Qualcomm managed to eke out an increase in profits despite a dip in sales during its third fiscal quarter, the company reported today.
Shipments of Qualcomm’s CDMA-based MSM chips rose 10 percent over last year to 103 million units as UMTS smartphones and demand for data-centric products drove demand, said Steve Mollenkopf, president of Qualcomm’s CDMA Technologies, in a conference call with analysts.
Qualcomm’s CDMA-based device shipments came in at between 134 million and 138 million units with an average selling price of between $183 and $189, according to company estimates. The increases in Qualcomm’s CDMA business helped boost profits four percent to $767 million, or 47 cents per diluted share.
Analysts polled by Reuters and Yahoo! Finance estimated the company would earn 54 cents per share on sales of $2.63 billion.
Qualcomm’s profits stem in large part from its extensive patents on CDMA technology. The company’s CDMA technologies segment accounted for 62 percent of its overall sales, which came in at $2.7 billion, a two percent decline from last year when the company posted sales of $2.75 billion.
Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs addressed the company’s beleaguered Flo TV business in a conference call with analysts, saying the company was in discussions with partners and was considering a number of alternatives for the subsidiary, which has failed to gain significant traction in the U.S. market.
Jacobs said at Qualcomm’s recent Uplinq conference that the company was still actively pursuing its plan to divest Flo TV and believed the technology could have promising uses for offloading network traffic through datacasting.
The Flo TV business is part of Qualcomm’s Strategic Initiatives (QSI) segment, which also includes the 4G spectrum the company recently won in India’s BWA auction. The segment’s sales fell 33 percent over last year to $6 million, resulting in a net loss of $4 million.
Looking ahead, Qualcomm expects to post sales between $2.67 billion and $2.93 billion in the fourth quarter to bring in profits of between 39 cents and 43 cents per diluted share.
Filed Under: Infrastructure