According to a new report out of The Wall Street Journal, Google’s YouTube unit posted a revenue of nearly $4 billion in 2014, but did not earn a profit of any kind. The $4 billion in revenue during 2014 is up from $3 billion in 2013. YouTube accounted for about 6 percent Google’s overall sales last year.
In an effort to remedy remaining unprofitable, YouTube is planning to launch a new ad-targeting system later this year, the WSJ says, though details remain unclear. …
Sony, after announcing last month that it was cutting 1,000 jobs from its mobile unit, has today revealed that it is cutting yet another 1,100 employees from its Mobile Communications business. Sony says that these cuts will trim the mobile unit down to 5,000 employees by March 2016. That’s a 28 percent cut to the department (via FierceWireless).
Lenovo this evening has reported its calendar Q4 2014 earnings, and as is well-known, Motorola is now a part of the company, so the earnings are bit more interesting this time around. According to the earnings release, Motorola Mobility sold 10 million smartphones last quarter, which is up 118 percent compared to the year ago quarter.
Google’s Chief Business Officer Omid Kordenstani gave several updates on the status of the company’s $35 Chromecast streaming device during the this evening’s Q4 2014 earnings call. Kordenstani first stated that users have “casted” content to their television more than one billion times. The company says that this is a huge milestone for the streaming stick and the implementation of the Cast functionality in a variety of different apps.
During the company’s Q4 2014 earnings call, Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette addressed a few of the reasons for the company’s slower than expected quarter. Pichette said that one issue Google had was keeping up with demand the demand for the Nexus 6. Pichette noted that while the device was well received, the company simply couldn’t get the inventory to keep up with consumer demand.
The Google Q4 2014 earnings call is happening right now, and Google CFO Patrick Pichette took a second to speak about projects that miss their goals and how Google asks them to “take a pause” to reset their strategy. Google Glass, and the recent decision to graduate the project out of Google [x] was used as an example of one of these situations…
Google is out today with its Q4 2014 earnings results from the holiday quarter. The company reports revenue of $18.1 billion, earnings per share of $6.88, with net income of $4.76 billion.
“Google’s full year revenue for 2014 was $66 billion, up 19% year on year,” said Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google, “and this quarter, our revenue was $18.1 billion, despite strong currency headwinds.”
Google will host a live earnings call (embed above) with investors and analysts to discuss its earnings report at 1:30 PM (PT) / 4:30 PM (ET) today.
LG posted its quarterly earnings numbers today and boasted impressive numbers in its smartphone group. Globally, Smartphone sales were up 24% but in the US alone, smartphones shipments were up 78% for the quarter year over year. LG ended the year having moved 59.1 million smartphones, bolstered by its popular G3 flagship. Those aren’t Apple numbers by any stretch but still very solid.
LG also posted growth in its home entertainment sector but a net loss overall for the quarter mostly due to charges related to shutting down its Plasma business.
SEOUL, Jan. 29, 2015 ― LG Electronics Inc. (LG) today announced net profit of KRW 501.40 billion (USD 474.81million) for full-year 2014, an increase of 125 percent over 2013net profit. Operating profit increased significantly in 2014 to KRW 1.83 trillion (USD 1.73 billion) from KRW 1.25 trillion (USD 1.14 billion) in 2013, an increase of 46 percent. Full-year consolidated revenue of KRW 59.04 trillion (USD 55.91 billion) was mainly boosted by a 24 percent increase in smartphone shipments.
The LG Mobile Communications Company reported a 16 percent increase in annual revenue to KRW 15.06 trillion (USD 14.26 billion) with help from North America, where shipments increased 78 percent during the fourth quarter of 2014 from the previous year. Fourth-quarter revenue of 3.78 trillion (USD 3.48 billion) was 5 percent higher than the same period in 2013. A total of 59.1 million smartphones were shipped in 2014, an increase of 24 percent from the previous year, among 78.2 million mobile handsets sold last year. Expecting a challenging year ahead with greater competition globally from various manufacturers, LG will concentrate on improving its brand power, operating more efficiently, and focusing on selective key markets.
Samsung tonight has issued its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of 2014. The company says that it expects to, yet again, report a decline in operating profit and sales. Samsung estimates that its operating profit for Q4 2014 as 5.2 trillion won, or $4.5 billion. That’s a decrease of roughly 37 percent when compared to the $8.3 billion reported in Q4 2013. The number does, however, beat analyst expectations of 4.8 trillion won.
Google reported Q3 2014 earnings today that didn’t quite meet analyst expectations. Sales rose 20% to $16.52 billion in the quarter. Profit was $6.35 a share. Analysts’ expectations were $16.59 billion and profit of $6.54 a share.
“Google had another strong performance this quarter, with revenue up 20% year on year, at $16.5 billion,” said Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google. “We continue to be excited about the growth in our advertising and emerging businesses.”
