earnings

Live blog: Yahoo discusses second quarter

Yahoo's financial results came in lower than analyst expectations for revenue and net income, but the stock is trading higher after hours. Here are highlights from what Chief Executive Jerry Yang, President Sue Decker, and Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen have to say about the second quarter during the company's conference call.

• To recap, here are Yahoo's numbers: Revenue excluding commissions increased 8 percent to $1.346 billion, shy of the $1.37 billion analysts had expected. Net income was 10 cents per share, excluding items, compared to 11 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson … Read more

Yahoo earnings decline, miss estimates

Yahoo's earnings for its second quarter came in 1 cent lower than expectations, with net income declining 19 percent and revenue a bit light as well, but the company called the quarter "strong."

Using generally accepted accounting principles, the company's net income decreased 19 percent from $161 million in the year-earlier quarter to $131 million. But excluding various charges, the Internet pioneer reported earnings of 10 cents per share, less than the 11 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected.

Revenue increased 8 percent to $1.346 billion, excluding commissions called traffic acquisition … Read more

Will Yahoo ad business weather economic storm?

Some business sectors are definitely hurt by the current economic downturn, but major Internet sites dependent on advertising have been holding serious trouble at bay. Tuesday afternoon, investors should get a better idea whether the problems are hitting Yahoo.

The company is set to report results for its second quarter after stock market trading closes in the afternoon. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect earnings per share of 11 cents on revenue of $1.37 billion.

But there is pessimism in the air. "Comments last week from Valueclick and Microsoft indicate the broader economic downturn is affecting online ads, … Read more

Why did investors freak out about Google?

Investors punished Google for the less-than-stellar second quarter results it reported on Thursday, sending the share price down about 10 percent to $482 in Friday trading. So what went wrong?

No one thing was responsible, but a few factors combined to make a 35 percent growth in net income to $1.25 billion look like bad news.

Interest income First, the company missed expectations: net income, excluding various items, was $4.63 per share, short of the $4.74 expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, and that's usually enough to send the stock down in after-hours trading.

But … Read more

Microsoft's online gamble could be smart bet

As I listened to financial analysts grumble about how Microsoft continues to pour its hard-earned software profits back into its online services effort, I couldn't help but think that maybe Microsoft is on to something.

Wouldn't newspaper industry analysts have had the same grumbles if the Gannetts and Knight Ridders of the world had poured a huge chunk of their profits into online ventures a decade ago at a time when their ad revenues were still enjoying healthy growth? And wouldn't they now say such a move, if well done, would have been brilliant?

Newspapers have traditionally … Read more

AMD CEO discusses plan to compete with Intel Atom chip

Advanced Micro Devices has its eye on the ultra-low-cost notebook market. Dirk Meyer--the company's new CEO--and other executives discussed this and ways to make the company profitable during the company's earnings conference call Thursday.

Meyer--promoted to CEO on Thursday--made it clear that AMD is serious about the so-called Netbook market, where Intel's Atom processor has been the most successful so far. (Though Intel CEO Paul Otellini made a perplexing comment Tuesday about the Atom processor.)

Netbooks have two hallmarks: they are typically under $400 and are extremely small and light. The Asus Eee PC is the most … Read more

Earnings: Microsoft and Google disappoint, while IBM soars

If there's a recession on, you would hardly guess it from the earnings reports from Microsoft, Google, and IBM. In terms of revenue, Microsoft beat Wall Street expectations with an 18-percent rise to $15.64 billion over Q2 2007. Yet the Street pummeled Microsoft's stock by 5 percent due to lowered guidance for the year and lower-than-expected profits, hinting at problems in the company's newer businesses like online and XBox.

In sum, Microsoft's old businesses (Windows was up 15 percent, Tools, etc.) are thriving, but it can't seem to get a foothold in the new world, with its online services business scraping to a $488 million loss. Its Office business also grew two percentage points slower than expected (14 instead of 16-percent growth), but this is probably a momentary blip compared to the continued costliness of trying to break onto the web in a meaningful way and owning the family room with the XBox.

Meanwhile, Big Boring Blue (IBM) boosted its profits by 22 percent over 2007 and revenue by 13 percent, bolstered by IBM's growth in emerging markets.

Revenue in the Americas, IBM's biggest market, rose 8 percent, or 6 percent adjusting for the impact of the weak dollar. Sales in its Europe and Middle Eastern sales region grew 20 percent, while sales in Asia climbed 16 percent. The company, like other tech giants, has said it expects overseas strength to compensate for a weak U.S. economy.

IBM is the trusted grandfather figure in an iffy economy, a vendor that may be overpriced but is also very safe.

And Google?… Read more

What Microsoft has to say for itself

Microsoft has kicked off its earnings conference call, after posting quarterly results and outlook that were below what some analysts were projecting.

I'll update this blog once there's more to report. For now, Microsoft is just going through the formalities. (And the sound quality, at least here at CNET, is terrible, with investor relations chief Colleen Healy barely audible).

Update: 2:40 p.m. PDT: CFO Chris Liddell speaking, noting that, since its last conference call, Microsoft has decided to invest more in both acquisitions and in in its own online services business.

He noted disappointment in Microsoft'… Read more

AMD quitting handheld, TV chips amid more losses

AMD continues to stumble through another down year.

The company announced along with the release of its second-quarter earnings results Thursday that it is getting out of the handheld and digital television businesses. As has been the case for the last several quarters, AMD is continuing to lose bucketloads of money: $1.2 billion this time around.

The $1.2 billion isn't as bad as it looks at first glance, but it's still pretty bad. In order to get out of the business of making graphics chips for handhelds and digital TV processors, AMD has to take a … Read more