to cover the company's revenue and sales figures. CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer will likely be on hand to provide a financial forecast for the next quarter.

The iPhone maker recorded a monster first quarter of 2013, posting revenue of $54.5 billion and earnings of $13.1 billion on sales of 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads. That was just below … Read more

BlackBerry's off to a nice start. So now what?

Don't hang up the banners and throw the ticker-tape parade for BlackBerry yet.

BlackBerry's fiscal fourth-quarter report brought a bevy of good news. The company surprisingly returned to profitability; it shipped 1 million Z10 smartphones, the majority of which were snapped up by consumers; and it appears as if it it's taking share from competing platforms.

It's a strong start for BlackBerry. But by no means can the company declare "Mission Accomplished" on its comeback. Indeed, there are a lot of unanswered questions that won't get answered until another several months of results … Read more

BlackBerry: BB10 is stealing customers away from rivals

It's not just the BlackBerry faithful signing up for the BlackBerry Z10.

More than half of the customers snapping up a Z10 -- 55 percent -- are coming from a different platform, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said during a conference call today.

Heins wouldn't go into detail about the breakdown of where these customers were coming from, but it's an encouraging sign that the Z10 was enticing enough that people were willing to switch over to the new device. It's one sign of progress for a company badly in need of a home run.

"We'… Read more

BlackBerry swings to profit, sells 1M Z10 smartphones

BlackBerry swung to a surprising profit in the fiscal fourth quarter amid early signs of progress with its BlackBerry Z10 flagship phone.

For the three months that ended on March 2, the Canadian smartphone manufacturer reported a profit of $98 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $125 million, or 24 cents a share. Excluding items such as its cost-savings program, the company reported an adjusted EPS of 22 cents. Sales, however, fell by 36 percent to $2.68 billion.

More importantly, BlackBerry said it sold 1 million units of the Z10 in the period. … Read more

Oracle's third quarter misses on many fronts

Oracle's third quarter earnings had a big buildup but fell short of analysts' expectations amid currency fluctuations and a sales shortfall in most units.

The company reported third quarter earnings of $2.5 billion, or 52 cents a share, on revenue of $8.96 billion, down 1 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 65 cents a share.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of 66 cents a share on revenue of $9.38 billion.

In a statement, Oracle largely blamed currency fluctuations. A stronger U.S. dollar hurt reported revenue. However, even with constant currency Oracle's … Read more

Pandora posts revenue gains as ads soar

Pandora Media, the company behind the Web radio service, posted big fourth-quarter revenue gains as advertising revenue jumped 51 percent from the year-ago period.

At the same time, the company's losses widened 78 percent to $14.6 million.

"Pandora has been hiring top talent in local radio markets to further increase our share of the $15 billion radio ad market," Pandora Chief Executive Joe Kennedy said in a statement. "We are now effectively the largest radio station in almost every major market and begin fiscal year 2014 with extraordinary momentum."

Separately, Kennedy announced that he'… Read more

T-Mobile USA adds customers but sheds sales in latest quarter

T-Mobile USA managed to grab more customers last quarter, but that achievement didn't translate into higher revenue.

For the fourth quarter, the company saw a net gain of 61,000 customers, compared with a net loss of 526,000 customers a year earlier. The overall news, however, was mixed.

The number of prepaid customers grew for the sixth quarter in a row, with 166,000 additions last quarter. But the number of contract customers dropped by 515,000, compared with a drop of 492,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Total revenue for the quarter reached $4.9 … Read more

HP's Whitman: No plans to break up company

During Hewlett-Packard's first-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Meg Whitman clarified the company's "better together" strategy.

"We have no plans to to break up the company," Whitman said, in response to a question from an analyst. "I feel quite strongly that we are better and stronger together."

She reiterated this was part of HP's "better together" strategy. In short, Whitman is saying that HP as a whole is more than the sum total of its parts.

There has been speculation in the past weeks that HP's board is reconsidering … Read more

HP beats expectations, raises outlook

Hewlett-Packard delivered better-than-expected first-quarter results, raised its outlook for the second quarter, and said it has "disruptive innovations" on tap in coming quarters.

The disruptive innovation comment from CEO Meg Whitman likely revolved around Project Moonshot, the company's ARM-based server designed for hyperscale environments.

HP reported first-quarter earnings of $1.6 billion, or 63 cents a share, on revenue of $28.4 billion, down 6 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings in the first quarter were 82 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for first-quarter earnings of 71 cents a share on revenue of $27.… Read more