Sharp’s Operating Profit Falls on Lower Sales of Mobile Phones

Sharp Corp, which is Japan’s biggest mobile device maker, reported it’s first quarter operating profit dropping 14%. Operating profits are sales, minus the cost of good sold and their administrative/logistical expenses. Sharp’s fell to 36.4 billion yen, compared to 42.3 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Sharp’s presence in Europe has been one closely tied to specific Operators – notably Vodafone (NYSE: VOD). However in it’s domestic market it is a goliath amongst vendors. Sharp’s representatives are looking to TVs, handsets, and LCD panels are the cash cows for the company, in the short term, with LCD panels particularly picking up the fiscal slack in the meantime.

Handset sales at the company, which supplies to NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) Inc., KDDI Corp., and Softbank (OTCPK: SFTBF) Corp., Japan’s three wireless- phone operators, declined 38 percent to 129 billion yen in the quarter, Vice President Toshishige Hamano said.

Seems a number of handset vendors are feeling the pinch recently – I wouldn’t be surprised if we some consolidation in the next 12-24 months…..

[Via: Bloomberg.com]