RIM Sees Sales Down by a Third - Posts Quarterly Loss

Published on: 28th Sep 2012

­Struggling Research in Motion has announced that its second-fiscal quarter revenues dropped by nearly a third (31%) over the previous year to US$2.9 billion. The figure was however a slight improvement on the previous three months.

The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 60% for hardware, 35% for service and 5% for software and other revenue.

The company also posted a net loss of US$235 million compared to a profit of US$329 million a year ago.

During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 7.4 million BlackBerry smartphones and shipped approximately 130,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. The BlackBerry subscriber base increased to approximately 80 million global subscribers.

"Despite the significant changes we are implementing across the organization, our second quarter results demonstrate that RIM is progressing on its financial and operational commitments during this major transition," said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO.

"Make no mistake about it, we understand that we have much more work to do, but we are making the organizational changes to drive improvements across the company, our employees are committed and motivated, and BlackBerry 10 is on track to launch in the first calendar quarter of 2013." 

The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $2.3 billion as of September 1, 2012, compared to $2.2 billion at the end of the previous quarter.

Outlook

The Company expects that there will be continued pressure on operating results for the remainder of the fiscal year based on the increasing competitive environment, lower handset volumes, increased marketing expense associated with the launch of BlackBerry 10, and some impact from pressure by customers to reduce RIM's monthly infrastructure access fees.

The Company expects to report an operating loss in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 as RIM continues to work through the transition to BlackBerry 10 and completes its CORE program. This outlook excludes any benefits or future impact of charges related to the CORE program.

 

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