Exactly one month ago, on October 18, he announced Apple results for the fourth fiscal quarter (Q4). And they were nothing but famous. These were the best numbers the company had ever had. Let's briefly recall them:
A very successful quarter
Apple generated a total of $4 billion in Q20,34 revenue and a quarterly profit of $4,31 billion. For some comparison, let's look at the numbers for the same quarter in 2009. Back then Apple managed with revenues of 12,21 billion and net quarterly profit of 2,53 billion. Converted into percentages, you can see that the increase in sales is exactly 66,6% and net profit increased by 70%. These are certainly beautiful numbers, but how are the others doing? What kind of Microsoft?
U MicrosoftWe must be careful, because while Applu's fiscal year begins on October 1, just like most companies in the US, Microsoft takes June 1 as the beginning of the fiscal year. Therefore, for an accurate comparison, we must MicrosoftLet's take the results for the first quarter (Q1) of 2011. They were as follows: Microsoft managed with revenues of 16,20 billion and net profit of 5,41 billion. While revenues Microsoftwere a quarter lower than in Apple, with net profit it is exactly the opposite. MicrosoftIt was successful, mainly thanks to Windows 7, generate just a quarter more profit than Apple. Yes, we can say that the results Applu are fantastic, but compared to others in the industry, they are not such unique numbers.
Money and more money
In connection with the published financial results AppTwo main things began to be discussed in the media.
The first and important piece of information was that despite the great fanfare with which the results were announced, Wall Street reacted somewhat differently. Shortly after the numbers were released, the share price fell Apple by six percent. The blame was on analysts, who were concerned about how much of the profit was contributed by a single product. This was iPhone 4 and contributed more than 40 percent to the total profit. They also did not like the decline in gross margin. It is interesting that analysts mostly agreed that there would probably not be any more significant growth in share prices for some time. With a month's delay, we can say that they were very accurate. On the day the results were published, the share price was slightly below $300 per share, now the price is around $304 with minor fluctuations.
The second interesting news from which the media had a cucumber harvest was the information that Apple has 51 billion dollars at his disposal, which he can use as he pleases. It is true that this amount offers AppThere are almost unlimited possibilities for acquiring potential competitors or companies in any industry. However, it is necessary to look at everything from a somewhat more sober perspective. Yes, Apple has finance to buy such giants as Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia (total value of the company's shares is 37,8 billion) or China's number one search engine Baidu (value of shares is 36 billion). The question remains why all this Apple did? Isn't it better to destroy the mobile competition "right on the field"? Apple can't buy Google, Baidu's only potential competitor, so let Google fend for itself. The news spread to the media that he would Apple could buy Sony. Not that it would Apple had no finance (Sony is currently worth 35 billion), but they differ quite a lot in terms of business, even though they share some products. In addition, there could be a problem on the Japanese side, as they would certainly not want to hand over this purely domestic company to a foreign country. There has also been a lot of talk recently about buying Facebooku. This step would seem more feasible, because Apple has its Ping and connection to Facebookem would be a great step. I don't mean the basic connection that already works today, I mean the full integration of Ping into this social network. Moreover, Steve Jobs has already shown himself to be a great visionary several times, perhaps he could see another great opportunity in Facebooku. Apple moreover, it would certainly know and be able to use their more than 500 million users.
Looking back at past acquisitions, however, we find that Apple he had never ventured into such a big deal before. There were more acquisitions, for example, it bought the music streaming service LaLa.com, but we haven't seen any integration with iTunes yet.
Another reason whyoneck potential purchase may not happen is that Apple it has not paid any dividends for nine years. Jobs always managed to convince shareholders that they should save for "worse times". He succeeded in this year's general meeting as well, but the pressure from the big shareholders has already intensified a lot. However, according to my estimation, the pressure of the shareholders will ease again, because the concerns about the sales of the iPad can perhaps be definitively gone.
Only the coming months will help us decipher the company's further development. We may see a CDMA version as early as the beginning of the year. iPhone 4 for the American operator Verizon and a new generation of iPad could be announced in January. All of this will then be properly discussed at the next general meeting, expected in March next year. Until then, we can only wait.
A short explanation of several terms from the text:
Fiscal year – budget or tax year. This is the period between two annual accounting closings. It does not have to coincide with the calendar year.
Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 – these are abbreviations of individual quarters. You will meet them in English texts.
gross margin – the difference between sales and cost of goods sold. Operating costs etc. are included here.
acquisition – this is a legal and economic takeover of the company
Great article ;).
I doubt that anyone will buy FB... it's cute speculation, but otherwise a good article. But we have to realize that the NET profit is only around 4 billion and that doesn't buy much... it's true that he can manage with this money, but apple he needs to manage mainly in his field and invest in the development of his own products, not in social networks or search engines...
You're right, 4 billion is a lot Apple they won't buy, but the free 51 billion can be spent on some bigger company. And I also agree that buying EA or Sony probably doesn't seem like a likely move. But you can't say that social media isn't an industry Applu. So what is Ping?
Well, I think that Zuckenberg will never sell FB, there's no reason, it's his child and he obviously doesn't need the money anymore :). But I think that this is a big gold mine and it will be even bigger in the future.