Time to sit down and get ready to pore over some financial figures, as today RIM announced its third quarter fiscal 2012 results. At the end of the three-month period that wrapped up on November 26th, the BlackBerry manufacturer finished with revenue totaling $5.2 billion, which RIM points out is up 24 percent from Q2. Meanwhile, net income for Q3 came in at $265 million, which is a tad lower than the net income of $329 million that we saw in the last quarter or the $911 million of net income from the same quarter one year ago.
Moving on to the device side of things, RIM shipped 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones in the third quarter, a 33 percent growth from the previous quarter. Those shipments helped the BlackBerry subscriber base grow to nearly 75 million users, RIM said. The quarter wasn't quite as kind to the PlayBook, which saw shipments totaling just 150,000 units during the three-month span. That figure is a drop from the 200,000 total PlayBooks shipped in Q2.
So overall it sounds like the third quarter wasn't an awesome one for the folks at RIM. Although the company saw revenue growth and shipped a lot of BlackBerrys, its total income has taken a bit of a hit over the last year and PlayBook shipments are, well, not great. Still, the company is keeping its chin up. Co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis said that they believe RIM "has the right set of strengths and capabilities to maintain a leading role in the mobile communications industry." The company wrapped its announcement up by giving us its outlook for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, which wraps up on March 3rd. RIM expects revenue for the quarter to finish between $4.6 and $4.9 billion, while BlackBerry shipments are figured to finish at around 11 or 12 million units. We'll have to wait to find out if RIM is able to hit those figures or not, but until then, you can find the company's press release below, with the full report (figures and all) available right here.
Research In Motion Reports Third Quarter Fiscal 2012 Results
WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 15, 2011) - Research In Motion Limited (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM), a world leader in the mobile communications market, today reported third quarter results for the three months ended November 26, 2011 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP, except where otherwise indicated).
Highlights:
Revenue of $5.2 billion, up 24% from last quarter
BlackBerry smartphone shipments of 14.1 million, up 33% from Q2
GAAP net income of $265 million or $0.51 per share diluted; adjusted net income of $667 million or $1.27 per share diluted
Subscribers up 35% year-over-year to almost 75 million
Cash flow from operations of approximately $895 million
Total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments of $1.5 billion
Q3 Results:
Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 was $5.2 billion, up 24% from $4.2 billion in the previous quarter and down 6% from $5.5 billion in the same quarter of last year. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 79% for hardware, 19% for service and 2% for software and other revenue. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 150,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
"Despite the challenges faced in the third quarter, the BlackBerry subscriber base grew to almost 75 million customers around the world. In addition, RIM launched a range of new BlackBerry 7 based smartphones globally and introduced holiday promotions that helped drive growth in the installed base of BlackBerry PlayBook users," said Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEOs at Research In Motion. "RIM continues to have strong technology, unique service capabilities and a large installed base of customers, and we are more determined than ever to capitalize on our strengths to overcome the recent execution challenges surrounding product launches and the resulting financial performance. As part of our commitment to improving our performance to better meet the expectations of shareholders and customers, we continue to evaluate ways to improve in several areas of the Company's operations. It may take some time to realize the benefits of these efforts and the platform transition that we are undertaking, but we continue to believe that RIM has the right set of strengths and capabilities to maintain a leading role in the mobile communications industry."
The Company's GAAP net income for the quarter was $265 million, or $0.51 per share diluted, compared with GAAP net income of $329 million, or $0.63 per share diluted, in the prior quarter and GAAP net income of $911 million, or $1.74 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year. Adjusted net income for the third quarter was $667 million, or $1.27 per share diluted. Adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share exclude the impact of pre-tax charges of $54 million ($40 million after tax) to revenue related to the service interruption experienced in the third quarter, $485 million ($356 million after tax) for the PlayBook inventory provision taken in the third quarter and $7 million ($6 million after tax) for the Company's cost optimization program that was implemented in the second quarter of fiscal 2012. These charges and their related impacts on GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share are summarized in the table below.
Q4 Outlook
Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 ending March 3, 2012 is expected to be in the range of $4.6-$4.9 billion. Gross margin percentage for the fourth quarter is expected to be approximately 38%. BlackBerry smartphone shipments are expected to be between 11 million and 12 million units. Earnings per share for the fourth quarter is expected to be in the range of $0.80-$0.95.
