Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Nokia all recorded revenue rises, while BT reported a 3% year-on-year decrease, though a 1% profit before tax rise off the back of EBITDA growth.
Big brands showed a shift towards focusing on core business, such as Meta cutting jobs in its metaverse arm, Reality Labs, to centre its efforts on generative AI development.
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BT: Revenue down, but UK-focus plan on track
BT saw its revenue drop 3% to £5.2 billion, with the telco giant citing “challenging non-UK trading conditions” in its Global and Portfolio divisions and weaker handset trading in its consumer service division.
BT did see pre-tax profits jump by 1% to £427 million, with adjusted earnings growing 4% to £2.1 billion in the three months leading up to December 2024.
The telco giant reported a record Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) build rate, having now reached more than one million premises for a fourth consecutive quarter, while its FTTP footprint now spans more than of the country and is on track to pass 4.2 million premises in FY25.
BT’s ongoing streamlining efforts are set to continue as CEO Allison Kirkby told investors it was making progress towards “becoming fully focused on the UK”.
Since taking the reigns, Kirkby has focused on selling off non-UK parts of the business as a way to focus the company, including potentially selling off its global division.
Central to the plan, BT has brought in Jon James to lead a UK-centric BT Business, with Kirkby saying the move will enable Bas Burger, the CEO of BT Global Services, to “dedicate his time to the optimisation of our international business segment, which is progressing to plan”.
Adding to the UK-centric plan sees the telco selling off its data centre business in Ireland to Equinix, a deal Kirkby highlighted to investors during the earnings call.
“Our ongoing modernisation continues at pace, delivering a further step-up in fibre build and take-up, customer satisfaction and EBITDA,” Kirby told investors. Benefits from our cost transformation more than offset lower revenue outside the UK and weak handset sales.”
Following BT’s earnings call, Capacity revealed that Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire and one of the world’s richest individuals, reduced his stake in BT Group for the first time since his initial investment in the company.
Apple: CEO claims ‘best ever quarter’ despite just meeting expectations
Brighter news for Apple which saw revenues jump 4% up to $124.3 billion and quarterly diluted earnings per share rise 10% to $2.40.
Apple recorded double-digit growth, though the company just about scraped past analyst expectations.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, however, called it the company’s “best ever quarter” with holiday season demand driving sales.
Despite being late to the party on generative AI compared to rivals, Apple cited demand for Apple Intelligence, its OpenAI-powered AI feature, as helping drive a positive quarter.
Despite being limited to new Apple devices and a small pool of languages, Cook moved to assure shareholders that Apple Intelligence “will go mainstream”.
Cook confirmed that Apple Intelligence will expand to new languages to more languages in April, including French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Korean, adding: “Once you start using the features, you can’t imagine not using them anymore.”
“Through the power of Apple silicon, we’re unlocking new possibilities for our users with Apple Intelligence, which makes apps and experiences even better and more personal,” Cook said.
Apple did, however, report a noticeable drop in iPhone sales in China, 11.1%, as it continues to lose ground to local rivals Huawei.
In total, Apple confirmed it has a base of 2.35 billion active devices, up from 2.2 billion in 2024.
Thomas Husson, VP principal analyst at Forrester, said Apple’s ties to consumer play means it's not quite as tied to generative AI compared to Google, Meta or Microsoft and the subsequent impact of DeepSeek.
“While AI will force Apple to redesign its interface and experience, it is not yet a key sales driver for smartphones,” Husson said. “If anything, DeepSeek’s smaller model is more of a validation of Apple Intelligence since it will rely more heavily on a local on-device AI approach increasingly based on edge technology.”
Meta: AI, smart glasses central to ‘year of intensity’
Meta reported a revenue rise of 21% up to $48.39 billion in the months leading up to December, surpassing analyst expectations of $46.9 billion.
Ad revenue helped drive the company’s Q4 performance, as its ad business brought in more revenue than any other quarter in the last two years.
The results brought a close to Meta’s “year of efficiency” which saw the company remove multiple layers of management, cut stuff in underperforming areas like its metaverse division, and refine its distributed work model.
Meta also continues to double down on AI as well as working on its smart glasses project, both set to core focuses this year, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg telling investors: “I'm excited to see these efforts scale further in 2025.”
Mike Proulx, VP research director at Forrester said Meta’s ‘year of efficiency’ looks set to be succeeded by “the year of intensity”.
“Zuckerberg clearly set expectations that clarity will come to the trajectories of Meta’s long-term initiatives, which includes the metaverse,” Proulx said. “While Meta is likely to succeed with its open source approach to AI, there’s simply nothing to point to in Horizon Worlds that portends success with the metaverse.
“Despite the company’s name, Meta’s North Star is, and should be, AI. The wildcard? DeepSeek, which suddenly and aggressively emerged as a direct threat to Meta’s race to be the global open source AI standard. For Meta, this likely lights a fire atop of their already expected ‘intense’ year.”:
Microsoft: AI revenue soars as cloud growth continues
Microsoft exceeded expectations with revenue climbing 12% to $69.6 billion, while operating income jumped 17% to $31.7 billion in the months leading to December 2024.
The tech giant's AI business has now surpassed $13 billion in annual revenue run rate, marking a 175% year-over-year increase, with CEO Satya Nadella telling investors the company is focused on helping customers “unlock the full ROI of AI”.
Microsoft Cloud revenue grew 21% to $40.9 billion, with CFO Amy Hood saying the company remains “committed to balancing operational discipline with continued investments in our cloud and AI infrastructure”.
The company saw strong performance across divisions, with Productivity and Business Processes revenue up 14% to $29.4 billion, while Intelligent Cloud revenue rose 19% to $25.5 billion, driven by 31% growth in Azure and other cloud services.
More Personal Computing revenue remained relatively flat at $14.7 billion, though Windows OEM and Devices revenue increased 4% while Xbox content and services saw a modest 2% rise.
Microsoft returned $9.7 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the quarter, as the company continues to balance growth investments with shareholder returns.
Lee Sustar, principal analyst at Forrester said that while AI is racking up gains from its AI offerings, operating expenses are on the up, suggesting maintaining AI momentum is “getting expensive”.
“Tensions with OpenAI, Microsoft's planned $80 billion in investments in data centre, and a potential AI services price war driven by DeepSeek pose new challenges,” Sustar said. “Investors and customers are watching closely to see if Microsoft can continue to deliver after the company noted a 70% decline in gross margin for Microsoft Cloud as the result of scaling out AI infrastructure.”
Nokia: Growth surge amid data centre push, beats forecasts
Nokia surpassed market expectations with a 9% revenue jump to $5.98 billion, while earnings per share reached $0.18, beating analyst forecasts of $0.13 and driving pre-market trading up nearly 7%.
The telco giant reported its highest comparable gross margin since 2015 at 47.2%, while maintaining a strong year-end net cash balance of €4.9 billion. The company returned €1.4 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.
Nokia's strategic pivot towards data centres appears to be paying off, with CEO Pekka Lundmark telling investors they represent “one of the best growth opportunities” for the company. The move comes as Nokia maintains its strong position in 5G, now supplying approximately 45 of 60 operators with standalone core networks.
Lundmark also moved to distance Nokia from aggressive price competition, particularly in markets where Chinese vendors are present, telling investors: “We are not participating in the most aggressive price wars.”
Looking ahead, Nokia projects comparable operating profit for 2025 between €1.9 billion and €2.4 billion, with stable Mobile Networks sales and growth expected in Network Infrastructure. The company is targeting €1.1 billion in operating profit from its Technologies division.
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