“A 60 percent plunge in HTC Corp.’s stock this year pushed its market value to below its cash on hand,” Tim Culpan reports for Bloomberg. “That means investors were effectively saying the smartphone maker’s brand, factories and buildings were worthless.”
“HTC’s market price fell Monday to NT$47 billion ($1.5 billion), below the NT$47.2 billion cash it had at the end of June,” Culpan reports. “A drop of as much as 9.8 percent in its stock before a late rally signaled investors put no value on the rest of the company. ‘HTC’s cash is the only asset of value to shareholders,’ said Calvin Huang, who has a NT$46.50 price target on the stock at Sinopac Financial Holdings Co. in Taipei. ‘Most of the other assets shouldn’t be considered in their valuation because there’s more write-offs to come and the brand has no value.'”
“Its forecast for third-quarter sales of as much as 48 percent below analyst estimates follows a 35 percent cut to projected revenue in the preceding period and indicates that the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company has little chance of regaining market share in the short-term,” Culpan reports. “To reverse sales that have fallen by more than 75 percent since the September quarter of 2011, HTC plans to cut costs and focus on the high-end market where profits are higher.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve failed to compete with crap Chinese fragmandroid junk, so now we’ll try to take on Apple with our worthless brand.
Beleaguered HTC must have a death wish.
SEE ALSO:
Beleaguered HTC shares plummet after record quarterly loss – August 7, 2015
Beleaguered Samsung’s days in the sun are over in smartphone market – August 4, 2015
Samsung will never overcome Apple’s advantage in mobile device profitability – July 30, 2015
Apple’s iPhone owns 92% of smartphone industry’s profits – July 13, 2016
HTC’s M9 phone not selling as well, piling up in warehouses – June 15, 2015
ZDNet mobile expert: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and HTC One M9 disappoint; back to Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus – April 16, 2015
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tayster” for the heads up.]