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Non-Tech : EARNINGS REPORTING - surprises, misses & more -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 2MAR$ who wrote (664)	6/21/2001 8:01:50 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 762

RIMM ( run $27 to $32) earnings match estimates, Q2 forecast affirmed By Ian Karleff TORONTO, June 21 (Reuters) - Research In Motion (NasdaqNM:RIMM - news) (Toronto:RIM.TO - news) reported second quarter earnings on Thursday that matched analysts' estimates, while revenues came in as expected despite softness in wireless device sales in the corporate market. ADVERTISEMENT The Waterloo, Ontario-based company also relieved investors by saying it is sticking to its guidance for the second quarter, ending Aug. 30, and maintaining its ``positive outlook'' for the second half of the year as new network agreements come on stream or are in the midst of being signed in Europe and the United States. ``It looks pretty good on the surface...they are maintaining guidance and that's good,'' said Edel Ebbs, an analyst at UBS Warburg Canada. Research In Motion, which makes the popular BlackBerry wireless device, said earnings in the quarter ended June 2 rose to $3.8 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with earnings of $400,000, or 1 cent a share, in the year ago period. Revenue in the quarter rose to $77 million, up 184 percent from $27.1 million in the corresponding period of 2000. About 65 percent of total revenues were corporate sales of BlackBerry devices, which link to corporate e-mail accounts, while 27 percent of sales were to individual consumers. BlackBerry not only diverts corporate e-mail to a handheld device, but also has calendar and address book capabilities and can access the Internet. Total subscribers for BlackBerry swelled to 210,000, up 46,000 in the quarter, with an additional 2,000 companies using the product to connect employees to their desktop computer e-mail, for a total of 9,700 companies. Ebbs said revenues came in a bit lower than her estimates, which were at the top end of analysts' forecasts, and blamed the weakness on an inventory buildup at one of the company's resellers, Aether Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:AETH - news) Analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting earnings of 5 cents a share and revenues of $74 million to $78 million . RIM is one of the few makers of wireless devices not to warn investors of slowing sales because of bloated inventories, although analysts have lowered sales targets over the past few months from the $90 million range. Sales fell below the original estimates because hardware shipments to Internet service provider AOL Time Warner (NYSE:AOL - news) in the fourth-quarter did not materialize in the first-quarter of the year, said RIM executives in a conference call with investors. Shares of RIM closed up $1.86 on Nasdaq at $29.40 on Thursday, outperforming the Nasdaq Composite index, which rose 1.3 percent. The shares were up C$2.68 on the Toronto Stock Exchange at C$45.17. FORECASTS SOLID RIM said it still expects to report second-quarter sales of about $80 million based on strong purchases by U.S. network carriers. Product shipments to Europe starting at the end of the second quarter should result in third-quarter sales in the range of $95 million to $105 million. The company dismissed speculation of pricing issues with AOL as ``completely erroneous'', and said its target of $370 million to $390 million in full year sales is void of any further shipments to the Internet service provider. ``Erroneous reports regarding price disputes have no substance. We are not counting on any reorder, and will provide updates on details,'' said RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie in a conference call with investors. RIM said it is on track to make commercial shipments to British Telecom (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BT.L) unit BT Cellnet in the U.K. in the second quarter, with initial volumes in the thousands, rising to the 10,000 range within a few months of launch. Balsillie said RIM is working on forming distribution agreements with major network carriers in Europe and the United States, and expects to have 12 relationships with such carriers in the next six to 12 months. The new agreements will be with companies building high-speed general packet radio services (GPRS) networks, and will involve a BlackBerry device that has the ability to handle voice transmission, said Balsillie. ($1 equals $1.53 Canadian