Some of the world’s biggest technology firms have announced their results for the final quarter of 2015, as well as for the full year.
IBM announced a difficult set of results for the last three months of 2015. Software revenue was down 11% year-on-year, to $6.8bn. Global technology revenue fell 7% compared to Q4 last year, to $8.1bn, while revenues in its Global Business Services segment were down 10% to $4.3bn.
Big Blue’s revenue from what it describes as its "key middleware products", which includes Websphere, Tivoli and others was also down 10%, and operating systems revenue was down 12%.
Overall its total revenue was just over $22bn, compared to $24.1bn the previous quarter, with gross profit down to $11.4bn from $12.86bn.
The firm’s shares ended trading on 19th January 2016 down 1.48% on the back of the results.
AMD also had a difficult set of results, announcing that revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $958m, leading to an operating loss of $49m and net loss of $102m.
The firm did point to a second straight quarter of double-digit percentage revenue growth in our Computing and Graphics segment,
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Overall in 2015 the firm generated revenue of $3.99bn, a 28% year-over-year fall, which attributes largely to lower client processor sales. In total it had a net loss of $660m for the year.
Things were much more positive for Netflix who beat analyst expectations with its results. The online film and television streaming service added 5.6m subscribers during the quarter, with 4m of them outside the US. This international growth helped make up for missed growth targets domestically.
Analysts had said that Netflix would add 74.3m users, and the firm beat this, ending the final three months of 2015 with 74.8m users. It recently started offering its service in 130 new countries.
The firm boasted revenues of $1.82bn, earning $43m in the fourth quarter, and its shares closed the day’s trading at $107.89 a share, a 3.87% rise.
Microchip Technology pre-announced its results for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2016, after it revealed it had signed a $3.4bn deal to acquire Atmel.
The semi-conductor maker expects to announce revenue of $552M for the previous three months, slightly beating expectations, with a gross margin of 57.9%.
"Microchip’s core business in the December quarter remained strong amidst the turbulence seen in the macro environment. Our revenue and EPS were both above the midpoint of our guidance provided on November 4, 2015, demonstrating the resilience of our business model," said Steve Sanghi, the firm’s President and CEO.
Sanghi described the Atmel acquisition as "our most ambitious undertaking and our largest acquisition ever". He said it will "create a powerhouse in microcontrollers, analog and the internet of things."
Investors seemed less sure though, as the firm’s shares ended the days trading at $41.7, having opened the day at $42.15. It expects to close the Atmel acquisition in the second quarter of the calendar year 2016.
