Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) said its fiscal fourth-quarter revenues increased 45 percent to $3.33 billion compared to the same quarter a year-ago, and profits fell 22 percent to $878 million, or to 52 cents a share. For the full year, Qualcomm reported profits of $3.16 billion on revenues of $11.14 billion. Quarterly results exceeded the expectations of analysts, who were estimating revenues of $2.86 billion. However, the results fell short of the 60 cents a share that analysts looking for. Results were positively affected by a $2.5 billion payment the company received from Nokia (NYSE: NOK), relating to settlement agreements over licenses.

Highlights from the company’s results:

—MediaFlo results: Qualcomm’s Strategic Initiatives unit, which includes its mobile TV service MediaFlo, dragged down profits by 5 cents a share in Q4, and 22 cents for the year. The unit also included $102 million in operating expenses, primarily related to MediaFLO USA. Quarterly revenues for the unit totaled $5 million, a 400 percent increase over the prior year, and a 25 percent jump over the prior quarter. For the full year, it recorded a loss of $202 million on revenues of $12 million. The outlook for the business unit includes a four cent a share loss in the first quarter 2009, and a 14 cent a share loss for the full year 2009.

—On the economy: The company said it has re-evaluated its outlook just recently and sees contraction even in the holiday quarter. Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs said: “Our guidance reflects slower end- market device growth for 2009 than previously anticipated and a significant contraction in channel inventory in the first and second fiscal quarters. While we are estimating strong growth for CDMA-based devices in calendar year 2009, driven by a shift to emerging markets, this growth is meaningfully less than we would have forecast just a few weeks ago.”

—Business outlook: In the first quarter, Qualcomm expects revenues to fall between $2.3 and $2.5 billion, and earnings per share of 46 cents to 50 cents. For the full year, Qualcomm predicts revenues between $10.2 billion and $10.8 billion and projects earnings per share to be between $2 and $2.10.

Release | Conference call | Transcript (via Seeking Alpha)