It will be interesting to see what Google has to say for themselves when they talk earnings at 4:30.
Samsung on Monday night issued a statement warning that its third-quarter earnings would be considerably weaker than it initially expected. The South Korean company stated that it expects a third quarter operating profit of 4.1 trillion won, or $3.8 billion, and sales of 47 trillion won. Both of these numbers are below Reuters’ forecasts of 5.6 trillion won in operating profit and 50.9 trillion in sales (via CNBC).
For the third quarter, HTC has announced that it earned $21 million in profit on revenue of $1.37 billion. Although this is a huge improvement over the hundred million dollar loss they reported in the year-ago quarter, the company remains in a shaky financial situation. Most of the return to profitability is accounted for by a drastic cost-cutting policy rather than increases in device sales.
Sales actually fell 8% in September year-on-year, following a 33% fall in July and a 10% improvement in August. Apple and Samsung remain fierce competition for the Taiwanese company, despite good hardware advancements in the HTC One M8.
During its earnings call with investors where Samsung announced a 31 percent drop for its profits in its mobile division, the company also slipped in a small announcement about upcoming smartphones to reassure investors going into the next quarter. As noted by The Wall Street Journal, Samsung executive Kim Hyun-Joon told investors that the company would launch a new model with a large screen and another that will be made with “new materials.” Expand Expanding Close
Samsung, just a week after Apple, has reported its first quarter earnings for 2014. As an entirety, the company reported $51.8 billion in revenue, up slightly over this time last year, coming out to $8.2 billion in operating profit and $7.3 billion in net profit. More specifically, its mobile division accounted for $30.29 billion of that revenue and $6.2 billon of that profit.
LG has just posted its earnings for Q2 2013. The company reported revenues of $2.78 billion for the quarter, which is a 34.5 percent increase year over year. LG says that it also sold a record 12.1 million smartphones during the quarter, which led to an operating profit of $54.37 million, which is slightly lower than last quarter. LG attributes the drop to weaker demand in the South Korean market.
LG expects the lower-end L-Series and F-Series devices to increase overall sales growth, while its flagship G2 device should “increase the company’s product competitiveness.”
Following Samsung’s monster profits from yesterday, HTC has now released its unaudited results for Q2 2013 (via TechCrunch). The company reported total revenues of $2.35 billion (NT$70.7 billion) and profits of just $1.63 million (NT$1.25 billion). While the profit is up over the NT$85 million it reported in Q1 2013, it’s still lower than analysts expected and down 83% year over year.
Many were expecting HTC to have a good quarter, as its One flagship is finally available on three major United States carriers and the device was well-received by critics. Sales in May for HTC were up 48.03%, but things nose dived in June, falling 23.88% month-on-month and 26.43% year-on-year.
HTC had hoped that a unified line-up of devices could help it better compete with Samsung, who posted over $8 billion in profit for Q2, but it looks like the struggles for the Taiwanese company are deeper than we thought. Expand Expanding Close
Samsung has released its estimated earnings for Q2 2013, with a full announcement scheduled for later this month. The company estimates profits of $8.33 billion (9.5 trillion won), up nearly $2 billion over Q1’s $6.4 billion profit.
Reuters reports, however that this number was less than the 10.16 trillion won South Korean Analysts were expecting, which they blame on slowed momentum in Samsung’s smartphone division.
“The slowdown in its handset business appears to be worse than expected and the disappointing result simply reindorses the market view that Samsung’s smartphone growth momentum is slowing,” said Lee Sei-chul, an analyst at Meritz Securities.
Samsung’s component division, however, showed solid growth in Q2.
“But it’s got the component side of the business, which is showing solid improvements, and new handset product lineups for the third quarter, so (overall) earnings are likely to grow again in the current quarter.”
Notably, Google’s consolidated revenues increased 31% over Q1 2013 with $14 billion gross income.
“We had a very strong start to 2013, with $14.0 billion in revenue, up 31% year-on-year,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “We are working hard and investing in our products that aim to improve billions of people’s lives all around the world.”
Google reported $3.35 billion net revenue, which is nearly half a billion up from $2.89 billion during the same quarter last year.
The company reports $50 billion in the back at the end of Q1 2013.
Cash – As of March 31, 2013, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $50.1 billion.
The company’s effective tax rate came in low at 8% following a tax credit mandated by legislature in Congress.
Income Taxes – Our effective tax rate was 8% for the first quarter of 2013.
Google CEO Larry Page mentioned during the conference call to investors that the company’s opportunities primarily exist in Chrome, YouTube, and Android, in that order. It believes more “connected TV’s” will allow the company to directly connect with consumers via relevant advertising more easily.
The company had praise for its marketing team, citing doubling its retail foot print thanks to more availability of its Chromebook in Best Buy.
Google discussed its success with commercial advertising via YouTube, announcing 325,000 Super Bowls worth of ads have been consumed.
