Home Tags Posts tagged with "profit"
Tag:

profit

Tech Update

Volvo Cars profit rises, plans tech-sharing Geely venture

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for Volvo Cars profit rises, plans tech-sharing Geely ventureFILE PHOTO: A Volvo logo is pictured on the stand during the 87th International Motor Show at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland, March 7, 2017.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s Volvo Cars sold more vehicles in Europe and China in the first half that helped drive up earnings 21 percent and said it would set up a joint venture with its Chinese parent to share technology with other brands in the Geely group.

Under Chinese ownership since being bought by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group from Ford in 2010, Volvo has taken on larger rivals such as BMW and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz with new premium models.

Volvo Car Group, one of Sweden’s biggest companies by revenue, posted operating earnings of 6.8 billion Swedish crowns ($820 million) for the six months to June 30, against 5.6 billion crowns in the same period last year.

Revenues rose to 99.1 billion crowns, up from 84.2 billion crowns, and the company said it remained confident sales this year would exceed the record high set only last year.

The company aims to reach sales of 800,000 cars within the next few years. It sold 277,641 Volvos in the first half, up 8.2 percent from a year ago, as strength in China and Europe offset a lingering U.S. slump.

Delivery problems have dogged Volvo in the United States this year, contributing to a 7 percent drop in first-half sales there. It does not have a manufacturing base in North America but is building a U.S. plant to boost supply.

Volvo said it expected an upturn in the second half of the year and aimed to deliver “solid full-year growth” in the United States as tight global supply of its XC90 model eased and its new XC60 mid-size SUV hit the U.S. market.

“The demand from customers is really there,” Samuelsson told Reuters. “In the second half, we will have the XC60 launched and that is really for the U.S. market an even bigger car.”

Technology Sharing

In a step towards closer ties with other brands controlled by its Chinese owner, Volvo said it was creating a joint venture with Zhejiang Geely to share technology.

Volvo, Geely Auto and LYNK & CO, a brand established last year and positioned between Volvo and Geely in price, would share vehicle architecture and engine technology via cross licensing arrangements managed by the venture.

“We will unlock significant benefits across our portfolio by sharing both technologies and next-generation vehicle architectures,” Zhejiang Geely Chairman Li Shufu said in a statement.

“I am confident these synergies can be achieved while preserving the separate identities and strategic autonomy of our different automotive brands,” he said.

Samuelsson said the deal would provide Volvo with greater development resources and speed up introduction of new technology in areas such as components for electric vehicles.

“And, maybe most importantly, we can lower the material cost because we will have a higher volume for the common components and will source them jointly,” he told Reuters.

With earnings and sales rising, speculation has been growing that an initial public offering (IPO) is on the cards.

Last year, Volvo took a step towards listing, raising 5 billion crowns from Swedish institutional investors through the sale of newly issued preference shares. But it said it had no immediate plans for an IPO.

“We try to act as a listed company, but currently we are not planning an IPO,” Samuelsson said.

[“Source-reuters”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Gadgets News

Pricey gadgets profit from Swiss watchmaking skills

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

The world's most expensive cigar chest uses a combination of fine watchmaking techniques and high-end electronics to stand out

The world’s most expensive cigar chest uses a combination of fine watchmaking techniques and high-end electronics to stand out

(Imperiali Genève)

Swiss companies are using precision mechanics from the watchmaking industry to manufacture gadgets and accessories for those with deep pockets.

What do you give a man who has everything, including a fancy Swiss watch? Perhaps you could splurge on the Emperador cigar chest manufactured by Geneva-based company Imperiali Genève. Not only do you get a climate-controlled humidor with 24 gold-leaf wrapped cigars but also a self-winding timepiece with a tourbillon at the centre. The cigar chest is made up of over 2,500 components and bills itself as a hybrid of “fine watchmaking and state-of-the-art electronics”.

“It costs CHF1 million ($1.01 million) and is targeted at buyers in the Middle East, Asia and the US,” company founder David Pasciuto said.

His company manufactures such 12 pieces every year. So far, they have managed to sell four. The cigar chest is just one of many high-end gadgets manufactured in Switzerland that have carved a niche for themselves in the luxury market.

WATCHMAKING SAVOIR FAIREGadgets catch the eye at Baselworld 2017

However, mainstream watchmakers are not jumping into this niche segment quite yet. It’s mostly made up of manufacturers whose timepieces are already somewhat avant-garde.

