Trucking Technology Firms Post Quarterly Profit Gains
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By Greg Johnson, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Aug. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. strong>Technology firms Qualcomm Inc. and Trimble Navigation Ltd. each posted higher earnings for its most recent quarter, while Xata Corp. reported higher software sales.
Qualcomm reported companywide earnings of $1.04 billion, or 61 cents per share, in its fiscal third quarter ended June 30. In the same period a year earlier, Qualcomm posted income of $767 million, or 47 cents.
Qualcomm said total sales rose to $3.6 billion from $2.7 billion.
The company said the Qualcomm Enterprise Services division, which sells in-cab communication devices and fleet optimization software packages to fleets, shipped about 1.5 million terrestrial-based and satellite-based mobile information units, according to a 10-Q filing. This tally amounted to a $33 million increase in QES equipment and services sales.Ìý
Global Positioning System software maker Trimble Navigation Ltd., which recently announced its purchase of PeopleNet Communications Corp., posted a quarterly net income of $53.7 million, or 43 cents a share, up from $6.4 million, or 5 cents a share. a year earlier.
Trimble reported total revenue of $407.2 billion, compared with $333.4 billion a year ago.
The company also said its Mobile Solutions unit, which sells products to trucking companies, lost $2.7 million in the quarter, compared with a profit of $324,000 for the same period in 2010.
Trimble said it lost a major customer during the 2010 quarter but did not provide additional details.
Meanwhile, despite a rise in software sales, Xata Corp. reported a loss of $436,000, or 4 cents, in its fiscal third quarter ended June 30.
In the same period a year earlier, the Minneapolis supplier of fleet management software posted income of $626,000, or 2 cents a share.
The company posted revenue of $17 million in the 2011 quarter, compared with sales of $18 million in the year-ago period.
Xata said software revenue was $11.4 million in the quarter, including monthly subscriptions for its XataNet and Xata Turnpike products and monthly fees for its MobileMax fleet-management system.
Xata also said hardware sales dropped to $4.9 million from $5.6 million.
