Dark days loom for RIM as Q1 FY13 sales down 43% to $2.8 billion
Research in Motion (TSE:RIM) has announced its Q1 FY2013 results for the three months ending 2 June.
Revenue was $2.8 billion, down 43 percent year-on-year.
The company made a net loss of $518 million, compared to a net profit of $695 million a year ago.
Stripping out losses due to goodwill impairment, RIM says it made an adjusted net loss of $192 million.
Cut and cut again
Of course, the main reason this state of affairs - the second consecutive quarter of losses RIM has posted - was the slowing down of hardware sales.
During the three months, RIM shipped 7.8 million handsets and around 260,000 PlayBook tablets.
A year ago, it shipped 13.2 million handsets.
It's also going through a savage restructuring process, which will reduce its workforce by 5,000 in order to reduce costs by over $1 billion.
This will cost at least $350 million during fiscal 2013.
Brave face
"Our first quarter results reflect the market challenges I have outlined since my appointment as CEO at the end of January," said CEO Thorsten Heins.
"I am not satisfied with these results and continue to work aggressively with all areas of the organisation and the board to implement meaningful changes to address the challenges, including a thoughtful realignment of resources and honing focus within the company on areas that have the greatest opportunities,"
Key amongst these is the ongoing strategic review, which could result in the company splitting its handset and enterprise operations into separate companies.
Yet, more worrying is the news that the all-important BlackBerry 10 launch has been kicked into early 2013. That will see the new hardware and software platform out almost a year later than it was originally planned.
Silver thread
On the slightly positive side, however, RIM said that its subscriber base continues to grow in all territories apart from North America.
It's now 78 million, up 1 million from three months ago.
The company also had cash flow from operations of around $710 million. It ended the quarter with an increase pile of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments worth $2.2 billion
RIM expects to post a loss in Q2. Its shares ended the week down 20 percent at $7.54.