At a Glance
Other earnings, excluding one-time gains or charges unless noted:
TECHNOLOGY:
* Gateway Inc., the world’s No. 2 direct seller of PCs, said its fourth-quarter profit fell 2.4% to $126 million, or 38 cents a share, hurt by a shortage of computer processors and sales delays from concern about the Y2K computer bug. Sales grew 6.3% to $2.45 billion. Gateway said on Jan. 5 that results would miss initial estimates, citing the reasons above. * Inktomi Corp. said its fiscal first-quarter loss narrowed to $6.42 million, or 6 cents a share, including acquisition-related costs, from $8.48 million, or 9 cents, a year ago. Excluding the acquisition-related costs, it lost 2 cents. Analysts had expected a 4-cent loss. Revenue tripled to $36.1 million from $10.8 million. The software firm said it will report profit before the end of the calendar year for one or more quarters.
* Lucent Technologies Inc., the world’s leading phone-equipment maker, said its fiscal first-quarter profit fell 23% to $1.18 billion, or 36 cents a share, as sales stalled on lower demand for some products and delayed shipments of others. Sales totaled $9.91 billion, little changed from $9.84 billion for the year-earlier period. Lucent warned two weeks ago that the period’s profit would be 36 cents to 39 cents a share. Analysts revised their expectations to an average 37 cents a share, according to a First Call/Thomson Financial poll. Results for the year-ago period were restated to reflect the acquisitions of Ascend Communications Inc., Nexabit Networks Corp. and several other companies.
* Quantum Corp., which makes computer hard drives and has a computer-tape and storage business, unexpectedly reported a profit for its fiscal third quarter, earning $5.2 million, or 6 cents a share, as cost-cutting improved margins and sales of hard drives grew. Revenue slipped 7.3% to $889 million from $959.1 million. It had a loss of $76 million, or 92 cents, for the year-ago period. Analysts had expected a loss of 31 cents a share for the latest quarter.
* Sun Microsystems Inc. said its fiscal second-quarter earnings jumped 35% to $353.4 million, or 21 cents a share, a penny better than analysts had forecast, on record sales of its powerful server computers to companies doing business on the Internet. Sales rose 27% to $3.55 billion.
* Sybase Inc., which makes database software, reported fourth-quarter earnings of $26.3 million, or 31 cents a share, as it cut spending on marketing and product development. Revenue edged up 1.7% to $237 million. The results soundly beat analysts’ forecast of 21 cents a share. For the year-earlier quarter, Sybase had a loss of $14.6 million, or 18 cents a share.
* Universal Electronics Inc., a maker of remote controls and keyboards, said its fourth-quarter earnings climbed 58% to $3.8 million, or 51 cents a share, exceeding its own forecast of 48 cents, on strong sales to cable TV operators. The Cypress-based company, which is the leading maker of universal remotes, said revenue jumped 36% to $33.3 million from $24.5 million.
* VeriSign Inc., a maker of Internet security software, reported net income of $4.5 million, or 4 cents a share, 2 cents higher than analysts’ average estimate, as revenue doubled to $27.7 million from $13.2 million. VeriSign lost $2.5 million, or 3 cents, for the period a year ago.
OTHER INDUSTRIES:
* Genentech Inc. said fourth-quarter profit from operations rose 30% to $48.1 million, or 18 cents a share, matching estimates, on soaring sales of new drugs for breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Revenue for the biotechnology company rose 18% to $358 million. Sales of Herceptin, the breast-cancer drug, were $54.5 million for the quarter and $188.4 million for all of 1999, giving it the highest first-year sales of any cancer product in the U.S. Genentech shares rose 69 cents to $158 in NYSE trading.
* Northwest Airlines Corp. reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit from operations of $28 million, or 30 cents a share, as more traffic and higher average fares helped the airline recover from a strike last year. Analysts had expected 24 cents. Revenue rose 16% to $2.56 billion. Northwest posted a loss of $117 million, or $1.49 a share, a year ago.
* Sears, Roebuck & Co. said its fourth-quarter earnings grew 29% to $740 million, or $1.98 a share, because it discounted fewer items during the holiday shopping season and saw improvements in its credit business. Sales rose a slight 2.3% to $12.5 billion. The retailer had said Jan. 4 that it expected its profit to be up roughly 20%, leading analysts to raise their forecasts to $1.77 a share from $1.50, according to First Call/Thomson Financial. So-called same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, rose 2.4%.
Reuters contributed to this report.
