HTC slips into red as sales tumble
Microsoft also in talks to add Windows to Android phones made by Taiwanese firm
Taiwan's HTC slid into the red for the first time in the third quarter, with sales hit hard by fierce competition in the smartphone market, supply-chain constraints and internal turmoil.
Underscoring a dramatic decline for a company that boasts award-winning smartphones but has failed to develop a durable brand of handsets, it posted an operating loss of NT$3.5 billion (HK$918.6 million) as sales for the quarter tumbled by a third from a year earlier.
The losses were wider than expected and most analysts said the immediate future looked bleak.
"Fundamentally, there are a lot of things that need to be fixed," said Laura Chen at BNP Paribas, adding that the firm needed to work on marketing, supply-chain management and streaming its product line. "No sign of recovery anytime soon."
At a net level, HTC booked a loss of NT$2.97 billion, bigger than an expected loss of NT$1.8 billion, according to Thomson Reuters SmartEstimates. That compares with a net profit of NT$3.9 billion last year.
But after sliding in early trade, HTC shares rebounded to trade up 1.5 per cent yesterday, boosted in part by a note from Fubon Securities citing the possibility of the company teaming with a mainland IT manufacturer either through a potential co-operation deal or merger.