Apple reported record earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal year, ending December 31, and beat Wall Street expectations so handily the stock was halted after hours Tuesday, rising more than $30 a share. The company sold 15.4 million iPads and 37 million iPhones during the quarter on net income of $13.1 billion, and $43.4 billion in revenue. Profits more than doubled compared to the first quarter of 2011. Apple sold over 40 million iPads in 2011, and has moved more than 55 million units since launching in early 2010. Release Though Random House was among the four reported […]
Earnings Reports
Briefs: Penguin’s “Strong Holiday As Pearson Ups Earnings Guidance; Grand Central’s New Digital Romance Imprint; and More
Pearson won’t report its preliminary annual earnings until February 27 but Thursday the company provided a short trading update indicating that for the year as a whole, Pearson generated approximately £2 billion in digital revenues and approximately £600m in revenues in emerging markets. They also expect to exceed their full year earnings guidance by 10 percent (with the original forecast being 83p per share), attributing the good news to “rapid growth in digital services, our expanding position in developing economies and the continuing transformation of our business portfolio.” Penguin’s results are said to be “strong” during the holidays, with expectations […]
Guessing Bertelsmann’s Results; Adding Grain of Salt
As often happens, ahead of Bertelsmann actually announcing their annual results, Germany’s Manager Magazin is claiming to report what’s in store. Bear in mind the publication has been wrong before in their pre-reporting (which is amusing, since Bertelsmann’s Gruner + Jahr owns part of the magazine). What they claim is that Bertelsmann will miss their own expectations, with sales up 2 percent for the year and profits falling slightly, by 0.9 percent, to 650 million euros. They also claim that sales at Random House have fallen to “approximately 1.7 billion euros” and EBIT will be down about 5 percent at […]
Like Thalia’s Germany, France’s Fnac Announces Restructuring As Sales Fall
Just after Germany’s biggest bookselling chain announced losses and an unspecified restructuring, French bookselling chain Fnac is in a similar position. The group says sales at their stores fell 5.4 percent in 2011 and they “expect annual current operating income to decrease by half,” citing “a severe decrease in popularity” of publications. They say “the worsening of the economic crisis over the last six months has led to a significant decrease in household spending in Europe, which is affecting Fnac’s markets in all of the countries in which it is present.” Fnac says they are working on an 80-million-euro cost […]
Bookselling: Thalia Admits Big Drop In Earnings; Random House Extends Free Shipping; Two Fall Regional Shows Merge
Germany’s largest bookstore chain Thalia is facing the same challenges as major booksellers in English-speaking countries, with parent company Dougles reducing their forecast EBITDA for the current fiscal year by a range of 15 to 30 percent, driving shares down sharply. The company warned that they will incur unspecified “expenditures for restructuring at Thalia” and blamed “the structural challenges in the entire books sector” for the earnings reduction. One German analyst told Bloomberg the company needs to make clear the restructuring costs and “and in general has to provide solutions and measures to get rid of the structural problems at […]
Barnes & Noble Reduces Expectations On Shortfall In Simple Touch Sales; A Sterling Sale Is Far Along
It’s already another fascinating year for Barnes & Noble, which surprised Wall Street with a number of post-holiday announcements. The success of their Nook Tablet, “which has exceeded expectations,” came at some cost to their less expensive eInk device, “with a shortfall in the expected sales of NOOK Simple Touch.” They say “the company over-anticipated the growth in consumer demand for single purpose black-and-white reading devices this holiday.” Primarily as a result of that Simple Touch shortfall, BN reduced their guidance to investors, projecting fiscal year sales of between $7.0 billion and $7.2 billion, EBITDA of $150 to $180 million, […]