Motorola in Pain. Dell to Rescue?

Motorola has had a new CEO since January 1, 2008. Zander is gone. Greg Brown is at the helm.
And now there is talk of breaking the company up into pieces, spinning off the mobile handset unit. Carl Icahn also continues to lobby for a position on the Motorola Board. On January 23, 2008, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) reported Q4 and 2007 financial results and its stock price hit a 52-week low of $9.43. The results are dismal, but let’s take a quick look at them anyway. >>>

Featured Videos

Cisco Hits New 52-week Low

Yesterday, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) reported its financial results for Q2 2008 that met analyst estimates but forecast a slow Q3 reflecting cutback in technology budgets in the US. This news sent its stock plummeting to around $23 after hitting a 52-week low of $22.30 on January 23. Market cap is around $140 billion. This morning, the 52-week low number has changed to find a new low of $21.77. >>>

Qualcomm and Nokia Both Show Headroom

Guest Author Vijay Nagarajan has covered Qualcomm in great detail. Here are some of his prior writings on Qualcomm’s
Legal Battles , its aftermath, the impact on its margins, the Nokia war, and its effect on Qualcomm’s valuation.

In a nutshell, following the ITC ruling that held Qualcomm guilty for infringing on Broadcom’s patents, lawsuits seem to have snowballed for Qualcomm with Nokia seeking fairer licensing terms. These legal battles put its margin-heavy licensing business model in jeopardy. Vijay values the company at $47.2 if Qualcomm gets its way in the law suit and $40.6 if Nokia wins, which could tumble down to $36 in a domino effect situation.

Vijay has also pegged Interdigital (Nasdaq: IDCC) as a key acquisition target for Qualcomm.

With that as a background, let us look at the latest financial reports from Qualcomm and Nokia. >>>

Juniper Continues to Grow Confidently

Juniper is probably my favorite company in the networking equipment segment.

Yesterday, Juniper (NASDAQ: JNPR) reported its results for Q4 and fiscal 2007 that ended December 31, 2007. Q4 revenue was $809.2 million, up 36% y-o-y and 10% sequentially. GAAP net income was $122.9 million or $0.22 per share on a diluted basis, up 73% y-o-y and 44% sequentially.

For the fiscal year 2007, revenue was $2.84 billion, up 23%. GAAP net income was $360.8 million or $0.62 per share on a diluted basis, compared with a GAAP net loss of $1,001.4 million, or $1.76 per share for 2006. Its headcount increased by 218 employees to 5,879 compared to Cisco’s 63,050. I like it that they grow without hiring ridiculous numbers of people. >>>

Polycom Surprises Wall Street

Yesterday, Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) reported its results for Q4 and fiscal 2007 that ended Dec. 31. Earlier coverage on the company is available here and here.
My in-depth interview with CEO Bob Hagerty is here.

For Q4, net revenues were $263.3 million, up 41% y-o-y and 9.7% q-o-q. GAAP net income was $22.8 million, or 25 cents per diluted share, down 12% y-o-y and up 15% q-o-q. Polycom bought back $50 million worth of its stock and still has $140 million allocated for its share repurchase program. >>>

Apple Needs to Execute, No Longer Innovate

Yesterday, Apple released its earnings for its first quarter of fiscal 2008 that ended December 29, 2007. Revenue was $9.6 billion, up 35% y-o-y and 54% sequentially driven by the strong sales of Macs, iPhones, and iPods. Net income was $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share, up 58% y-o-y. Gross margin was 34.7%, up from 31.2% last year. Its cash balance increased by over $3 billion in the quarter and now rests at over $18.4 billion. Read my earlier post on what I think it might do with it.

In the quarter, Apple shipped 2.32 million Macs, a y-o-y growth of 44%. Mac products and services accounted for 47% of the revenue in the quarter. Its OS Leopard, released on October 26th, has already raked in revenue of $170 million during the quarter. >>>

Cisco Trading Near 52-week Lows

In 2007, Cisco benefited strongly from the trends of online video and network convergence with its home video (Scientific Atlanta) and Telepresence ventures. Net sales were $34.9 billion (up 23%) in fiscal 2007 and it added $9.6 billion in the first quarter (up 17% y-o-y and 2% q-o-q). It will be announcing its second quarter results on 6 Feb. During fiscal 2007, it repurchased 297 million shares for $7.8 billion. >>>

IBM Also Looks Safe

Yesterday, International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) officially released its financial results for Q4 and the fiscal year following preannouncement on Monday. Fourth quarter revenue was $28.9 billion, up 10% y-o-y and diluted earnings were $2.80 per share, up 24%y-o-y. For the full fiscal year 2007, total revenues were $98.8 billion, up 8% and diluted earnings were $7.18 per share, up 18%. Share repurchases amounted to about $18.8 billion in 2007. >>>

HP Looks Recession Proof

Gartner and IDC have just released preliminary results for Q4 that declare Hewlett Packard Co (NYSE:HPQ) as the leader of the worldwide PC market in 2007. Gartner says it has 18.2% share versus Dell at 14.3%. In 2006, HP and Dell were in a tie for the top slot.

It was not just the PC business that did well at HP in 2007. HP showed an overall growth of 14% with net revenue of $104.3 billion in fiscal 2007. In 2008, it expects revenue to be approximately $111.5 billion. Since Q4, it acquired NUR Macroprinters Ltd. (NURMF.PK) for $117.5 million to increase its presence in wide-format printing. >>>

What Will SAP Acquire Next?

On Monday, preannouncements from IBM and SAP brought a fresh breath of air to the tech sector. And today, there are two major acquisitions in the enterprise software market. Looks like the dealmaking in the enterprise software sector will continue in 2008. >>>