earnings

LG Electronics reports Q3 profit on handset earnings

LG Electronics said today it swung a third-quarter profit based largely on the success of its once-ailing handset division.

South Korean electronics maker posted a net profit of 157.1 billion won ($138.5 million) for the three months ended September 30, a dramatic recovery from the loss of 413.9 billion won ($366 million) it recorded in the year-ago period. However, third-quarter revenue fell 4 percent to 12.38 trillion won ($10.93 billion) due to a decline in demand for feature phones.

LG's mobile division recorded a third-quarter profit of 22 billion won ($19.4 million), compared … Read more

Zuckerberg: People don't get how good mobile is for us

Mark Zuckerberg feels misunderstood. At least when it comes to how Facebook will flourish in the era of mobile computing.

Facebook's co-founder and CEO, speaking today on the company's third-quarter conference call with Wall Street analysts, stressed that investors just don't get what mobile can and will mean for Facebook's business -- in every way imaginable.

Mobile users spend more time on Facebook than people do when they access the social network on desktop computers. What's more, he said, they come back more frequently. In fact, Zuckerberg continued, some 70 percent of mobile users return … Read more

Zynga to lay off 5 percent of workforce

Zynga, the social-gaming company, is laying off 5 percent of its employees and shutting down its Boston office with plans to also close its U.K. and Japan studios.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus told his staff the news in a memo sent out today. The action affects roughly 140 of Zynga's 2,800 employees.

"We don't take these decisions lightly as we recognize the impact to our colleagues and friends who have been on this journey with us. We appreciate their amazing contributions and will miss them," he wrote. "This is the most painful part … Read more

As Zynga falters, so does Facebook

Players are spending 20 percent less on Zynga games, which means Facebook is receiving less money from those games as well.

"Overall, gaming on Facebook isn't doing as well as I'd like," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's third-quarter earnings conference call today. He said the rest of Facebook's gaming network has been growing -- monthly payments revenue from other games has increased by 40 percent since last year -- but Zynga's numbers have fallen.

Zynga's payment revenue has gone down 20 percent since last year's third-quarter earnings, Facebook'… Read more

Facebook earnings slightly above Wall Street estimates

Facebook reported third-quarter earnings that came in slightly above Wall Street's estimates, and said that 14 percent of its ad revenue now comes from mobile devices.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at 12 cents in the third quarter ended September 30, a penny higher than analysts were expecting. Revenue rose more than 32 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $1.26 billion. That was also a bit higher than the Street's estimates.

Facebook's stock, which has been trading around $19 a share -- half of its May IPO price of $38 a share -- closed up … Read more

Netflix misses subscriber target for third quarter

Netflix added fewer streaming subscribers in the third quarter than it needed to stay on track to reach full-year growth targets, but the company's financial performance was in line with analyst expectations.

Netflix, the online movie-rental service, reported a third-quarter net profit of $8 million, or 13 cents a share, on revenue of $905 million, the company said after the close of trading today. Revenue was up 10 percent from the $821 million the company reported in the same period a year earlier.

Netflix said that for the quarter ending September 30, the number of U.S. streaming subscribers … Read more

Yahoo's stock gets Mayer bounce while the market falls

This is an unusual twist. While investors are selling off stocks across the board -- the tech-heavy Nasdaq index was down more than 1 percent in midday trading -- Yahoo is up 5.5 percent at $16.60.

The catalyst: Yahoo's better-than-expected quarterly earnings, which it reported after the market closed yesterday, and a solid performance by Marissa Mayer, who oversaw her first conference call with Wall Street analysts since taking the top job in July.

Yahoo topped estimates on the profit and revenue front, providing hope that the core ad business has promise. This, along with Mayer's … Read more

To satisfy Wall Street, Netflix's streaming service must grow

The Netflix skeptics on Wall Street have been out in force.

Plenty of analysts doubt that Netflix can reach its goal of adding 7 million new U.S. subscribers this year to its streaming-video service.

Netflix is due to report third-quarter earnings after the close of trading today and everybody will be watching the progress of that domestic-subscriber number. In July, Netflix said it expected to add 1 million to 1.8 million new streaming subscribers during the period. That would give the company a total of between 24.9 million and 25.7 million domestic subscribers.

But CEO Reed … Read more

For Yahoo of the future, Mayer has mobile in mind

In her first quarterly earnings call as its CEO, Marissa Mayer offered few clues about what she hopes to do with Yahoo, leaving Wall Street guessing about where she intends to take the company -- outside of one area: mobile.

"Our top priority is a focused, coherent mobile strategy," she said during the course of an hour-long conference call with analysts today following Yahoo's third-quarter earnings report.

For Mayer, whose 100-day anniversary at Yahoo nearly coincided with the earnings call, it was an opportunity to instill investor confidence in a company that has gone through CEOs like … Read more