Sony Ericsson Posts Fourth Consecutive Quarterly Loss Sony Ericsson Posts Fourth Consecutive Quarterly Loss Company specializes in mid-range mobile handsets such as its Walkman Cybershot line of feature phones. By Marin Perez InformationWeek July 16, 2009 11:50 AM Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson continues to struggle, and its decreased shipments and sales led to a loss of about $300 million for the second quarter. The company specializes in mid-range devices such as its Walkman or Cybershot line of feature phones, and this segment has been especially hard hit by the mobile industry's decline. The company shipped 13.8 million units for the period, which was down 43% from the same quarter last year. The cell phone maker did improve its operating margins in part due to a massive restructuring effort that is predicted to save about $522 million in costs. Like Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Sony Ericsson sees the mobile market declining by about 10% in 2009 due to the global economic recession. "As expected, the second quarter was challenging and we still believe the remainder of the year will be difficult for Sony Ericsson," said the company's president Dick Komiyama in a statement. "Our focus remains on bringing the company back to profitability and growth as quickly as possible, and our performance is starting to improve due to our cost reduction activities." During its conference call Thursday, the company said it would likely need a capital injection in the second half of the year. Sony Ericsson said financing should not be an issue, and this could come from its parent companies Sony and Ericsson, or from outside sources. The company introduced three high-end phones during the quarter, but these devices aren't scheduled to be released until the fourth quarter. The Satio, Yari, and Aino do represent the direction the company is taking its handsets, as each phone has strong multimedia capabilities and one even has deep integration with Sony's PlayStation 3. SW
AT&T 2nd Quarter 2009 Results T,AAPL,CYCL,VZ,S AT&T Q2 Profit Falls, But Reports Strong Wireless Growth - Update 100 free trades, up to $100 back AT&T Q2 Profit Falls, But Reports Strong Wireless Growth - Update Thursday, July 23, 2009; Posted: 09:47 AM7 Stocks You Need To Know For Tomorrow -- Free Newsletter (RTTNews) - Telecommunications giant AT&T Inc.(T | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), the exclusive provider of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) iPhones in the U.S., reported a 14.8% decline in its second-quarter profit, impacted by one-time costs, macro-environment pressures as well as lower Wireline revenues, despite strong growth in Wireless and data revenues. Top line edged down in the quarter, yet surpassed the market projections. The company, which is in acquisition deal with Centennial Communications Corp. (CYCL | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), reported second-quarter net income of $3.28 billion that fell from $3.84 billion in the previous year. Net income attributable to AT&T declined 15.2% to $3.20 billion from prior year's $3.77 billion, and earnings per share went down 14.3% to $0.54 from $0.63 in the previous year. AT&T pointed out that incremental noncash pension/retiree benefit costs reduced latest second-quarter earnings per share by $0.05. On average, 27 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.51 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Total operating revenues dropped 0.4% to $30.73 billion from $30.87 billion a year ago, yet beat Wall Street analysts' consensus revenue estimate of $30.66 billion. The company noted that the pressures from the macro-environment, including revenue declines in voice and legacy data products, as well as increased volume-based acquisition costs associated with the highly successful iPhone 3GS launch, were largely offset by growth in wireless and advanced wireline data services as well as solid cost management. Wireless service revenue grew 9.8% to $11.96 billion from last year's $10.89 billion and Data revenues rose 4.2% to $6.31 billion from $6.05 billion in the previous year. Meanwhile, revenues from Voice fell 13.3% to $8.26 billion from $9.52 billion a year ago, and Directory revenues dropped 12.4% to $1.21 billion from $1.38 billion in the prior year. Segment-wise, total Wireless operating revenues in the second quarter rose 10.1% to $13.25 billion from $12.03 billion in the previous year. AT&T's wireless data revenues, from messaging, Internet access, access to applications and related services, increased 37.2% from last year to $3.4 billion. In the quarter, AT&T had a 1.4 million net gain in total wireless subscribers, which totaled 79.6 million, up 6.7 million over the past year. Retail postpaid wireless net adds were 1.2 million, up 29% from the previous year. The company also recorded low postpaid subscriber churn at 1.09%. Wireless postpaid subscriber average monthly revenues per subscriber, or ARPU, rose 2.3% year-over-year to $60.21, driven by strong data growth. During the quarter, the company had more than 2.4 million iPhone activations, reflecting a record-setting June 19 launch of iPhone 3GS, the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. Meanwhile, total Wireline operating