Topeka Capital Markets Analyst Says NQ Mobile Earnings Will Show A Drastically Different Company

When asked about expectations for NQ Mobile Inc (NYSE: NQ) earnings, Topeka Capital Markets Analyst Frederick Ziegel told Benzinga that the release will show a “significantly” different company today than it was the last time the company reported.

One reason is that Ziegel thinks the business is really being driven by their mobile device management and gaming businesses.

“Those tend to have lower operating margins than some of their more traditional businesses,” he said. “So we have no idea other than anecdotal comments from them about what’s growing faster than what.”

In addition, the NQ’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO Dr. Henry Yu Lin stepped down last week. Ziegel said “stepping down” is a convenient phrase the company used. He’s not exactly sure what the issue was with the former CEO, who was only 37 years old.

“Obviously, you can have health problems when you’re 37, but statistically that’s not very common,” he said, also noting that it might be issues with someone in his family.

Ziegel said that someone might bring the issue up in the conference call Thursday night, but he doesn’t think NQ will say anything more than what it has already said.

“I think it’s going to be a very differently comprised company today when they report versus when we last left them, which was the end of 2013,” he said.