The manufacturer of Blackberry smart phones – Research In Motion (RIM) on Thursday beat market forecasts, announcing stronger-than-expected fiscal fourth quarter profit. The Waterloo, Ontario based Canadian wireless device company, RIM reported that its revenue surged 84 percent in the fourth quarter, against the revenue in the same quarter a year ago.

The motorcycle sales figures reported Thursday by the two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto indicate that the month of March saw a 14.40 percent drop - from the earlier-year figures of 1,54,443 units to 1,32,210 units. Nonetheless, the drop in March motorcycle sales happens to be lower than the December levels, when the company sold merely 61,546 units.

For the third month in a row, the March sales of automobiles have been better-than-anticipated, bringing a reported 21.87 percent increase in the total sales of Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) during the month. A year-on-year comparison between the sales figures for March indicates that the sales jumped from 70,296 units last year to 85,669 units.

The Bangalore-based Navratna defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has reported a `provisional' turnover of Rs. 4,618 crore for the year 2008-09, indicating a 12 percent increase over the year-before turnover figures of Rs. 4,102.54 crore.

In terms of the turnover per employee, figures depicted a year-on-year increase from Rs. 33.16 lakh to Rs. 38.6 lakh. The value added per employee also depicted an increase from Rs. 16 lakh to Rs. 18 lakh, as BEL exports also went up nearly 15 percent - from $15.43 million to $17.75 million.

In its profit after tax (PAT) statement reported Thursday, the state-managed Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) said that in the financial year that ended March 31, 2009, the company's year-on-year PAT figures showed an increase of 6.9 percent.

While Indian power equipment maker's profit after tax was Rs. 2,859 crore in the financial year 2007, the figures this time round touched Rs. 3,039 crore.

The forthcoming Palm Pre and Web OS might just bring Palm some kind of a turnaround of fortunes, especially after the struggling company reported a 72 percent plunge in the smartphone revenue in the most recent quarter!

The Sunnyvale, California-based company reportedly generated $77.5 million in revenue, after a 42 plunge in the total sales of its smartphone devices to 482,000 units. The company's total revenue figures of $90.6 million also fell short of analysts' expectations of $105 million.