Research in Motion, maker of BlackBerry smartphones, had 20% increase after-hours trade after its release of an upbeat earnings report Thursday .
RIM added 3.9 million BlackBerry subscribers to reach 25 million on an 84% rise in revenue. Some attribute the success to the BlackBerry Storm. RIM's Balsillie did not give specific sales data for new devices, but said the BlackBerry Storm was driving "record levels" of new subscriber additions at the company's carrier partners.
RIM also officially acknowledged that it had sold 50 million BlackBerry smartphones.
Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 was $3.46 billion, up
24.5% from $2.78 billion in the previous quarter and up 84% from $1.88
billion in the same quarter of last year.
The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 83% for devices, 12% for service, 2% for software and 3% for other revenue. Revenue for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2009 was $11.07 billion, up 84% from $6.01 billion last year. RIM shipped approximately 7.8 million devices in the fourth quarter and approximately 26 million devices during fiscal 2009.
Approximately 3.9 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was approximately 25 million.
Net income for the quarter was $518.3 million, or $0.90 per share diluted, compared with net income of $396.3 million, or $0.69 per share diluted, in the prior quarter and net income of $412.5 million, or $0.72 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year. There was no material foreign exchange impact on RIM's tax rate in the quarter. For the fiscal year 2009, net income was $1.89 billion, or $3.30 per share diluted, up 46.3% over fiscal 2008.
Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2010 ending May 30, 2009 is expected to be in the range of $3.3-$3.5 billion. Gross margin for Q1 is expected to be approximately 43-44%. Net subscriber account additions in the first quarter are expected to be between 3.7 - 3.9 million. Earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to be in the range of $0.88-$0.97 per share diluted.
The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and long-term investments was $2.24 billion as at February 28, 2009, compared to $2.49 billion at the end of the previous quarter, a decrease of $250 million over the prior quarter. Uses of cash in the quarter included capital expenditures of $252 million and the acquisition of intangible assets of $222 million.
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