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Tag: q3 2012

  • Zynga Announces Third Quarter Results, Confirms Layoffs

    Zynga is a mess. The company’s share price has plummeted into unknown depths and now trades at around $2.13. Can Zynga pick itself back up and become profitable again? Let’s take a look at its third quarter results and see if there’s any hope left.

    Zynga announced its third quarter results today and it’s not looking super great. The social game maker’s pulled in revenue of $317 million for the quarter which is only a three percent increase year-over-year. Its third quarter bookings were at $256 million, down 11 percent year-over-year.

    Zynga Q3 Results

    “While the last several months have been challenging for us, Zynga remains well positioned to capitalize on the growth of social gaming. We’re implementing a number of steps to drive long-term growth and profitability. The successful launches of FarmVille 2 and ChefVille in the third quarter demonstrate that when we develop great games, our large player audience engages. It’s more clear than ever that along with search, shop, and share, play is a fundamental pillar of the Internet, and Zynga continues to be the leader,” said Mark Pincus, CEO and Founder, Zynga.

    Zynga confirmed the lay offs in its financial results by saying that it has enacted a cost reduction plan that should save the company anywhere between $15 and $20 million during the fourth quarter. Approximately 150 employees were laid off as part of the plan while certain facilities were consolidated.

    To hopefully boost their share price up by a bit, Zynga announced that the company has the board’s approval to repurchase $200 million in outstanding Class A common stock. There’s no date set for when the repurchase will go down, but it will probably be sooner than later.

    In some good news, Zynga’s games have been getting more players lately. The company said that its daily active users have increased from 54 million to 60 million total in the third quarter. Monthly active users have likewise increased from 227 million to 311 million players.

    Those active daily and monthly payers don’t mean anything, however, unless they’re paying. That’s where Zynga has been hurting and continue to hurt into the third quarter as its monthly unique payers have decreased from 4.1 million to 3 million. Draw Something is blamed as the main culprit behind the dwindling payer base.

    Zynga’s results aren’t that promising, but the market at least seems to be somewhat happy. The company share value has already increased by 0.30 points (14 percent) in after-hours trading. We’ll see if it can continue that momentum going into tomorrow morning’s trading.

  • Apple Announces That They Still Make More Money Than Anybody Else

    We knew for a while that Apple was going to reveal that they made a lot of money today. We just didn’t know to what extent. Thanks to Apple releasing their third quarter results, we can confirm that the company continues to make a lot of money.

    Apple announced today that the company made $35 billion in quarterly revenue with $8.8 billion of that being net profit. Compare that to the $28.6 billion made a year ago and you have a company that seems like it can’t do no wrong. Part of that is thanks to Apple expanding into international markets which accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

    So how well did their flagship products, the iPhone and the iPad, do? Apple sold 26 million iPhones in the last quarter, which represents a growth of 28 percent over Q3 2011. The company sold 17 million iPads, which represents an even more impressive 84 percent increase over Q3 2011. As for Macs, the company sold 4 million units with the iPod selling 6.8 million units. The Mac business grew two percent while the the iPod business declined 10 percent.

    Remember that stock dividend that Apple announced a while back? Shareholders are getting their due on August 16 with a payout of $2.65 per share. You still have a chance to jump on that bandwagon as those who own stock before the market closes on August 13 will receive the payout. Considering that stocks for Apple are going for $600 right now, that might not be the best decision.

    “We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”

    Wait, what? Did Tim Cook just announced Mountain Lion for tomorrow? Indeed, Apple will launch the much anticipated Mountain Lion OS for Mac computers tomorrow, July 24. You’ll be able to download the update or buy a copy from your local Apple Store. Just be sure your Mac is up to snuff first.

    “We’re continuing to invest in the growth of our business and are pleased to be declaring a dividend of $2.65 per share today,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $7.65.”

    Between the launch of Mountain Lion tomorrow and iOS6 this fall, Apple has a pretty busy year ahead of them. Couple that with the rumored launch of the iPhone and iPad Mini in September and Apple will be making more money than even Scrooge McDuck.

  • Barnes & Noble Posts Q3 2012 Results, Announces 8GB Nook

    The financial results for Barnes & Noble third quarter of the financial year have been released and, initially, all signs point in good directions for the bookseller. This might come as a surprise to some since speculation grew over the last year that the bookseller was headed toward bankruptcy. Nonetheless, the company is reporting an increase of 2.8% in comparable store sales that, while not as high as last year’s 7.3% increase, is still welcome news in an age of struggling book retailers. The total company net income for Barnes & Noble was $52.0 million for the quarter, which was on par with last year’s numbers.

    Barnes & Noble College, their retail branch that specializes in an inventory of academic textbooks, had a decline in sales from $540 million to $525 million. The company asserts that the rise in lower-priced textbook rentas contributed to the decline of sales in new and used textboks.

    BN.com, the company’s online branch for retail, returned encouraging numbers. The sales for BN.com increased 32% over last year, up from $319 million to $420 million. The comparable sales increased 42%, a bump that follows last year’s increase of 64%.

    These numbers appear to have delighted the traders on Wall Street as Barnes & Noble bumped up nearly 4% this morning following the release of the company’s financial results for the quarter. Given that yesterday’s stock action saw the company’s shares remain relatively low (when compared to to where they were two weeks ago), the recovery following today’s financial report suggests investors have faith in Barnes & Noble’s mission to succeed in their last financial quarter for 2012. A conference call with Barnes & Noble’s senior management will be happening this morning, so given on what the bosses have to say could send the company’s shares up even more (or down, depending on if traders like what they hear).

    For the rest of the upcoming year, the company expects the consolidated sales for the full 2012 fiscal year to land somewhere between $7.0 billion and $7.2 billion as they anticipate a sustainable growth in sales from BN.com

    Barnes & Noble credits the success of their online retail site to the continued popularity and growth of their e-reader tablet, Nook. The e-reader has been garnering enough sales of digital content that it’s been able to offset the decline in the sales of actual books (and other stuff you might buy through BN.com) through the bookseller’s site. From a statement accompanying the release of the Q3 results, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said:

    “In the third quarter, our traffic and sales in stores were the highest we’ve seen in five years,” said William Lynch, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble. “Our physical book sales at our stores increased more than 4% over last year, and our merchandising changes in our juvenile business and our Toys & Games department experienced double-digit revenue growth in the third quarter. Importantly, our NOOK digital content business continues to grow rapidly, and according to some of the largest U.S. publishers, we maintained or slightly gained share in the eBook market during the third quarter. We’re excited about the launch of the NOOK Tablet with 8GB, an incredible value at only $199, and we look forward to welcoming millions of customers into our stores to try our entire award-winning line of NOOK products.”

    And speaking of Nook, Barnes & Noble is looking to continue pressing the Nook’s success with the announcement of a new 8GB model today that will be sold at $199. Information regarding the new Nook was scarce in the press release but it does promise to be “the company’s fastest and lightest tablet.” On the heels of a new 8GB Nook, the price of the Nook Color will be reduced to $169.