“Our watches are very creative and different and those who want to buy [our] robot are also looking for something different,” says Valentin Cousin, whose firm MB&F makes the Bad Sherman robot, as well as quirky watches.

Weighing under a kilo, Bad Sherman is a steal at CHF16,700 when compared to the Emperador cigar chest. Manufacturer MB&F boasts that the little machine has a special superpower: “the ability to spread happiness and to make people smile”.

“It is a toy for a grown child and meant for those who want a plaything on their desk,” says Cousin.

Other watchmakers have attempted to transfer their skills to completely different products. Swiss brand Urwerk, for example, was chosen by single-malt Scotch whisky maker The Macallan to come up with an ingenious design for a flask. The result is the world’s first whisky flask with two tanks that enables the owner to store two different liquors at the same time.

Dominique Buser of Urwerk acknowledges that the gadget, worth CHF2,500, is far from a necessity.

“It is for someone who likes whisky and mechanical solutions for problems no one has,” he says.

[“Source-swissinfo”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Tech Update

Baidu CEO tells staff to put values before profit after cancer death scandal

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Baidu Inc’s CEO has called on employees to put values before profit in response to a scandal around the death of a student who underwent an experimental cancer treatment he found on the company’s search website.

Before his death, student Wei Zexi, 21, criticized the military-run hospital that provided the failed treatment for misleading claims about its effectiveness and accused Baidu, which controls 80 percent of the Chinese search market, of promoting false medical information.

In a letter to employees seen by Reuters, Baidu chief executive Robin Li wrote: “If we lose the support of users, we lose hold of our values, and Baidu will truly go bankrupt in just 30 days!”

Li’s letter said employees were making compromises for the sake of commercial interests and placing earnings growth above user experience.

The controversy over Wei’s death, which erupted at the beginning of the month, prompted regulators on Monday to impose curbs on the advertising business Baidu relies on for the lion’s share of its income.

Baidu said on Monday it would comply with the regulators’ decision, which followed a probe launched early last week.

The company will re-evaluate every one of its products’ business models, despite the fact it may have a negative impact on the company’s income, Li wrote.

The Chinese internet stalwart has been fiercely criticized both online and by state media for how it handles adverts within its search results, especially in the sensitive healthcare sector.

“These days, whenever it’s the dead of night, I think: Why do the people who use Baidu’s products no longer love us?” Li wrote.

“The outrage is greater than in any crisis Baidu has experienced before.”

It is not the first time the company has fallen foul of regulators and public opinion for its handling of healthcare ads and blogs, and has previously changed elements of its business model in response.

“I believe this is the right way!” said Li in his letter. “It’s the long-term way!”

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Tech Update

Amazon profit crushes estimates as cloud-service revenue soars

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Thursday reported profit and revenue that blew past analysts’ expectations, sending its shares soaring in after-hours trading and demonstrating the growing market power of its core retail business and new cloud services division.

The results draw a sharp contrast to the disappointing fourth quarter Amazon reported in January, which renewed worries among some shareholders about the company’s comparatively thin profit margins. Shares of the world’s biggest online retailer jumped nearly 13 percent to $679 in extended trading on Thursday.

Amazon’s performance also assuaged concerns about a broader slowdown among tech and internet companies after Apple (AAPL.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Intel (INTC.O) all reported disappointing earnings.

“It did restore my faith,” said Dan Conde, an analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, who keeps a close eye on Amazon’s cloud business.

The company also offered a bright outlook, with revenue guidance for the current quarter of $28 billion to $30.5 billion, compared to the $28.33 billion analysts had expected.

While Amazon displayed impressive growth for a company its size – revenues last quarter rose 28.2 percent to $29.13 billion, the biggest revenue growth since 2012 – its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing division was the highlight. Revenues at the division climbed 64 percent to $2.56 billion while operating income more than tripled to $604 million.

Even though operating margins fell at the unit compared to last quarter, as Amazon spends heavily to compete with rivals like Microsoft and Google (GOOGL.O), they remain a healthy 27.9 percent. That compares to 28.5 percent last quarter, and 16.9 percent a year earlier.

AWS, launched 10 years ago, delivered more profit in the quarter than Amazon’s retail business. Research firms say AWS has more than 30 percent of the fast-growing cloud-computing market and it remains far ahead of rivals including Microsoft and Google.

Amazon said it also has seen strong growth in subscribers to its Prime loyalty program, which offers one-hour delivery, original TV programming and access to its digital entertainment products such as Prime Music and Prime Video for an annual fee of $99.

