Foxconn posted a 26 percent fall in net profit in the fourth quarter, in what the company dubbed a "challenging" year.
Foxconn made $742.6 million in October-December, according to Reuters calculations. The outfit made much less than what analysts hoped. Market watchers originally expected rising labour and component costs would seriously impact Foxconn's profitability in 2010. The outfit's strong revenues last year still managed to boost its overall profitability despite a drop of 1.37 percentage points in its gross margin from the 2009 level to 8.15 per cent.
It looks like flogging nearly everything that Apple makes was not enough to pull the company's nadgers out of the fire. With figures like that the outfit would be hoping to come up with a Wizard wheeze to combat losses. It seems that Taiwan's Economic Daily newspaper is saying that the outfit is interested in investing in solar cell manufacturer Neo Solar Power.
Of course when you are having an off year there is nothing better than going back into the industry that smacked you over the nose last time. Foxconn has tried to expand into the solar tech business before. That time a planned acquisition of E-Ton Solar Tech Co Ltd fell through in January.
Lost 26 per cent in the last quarter
Nick Farell
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