(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Dutch electronics giant Philips plunged into loss in the third quarter, it revealed yesterday, blaming a patent lawsuit and ever-slowing markets in China and Russia.
The outcome was a sharp ownturn to a net loss of ¤103m ($131m). Philips, which has diversifiedinto high-margin healthcare technology, said it thought that a state anti-corruption drive in China was slowing down sales of its equipment there.
In Russia, consumers were holding off from purchasing household appliances, it said, against a background of slowing growth in the local economy which is also suffering from western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
The Amsterdam-based Philips, one of the world's leading makers of lighting, health care and consumer electronic goods, turned in a comparable net profit of 281 million euros for the third quarter last year.
"We are not satisfied with our overall performance for the third quarter," said chief executive Frans van Houten.
Philips' share price by mid-afternoon fell by 3.8 percent to ¤21,21 on the Amsterdam stock exchange's AEX index.
"We are facing sustained softness in a number of markets such as China and Russia. We were also confronted with an adverse jury verdict with a surprisingly high proposed award to Massimo," Van Houten said during a conference call with journalists. Earlier this month, a US jury ordered Philips to pay $466.8m to American company Masimo for violating two medical device patents.
The eight members of the Delaware jury gave their verdict after a two-week trial, which came after the California-based Masimo had filed a complaint in 2009. "We will appeal the verdict," Van Houten said.
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