revenues fell 6.1% to $16.53 billion from $17.61 billion a year ago, but, total wireline data revenues grew 5.2% to $6.6 billion, led by a 17% growth in revenues from IP-based services. The growth in IP data revenues were driven by rapid expansion in AT&T U-verse services and growth in business products. In the quarter, AT&T U-verseSM TV subscribers in service increased 248 thousand to reach 1.6 million, up more than 1 million over the past year. The company's advertising solutions segment's operating revenues declined 12.5% to $1.23 billion from last year's $1.41 billion. In the quarter, total operating income dropped to $5.5 billion from $6.6 billion a year ago, and operating income margin fell to 17.9% from 21.3% in the prior year. In its preceding first quarter, AT&T reported a 9.7% drop in earnings to $3.2 billion on pension charges and continuing declines in wireline voice access lines and business voice revenues. Net income attributable to AT&T was $3.126 billion or $0.53 per share, and the operational revenue was $30.57 billion. Among others in the telecommunication services industry, Verizon Communications, AT&T's largest rival, is scheduled to announce its second-quarter results on Monday, July 27. Wall Street analysts project earnings of $0.63 per share on revenues of $26.85 billion, in comparison to prior year's earnings and revenues of $0.67 per share and $24.12 billion, respectively. In its first quarter, Verizon had reported a 5.3% increase in profit, helped by the acquisition of Alltel and strong growth in its wireless segment. AT&T had been the No. 1 mobile carrier in the U.S. for several years until January, when Verizon Wireless replaced AT&T after its acquisition of Alltel, a large regional carrier. Smaller rival Sprint Nextel is slated to release its second-quarter numbers on Wednesday, July 29. Analysts estimate the company to post a loss of $0.02 per share, in comparison to prior year's earnings of $0.06 per share. Revenues are estimated to be $8.12 billion, down 10.3% from last year's $9.06 billion. In its preceding first quarter, the Overland Park, Kansas-based company had recorded wider loss, hurt by lower Wireless and Wireline revenues and severance costs, while the loss was narrower on an adjusted basis. For the first six months of fiscal 2009, AT&T's net income fell 12% to $6.48 billion from $7.36 billion a year ago, and net income attributable to AT&T dropped 12.6% to $6.32 billion from $7.23 billion a year ago. Earnings per share were $1.07, down 11.6% from prior year's $1.21. Total first-half operating revenues edged down 0.5% to $61.31 billion from $61.61 billion in the same period a year earlier. AT&T is currently in a deal to acquire Centennial Communications, a regional provider of wireless and wired communications services, for $8.50 per share for a total equity price of $944 million. Including net debt, the total enterprise value is approximately $2.8 billion. On July 8, AT&T said it intended to close the pending acquisition of Centennial in the third quarter of calendar year 2009, in comparison to previous expectation of closing the deal by the end of the second quarter. Centennial's stockholders approved the acquisition in February 2009, but it remains subject to approval by the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission and other customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to give AT&T a network presence in largely rural areas of the Midwest and Southeast United States and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. T is currently trading at $25.41 in the pre-market activity, up $0.57 or 2.29%, on a volume of 350 thousand shares. In the past 52 weeks, shares have been trading between $20.90 -$33.56. For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Verizon Wireless Reports Solid 2Q 2009 Growth of 1.1 Million New Customers - Yahoo! Finance Verizon reports 2Q subscriber count - Full results on Monday Verizon Wireless Reports Solid 2Q 2009 Growth of 1.1 Million New Customers Press Release Source: Verizon Wireless On Friday July 24, 2009, 7:05 am EDT BASKING RIDGE, N.J., July 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless today announced second-quarter 2009 net customer additions of 1.1 million. At the end of the quarter, the company had 87.7 million customers, including 85.2 million retail customers, which are those it directly serves and manages, and who choose the Verizon Wireless brand. More customers use the Verizon Wireless brand than any other wireless brand in the U.S. Verizon Wireless has the most reliable coast-to-coast wireless voice and data network, including the largest 3G broadband wireless network - key in attracting new customers and earning the loyalty of existing customers. The company consistently has had the highest loyalty level in the industry, as measured by the rate of customer churn. Further details about Verizon Wireless' financial and operational results for the quarter will be reported when Verizon Communications announces its consolidated quarterly results on July 27. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ - News) and Vodafone Group plc (NYSE and LSE: VOD - News News), which earlier today reported key performance indicators, including its proportionate share of Verizon Wireless net customer additions.