When asked about Andy Rubin’s responsibilities after being pulled from heading Android, Larry Page reiterated that the company has yet to make that announcement and had no plans to make news in that regard today.
Regarding Glass, Larry Page admitted the price tag for early adopters is certainly high, but stepped short of calling it a luxury price and stated the company wasn’t prepared to announce a consumer price tag.
While Samsung has conveniently left specific smartphone sales numbers out of its Q4 earnings release yesterday (as usual), today we get a look at the latest estimates for the quarter coming from research firms Strategy Analytics and IDC.
We know that Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones during the quarter, and today both research firms put Samsung just over 63 million units for Q4 2012. That means Samsung was able to capture 29 percent of the market last quarter (up from 36.2 million units and 22.5-percent of the market in the year ago quarter). Apple is of course a close second among the top five smartphone vendors with 21.8-percent—down slightly from the 23 percent it held in the same quarter last year. In Q4 2011, Apple and Samsung were neck and neck at about 23 percent of the market each.
The increasing market share for Apple, and especially Samsung, over the past year comes at the expense of Nokia. It experienced a drop from 16 percent to 5 percent of the market during the past year. Expand Expanding Close
HTC posted unaudited consolidated results for the fourth quarter of 2011 this morning. The numbers do not look good for Asia’s second-largest handset maker as net income fell 26 percent annually to $11 billion in New Taiwan currency, or approximately $364 million USD – its first quarterly profit decline in two years. Revenue for the quarter was NT$101,419 million, a 2.49 percent annual decline.
Unaudited operating income reached NT$12.98 billion, but net income after tax was NT$11.02 billion, which is slightly behind the NT$11.6 billion expected by 11 analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Shares fell 4.2 percent to a three-week low of NT$462 in Taipei trading as Citigroup cut both the 2012 and 2013 earnings estimates for the company by 19 percent each. Citigroup explained its decision with the expected market share losses to Apple and Samsung. Surely, the writing has been on the wall for HTC for some time (here and here). More information and another chart are featured right after the break.
(Update: Over, check it out after the break) Starting at 4:30 ET, Google will be hosting their quarterly earnings call to discuss Q3 earnings with investors. We’ll be updating below when the call starts, or you can listen in here. Stay tuned!
Larry Page, Patrick Pichette, Nikesh Arora, and Susan Wojcicki will be hosting the call — starting in just a few minutes.
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC reported unaudited third quarter earnings. The numbers don’t disappoint and follow their equally successful June quarter sales trends when the company doubled profits on sales of 12.1 million smartphones. For the three-month period, HTC’s profits and revenues almost doubled year over year, buoyed on their extensive lineup of the recently released Android handsets.
Unaudited net profit topped T$11.1 billion, or about $360 million, an increase over the T$5.695 billion a year earlier. Operating income climbed to NT$20.2 billion in the third quarter and earnings per share were NT$22.03. Revenue for the quarter was NT$135.8 billion, an eighty percent sequential increase.
Going forward, HTC is expected to benefit from the ongoing interest surrounding the Android platform and a new cloud services model stemming from their acquisition of Dashwire. HTC is ranked the fourth smartphone maker globally and was the leading Android vendor and the second-best smartphone maker in the United States last quarter.
HTC reported second-quarter earnings today and just briefly glancing at numbers was enough to realize why they’re the #2 smartphone vendor in the US. Per their statement, HTC grew its revenues by 104 percent from the year-ago quarter and shipped 12.1 million phones during the June quarter. The company reported revenues of NT$12.4 billion, or approximately $4.3 billion, a 19 percent sequential increase. Net income for the quarter topped NT$17.52, more than double from NT$60.96 billion in the year-ago quarter (and an 18 percent sequential jump).
The 12.1 million phones shipped include devices powered by Microsoft’s and Google’s software and amount to a 25 percent and 24 percent sequential and annual jump in terms of units, respectively. Looking at the third quarter, HTC is modeling for a 10 percent quarterly increase and a 90 percent annual jump based on shipments of an estimated 13.5 million phones.
New phone shipped in the quarter include the HTC Sensation, EVO 3D, Wildfire S, ChaCha, Salsa and Flyer. The average selling price dropped from $359 in the previous quarter down to $349 because they brought new inexpensive handsets to the market. Much of HTC’s growth came from Europe, Asia and the United States, where Nielsen ranks them as the second-largest smartphone maker. The achievement is even more impressive taking into account that Apple is now the world’s leading smartphone maker and controls two-thirds of total operating profits in the handset business.
According to a new report out of The Wall Street Journal, Google’s YouTube unit posted a revenue of nearly $4 billion in 2014, but did not earn a profit of any kind. The $4 billion in revenue during 2014 is up from $3 billion in 2013. YouTube accounted for about 6 percent Google’s overall sales last year.