The company said it would ramp up spending to entice Prime customers through video content, particularly its “Prime Originals” – shows Amazon develops itself. That strategy builds on the success of programs including “Mozart in the Jungle” and “Transparent,” which each have won Golden Globe awards.

“We feel that program is working,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a conference call with analysts. “We’re going to significantly increase our spend in that area.”

The company recently launched a monthly subscription to the program for $10.99. Amazon has also said it plans to offer its video streaming service as a standalone service for a monthly fee of $8.99.

Amazon does not break out the numbers of Prime subscribers, but Consumer Intelligence Research Partners says the program has 54 million U.S. members. Amazon’s growth on the revenue side suggests that the relationship model around Amazon Prime is working, said Frank Gillett, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

Amazon on Thursday also said it would continue to build its logistics operations, where it has started using its own trucks and planes to supplement carriers such as UPS and Fedex and offer-same day service.

“They’re still great partners, have been, and will continue to be for the future,” Olsavsky said in response to an analyst who asked if Amazon would ever entertain delivering items for those companies. “But we see opportunities where we need to add additional capacity and we’re filling those voids.”

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also touted the success of new hardware products. “Amazon devices are the top selling products on Amazon,” he said in a press release, citing the Echo voice-response system and the Fire TV Stick.

The Echo has been a surprise hit and Bezos said in the statement that the company could not keep it in stock, but he declined to provide sales figures.

Amazon’s net sales in North America, its biggest market by revenue, increased 26.8 percent to $17 billion in the first quarter.

Amazon reported net income of $513 million, or $1.07 per share, for the quarter ended March 31, marking a fourth straight quarter of profits for the once perennially money-losing company. A year earlier, Amazon reported a loss of $57 million, or 12 cents per share.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 58 cents per share and revenue of $27.98 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
News Update

150% jump in 2 years! Rakesh Jhunjhunwala booked profit in this firm in March quarter

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Shares of the company have gained more than 150 per cent in the past two years.

Ace equity investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala sold his stake in tractor major Escorts during the March quarter, as per the latest shareholding data available on the BSE. Shares of the company traded almost flat at Rs 1,609 at around 11.15 am (IST). On the other hand, the benchmark BSE Sensex traded nearly 400 points down at 59,053 at around the same time.

Data available with the exchange showed that Jhunjhunwala’s name was not among the key shareholders of the company as of March 31, 2022. He held over a 5.22 per cent stake in the company as of December 31 last year. He had a 5.68 per cent stake, or 75 lakh shares, in Escorts on February 18, 2022.

Shares of the company have gained more than 150 per cent in the past two years. The scrip surged to Rs 1609.65 on April 8, 2022 from Rs 642.50 on the same day in 2000. Jhunjhunwala held over a 7 per cent stake in the company as of March 31, 2020.

In the financial year 2021-2022, Escorts sold 87,043 units in the domestic market, down 14.50 per cent, against 1,01,848 units a year ago. On the other hand, exports of the company increased 46.80 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 7,185 units in FY22.

In an earlier report, Nirmal Bang Securities said, “Escorts sees FY24 to be a tad volatile year due to general elections and change in emission norms, but expects pre-buying to drive demand. The medium-term growth outlook stands at a CAGR of 4-6 per cent while over the longer term. The industry will grow at a CAGR of 7-9 per cent.”

Data available with Trendlyne.com showed that Big Bull has increased his stake in Canara Bank, while he kept his stake constant at 8.50 per cent in Bilcare. His stake in Wockhardt also fell below 1 per cent for the quarter ended March 31. Complete shareholding data is yet to be announced.

[“source=businesstoday”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Tech Update

Profit, Peril And The Internet Of Things

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Gartner: 20.4 billion connected devices are expected to be in use by 2020.Andres Urena

Private equity firms searching for the next big thing are looking with excitement to the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Gartner forecast that 20.4 billion connected devices will be in use by 2020. IoT growth rates are astounding, but the risks and rewards for investors will come from how industry players deal with new security threats.

The proliferation of IoT devices means more equipment is vulnerable to a security breach than ever before. That’s everything from virtual voice assistants and washing machines in your home, to manufacturing robots and physical access controls (keys, fobs and motion detectors) at your workplace.

Many experts say the answer is to integrate physical and cyber security systems. “By managing security holistically, companies improve coordinated response and recovery,” said G. Mark Hardy, president of National Security Corporation, in an email response about the issue.

