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Handspring beats Street
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January 16, 2001: 6:20 p.m. ET
Handheld computer maker's revenue surges 600 percent on Visor sales
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Handspring Inc., a maker of handheld computers that compete with those made by Palm, on Tuesday reported fiscal second quarter revenue and earnings that beat analyst estimates.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Handspring (HAND: Research, Estimates) said that its second quarter loss, not including non-cash charges, was $7 million, or 7 cents per share, versus a loss of $3.8 million, or 12 cents per share, in the same period last year. The mean analyst estimate was a loss of 16 cents per share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial.
 Revenue soared to $115.6 million for quarter ended Dec. 30, a 64 percent increase over the fiscal first quarter and a 600 percent increase from the same period last year, reflecting strong holiday demand for Handspring's Visor line of handheld computers. Continued channel expansion in the U.S. retail market, along with new distribution channels in Asia, also contributed to the strong quarter, the company said.
Analysts had expected Handspring's revenue to total $103 million, according to First Call.
Handspring started shipping three new products in the fourth quarter: VisorPhone, Visor Prism, and Visor Platinum. The company expanded its domestic retail distribution with additional retail partners such as Target and Wal-Mart. In addition, it expanded its international presence with new distribution in Asia and the Middle East.
Handspring was founded in 1998 by Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky, who left Palm after that company was acquired by 3Com. 3Com has since divested its holdings of Palm (PALM: Research, Estimates), which dominates the market for handheld computers. Handspring's devices work on the Palm operating system.
Last month, Handspring announced an agreement to acquire Bluelark Systems, developers of a Palm operating system Web browser and proxy server that enable fast, high quality Web access from handheld computers. With this acquisition, Handspring intends to make Web browsing a core feature of its product offerings moving forward.
Handspring's stock lost $2.75 to $44.88 in regular trading Tuesday. After hours, it gained $2.88 to $47.75. The company's earnings were reported after the close of regular trading. 
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Handspring
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