Facebook’s mobile ad revenue explodes by 151% in Q2

Facebook’s focus on mobile continued to pay off in the second quarter as the sector accounted for a record 62 per cent of total advertising revenue.

For the quarter ended June 30, Facebook reported total revenue of US$2.91 billion, up 61 per cent year-on-year. Net income on a GAAP basis was US$1.09 billion, more than double the 2013 figure of US$488 million.

Total advertising revenue increased 67 per cent to reach US$2.68 billion, meaning mobile generated US$1.66 billion. Mobile advertising revenue made up just 42 per cent of the total in the same quarter last year and 59 per cent in the first quarter of 2014.

Mobile ad revenue grew 151 per cent year-on-year, with mobile monthly active users totalling 1.07 billion as of June 30, a 31 per cent increase compared with a year earlier. There were a total of 1.32 billion monthly active users across the social network, a 14 per cent increase.

Facebook had an average of 654 million mobile daily active users during June, up 39 per cent year-on-year from 469 million in June 2013. Total daily active users stood at 829 million, a 19 per cent year-on-year increase.

Nokia reports profit of €284 million, up from €12 million a year earlier

As Nokia transitions to being an infrastructure-led business following the sale of the bulk of its loss-making handset business to Microsoft, its Q2 results show improving prospects for the company.

“This performance, along with the many conversations I have had with customers, partners, employees and others in my first quarter as CEO, gives me a high degree of confidence about our future,” Rajeev Suri, president and CEO of Nokia, said.

The company issued a positive outlook for the rest of the year, stating it expects full-year non-IFRS operating margin for the Networks business to be “at or slightly above” its target long-term range of five per cent to 10 per cent. This compares with an earlier guidance of “towards the higher end” of that range.

It also said it “expects Nokia Networks’ net sales to grow on a year-on-year basis in the second half of 2014.

For the second quarter, it reported a (non-IFRS) operating profit of €281 million (US$377 million) for its biggest business unit, Nokia Networks, down 14 per cent year-on-year. Revenue in the unit was €2.57 billion, down eight per cent.

While sales in the Mobile Broadband business group increased by six per cent to €1.36 billion, the performance of its Global Services unit was less impressive, with sales decreasing by 19 per cent to €1.19 billion.

The company noted that it had divested businesses that were not consistent with its strategic focus, and exited certain customer contracts and countries. For the Mobile Broadband unit, the company benefited from strong sales in both LTE and core networks, partially offset by lower sales of radio technologies other than LTE.

The company noted lower recognition of revenue related to smartphone sales by the former Nokia Devices & Services unit and reduced sales to personal navigation device customers, offset by Microsoft becoming a more significant licensee and sales to vehicle customers.

Nokia also today named Ramzi Haidamus as president of the Technologies unit and member of the group leadership team, effective September 3. He has spent the bulk of his career at Dolby Laboratories.

The company also saw sales of €497 from its “discontinued operation” (the former Devices & Services unit), down from €2.58 billion. The unit was sold to Microsoft during the second quarter.

Operating profit for this unit was €3.08 billion, compared with a prior-year loss of €126 million, due to the gain of €3.2 billion resulting from the sale.

On a group level, the company reported a profit attributable to shareholders of €2.51 billion, compared with a prior year loss of €266 million, on revenue of €2.94 billion, down from €3.16 billion.

For 2014, the company benefitted from a €2.54 billion gain related to the discontinued Devices & Services business. In 2013, this unit contributed a loss of €168 million.

On an operating level, the company saw a profit of €284 million, compared with a prior-year profit of €12 million.

Following completion of the Microsoft deal, the company ended the period with net cash of €6.5 billion, compared with €2.1 billion at the end of Q1.

Qualcomm net income up 42% in quarter to end-June

Qualcomm announced results for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 ended June 29, 2014, which saw revenues up nine per cent to US$6.81 billion, and operating income come in a US$2.08 billion, up 24 per cent year-on-year and four per cent sequentially.

Net income for the period amounted to US$2.24 billion, up 42 per cent year-on-year and 14 per cent sequentially.

“We are pleased to report another record quarter with revenues, earnings per share and chip shipments reaching all-time highs, driven by broad-based demand for our industry-leading 3G/4G chipset solutions,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm. “Looking forward, although we have lowered our near-term financial outlook for the licensing business, we are pleased to be raising our fiscal year earnings per share guidance on better than expected performance in our semiconductor business.”

Microsoft Q2 results negatively impacted by Nokia losses

Microsoft announced a seven per cent fall in its quarterly profits, as its performance was hurt by losses at its new Nokia handset division.

The company said that profits fell to US$4.6 billion, from US$4.97 billion a year, ago, thanks largely to a US$692 million loss at Nokia handsets.

Last week the company announced 12,500 job cuts at the Nokia division, as well as 5,500 redundancies across the rest of the company as it starts to tie the handsets division into the rest of the company’s services.

The company has around 127,000 employees.

Revenues for the quarter came in at US$23.4 billion, compared to US$19.9 billion a year ago. The Nokia business contributed US$1.99 billion to current year revenue.

Microsoft sold 5.8 million Lumia smartphones, and 30.3 million non-Lumia phones following the completion of the Nokia acquisition. Low price point devices drove a majority of the Lumia smartphone volumes, while non-Lumia phone volumes were simply said to have "performed in line with the market for this category of devices".

Apple reports 12% Q2 net profit improvement to US$7.75 billion

Apple posted a 12 per cent rise in its second quarter profits as iPhone sales offset declines in sales of its iPad tablet.

The company said that it sold 35.2 million iPhones during the three months to the end of June, an increase of 13 per cent from the same time in 2013. It was particularly boosted by sales in China, but also Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa.

However, sales of the iPad tablet continued to decline, down by nine per cent to 13.3 million as that product was hurt by increased competition from both Android tablets, but also Amazon’s own range of tablets that are tied to its book store.

Revenue rose six per cent to US$37.4 billion, while net profit was up by 12 per cent to US$7.75 billion.