revenue

The chip recovery is under way, with quarterly sales forecast to increase year-over-year for the first time in 2009, according to a report from market researcher iSuppli on Tuesday.

Revenue from chip sales is expected to rise by 10.6 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2008. This would mark the first time this year that revenue has risen compared to the same period a year earlier, according to Dale Ford, senior vice president, market intelligence, for iSuppli.

"The seeds of the current recovery were sown in the second quarter," said Ford. At … Read more

Although there are more signs lately that the worst of the recession is over, Apple is one of the few companies that has seen little of the effects of the recession to begin with.

We'll find out if the company's good health has remained during the quarterly checkup Monday afternoon. According to Wall Street, it's been another good three months for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company. Apple's stock price jumped 43 points during the quarter to close at $185.35. Because of a string of impressive earnings announcements dating back a year ago, the launch of … Read more

Updated at 3:10 p.m. PDT: adding comments from CEO Paul Otellini and CFO Stacy Smith.

Intel's third-quarter revenue jumped $1.4 billion over the second quarter, though year-to-year revenue and profit comparisons were down.

The world's largest chipmaker is struggling to lead the PC industry out of a brutal downturn that saw demand collapse earlier in the year.

Revenue came in at $9.4 billion, beating Wall Street expectations, which hovered at just more than $9 billion. Revenue, however, was down from the $10.2 billion reported in the year-earlier period.

On a year over year … Read more

After a preliminary agreement last week the Financial Accounting Standards Board made it official Wednesday, accepting proposed changes to how companies recognize revenue.

The change will be of particular interest to companies like Apple, which has stuck to a rather bewildering accounting practice of recognizing revenue from sales of the iPhone and Apple TV over a period of two years, or eight financial quarters. The practice was put in place on those two products to avoid charging a fee for every product upgrade--something Apple was told it would need to satisfy accounting regulations that require companies to establish a value … Read more

Though not yet a done deal, a tentative change in accounting rules could have a dramatic effect on the earnings reports of tech companies, and in particular, Apple.

Apple stands to gain a lot from a new draft of rules that governs how companies recognize revenue from subscriptions, as Fortune noted. Though it still needs final approval from the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the change could mean that Apple will stop recognizing revenue for its highly successful iPhone over a two-year period, the length of a standard wireless contract, and instead recognize it as soon as a phone is sold. … Read more

Updated at 2:30 p.m. PDT: adding statements from Dell.

Intel and Dell are indicating that PC demand may be increasing but it's not clear how sustained or strong this trend is.

The news Friday that Intel raised guidance is not a surprise, according to Ashok Kumar, an analyst at investment bank Collins Stewart. "It's in line with seasonal trends and reflects strong back-to-school build in the PC food chain," he said.

Kumar added, however, that the strength of actual sales to end users of PCs won't be known until later. "The ramifications … Read more

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Intel on Friday raised its guidance for third-quarter revenue, citing stronger-than-expected demand for microprocessors and chipsets.

Revenue is now expected to be $8.8 billion to $9.2 billion, compared to the previous guidance of $8.1 billion to $8.9 billion. Analysts had been expecting $8.55 billion in revenue. The company also said it expects gross margins to be in the upper half of the previous range of 51 percent to 55 percent.

The news comes on the heels of Dell's better-than-expected earnings report Thursday. The company … Read more

Well, it looks like Twitter will actually do it.

In an interview with VentureBeat on Thursday, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone elaborated on the company's goal to put out a revenue model before the end of the year. He said that yes, it will involve offering paid accounts to businesses that use the microblogging platform for marketing, customer relations, publicity, and what-have-you. That's something Twitter has been hinting at for about a year now.

There's not a whole lot of detail available. But paid accounts will definitely involve statistics and analytics that aren't available through Twitter's … Read more

SAP on Wednesday reported a 4 percent gain in earnings for the second quarter despite lower sales.

For the quarter ended June 30, the business software giant netted 423 million euros ($600 million) compared with 408 million euros for 2008's second quarter. The company attributed the gain to cost cuts and to stronger growth in its profit margin, the net difference between sales and earnings.

"Despite the challenging economic conditions, the strength of our business model combined with a strong cost discipline has proven itself once again by enabling us to report another quarter of strong operating margin … Read more