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ARM sees FY11 sales up 21% to £492 million, with profits up 37% to £230 million

Looking to Windows 8 and smart TV for future growth

ARM sees FY11 sales up 21% to £492 million, with profits up 37% to £230 million
UK chip design company ARM (LON:ARM) has announced its unaudited financials for its fourth quarter, and full year ending 31 December 2011.

Full year revenue was £491.8 million ($785 million), up 21 percent year-on-year.

Profit before tax was £229.7 million (around $357 million); ARM, up 37 percent.

It generated 203.8 million in cash, up 13 percent, and paid out a dividend of 3.48 pence per share during 2011.

Faster than rising tide

"In Q4, and throughout 2011, ARM has seen strong licensing growth, driven by market-leading semiconductor companies increasing their commitment to ARM technology, and more new customers choosing ARM technology for the first time," said CEO Warren East.

"We have also seen our royalty revenue continue to grow faster than industry revenues as the ARM Partnership gains share in our target markets."

During Q4, 1.2 billion chips using ARM IP shipped in mobile phones and mobile computers, up 10 percent year-on-year, while 1.0 billion chips shipped in consumer and embedded digital devices, up 40 percent year-on-year.

Future proof

The company is seeing its Mali GPUs used in more devices with more five licenses signed in Q4 for digital TV, mobile computing and smartphones, bringing the total to 25.

There were also 25 processor licenses signed, including the first three lead licenses for processors based on the new ARMv8-A architecture, plus nine Cortex-A and eight Cortex-M family processor licenses signed.



And looking to the future, ARM pointed out that companies such as Nvidia, Qualcomm and TI are using its chips in their new Windows 8 architectures, while Marvell's ARM-based chips will be used in Google TVs.

Samsung and LG are using ARM IP, using Mali GPUs, in their smart TVs.

Cash rich

ARM's Q4 revenue was up 21 percent to £137.8 million ($217 million).

Profit before tax was up 45 percent to £69 million, with next cash generation through the quarter of £51.5 million.

The company ended 2011 with cash of £424 million (around $658 million), up from £397 million on 30 September 2011.

ARM predicts its Q1 sales will be around $200 million, with full year FY12 sales just over $860 million.

[source: ARM]
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A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.