NVIDIA reports $253m profit for fiscal 2011
Graphics firm bounces back from $68m loss
Graphics processor manufacturer NVIDIA has seen a dramatic turnaround from last year's $68 million loss, offering up profits of $253.1 million for the financial year just ended.
Revenue for fiscal 2011 reached $3.5 billion, up some from last year's $3.3 billion. A bumper Q4 saw a net income of $172 million (compared to $131 million for the same period last year), in part thanks to a $57 million credit to operating expenses stemming from a recent settlement paid by Intel.
Following a long-running dispute over official compatibility between NVIDIA and Intel technologies, the pair last month entered into a six-year, $1.5 billion licensing agreement, and dropped all remaining legal issues.
NVIDIA'S Q4 revenue was $886 million, up 5 per cent from $843 million for the same period last year.
The firm is increasingly looking to mobile, rather than its traditional desktop PC stomping ground, with its Tegra platform increasingly prevalent in smartphones, tablets and netbooks.
"These strong results underscore the larger story of NVIDIA's transformation," said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA president and chief executive officer. "Even as we are extending our leadership in visual computing, our investment in mobile computing and parallel computing is now driving our growth.
"Tegra is positioned center stage in the revolution in super phones and tablets, while Tesla is becoming an essential processor for supercomputing. I have never been more excited about NVIDIA's prospects."
For fiscal 2012, NVIDIA expects its revenue to be up 6 to 8 per cent from the fourth quarter.