MONTREAL - Research In Motion Ltd. reports a sharp increase in second-quarter earnings compared with a year ago as it shipped more new Blackberrys than expected.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, said Thursday it earned US$796.7 million for the quarter ended Aug. 28 compared with a profit of $475.6 million a year ago.
The profit amounted to $1.46 per diluted share for the quarter, up from 83 cents per diluted share in the same period last year. Revenue totalled $4.62 billion, up from $3.53 billion.
The company says it added 4.5 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts in the quarter to bring its subscriber account base to over 50 million. RIM shipped 12.1 million smartphones in the quarter.
Analyst expectations compiled by Thomson Reuters had called for second-quarter revenue of $4.5 billion and earnings per share of $1.34.
RIM was also expected to ship between 11.8 million and 11.9 million devices during the quarter and have five million net subscriber additions.
