Posted 11/04/09 at 06:30:16 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Have you heard? Comcast is raking in cash like no one’s business. The internet service provider reported today that their net earnings for the third quarter amounted to $944 million. That is a 22% increase year over year. Some of this comes from cost cutting, but Comcast has seen substantial subscriber increases as well.

Comcast saw a 2.7% decrease in the number of TV subscribers, but that was offset by large increases in internet and phone service. Overall internet subscribers grew 6.4% to 15.6 million, while voice accounts grew a staggering 20% to 7.3 million. Overall, Comcast’s customer base grew 3.4% to 46.8 million.

With these strong numbers, Comcast seems more able than ever to proceed with plans to acquire a stake in NBC. No new announcements have been made, but reports suggest that the ISP wants to move into the media space with a controlling interest in GE-owned NBC-Universal.

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Posted 10/18/09 at 10:12:41 AM by Justin Kerr

Google poured some much needed optimism into the markets last week by announcing some stellar third quarter earnings, giving hope that advertising markets around the world might finally be on the mend. Google turned in a Q3 profit of $1.64 billion, with a very respectable earnings per share of $5.13, a 27 percent boost from the same period last year. During the conference call Google CEO Eric Schmidt also declared that the search engine giant would be on the prowl for new acquisition targets, and would consider any company be it large or small.

News like this usually gets analysts all fired up trying to figure out where they will strike first, but Schmidt clarified that Google is primarily interested in search engines that target specific verticals, or could help them refine how search is performed. Google apparently is also on the lookout for companies that can help them improve their display ad business, or with the development of Chrome. "We have historically done an acquisition, perhaps, one a month or so, and those are typically small, they're typically a complete offering, they're typically technology-intensive," said Schmidt on the call. "They're not very expensive in the scheme of things, and they bring some specific technology."

Schmidt also confirmed that Chrome OS is on track for a beta release later this year, claiming that internal demos have proven it to be a superior offering for netbooks, and far beyond anything offered by either the Microsoft, or Linux camps in both “speed and efficiency”.

So who do you think Google should buy?

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Posted 08/08/09 at 03:38:24 PM by Justin Kerr

Nvidia’s second quarter profits are evidence poor quality costs much more than just bad PR. The company recorded a charge of $119 million to cover warranty costs associated with faulty die and weak packaging materials used in its graphics chips. This is significantly better than the $196 million it had already written off for the same reason, but it was still much higher than analysts were expecting.

Most of these issues can be traced back to a faulty solder bump that was discovered in its 8M-series mobile graphics chip. Nvidia estimated at the time that the warranty costs could be somewhere in the range of $200 million, but clearly the $315+ million they have already spent shows they were perhaps a bit overly conservative in their estimates. This might be a result of the problem reportedly cropping up in G92 and G94 series mobile cards as well, but Nvidia has been pretty tight lipped on the issue.

When asked to comment on the charge Nvidia downplayed the impact and described them as a small distraction. Nvidia President and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang claims it hasn’t impacted Nvidia’s ability to launch new products, and he expects profits to rise in the near future. Huang is being optimistic, but he is likely hoping to reassure investors who saw the company’s revenue drop this quarter to $776.5 million from $892.6 million only a year ago. “The company has invested in new products such as Tesla, a graphics processing unit for high-performance computing, and low-power Tegra chips for mobile devices. The products should start contributing to the revenue stream soon”, Huang said.

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Posted 08/07/09 at 04:51:19 PM by Paul Lilly

Lenovo reported a net loss of $16 million, or 18 cents a share, in the first fiscal quarter on revenue of $3.5 billion, representing an 18 percent decline. The reason, says Lenovo, is because of weak enterprise spending.

What's interesting to note is that Lenovo actually leads the commercial market in China by extending PCs to the countryside and is also doing well with 3G mobile adoption, but the company continues to struggle in mature markets like the U.S. and Europe, CNet reports.

Moving forward, Lenovo says it expects enterprise spending to remain weak in its second fiscal quarter, which the company intends to cope with by cutting costs. Whether or not this might also include job cuts, Lenovo didn't say.

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Posted 07/24/09 at 04:12:19 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Wall Street savants seem to have been deceived by their crystal balls yet again. Microsoft’s fiscal fourth quarter results turned out be even lower than what they had predicted. Microsoft reported earning $3.05 billion, or 34 per share, on revenue of $13.1 billion in the quarter.

The company was quick to blame the weakness in “the global PC and server markets” for the decline in revenue. But Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell is pleased that the company managed to “deliver over $750 million of operational savings compared to the prior year quarter” despite the economic weather being a huge impediment. Microsoft also imputed the decline to “a $276 million deferral for the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program”.

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Posted 07/21/09 at 10:15:32 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Microsoft is scheduled to post quarterly results next Thursday. While things have started to look up for the Redmond-based behemoth, especially its search engine business, its main growth drivers, Windows and Office, still remain hamstrung due to the bleak state of the PC market.

Wall Street analysts are almost certain Microsoft will report a dip in profit and sales for its fiscal fourth quarter. They expect Microsoft to report earnings of around 36 cents a share and $14.38 billion in revenue, according to Reuters. It must be noted that the company had reported earnings of 46 cents a share and $15.84 billion in revenue for the same quarter last year.

With the PC market showing some signs of recovery and the chances of a search-and-online-ads deal between Yahoo and Microsoft having been revived, Microsoft has a lot to look forward to.

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Posted 07/17/09 at 10:22:57 AM by Paul Lilly

IBM this week announced its second-quarter 2009 results, noting diluted earnings of $2.32 per share compared with diluted earnings of $1.95 per share in the second quarter of 2008. That's a year-on-year increase of 18 percent, and according to IBM, the highest for any first, second, or third quarter in the company's history.

"As a result of our strategic transformation, we have a very strong business model that is delivering superior earnings, cash, and client value," said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer.

Looking forward, IBM said it expects full-year 2009 earnings of at least $9.70 per share, up from its previous expectation of $9.20 per share. In addition, the company said it expects full-year 2009 pre-tax income for its Software segment to grow by double-digits and reach somewhere around $8 billion.

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Posted 07/15/09 at 06:03:52 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Intel posted its second-quarter earnings results on Tuesday. The results have come as a pleasant drizzle, if not a downpour, in this dry economic climate that has left everyone extremely thirsty.  Intel recorded sales of $8 billion in the second quarter, which is $700 million more than what analysts had predicted.  Although sales were down 15% compared to the same quarter a year ago, they were 12% more than the first quarter. Intel CEO Paul Otellini was very pleased by what he labeled as the company’s “strongest first- to second-quarter growth since 1988.”

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