Here is Verizon's release from this morning: Verizon Reports Revenue Growth and Continued Improvement in Cash Flow in 2Q - Yahoo! Finance * 87.7 million total customers, up 27.7 percent; 85.2 million retail customers, up 27.8 percent; 1.1 million net customer additions, excluding acquisitions and adjustments, all retail. * 27.7 percent increase in total revenues; industry-leading retail postpaid churn, 1.01 percent; data revenues up 52.6 percent; 28.8 percent operating income margin and 46.3 percent EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP). * Integration of Alltel operations on schedule.
Sprint has released their numbers: Sprint Reports 2nd Quarter 2009 * The company served 48.8 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2009, compared to 49.1 million at the end of the first quarter of 2009. This includes 34.4 million post-paid subscribers (25.1 million on CDMA, 8.3 million on iDEN, and 1.0 million Power Source users who utilize both networks), 5.0 million prepaid subscribers (4.4 million on iDEN and 600,000 on CDMA) and 9.3 million wholesale and affiliate subscribers, all of whom utilize our CDMA network. * For the quarter, total wireless customers declined by approximately 257,000, including net losses of 991,000 post-paid customers – comprising 393,000 CDMA and 598,000 iDEN customers (including a net 69,000 customers who transferred from the iDEN network to the CDMA network). The company gained a net 938,000 prepaid iDEN customers, offset by net losses of 161,000 prepaid CDMA customers. The company also experienced a net loss of 43,000 wholesale and affiliate subscribers. * The credit quality of our post-paid customer base improved sequentially from approximately 84% at the end of the first quarter of 2009 to almost 85% prime, compared to 82% at the end of the second quarter of 2008. * Approximately 9% of post-paid customers upgraded their handsets during the second quarter, a slight increase sequentially, resulting in increased contract renewals. * In the second quarter, the company added to its device and service capabilities with the launch of the award winning Palm® Pre™, Samsung Instinct® s30™, and the colorful SCP-2700™ by Sanyo®, all exclusively from Sprint. The company also added the Novatel® Wireless MiFi 2200 intelligent mobile hotspot device, Samsung® Exclaim™, HTC Snap™, and CapTel® 800i™ – the next generation CapTel® phone for deaf and hard-of-hearing users - to its device portfolio, and is the network provider for Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle DX. In addition, Sprint launched the BlackBerry® Tour™ 9630 Global Smartphone in July.
Wow - Nextel used to have over 20M subs, now only 8M postpaid. I assume a bunch went to the CDMA side, but you never hear the "chirp chirp" anymore.
The chirp is the only real reason to stay with Nextel now. With every other carrier offering M2M (remember that unlimited DC was a big draw for Nextel in the pre-M2M days), real SMS and real multi-media features, Nextel has very little to offer.
Well at least things at Sprint are starting to get better. Sprint gained customers on the Boost Mobile network and CDMA losses are down a bit. When you look at this graph below you'll see that Sprint is improving quite a bit on customer losses. Who knows maybe by next quarter they'll stop losing overall customer numbers.
