Amazon Announces Q4 2008 Results

Seattle, Washington-based Amazon.com has announced its financial results for Q4 2008.

The company, America’s largest online retailer, has reported an operating income of USD 272 million for Q4 2008, which is just a million more than that reported in Q4 2007. The net income of the company in Q4 2008 was USD 225 million, which translates to USD 0.52 per diluted share. This is again more or less flat in comparison to Q4 2007, when the net income was USD 207 million.

For the full year ending December 31, 2008, the company witnessed a net sale of USD 19.17 billion, compared to USD 14.84 billion for 2007. Operating income showed an increase of 28% to USD 842 million, while net income jumped by 36% to USD 645 million.

The latest quarter also saw Amazon introducing a concept called “Frustration-Free Packaging”, which eliminates plastic from packaging materials used by the company. Another initiative was the launch of “Amazon CloudFront”, which is a self-service, pay-as-you-go web service that delivers content and integrates with Amazon S3 service.

Amazon’s Kindle Store service now holds the largest collection of e-books in the world. Q4 2008 saw an addition of 45,000 titles to the store, taking the total collection to 230,000 titles.

Read more about Amazon’ financial performance, here.

SAP Manages To Keep Head Above Water – Q4 2008 Results

Walldorf, Germany-based SAP AG has announced its latest financial results for Q4 2008.

The company has reported a non-GAAP operating income of Euro 1.374 billion, which is a 22% increase above the previous year’s fourth quarter. This has yielded an operating margin of 39.1%, which again is a 4.3pp increase over the corresponding period of the previous year. Total revenues for this quarter were Euro 3.5 billion (non-GAAP), which represents an increment by 8% over Q4 2007. This revenue includes the software-revenue component of Euro 1.3 billion (non-GAAP, a decrease by 7% over Q4 2007) and software-related service-revenue component of Euro 2.7 billion (non-GAAP, an increase by 9% over Q4 2007). The net income the company experienced in Q4 2008 is Euro 920 million, non-GAAP.

For the entire year 2008, SAP has reported an operating income of Euro 3.3 billion, representing an non-GAAP increment by 18% over fiscal 2007, yielding an operating margin of 28.2%. Total revenues for the entire year were Euro 11.7 billion, a jump by 15% over the previous year. The company experienced a net income of Euro 2.2 billion, which is a 14% increase over 2007 net income in non-GAAP terms. However, the GAAP calculations show a lowering in net income by 2% over the previous year (GAAP net income for 2008 = Euro 1.9 billion).

Read more about SAP’s latest financial results, here.

IBM Bucks IT Industry Trend In Q4 & Full Year 2008 Results

Amongst all the IT industry biggies, IBM has posted results that bring cheer. The Armonk, New York-based venerable IT giant has posted a record revenue of USD 103.6 billion for the entire 2008 (up by 5% from 2007), clocked an impressive pre-tax profit of USD 16.7 billion (up by 18% from 2007), declared an EPS of USD 8.93, and a jaw-dropping cash flow of USD 14.3 billion – all in these times of doom and gloom.

Q4 2008 results showed an upturn in net income by 12% to touch USD 4.4 billion. Software revenues increased by 3% in comparison to previous year’s last quarter and touched USD 6.4 billion. However, other parameters gave thumbs-down: revenue from Global Technology services slid down by 4% to touch USD 9.6 billion, while that from Global Business services came down by 5% to hit USD 4.7 billion. Systems and Technology revenues showed the biggest drop: by 20%, to USD 5.4 billion. That IBM’s once-renowned but now obsolete System i servers are on their way out becomes clear by their poor off-take: revenues from System i  servers dropped by 92% this quarter.

Read more about IBM’s triumph on the balance sheet, here.

Sony Ericsson Reports Losses In Q4 08

London, UK-based Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson, has in its latest announcement reported a loss of Euro 262 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, and a total loss of Euro 113 million dollars for the entire year ending 31 December 2008. The company attributes this loss to contracting consumer demand, worldwide.

The declining consumer demand saw a reduction in sales in Q4 08 by a whopping 23% year-on-year, to touch Euro 2,914 million. While income before taxes (IBT) worked out to Euro -261 million, net loss stood Euro 187 million for Q4 08 and Euro 73 million for the F.Y. 2008. However, the company has a healthy net cash position of Euro 1,072 million, enough to tide over its immediate working capital requirements.

Sony Ericsson has been undergoing massive cost-cutting measures across the board, which led to its operating expenses coming down by Euro 180 million per annum.

The company is forecasting a further gloomy picture for the financial year 2009, quoting Mr. Dick Komiyama, President, Sony Ericsson. The global handset market has been predicted to fall further in the ensuing year, with a lowering in the average selling price (ASP) all round.

Read the latest financial statement from Sony Ericsson, here.