PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
We take a look back at this week’s financial reports from tech giants Samsung, Google and Amazon.
Amazon
Amazon surprisingly made a net loss of $241 million in its fiscal year ending December 31st 2014, compared with a net income of $274 million the year prior.
However, net sales rose 20 per cent to $88.99 billion, compared with $74.45 billion in 2013.
Q4 net sales increased 15 per cent to $29.33 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $25.59 billion in fourth quarter 2013. Net income was $214 million compared to $239 million last year.
“When we raised the price of Prime membership last year, we were confident that customers would continue to find it the best bargain in the history of shopping. The data is in and customers agree – on a base of tens of millions, worldwide paid membership grew 53 per cent last year,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.
Amazon also revealed sales data for its cloud Amazon Web Services (AWS). Revenues in Amazon’s ‘Other’ category, which includes AWS, hit $1.7 billion in Q4 and $5.6 billion for fiscal 2014.
Amazon also said it had over 515 significant AWS service and feature releases in 2014 (up more than 80 per cent year-on-year), with more than one million active customers. AWS also had usage growth close to 90 per cent year-over-year for the fourth quarter.
Samsung
Net profit fell 26 per cent to 23.4 trillion won (£14 bilion) during 2014, with mobile phone sales falling 21 per cent to 107.41 trillion won (£60 billion).
The firm’s semi-conductor division’s operating profit also rose around 36 per cent in the final quarter of 2014, reports BBC.
Comparatively, Apple announced it broke sales records during its financial report earlier this week.
The tech giant announced its full-year revenue for 2014 was $66 billion, up 19 per cent year-on-year.
Its Q4 revenues from the UK hit $1.66 billion, representing nine per cent of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to ten per cent in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Overall, net income in the fourth quarter of 2014 stood at $4.76 billion, compared to $3.38 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Ken Odeluga, a senior market analyst at www.cityindex.com.sg, said: "Google missed Wall Street’s revenue and earnings forecasts due to a mix of currency effects, weaker growth in its core advertising business and continued high spending.
"There’s little in Google’s report that will revive the dour sentiment on the stock that’s led to a net 19 per cent slippage in the shares over the last 52 weeks."
