NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 29 January
29-01-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Global mobile market out of recession | Higher chip demand boosts Infineon
Communications Minister Eamon Ryan has appointed Alex Chisholm as the new chairperson of ComReg. From 1 February Chisholm will replace John Doherty, who has held the position for the past two years. Doherty recently took up the position of chairperson of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Chisholm's appointment is in keeping with the practice of rotating the Chair of ComReg.
Some 324 million mobile phones were shipped globally during the fourth quarter of 2009, a rise of 10 percent on last year's tally, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. This was the handset market's first quarter of positive growth since the third quarter of 2008, and signals an end to the industry's year-long recession. Market leader Nokia had a solid quarter, shipping an impressive 126.9 million handsets worldwide, up 12 percent from 113.1 million units in the year-earlier quarter. As mentioned in its financial results on Thursday, Nokia's good quarter came as a result of growth in its smartphone segment. Samsung continued its good form, shipping 69 million handsets, 31 percent growth on the same quarter in 2008. In third place, LG shipped an all-time high of 33.9 million handsets during the quarter, up 32 percent. Sony Ericsson and Motorola both had poor quarters, shipping just 14.6 million and 12 million handsets, respectively.
Business software firm CA has posted a profit for the quarter to end of December of USD257 million, or USD0.49 a share, up from USD208 million, or USD0.40 a share, a year earlier. Revenue increased by 8.3 percent to USD1.13 billion. Thomson Reuters analysts expected per-share earnings of USD0.42 on revenue of USD1.1 billion. CA also announced the appointment of a new CEO. Chairman William McCracken will take up the role, succeeding John Swainson, who retired in September.
E-tailer Amazon had quite the fourth quarter, with net profit jumping a massive 71 percent to USD384 million, or USD0.85 per share, from USD225 million, or USD0.52 per share, a year earlier. The figure soared past Thomson Reuters analysts' estimates of USD0.72 per share. Revenue increased by 42 percent to USD9.52 billion, higher than the USD9.04 billion expected by Wall Street and also significantly higher than the USD9.13 billion that was at the high end of Amazon's own forecast.
In more news of results German chipmaker Infineon recorded fiscal first-quarter net profit of EUR66 million, or EUR0.06 per share, compared to a loss of EUR404 million, or EUR0.46 per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue was EUR941 million, a rise of 27 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Infineon said it expects sales for its second fiscal quarter to be around the same level as in the first or down slightly because of seasonality. Increased demand for its products from auto and industrial customers was cited as the main reason for the solid results.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 