EA Shares Slip 9% In Af...

EA shares slipped 9.5 percent in after-hours trading to $13.70 as the company said it expected losses of 40 to 45 cents a share for the next quarter. It said it expects to make $4.1 billion for the year and will lose 16 to 36 cents a share, on a non-GAAP basis. Another piece of data that might have dragged down performance were subscriber numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic, the title that was going to going to help it take market share away from World of Warcraft. EA said it had 1.3 million active subscribers, compared to the 1.7 million subscriber estimate analysts like Lazard’s Atul Bagga had anticipated. On the positive side, EA beat earnings estimates for the quarter ending in March with $977 million in total net revenue on a non-GAAP basis. Analysts had expected net revenue of $959.6 million or 17 cents a share. One other positive is that digital revenue continues to creep up as a share of EA’s overall earnings as the company transitions away from selling games like packaged, consumer goods. Digital revenue was nearly double was it was a year ago at $419 million. “Digital growth drove our margins in fiscal 12 and we project this trend will continue in fiscal 13,” said  Ken Barker, the interim chief financial officer, in a statement. “We saw more than 20 percent non-GAAP diluted EPS growth in fiscal 12, and are guiding to more than 30 percent growth in fiscal 13 based on the midpoint of our guidance.” Mobile revenue was also up to $87 million from $70 million a year ago, according to generally accepted accounting principles. Non-smartphone handheld devices basically negligible now with PlayStation and Nintendo at $6 and $5 million for the quarter respectively. Here’s the release. We’ll be updating as we go: REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2012. “We are proud to report a strong quarter and a fiscal year highlighted with $1.2 billion of digital revenue,” said Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello. “In the coming year, we break away from the pack, with a very different profile than the traditional game companies and capabilities that none of our new digital competitors can match.” “Digital growth drove our margins in fiscal 12 and we project this trend will continue in fiscal 13,” said Interim Chief Financial Officer Ken Barker. “We saw more than 20 percent non-GAAP diluted EPS growth in fiscal 12, and are guiding to more than 30 percent growth in fiscal 13 based on the midpoint of our guidance.” Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics: *On a non-GAAP basis Strong results driven by the successful launches of Mass Effect™ 3, FIFA Street 4, SSX™ and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning™. FIFA 12 established the best year in franchise history – with downloads and micro-transactions totaling $108 million*. FIFA Ultimate Team — a pure digital companion to recent FIFA titles was the second best-selling EA offering in the UK in fiscal 12. Battlefield 3™ had a record year, establishing itself as one of EA’s premier game services and in the process successfully took share in the growing First-Person-Shooter market. Battlefield 3 players are still deeply engaged — 6.3 million MAUs in March. New content downloads available in May and June. Q4 full-game downloads were up 76 percent* year-over-year, contributing $60 million* in the quarter, driven in part by Mass Effect 3 and STAR WARS®: The Old Republic™. STAR WARS®: The Old Republic™ active subscribers are 1.3 million. Two new content packs — Legacy and Allies, available in Q1. EA’s Play4Free brands are generating an average of nearly $2 million* per week. Several more EA brands will be introduced in the Play4Free portal in fiscal 13. EA shattered its goal for digital revenue growth — generating more than $1.2 billion* in fiscal 12 for a 47 percent year-over-year growth, and driving operating margin to 10%. Another 40 percent increase in digital non-GAAP revenue and continued operating margin expansion is forecasted for fiscal 13. EA’s Origin™ platform for games and services has registered 11 million players and generated approximately $150 million* in just ten months. EA’s Nucleus database has registered 220 million consumers. Casual game leader PopCap™ — acquired by EA in August — is growing on mobile and social platforms with new games like Solitaire Blitz™ and Lucky Gem Casino™. A new version of Bejeweled™ is EA’s top grossing game on the Apple® App StoreSM. EA repurchased 27.7 million shares for $529 million through March 31, 2012, and as of the call, the $600 million share repurchase program has been completed. In fiscal 13, EA will invest $80 million in development of games for Gen4 console systems. Q4 and Full-Year FY12 Financial Highlights: For the quarter, non-GAAP net revenue of $977 million was slightly ahead of our guidance of $925 million to $975 million. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.17 was in line with our guidance of $0.10 to $0.20. Non-GAAP net revenue in Q4 fiscal 2012 was slightly lower as compared to Q4 fiscal 2011 due to a reduction in the number of package goods titles in the quarter.

Juniper Research: Samsu...

