Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh audio card maker Creative Technology Ltd. recently posted results for its forth quarter and fiscal year 2001, which ended June 30, 2001. Although the company posted a net loss both for the quarter and the year, Creative noted that it actually achieved an operating profit for both.
Creative reported sales for the quarter of US$234.2 million, and sales for the year of $1.229 billion — down $73.5 million for the quarter and down $115 million for the year, year over year, respectively. The bulk of the company’s losses are attributed to a write-down in investments, however — otherwise Creative would have actually posted a net income of some $2.5 million for the quarter, and $49.1 million for year. The results are still down from last year, but not bad given turbulent economic conditions.
Creative president Craig McHugh said that Creative’s slipping year-over-year revenue numbers are indicative of weakness in Asian and European markets.
“Notwithstanding, we significantly reduced our inventory levels and operating expenses, and we posted positive operating income,” said McHugh.
McHugh also said that Creative is focusing its future efforts around the company’s core audio businesses, which yield its highest margins. The company has seen limited success with other products, like modems, Webcams, and multimedia software. McHugh said that Creative expects to see overall revenues reduced as it transitions to this new business model, but the company expects to see increased profitability for the first quarter of fiscal year 2002.
In addition to the Sound Blaster Live! for Macintosh, Creative makes a line of Mac-compatible USB-based MP3 players under the Nomad marque. The players work with Apple’s iTunes software.