CUPERTINO, California – During its second quarter, Apple slashed prices and introduced a new lineup of products, including faster, more powerful models of its Power Mac G4 and a new titanium PowerBook laptop.
Now, for the second quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $43 million, or $.12 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $233 million, or $.64 per diluted share, achieved in the year ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $1.43 billion, down 26 percent from the year ago quarter, and gross margins were 26.9 percent, compared to 28.2 percent in the year ago quarter. International sales accounted for 48 percent of the quarter’s revenues.
“We’re in a challenging economic environment, but given that, we feel good we’ve returned the company to sustainable profitability,” said Fred Anderson, Apple’s chief financial officer today.
The quarter’s results included a $3 million net favorable impact from non-recurring items including an after-tax gain of $89 million resulting from the sale of approximately 23 million shares of ARM Holdings plc. and an after tax charge of $86 million related to the write down of certain equity investments. Without these non-recurring items, the Company’s net profit for the quarter would have been $40 million, or $.11 per diluted share. Apple shipped 751 thousand Macintosh units during the quarter.
“Apple returned to profitability in this tough economic climate by launching several innovative new products,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “During the quarter we shipped the Titanium PowerBook G4, widely regarded as a major breakthrough in notebook computers; Mac OS X, the world’s most advanced operating system; iTunes, the easiest way to create a music library on your computer and ‘burn’ custom music CDs; and iDVD and SuperDrive, our revolutionary software and drive that together enable users to create and ‘burn’ their own custom DVDs. It was a great new product quarter, and there’s still more to come.”
Sluggish sales, increased competition and a glut of inventory led the Cupertino-based computer maker to a loss of $247 million, or 73 cents a share, in the previous quarter, which ended Dec. 30.
Apple said it expects to make $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion in revenues in the second half of the fiscal year, for a yearly revenue estimate of $5.6 billion to $5.8 billion.
