By Greg Johnson, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Aug. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
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.
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.
