Earnings: Creative's Q4 Up On Payout From Apple; Sold 2.5 Million MP3 Players

Creative Technology, whose MP3 players are outsold eight-to-one by iPods, reported profit rose 11 times to a record, helped by a big patent settlement payment from Apple. Its net income increased to $92.1 million from $8.2 million a year earlier, the Singapore-based company said. Sales rose 8.6 percent to $424.4 million. The Apple payout contributed $82 million to profit and $100 million to revenue.
Creative sold 2.5 million digital music players during the quarter, compared with a record 21.1 million iPods for Apple. Europe was Creative’s biggest market in the quarter, with revenue contribution rising to 51 percent from 48 percent a year earlier. The share from the Americas fell to 34 percent from 37 percent, while the portion from other parts of the world was unchanged at 15 percent.

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