TomTom Reports Net Loss of £870m

[Darren]

TomTom profits have nose-dived with the Dutch company reporting a £870m net loss this morning.

Although there was a pre-tax profit of £72m for the quarter, down 46% on the previous year, revenue fell 17% and they have written off Euro 1bn from the value of TeleAtlas which it purchased for Euro 2.9bn only a year ago.

Shares have fallen below £2.60 for the first time compared with their all time high of £59.00. TomTom are now admitting there is a possibility that the terms of its bank loans "could be breached".

TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn said, "Despite the tough market conditions TomTom traded profitably and was significantly cash generative in the quarter. We expect trading conditions to continue to be challenging throughout 2009 and we are adjusting our cost base accordingly."

TomTom still dominate the satnav market in many territories and despite the grim results they are well placed to ride the recession.

Harold Goddijn, "All of this gives me confidence that our strategy is right and that we will successfully transition into a more broadly based company."
_________________
Darren Griffin

[andy-c1]

well if they don't buck up fast they will go under there is no doubt as from what i hear more and more people will never buy a TT again and I am slowly going down that road too
_________________
TomTom 5001

[mikealder]

What is needed though is some serious competition, I don't see any new devices from other manufacturers that can come close in terms of capability or ease of use to that offered by TomTom.

What I would like to see from TomTom is a consolidation of software to get the existing products working as they should do, recent software upgrades have ruined a number of device ranges.

Lets face it an 18 month old x20 device will have cost the purchaser £275+ when new, and when it was new all the advertised features worked. Look at that purchase now though, more money expended on newer maps and a device that is clearly sub standard.

This is a sure fire way to annoy loyal customers, I would like to see a few basic faults sorted out before yet another barrage of new devices and more useless bells and whistles are added to the unit.
Will we will have to put up with wireless rear view cameras through the TomTom next or even something to turn the cars lights on and off - a bit like the weather service - useless - Mike

[SpeedCam]

Agree with you Mike, TomTom have too many products all offering very similar functionallity which some customers will find confusing. They need to sort some simple problems:

1. Fix existing bugs and problems before releasing new devices.
2. Standardise on common components, eg use a single mounting system for all devices a One XL should be able to use a x40 mounting bracket.
3. Value add services (Live & Map updates) pricing needs to be reviewed, how many customers will be paying £8 for the Live services. TomTom have invested alot of money in backend infrastructure, reduce the monthly costs to £5 and double the number of subscribers.

I would like to think that this loss will give TomTom a big kick up the backside, but many of us long time users will know how bad their customer services and product development really are.

[technik]

There goes any chance of a map update then.

The budgets already blown.

x40 series were a waste of time and money considering HD traffic seems worse than existing GPRS subscription at present, and the brackets are not compatible with x20/30 series.

TomTom try to do too much at once.

[Trevor1234]

Despite all the grouses about Tomtom its still the best device around and is the market leader. And, if they are feeling the pinch I would guess that some of their lesser competitors will fall by the wayside in the near future.
_________________
Tomtom Go 720.
Navcore 9.510
Central and Western Europe v855.2884
GPS World Traffic cameras
Home 2.7
iPhone 3G

[dhn]

Not the market leader in NA. Garmin is. And their results are much healthier than those of TT. See here
_________________
David

[emjaiuk]

[Kremmen]

As I drive around I note that an awful lot of cars now have a SatNav device on show.

I think the problem that TT (and the others) have is that the people who want SatNav now have it and it's not the sort of thing you buy regularly.

The SatNav boom is over and they need to realise it, cut back, and improve reliability and customer support apparently.
_________________
DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3

[matthewj]

[jimbo_hippo]

MikeAlder's post is spot on. The last paragraph should be in all our sig's! He's said in a nutshell how everyone feels after just about every single post on here.
_________________
Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

[gatorguy6996]

Even more worrisome is that TeleAtlas generated even less revenue last year than in 2007, losing 9million euros all by itself. Little headway in selling maps to other pnd manufactures with fully 73% of all the maps sold going directly to TomTom. Even one of their better customers. Mio/Mitac, has just recently started offering Navteq mapping in some of their devices. Trading money internally will result in further losses, in value as well as revenue. New customers are their only hope, and so far it's not happening. The huge costs involved in outbidding Garmin looks more and more like a huge mistake in judgement.
_________________
Garmin 1695 / 255 / 760 w/MSN - Droid w/Google nav + Navigon - Navigon 8100T - Dakota10 - GPSMap76C - GeoMate Jr.

[cornz]

Perhaps if they hadnt sh1t on all the PPC customer they had then things wouldnt have been so bad.
I refuse to buy a stand alone unit as my PPC is more than capable of running TT7.
Also, the piracy argument they were throwing about is also b0ll0cks as any fool can download the updated maps and the file to register them on any other tom tom device.
Serves 'em right in my book..l

[jimbo_hippo]

One lesson here is to remain on top of your game in case of harder times. In this economic climate when the waters rise, only those with their head above water will survive. If you're at an all time low in the eyes of users when a squeeze arrives it's a dangerous game.

In reality, a lot of the stuff we go on about relates to the higher models. I would guess there are millions of Tom Tom One users rattling round the roads without much to moan about and this may keep the cash rolling in. However, as the hardware becomes less of an issue (and where competition is most fierce) then subscription based services become the revenue generator and you need more customer confidence than TT currently garner.

We all loved our Tom Tom's once. This place is full of folk who tried loads of systems and chose Tom Tom about 18 months or longer ago. When Im not angry I'm really rather sad that a product I chmpioned and encouraged family members and friends to buy has turned into a bunch of money grabbing corporates who value a spreadsheet above respect.

I'd love to see a Tom Tom stand at a PUBLIC (not just industry) trade show. They'd get some seriously irate visitors gracing their carpet. Shame they'd put poor public-facing staff on it so they'd get the flack. Then again, as Tom Tom seem to employ people from Care In The Community and the dole queue for front line jobs I'd actually feel quite sorry for em.
_________________
Tom Tom GO 720
Orange M3100, Orange SPV M5000
TomTom Navigator 6, Destinator 6
Holux GPSslim

[Kremmen]

I think TT should rethink their whole SatNav strategy.

They should produce one or two pieces of hardware (normal, widescreen) that can be bought with varying levels of software.

When the mood suits, funds become available or extra facilities are required you can purchase the add-ons/upgrades as a separate install.

You don't have to buy a new PC because you want to install Office as an extra feature!

This way funds would trickle in regularly via upgrades rather than staggered lumps as owners decide to upgrade the whole unit.
_________________
DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!