 | Good afternoon |  |  | Quarterly earnings suffered at major technology and telecoms companies in part because of demand for gadgets made by Apple, one day after core suppliers to Apple savored strong earnings results posted by the iPhone and iPad maker on Tuesday.
AT&T posted a $6.7 billion quarterly loss as it was weighed down by a hefty break-up fee for its failed T-Mobile USA merger and other big charges on top of costly subsidies for smartphones such as Apple's iPhone. While the wireless provider beat analysts' expectations for subscriber additions, the growth came at a massive cost as its wireless service margins plummeted. On top of the $4 billion break-up package charge, AT&T also took a big impairment charge for its telephone directory business, which it said it was considering selling.
Nokia reported a 73 percent fall in fourth-quarter earnings as sales of its new Windows Phones failed to dent the dominance of Apple's iPhone or compensate for diving sales of its own old smartphones. Apple reported earlier this week sales of 37 million iPhones for the December quarter. Nokia has sold over 1 million Windows "Lumia" smartphones since its launch in mid-November. Nokia said it expected its phone business' underlying earnings to be around breakeven in the first quarter, well below analysts' forecasts, with sales falling more than usual in the seasonally weaker quarter.
Motorola Mobility posted a quarterly loss after it warned earlier this month that it was having a tough time competing in the smartphone market amid intense competition from rivals such as the Apple iPhone. The company, which is seeking approval to be bought by Google, reported a net loss of $80 million or 27 cents per share compared with a profit of $80 million or 27 cents per share in the same quarter the year before. Revenue rose slightly to $3.436 billion from $3.425 billion in the year ago quarter.
Nintendo posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple's iPhone. Nintendo now expects an annual operating loss of 45 billion yen ($575 million), dwarfing expectations of a 4.2 billion yen loss, based on the average of 21 analyst forecasts.
"To say that (the days of consoles) are over is likely an overstatement, but social network and Internet delivered games are growing and structurally changing the future of the industry, which is a strong wind against Nintendo," said Shigeo Sugawara, at Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management.
Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked Google to provide answers about recent changes to the search engine's privacy policy. On Tuesday, Google announced that it was unifying its privacy policy across 60 of its Web services, which allows the company to share data between any of those services. In a letter to Google Chief Executive Larry Page, the lawmakers said the company's announcement "raises questions about whether consumers can opt-out of the new data sharing system either globally or on a product-by-product basis."
Tablets using Google's Android software narrowed the lead of Apple's iPad on the global market in the fourth quarter, research firm Strategy Analytics said. Android's market share rose to 39 percent from 29 percent a year earlier, while Apple's share slipped to 58 percent from 68 percent a year before. Global tablet shipments reached an all-time high of 26.8 million units in the fourth quarter, growing 2-1/2 fold from 10.7 million a year earlier, the research firm said. | | | LATEST NEWS | | Eyes on Samsung smartphone sales, spending plans | | January 26, 2012 12:33 PM ET | | SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co, the world's top technology firm by revenue, will report record quarterly profit on Friday, powered by strong sales of its smartphones, but most interest will be in its 2012 spending plans and mobile sales numbers as it vies with Apple Inc for smartphone supremacy. | Full Article | | Netflix wins over Wall Street with subscriber growth | | January 26, 2012 01:34 PM ET | | (Reuters) - Netflix Inc won back Wall Street's affections on Thursday after adding more U.S. subscribers than expected in the fourth quarter, a rebound that prompted analyst upgrades and the company's biggest one-day stock jump in two years. | Full Article | | NZ court bails two associates of Megaupload founder | | January 26, 2012 03:34 PM ET | | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand court granted bail on Thursday to two associates of the founder of online file-sharing website Megaupload, accused of being involved in a scheme that allegedly made more than $175 million from Internet piracy and illegal file sharing. | Full Article | | Logitech warns again as weak market and euro hit Q3 | | January 26, 2012 04:20 AM ET | | ZURICH (Reuters) - Logitech, the world's largest computer mouse maker, cut its full-year outlook for the third time after third quarter sales and profit were hit by euro weakness and as computer systems require become less dependent on peripheral components. | Full Article | | | BUSINESS NEWS
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