NEW YORK –
We are in the midst of quarterly results
season (see stories on page 8, at left, and on
page 30) with many of the reports providing illustrations
of the highs and lows industry players can
produce. Here is a roundup of results from the past
two weeks:
reported a first-quarter earnings
decline of 35 percent to $130 million for the
three months, while North America segment sales,
increased 36 percent to $7.4 billion, and sales of
electronics and other general merchandise in North
America rose 44.5 percent to nearly $4.8 billion, or
65 percent of the merchandise mix.
Apple
continues to amaze with revenue of $39.2
billion and net profit of $11.6 billion in its fiscal second
quarter, ended March 31. These results compare
with revenue of $24.7 billion and net profit of
$6.0 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Among the highlights, Apple sold 35.1 million
iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 percent
unit growth over the year-ago quarter, and sold 11.8
million iPads during the quarter, a 151 percent unit
increase over the year-ago quarter.
Cobra Electronics
reported higher sales and
income for the first quarter of 2012. Net income for
the quarter was $339,000, compared with a net
loss of $819,000 for the prior-year period. Cobra
said the improvement reflected an increase in net
sales to $26.4 million, from $22.4 million in the first
quarter of 2011, and an increase in gross margin
to 28.7 percent, from 26 percent in the prior year’s
first quarter.
Nintendo
reported its first-ever annual operating
loss of $460.9 million (37.3 billion yen) as sales
of its Wii and 3DS systems produced lower-thanexpected
results. For the fiscal year, ended March
31, Nintendo reported a net loss of $532.5 million
(43.2 billion yen) from a year ago, when the company
reported a $958.9 million (77.6 billion yen) profit.
The video game maker also reported a 36.2 percent
drop in revenue to $8 billion (647.6 billion yen), from
more than 1 trillion yen reported on March 31, 2011.
Office Depot
sales were approximately $2.9 billion,
down 3 percent compared with the first quarter
of 2011 with net earnings, $41 million in the first
quarter, compared with a loss of $15 million in the
first quarter of 2011. In the North American retail
division, first-quarter sales were $1.2 billion, a decrease
of 8 percent compared with the prior year.
Same-store sales in the first quarter of 2012 from
the 1,096 stores that have been open for more than
one year decreased 6 percent.
SiriusXM
said rising new car sales, a subscription
price increase, strong subscriber growth and
reduced churn helped raise its first-quarter revenues
by 11 percent to $805 million and net income
by 38 percent to $107.8 million, the company reported.
SiriusXM said it added 405,000 net new
subscribers in the quarter, up from a year-ago
373,064, bringing its subscriber base to a record
22.3 million. The gains were greater than in any first
quarter since the 2008 merger of Sirius and XM,
CEO Mel Karmazin said.
Systemax
said weakness in its domestic CE retail
business sent first-quarter net earnings down
47.8 percent to $7.1 million for IT vendor and merchant
Systemax. Net sales slipped 2 percent to
$913.6 million for the three months ended March
31, but consumer sales through its CompUSA, TigerDirect
and
properties — as well
as through TV shopping networks and its inbound
call centers and Misco and WStore European CE
chains — fell 11 percent to $400.9 million.
