Telecommunications firms DDI Corp. and IDO Corp., which plan to merge with international call operator KDD Corp. in the fall, released their 1999 earnings reports Monday showing lower pretax profits despite higher sales.
DDI posted a consolidated pretax loss of 5.27 billion yen for the business year that ended March 31 against a profit of 50.87 billion yen the previous year, the company said.
The group's net loss came to 10.47 billion yen, despite a 22.4 percent increase in sales to 1.53 trillion yen. Company officials attributed the dismal earnings to a rise in promotion costs for its cdmaOne cellular phones, and losses incurred by its withdrawal from the Iridium satellite communications project.
Operating profits for the period dropped 71.9 percent from the previous year to 19.6 billion yen, Japan's second-largest telecom operator said.
IDO's financial report for the year that ended in March showed a 9.9 percent drop in pretax profits from the previous year to 24.3 billion yen.
IDO recorded a 16.7 percent rise in sales to 479.23 billion yen, but logged a net loss of 993 million yen due to a 252 billion yen special loss incurred from its withdrawal from analog cellular services, the company said.
IDO also announced that President Satoshi Nakagawa would step down at a shareholders' meeting in June and that Executive Vice President Masao Doi would take the helm until the three-way merger takes place in October.