Despite these benefits, companies are coming up short. The experts I spoke with see little progress and misdirected resources, both in terms of business planning and consumer protections. Most organizations are reactive when it comes to cyber risk. At the same time, consumer product companies are skimping on security to reduce costs and enhance profits, while diverting everyone’s attention to convenience. It’s the kind of poor leadership that creates extraordinary risks for investors and others.

“Out of Business in Six Months”

“Because they secure sensitive, personal identifiable information, a company is a fiduciary of that information. That means they have a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard that information,” said Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of password manager Keeper Security, in an email. “Failure to do so, especially for a small to medium sized business can be catastrophic.”

Mr. Guccione says nearly 60% of all small businesses that experience a pervasive data breach are out of business in six months and that larger companies often experience brand damage, loss of customers and litigation costs.

An eerie example of consumer IoT issues occurred this year when Walmart, Amazon and eBay reportedly stopped carrying connected teddy bears from toy manufacturer CloudPets after two million recorded messages from parents and children were exposed to potential hackers.

Mr. Hardy, a high profile speaker and instructor on cyber security, explains that cost is the underlying issue: “As most devices use IP (internet protocol) for communications, it is unlikely that a proprietary standard will emerge. That suggests a ‘race to the bottom’ in manufacturing and marketing costs for most IoT technology in the absence of enforceable patents.”

Robert M. Lee, CEO and founder of Dragos, Inc., an industrial cyber security company, puts it plainly: “Many IoT vendors have completely sacrificed security to lower cost. Instead of building security in as we already know how to do, IoT vendors are compromising on it.”

An ‘Always Present,’ ‘Always On’ Mentality

While cost is the issue, a lack of corporate leadership and oversight is exacerbating the problem. Too many boards and their top management teams are delegating security to IT and other experts without sufficient oversight.

A 2017 survey of 600 organizations with more than 500 employees by IDC showed that 75% of firms didn’t have a managed incident response plan, even though more than half of organizations experienced 10 or more security incidents or alerts each week. The same survey found that only 35% of firms have an incident-response process that includes reporting any security breach to their board. In early December, the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) released a survey of 500 public company directors, with only 52% saying they understand cyber risks sufficiently to provide effective oversight.

The statistics are alarming because the impetus to join physical and cyber security has been around a long time. In healthcare, it dates back to 2005 and a security rule for the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requiring physical, technical and administrative safeguards, according to Dave Newell, a former U.S. Air Force officer with the Pentagon’s 7th Communications Group and founder of Loptr, an information security company. For credit card merchants, Mr. Newell notes that the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) defined physical security expectations for cardholder data as early as 2004.

“Even though the regulations had this direction, organizations generally had some person, maybe an ex-cop, who was responsible for physical security and another, in IT, responsible for the technological security,” Mr. Newell says. “A lot of organizations just didn’t connect the two.”

“We need to have an ‘always present,’ ‘always on’ mentality, but people don’t think about it until they encounter an event,” says Ted Schneider, chief technology officer of ARCOS LLC, a provider of resource management solutions for utilities, manufacturers and airlines.

In an IoT world, Mr. Schneider foresees the threat of someone putting together disparate data in a system that isn’t integrated, for example HR, payroll and financial systems. “On its own, it could be harmless,” he says. “But in such a scenario, compounded clean data suddenly becomes a cyber threat.”

A Contrarian View

Mr. Lee disagrees with the emphasis on combining physical and cyber security and says the real issue is companies confusing enterprise IT with industrial security and misdirecting their resources. While he believes companies should combine physical and cyber security data, they are separate threat models.

“There needs to be an awakening that almost every company is an industrial company,” he says, noting that organizations without three- to five-year board level industrial security strategies, risk everything from safety to intellectual property. “As we connect more and more with IoT, we’re opening up risks.”

Mr. Lee, a former cyber warfare operations officer with the U.S. Air Force (tasked to the NSA), points to the 2015/2016 cyber attacks in the Ukraine that shut down electric power for the first time in history as an example of industrial security planning. “Figure out the way those cyber attacks occurred to identify methods for preventing it from occurring with other facilities,” he says.

[“source-forbes”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
News Update

Honey, I Shrunk $1 Trillion Apple’s Profit Margins

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Honey, I Shrunk $1 Trillion Apple's Profit Margins

Apple has been a profit geyser well before it was valued at the $1 trillion (roughly Rs. 68.7 lakh crores) milestone the company reached on Thursday. Even Warren Buffett is impressed. “It is an unbelievable company,” the legendary investor and Apple stockholder said in May as he marvelled that Apple earns almost twice as much as the second-most profitable company in the US.

