Telefónica Calls the Bottom in Spain

Telefónica reported a 1.3% year-on-year rise in revenues in the second quarter to 12.73 billion euros on an organic basis. Although revenues fell 9.1% in Spain and 4.4% in Germany, there was a 0.1% increase in the U.K. In Brazil, revenues climbed 1% and in the rest of Latin America 11.3%. Telefónica said revenues have reached the bottom in its home market of Spain.

César Alierta, Executive Chairman, added: “First-half results started to reflect the benefits from the investments in network modernisation carried out in recent quarters, which are enabling us to further differentiate our offering in key markets. This increased differentiation resulted in an acceleration of commercial activity in the second quarter, with net additions of two million mobile contracts, five million smartphones and over six hundred thousand pay TV customers. All these are high-value services contributing to boost average revenue per customer and to reduce churn." source: Telefónica presentation

Orange feels the Squeeze

Orange reported a 3.4% year-on-year decline in revenues to 9.79 billion euros on a comparable basis in the second quarter. Mobile services revenue in France fell 9.5% and18.6% in Spain, but overall revenues in Africa and the Middle East climbed 9%.

Orange Group CEO Stéphane Richard said: “We’ve maintained our commercial momentum, despite a hyper-competitive environment, largely due to the investments we’ve made in very high-speed broadband, fibre and 4G. The quality of Orange’s fixed and mobile networks is widely recognised and this has allowed us to differentiate ourselves even more. It is clear that consumers are not just focused on price but are also sensitive to quality and service."

Orange said it increased capital spending by 3.1% in the first half of 2014 as it expanded the coverage of its LTE and fibre networks. source: Orange presentation

Vodafone Shrinks Further in Europe

Vodafone said its service revenue fell 4% year-on-year on an organic basis in the quarter ending June 30th to 9.4 billion British pounds (15.95 billion US dollars). Service revenue fell 8.7% in Europe, more than offsetting a 7.6% rise in the rest of the world.

Continuing to invest heavily in LTE and fibre, Vodafone said it had 22,900 4G base stations in Europe at the end of June, covering 52% of the population, up from 18,200 at the end of March. source: Vodafone presentation

Facebook Flies Higher Still

Facebook reported a 59% year-on-year rise in revenue to 2.91 billion US dollars, stripping out the impact of currency movements, for the second quarter. The world's leading social network said its advertising revenue rose 65% to 2.68 billion dollars, while mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 62% of advertising revenue, up from approximately 41% of advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2013. source: Facebook statement

Apple Leans on the iPhone

Apple reported a 6% year-on-year increase in revenue to 37.43 billion US dollars for the quarter ending June 28th. The rise was fuelled by a 9% increase in iPhone revenues, offsetting a 8% fall in iPad revenues. Apple forecast that it will generate revenue of between 37 billion and 40 billion for the current quarter. That  compares with 37.5 billion dollars in the same quarter last year. source: Apple statement

Huawei Races Away from Ericsson

Huawei said it generated sales revenue of 135.8 billion Chinese yuan (21.89 billion US dollars) in the first six months of this year, an increase of 19% year-on-year, with an operating margin of 18.3%. That puts Huawei well ahead of Swedish rival Ericsson, which recorded revenues of about 15.22 billion dollars in the first half. However, unlike Huawei, Ericsson no longer makes handsets.

Cathy Meng, Huawei's CFO, said: "Revenue and profit for the first half of 2014 are in line with our expectations. Driven by increasing investments in LTE networks worldwide, Huawei has further solidified its leadership position in mobile broadband. Rapid growth in software and services helped maintain steady growth in our carrier network business. Our efforts in the enterprise business have begun to pay off....Our flagship smartphone, the Ascend P7, is being sold in more than 70 countries and regions." source: Huawei statement

LTE Fuels Fast Growth at Verizon

Verizon reported a 5.7% year-on-year increase in revenue in the second quarter to 31.5 billion US dollars.  Boosted by growing take-up of LTE, wireless service revenues rose 5.9%, while strong demand for fibre connections lifted wireline consumer revenue 5.3%. source: Verizon presentation

Flattish Quarter for Ericsson

Ericsson, the world's leading supplier of mobile networks, said its sales in the second quarter fell 1% year-on-year to 54.8 billion Swedish krona (8 billion US dollars) on an organic basis.  Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, said: "Sales in the quarter year-over-year were driven by growth in the Middle East, China and India, as well as continued capacity business in North America. This was offset by, as previously communicated, lower revenues from two large mobile broadband coverage projects in North America that peaked in the first half of 2013, and reduced activity in Japan." source: Ericsson statement

Google Sees Strong Revenue Growth

Google said it revenues rose 22% year-on-year in the second quarter to 15.96 billion US dollars, driven by a 23% increase in advertising revenues generated by Google owned sites and apps. However, the average cost per click paid by advertisers fell 6% year-on-year. source: Google presentation

Communications is the only Cloud on Intel's Horizon

Intel reported an 8% increase in revenues in the second quarter to 13.8 billion US dollars. PC Client Group revenue was up 6% year-on-year to 8.7 billion dollars, while Data Centre Group revenue was up 19% to 3.5 billion dollars. The world's largest chip maker said Internet of Things Group revenue was up 24% year-on-year to 539 million dollars, but Mobile and Communications Group revenue fell 83% to just 51 million dollars.

"Our second-quarter results showed the strength of our strategy to extend the reach of Intel technology from the data center to PCs to the Internet of Things," said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. "With the ramp of our Baytrail SoC (systems on a chip) family, we have expanded into new segments such as Chrome-based systems, and we are on track to meet our 40 million unit tablet goal. In addition, we hit an important qualification milestone for our upcoming 14nm Broadwell product, and expect the first systems to be on shelves during the holidays." source: Intel statement