Posted 11/07/08 at 11:36:32 AM by Paul Lilly

Will the real Nvidia please stand up? Getting a read on the graphics chip maker is turning out to be nigh impossible. On one hand, Nivida has been hammered over a mobile graphics manufacturing defect that led to an "abnormal failure rate," much negative press, and questions about how widespread the problem might actually be. Then the tide changed as Apple announced it would be outfitting its refreshed MacBook line with Nvidia's 9400M GPU instead of Intel silicon. Is the company poised to fall or on the rebound?

Looking over Nvidia's financial report appears to raise even more questions than answers. For the three months that ended October 26, the company's profits have plummeted 74 percent to $61.7 million, down from $235.7 million one year earlier. But despite the free fall, earnings per share sat at 20 cents, or almost twice as much as the average estimate of 11 cents projected by First Call.

In terms of market share, Nvidia acknowledges losing ground to AMD's ATI unit, but also believes its on the verge of an upswing.

"We were caught flat footed at 65nm and our chip and board solution was just too expensive," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia. "We've made that transition (to 55nm) in Q2. And in Q3 we're through that transition and we're off and running."

Which direction the company is running towards, however, is anyone's guess.

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graphics, nvidia, gpu, revenue, business

Posted 08/12/08 at 09:09:31 AM by Paul Lilly

Despite falling hard drive prices, a weakened dollar, and other economic woes, Western Digital managed to post revenue of $8.1 billion and an operating income of $1.0 billion for fiscal year 2008. That represents a full-year revenue increase of 48 percent. It gets even better for the hard drive maker, who also posted a net income of $867 million, or $3.84 per share, marking a whopping 54 percent jump from one year ago.

In the report, Western Digital says that 63 percent of Q4 revenue came from non-desktop sources, while 37 percent came from hard drives configured into desktop PCs. By contrast, those numbers sat at 46 and 54 percent respectively one year ago.

"Fiscal 2008 was an outstanding year for WD, capped off with the strong fourth-quarter financial performance," said John Coyne, president and CEO. "Our outstanding financial performance demonstrates the efficiency and effectiveness of the business model that we have built and refined over the last several years, underpinned by our industry leading cost structure."

WD's financial performance is also indicative of of the growing mobile market, in which the company shipped 11.7 million 2.5-inch mobile drives.

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Hard Drive, Western Digital, HDD, build a pc, revenue

Posted 07/25/08 at 09:50:11 AM by Chris Moody

It looks like the sluggish economy is affecting LCD panel revenues, they dropped 11% in June, but they still represent a 12% on-year growth. Samsung Electronics remains the worldwide leader in terms revenues, followed by LG Display and AU Optronics, according to DisplaySearch.

There was $6.9 billion in total LCD revenues for June. No matter how you look at it, that is a lot of LCD panels.

Panel makers however see the price drop as a possible stimulant to boost demand. They believe prices will stabilize in August, and stand a chance of rising in September, driven by back to school demand.

That means look for your bargins now to complete your 3 or 4 monitor setup!

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lcd, samsung, hardware, LG, revenue, sales, AU Optronics

Posted 07/23/08 at 05:24:50 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Google is currently exploring all possible methods of milking the Youtube cow despite having deemed revenues from the website to be immaterial during it Q1 filing.

It has now dawned upon Google that professionally made content is more lucrative to advertisers than amateur videos, and can help it recover the $1.65 billion Youtube acquisition costs. The search engine major’s enlightenment will greatly benefit Hollywood companies, who have been clamoring about the ease with which their interests are compromised on piracy hotbeds like Youtube.

Google knows that to monetize copyrighted movie and TV videos with advertisements it will have to legitimize their use first, which it plans to do with revenue sharing deals with major Hollywood studios. It recently struck a revenue sharing deal with Lionsgate and is in talks with other media companies, although very little is known at this stage.

Does it mean that Google will completely prevent users from uploading copyrighted content - something it has failed to do hitherto? Most probably that won’t be the case as it is currently working on a new technology that will help identify copyrighted content and allow its rightful owners to display ads next to it without the video being taken down.

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Software, tv, movies, Google, ads, youtube, deal, revenue, hollywood, lionsgate

Posted 07/21/08 at 12:53:17 PM by Paul Lilly

Not a fan of Vista? You're not alone, but you might be outnumbered. Microsoft claims it has sold over 180 million Vista licenses since launch, and while the significance of Vista sales have always been a point of contention, Microsoft has some other numbers it can now throw around that aren't so easily disputed. These include:

• $60.42 billion (revenue for fiscal year ended June 30, 2008)
• 18 percent (revenue growth over one year ago)
• $15.84 billion (fiscal fourth quarter revenue)
• $5.68 billion (operating income, representing 42 percent growth over same period last year)
• $0.46 (operating income, representing 48 percent growth over same period last year)

With Linux making headway as a viable alternative to Windows, it might come as a surprise to see Microsoft doing so well. But not only did Microsoft have a "strong finish in the fourth quarter, which capped off an impressive year for the company," but Chris Liddell, CFO at Microsoft, expects "another year of double-digit revenueand earnings growth in fiscal year 2009."

Can Microsoft keep it up post-Gates and post-XP?

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vista, windows, microsoft, Software, revenue

Posted 06/25/08 at 06:47:26 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Google recently shut the door on Microsoft with a major online ads deal with Yahoo. Having warded off any possible threats to its throne in the immediate future, Google can look to consolidate its gains. And consolidate it will. Mark Mahney, financial analyst at Citibank Investment Research, expects Google to earn $1 billion from display ads alone in 2009.

Currently Yahoo is the leading player in the global online display ads industry – not to be confused with search ads - worth $22 billion annually. Google will be able to trim Yahoo’s lead in 2009 by auctioning display ads space across its bouquet of prime internet properties that includes Youtube, Google Videos, Images, Maps and Finance, and DoubleClick.

The internet juggernaut has finally solved its Youtube conundrum and will start feeding video ads to the website’s legion of video buffs. Mahney anticipates $500 million in Youtube display ads sales alone in 2009.

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microsoft, Google, Yahoo, youtube, display ads, revenue, sales, doubleclick, google images, google maps, google videos, video ads, citi financial research