Buffett is right. Apple reported $68 billion (roughly Rs. 4.67 lakh crores) in profit before taxes and non-operating items in the last year. In distant second place is JPMorgan Chase with $39 billion (roughly Rs. 2.68 lakh crores) in operating profit.

But this isn’t another tale of Apple’s impossible-to-believe profit power, because Apple isn’t the powerhouse that it used to be.

Apple is now a tale of incredibly shrinking profit margins. Apple generates less profit from each dollar of sales than it did in 2010, when it was worth one-quarter as much. Investors most likely won’t care as long as Apple keeps growing and as long as it continues to churn out eye-popping earnings on an absolute basis. But the slimming margins are a potential warning sign as Apple hits the $1 trillion mark, which reflects investor expectations of fat profits for years to come.

The biggest reason for the profit margin diet is Apple’s spending. Its operating costs have increased at twice the rate of revenue in the last five years, and the company doesn’t detail why. Growth is coming from different sources, too, notably iPhone price increases and sales of ancillary products. Those changes are giving Apple a fundamentally different financial look, and investors haven’t yet been forced to confront how much this altered Apple should be worth.

ALSO SEEApple Becomes First $1 Trillion Company in History

Even relative to other corporate titans, Apple has lost a step. Five years ago, Apple ranked 40th among companies in the S&P 500 Index by its annual operating profit margins, according to Bloomberg data. Now the company stands 113th. Apple is squeezing lower profits per dollar than the energy drink company Monster Beverage.

Five years ago, Apple was spending about $4 billion a year on research and development, or about 3 percent of its sales. On a percentage basis, that was far lower than other U.S. technology companies. In the last 12 months, Apple’s R&D spending amounted to 5.3 percent of its sales. While that’s still low by tech superstar standards, it’s a significant shift for Apple.

Steve Jobs once said that “innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have.” Now it seems as if Apple is putting its foot on the R&D gas, hoping it will result in more innovation.

It’s true that technology investors want and expect technology companies to invest in the future. The U.S. technology titans are in an arms race, battling with engineer hiring and capital spending to build their capabilities in artificial intelligence, driverless cars, cloud computing and other areas they consider crucial to maintain and extend their dominance. In 2015, the investor Carl Icahn wrote that Apple’s rising R&D spending “should signal to investors that Apple plans to aggressively pursue” growth opportunities.

The problem is, it’s tough for outsiders to assess whether Apple’s climbing R&D spending is being put to good use. The company is notoriously, mostly understandably secretive about what it’s cooking up in its gadget labs. In the past, Apple has developed crucial innovations in-house, both highly visible ones like iPhones and iPads and less-celebrated innovations such as Apple’s line of self-developed computer chips. Now the company may be splurging on areas such as health care, transportation, new forms of computing and more. It’s always tough to assess the return on R&D investment, and it’s doubly hard for Apple.

Apple’s rising research-and-development tab isn’t a problem now, and it may never be. The company has found clever ways to keep boosting its revenue even as smartphone sales stall across the industry. Apple’s profits and cash flow continue to pile up, and they are the envy of the corporate world.

When a company stumbles, however, spending that once seemed like the standard cost of doing business can come under a microscope. When an activist investor came after Qualcomm a few years ago, it questioned whether the chipmaker should cut its R&D spending to improve profits. If Apple hits a growth wall in coming years, it’s not hard to imagine the company facing similar calls to justify its climbing research-and-development bills.

There’s a disconnect between the investment narrative about Apple and its profit reality. Wall Street has been excited about the growing share of company revenue coming from its services segment, which includes app sales and Apple Music subscriptions. Those are billed as higher-margin businesses, but because of Apple’s spending the company’s margins have actually been decreasing. Even as investors stare at those 12 zeros in Apple’s market value, it’s tough to argue that the company deserves an even richer valuation, as long as those margins stay squeezed.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Blogging

Blogging for profit: ‘Mommy Blogs’ growing in popularity

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for Blogging for profit: 'Mommy Blogs' growing in popularity

How many times have you thought: ‘maybe I should start a blog?’

Most people have, at some point wanted to pitch their own tent on the internet to share their knowledge or to entertain people.

With over 600 million blogs published today you might be surprised to find out that women make up the largest percentage of full-time bloggers.

