Crown Castle International (CCI) says network upgrades by carriers helped boost leasing activity by 25% in the first quarter. Net income also increased 25% to $50 million, on revenue of $552 million. The company says it completed the purchase of ground lease related assets from Wireless Capital Partners during the first quarter, and closed its billion dollar acquisition of NextG Networksearlier this month. Crown Castle says that due to the expected contribution of these acquisitions, combined with organic growth, it’s increasing its projections for the remainder of the year. The company is now forecasting full year site rental revenue growth of 10% and adjusted funds from operations growth of 13%.
Security solution provider Gemalto (GTO) says revenue from ongoing operations increased 9% versus the year ago period. Mobile communications, which accounted for more than half the French company’s revenue, grew 11% during the quarter. Gemalto provides the security solution for ISIS, the mobile payments joint venture formed by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. This year Gemalto has also won mobile payments contracts from Chase and from a potentially huge Latin American mobile payments venture called Transfer.
Nintendo (NTDOY) is seeing its console business erode as gamers migrate to mobile phones and tablets. The Japanese company lost $466 million last year, its first annual loss ever. Revenues tumbled 36% to roughly $8 billion dollars. Although competition from mobile devices is probably Nintendo’s biggest long-term challenge, the past year’s results were also impacted by Japan’s tsunami and earthquake, as well as by unfavorable exchange rates for Nintendo.