MetroPCS Profit Plunges MetroPCS Profit Plunges By Monica Alleven WirelessWeek - August 06, 2009 Heightened competition in the prepaid space appears to be taking a toll on regional provider MetroPCS Communications. The company’s shares were down more than 25 percent this morning after the company reported a drop in second-quarter profit. The no-contract carrier missed analysts’ expectations on a number of fronts. Net additions for the second quarter totaled about 205,585 compared with first-quarter net adds of about 684,000. MetroPCS finished the quarter with 6.3 million subscribers. Average monthly churn was 5.8 percent, up from 4.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. Management blamed the increase in part on delivering increased gross additions over the previous nine months, seasonality and handset upgrades for customers who did not identify themselves as existing customers. ARPU was $40.52, and average cost per gross addition (CPGA) was $159.87. In a conference call with analysts, management explained that Metro’s prices haven’t changed, but more value has been added to the price plans. With respect to ARPU, Metro bundles the first month of service with the price of a handset, and those handset prices on the lower end are going up – from $49 to $59 and more recently, to $69. Pali Research analyst Walter Piecyk called MetroPCS’ second-quarter results “ugly” and upgraded MetroPCS to “Neutral” from “Sell” because the stock has fallen below the price target of $9. Shares in rival no-contract carrier Leap Wireless International, which reports its second-quarter results later today, were down about 17 percent this morning, trading around $19.91. MetroPCS is continuing to build out and expand its network in parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Earlier this year, Metro launched service in parts of New York City and the greater Boston area. Executives say they are pleased with the launch of Metro’s unlimited international calling plan introduced late in the second quarter. In June, the company started promoting a plan for unlimited calling to more than 100 countries for $5 per month
Re: 2nd Quarter 2009 Results, T-Mobile 2Q Down Slightly, Indicates Upturn T-Mobile 2Q Down Slightly, Indicates Upturn By Andrew Berg WirelessWeek - August 06, 2009 T-Mobile’s second-quarter earnings were down from the year-ago quarter, but showed gradual improvement sequentially as macroeconomic conditions appear to be improving. The carrier posted a $1.6 billion operating income before depreciation and amoritization (OIBDA). That's up 16 percent from first quarter of 2009, but down 1 percent from the year-ago quarter. Contract churn improved slightly from the previous quarter, dropping to 2.2 percent from 2.3 percent in the first quarter. However, the carrier said it added 325,000 net new customers, which is down from 415,000 in the first quarter and 668,000 in the year-ago quarter. As of June 30, 81 percent of T-Mobile's total customer base was contract based. Blended ARPU was $48 in the second quarter, which was in line with the first quarter but down from $52 in the second quarter of 2008. Robert Dotson, president and CEO of T-Mobile USA, said in a press release that new 3G devices helped maintain ARPU. "In the quarter, we also made steady progress in growing data revenues as more customers move to craved-for mobile Internet and messaging services.” The carrier said it had 2.1 million 3G-capable converged devices at the end of the second quarter, an increase of almost 40 percent from the first quarter. Julien Blin, principal analyst and CEO of JBB Research, says T-Mobile USA obviously is feeling the impact of increased competition in the U.S. wireless market. “The launch of the iPhone 3G S (and the Pre) probably negatively impacted its net adds," he says. However, “as T-Mobile USA continues to improve its 3G coverage, starts to roll out its LTE network in the coming years and introduces new Internet-centric devices (the MyTouch and HTC Touch pro 2 should be key drivers here), new mobile data services and more appealing mobile Web plans, I expect the company to catch up with the three leading U.S. carriers," Blin says. The earnings come amid a string of new handset announcements from T-Mobile. The carrier recently launched the highly anticipated myTouch 3G. Additionally, T-Mobile expanded its portfolio with new offerings such as the 3G webConnect USB Laptop Stick, 3G-enabled Sidekick LX, T-Mobile Dash, HTC Touch Pro2 and the BlackBerry Curve 8520. In July, T-Mobile announced a retail agreement with RadioShack to offer T-Mobile products and services in more than 4,000 retail locations. The agreement nearly doubles the number of national retail partner stores offering T-Mobile's products and services nationwide, making RadioShack T-Mobile USA’s largest national retail partner. T-Mobile 2Q Down Slightly, Indicates Upturn
Here is the US Cellular Press Release for their 2Q 2009 results Investor Relations - U.S. Cellular News Release Also in Wireless week the title was: Customer Losses Worsen at U.S. Cellular Read: Customer Losses Worsen at U.S. Cellular