In mobile world, bigger is not always better. That can be the case for specs , and it can also be the case for market share: and a report out today from Juniper Research highlights a case in point for the latter: Samsung was the biggest smartphone maker in terms of global shipments in Q1 2012, but when it came to making money, Apple was still on top. In Q1, Samsung is estimated to have shipped 46.9 million smartphones, compared to Apple’s 35.1 million iPhone devices. When considering revenues, however, the tables turn: Apple’s mobile revenues (which include the iPad) were $29.3 billion, while Samsung’s (which include all its mobile products, including feature phones) were just over half of that amount: $17 billion. And while Apple is beating in terms of pure revenue, it’s likely also to be beating in terms of profitability of those devices. When Apple reported another blockbuster quarter when it released its earnings last week, it noted that its gross margin had reached 47.4 percent. Samsung’s margin , on the other hand, was at 12.9 percent. Juniper, a UK-based research group, notes that although Apple and Samsung have “taken it in turns” to lead the market, it appears that Samsung has now established itself as the bigger player in volumes. The back-and-forth between the two also is a sign of their collective power at the moment: together, the pair snapped up nearly 60 percent of the whole smartphone market, which totaled 139 million units for the quarter. In Q4, the market share of Apple+Samsung was only 46 percent — which is a measure also of how rapidly others (most notably RIM and Nokia) have declined over that time. Unless Apple throws us a curve ball and launches another new device before the WWDC in June, it looks like Samsung will continue to remain in the lead for shipments in this quarter. That will be on the strength of its wide portfolio, covering a range of price points, as well as new launches. Case in point: it’s gearing up for the official launch of its newest Android powerhouse, the Galaxy SIII, later this week. The graphic above, depicting market shares for different mobile brands, tells a pretty stark story about what has happened to competitors as Apple and Samsung have gone up, but the game is far from over for the other players, notes Juniper analyst Daniel Ashdown. Yes, Nokia only shipped 11.9 million smartphones in the quarter — less than one-third of Apple’s number; the numbers for RIM, which reports on a different schedule, are not likely to be encouraging, either; and HTC has stopped giving out sales volumes altogether. But since Juniper believes the smartphone market will account for 1.1 billion devices shipped by 2017 — up from 600 million in 2012 — these players still have a shot to turn things around.

Foxconn Profit Down As ...

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn saw its profits fall to $509 million from $1.19 billion last quarter. Chairman Terry Gou said this quarter was particularly affected by Foxconn’s recent image problem. Improvements in wages, worker benefits, and education accounted for some of the loss, although new iPad and iPhone 4S manufacturing bolstered income last quarter. As a reaction to recent popular criticism on various fronts, the company increased wages by 25 percent this year and is planning to open a hospital and language schools for its employees. Reuters reports that despite the fall in profit, top-rated Foxconn employees cheered vociferously at a party in Gou’s honor. Some 200 workers from its parent company Foxconn’s plants in China sang, danced and cheered the company’s billionaire founder at a party in Taipei marking the end of an all-expenses paid seven-day holiday the company arranged for top performing staff. Arguably, they may have been a bit biased.

Apple’s Q2 2012: $11.6B...

Apple has just posted their Q2 2012 financials, and revealed that over the last 14 weeks the company has pulled in $11.6 billion in profit on $39.2 billion in revenue, which breaks down to $12.30 per share. Analysts expected earnings of $10.02 per share on $36.81 billion in revenue. Apple soundly exceeded the Q2 guidance they offered last quarter, as they forecasted earnings per share of $8.50 on $32.5 billion in revenues. For a bit of comparison, those figures are up substantially year over year — in Q2 2011, Apple pulled in $6 billion in profit on $24.7 billion in revenues. The company also reports that they have sold 35.1 million iPhones this past quarter, up 88% year-over-year and beating most analysts expectations of devices sold. However, iPhone sales dipped 5.5% from last quarter. A total of 11.8 million iPads, 4 million Macs and 7.7 million iPods were also sold last quarter. According to a poll of analysts conducted by CNNMoney, professional analysts expected the company to report just shy of 31 million iPhones sold, compared to the relatively high 37.25 million units sold as foretold by independent analysts. There’s plenty more Apple coverage where this came from — for more, take a look at our liveblog of Apple’s earnings call. The full release has been reproduced below: CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 second quarter ended March 31, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $24.7 billion and net profit of $6.0 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 47.4 percent compared to 41.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue. The Company sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, a 151 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4 million Macs during the quarter, a 7 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. “We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.” “Our record March quarter results drove $14 billion in cash flow from operations,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68.” Apple will provide live streaming of its Q2 2012 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on April 24, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq212. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

AT&T’s Q1 By The N...

We’re in the thick of earnings season now, and earlier today telecom titan AT&T jumped into the fray with their Q1 2012 financials . AT&T posted a profit of $0.60 per share on revenues of $31.8 billion — a 1.8% leap year over year — beating analyst expectations. Of that $31.8 billion total, AT&T reports that over half ($16.1 billion, specifically) was generated by their wireless business. The nation’s second largest wireless carrier also posted a net gain of 726,000 subscribers in Q1 — a staggering drop from the record-setting 2.8 million subs that inked deals with AT&T last quarter, though those numbers are skewed a bit because of the big holiday buying push. Meanwhile, rival Verizon managed to pull ahead this quarter by reported a net gain of 734,000 subs. AT&T also sold 5.5 million smartphones during the quarter — a new first quarter record for the carrier — and activated 4.3 million iPhones. While I’m sure AT&T is pleased with their strong smartphone sales, the benefit of moving all those devices extends beyond just new records and increased wireless data revenue (which increased nearly 20% year-over-year to $6.1 billion). What AT&T is really excited about is that their rate of wireless churn (how many people end their service with the company) has slowed a bit — AT&T is sitting at 1.1%, their lowest in a full seven quarters. The company pegs much of this on their strong performance with smartphones, as they note that the churn rate among their smartphone customers is significantly lower than for other contracted customers. Oh, and AT&T’s wireline business? Things were a little less impressive, as the company reported total wireline revenues of $14.9 billion, down .08% year-over-year. Voice revenues were down, but that was countered by growth in the business and consumer services areas — in addition to reporting solid growth in their business data revenues, AT&T managed to grow their U-Verse subscriber base by 200,000 TV customers and 103,000 wireline broadband connections.