Rambus Posts $12.5 Million Loss for the Second Quarter

Late last year, as well as during the first quarter of 2010, Rambus' earnings received significant boosts from its patent lawsuits. This allowed the technology licensing company to post a fairly high revenue for the January-March period. Now, in absence of these settlement payments, Rambus was unable to match the performance of said first quarter. In fact, final figures for Q2 were far less formidable on a sequential basis.

Q2 revenues amounted to $38.9 million, which is 44.0 percent more than the same period in 2009 but 76.0 percent less that Q1 2010. The main reason for this is the payment received following an agreement with Samsung in the first quarter of the ongoing year. Furthermore, the net loss for the April-June period was of 12.5 million, while operating costs and expenses were of $45.5 million. Out of those, $5.2 million were spent on current litigations. As far as the entire first half of 2010 goes, total revenues were of $200.7 million, also because of the Samsung agreement. This corresponds to a jump of 269.5 percent over the first two quarters of last year.

“This quarter showcased great progress in our diversification strategy with the GE Lighting license agreement,” said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus. “We also saw solid patent and solutions license revenues driven by strong worldwide sales of computers, consumer electronics and game consoles.”

The company's net income between January and June was of $138.4 million, as opposed to the $41.4 million loss recorded last year. When translated into diluted net income per share, the figure turns into $1.18 net income, instead of the $0.40 loss during the first half of 2009. What remains to be seen is how lucrative Rambus's current legal and licensing actions prove to be, and if they manage to yield payments large enough to match the Q1 performance.