Mommy Blogs are insanely popular. Many women take up a blog once they have a baby. Many others maintain health or fitness blogs.

In fact, there’s no shortage of blog topics. You can easily find rather obscure blogs about squirrel nutrition or how to powerwash a driveway.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Gadgets News

Samsung Flags Mobile Weakness as Chips Power Record Q1 Profit

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Samsung Flags Mobile Weakness as Chips Power Record Q1 Profit

Samsung Electronics said weakness in the global smartphone market would slow earnings growth, as it reported record quarterly profit on Thursday thanks to strong demand for semiconductors used in servers.

The world’s biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones and television sets also flagged softer demand for smartphone OLED panels as a challenge for the second quarter, while its cash-cow chip business should remain strong.

“Generating overall earnings growth across the company will be a challenge due to weakness in the display panel segment and a decline in profitability in the mobile business amid rising competition in the high-end segment,” Samsung said in a statement. In the display panel segment, which manufactures OLED and LCD screens, profits were affected by slow demand for flexible OLED panels and greater competition between rigid OLED and LTPS LCD.

Samsung Electronics shares were up 3 percent as of 0040 GMT, while the KOSPI benchmark share price index was 0.9 percent higher, as investors shrugged off concerns about the smartphone market and seized on the positive outlook for memory chips.

“Shares are rising as Samsung Electronics’ outlook for its memory chip business appears more positive than we’ve heard from other companies,” said Greg Roh, analyst at HMC Investment & Securities.

South Korean rival SK Hynix and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) separately warned this month of slower growth in smartphone chip sales. TSMC, a key supplier for Apple’s iPhones, cut its revenue target last week.

But Samsung Electronics, a rival and supplier to Apple, forecast continuing strong sales not only of server DRAMs but mobile DRAMs as well.

Demand for NAND chips used in mobile devices was also expected to be strong, it added, referring to the “high-density trend” for more powerful chips in the latest gadgets.

Samsung Electronics said operating profit was KRW 15.6 trillion ($14.4 billion) in the first quarter, up 58 percent from a year ago and in line with the KRW 15.6 trillion the company had estimated. Revenue jumped 19.8 percent to KRW 60.6 trillion, also in line with its estimate.

The chip business was Samsung’s top earner again as it booked a record KRW 11.6 trillion operating profit in January-March, from KRW 10.9 trillion in the previous quarter, despite signs the recent boom in memory chips was tapering off.

The mobile business booked KRW 3.8 trillion in quarterly profit, up 82 percent from a year ago.

Samsung has shipped about 10 million units of its flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone since sales began in mid-March, in what analysts said was a solid showing. Strong sales of the Galaxy S8 smartphone from last year despite the early release of its flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone showed that consumers are not enthusiastic about upgrading their phones to the latest products.

According to market research firm GfK, global smartphone demand fell two percent to 347 million units in the first quarter of 2018. Demand was especially sluggish in China and North America, it said.

However, the average sales price grew 21 percent year-on-year in the quarter, leading to an 18 percent rise in global smartphone revenue year-on-year to $129.8 billion.

[“source=gadgets.ndtv”]

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Gadgets News

Facebook Reportedly Surpasses Google, Microsoft in Terms of Profit Per Employee

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Facebook Reportedly Surpasses Google, Microsoft in Terms of Profit Per Employee

Facebook has leapfrogged Microsoft and Google’s parent company Alphabet in securing maximum profit per employee in the second quarter of 2017 while Twitter suffered a hefty loss, a media report said.

Facebook, which employed 20,658 persons in the past quarter – a 43 percent increase over the same period last year – made $188,498 (roughly Rs. 1.2 crores) per employee, according to a report in ReCode.

Microsoft made $52,400 (roughly Rs. 33 lakhs) and Alphabet $46,610 per employee – four times less profit per employee than social media giant Facebook – in the three months that ended on June 30.

Verizon, AT&T and Ford followed with $27,405, $15,410 and $10,098 per employ.

Twitter, which saw a net loss of $116 million last quarter, lost nearly $36,000 per employee.

The reason for Facebook’s efficiency is that software products do not require humans for the production and distribution process.

“Of course, even jobs formerly assigned to humans are coming under the purview of robots – so more industries could see consolidation of labour,” the report added.

The research that was restricted to select major companies that have reported their employee count in their latest quarterly earnings, did not include Apple as they do not have a quarterly updated headcount.

Source:-ndtv

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
error: Content is protected !!