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valleywag
Hear Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Drop the F-Bomb
There is so much to admire about Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who is giving the Web company a needed kick in the pants. But more than anything, it's her garbage tongue that we love. Listen. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by stanhalen: I like it! Can you imagine the frustration behind all that? All those slacker clowns running around trying to look... 1 Responses | Other threads
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valleywag
Yahoo CEO Lays Off Workers, Not Swear Words
Carol Bartz, Yahoo's recently installed CEO, is a woman of many charms, not the least of which is her gutter mouth. She dropped the F-bomb today while announcing Yahoo's sucky earnings (and more layoffs). More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Firsthand: Looks like they are moving in the right direction by putting Ari in charge of engineering and product he can... more » | Other threads
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exits
Google's Top Salesman Ditches the Company at Its Peak
Google, surprisingly, had an okay quarter, with revenues up 6 percent. This optimistic figure buried the bad news: Sales chief Omid Kordestani is stepping down. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by yupisaidit: i'm not saying CEO of yahoo isn't a big step up for tim armstrong. however, i'm sure he would have... 2 Responses | Other threads
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forecasts
Intel scraps sales forecast, but whatever
Intel changed its Q4 forecast from 3 percent growth to a 12 percent slump, with profitability likewise down. Forrester CEO George Colony personally blogged three reasons not to worry: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by sample032: Doesn't Intel own a chunk of VMWare? 1 Responses | Other threads
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earnings
Satellite radio loses five billion bucks
Sirius XM Radio's third quarter results are in: a stupefying $4.88 billion loss. The biggest chunk of that is an impairment charge due to a drop in stock price. Slow auto sales have reduced the number of new customers. This is worse news for me than AAPL taking a dive — I'm not a shareholder, but XM Highway 16 is one of Valleywag's raw ingredients. If satellite radio dies, it'll be like those dark years when the government barred Detroit from building convertibles.
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By Paul BoutinComment by noodleman: @shiwsup: Listener interaction? WTF? Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy an iPod and load it with exactly the music you... more » | Other threads
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earnings
Sprint keeps bleeding dry
Sprint Nextel reported yet another quarterly loss, its fourth in the row. The wireless carrier was $326 million in the red, and also lost 1.1 million subscribers. CEO Dan Hesse said he wants the company to focus on customer service. Dan, how about spending less time filiming commercials and more time answering calls? [Reuters] -
earnings
When will Time Warner give up on AOL?
Time Warner has reported its third-quarter results, including AOL's numbers, and they are dismal. Internet-access revenues were down 26 percent, a loss everyone more or less expected, since the dial-up business is moribund. But advertising sales were down 6 percent. AOL management can't blame the market meltdown for this one, since that had barely started by the time the quarter ended. October through December, one assumes, will be much, much worse. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by teleprax: It's getting harder to justify having your search marketing team put any time or effort in to running on engines... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
CNET's odd math
Kara Swisher's new pet media blogger Peter Kafka praises CBS executive Quincy Smith, shown here, for picking up CNET. Revenues were up 6 percent in the most recent quarter, with a 12 percent increase in display advertising. But wait a second: Aren't display ads most of CNET's revenue? The company also makes money through e-commerce referrals and the sale of marketing data — which suggests something went wrong enough in CNET's other businesses to blunt the welcome rise in advertising.
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By Owen ThomasComment by PeterKafka: Actually, during the conference call, CBS said CNET display was up 14%. That 12% is for the entire interactive group.... more » | Other threads
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earnings
Apple now in position to put Sony out of its misery
Pundits like to blab that Apple should buy Sony. With quarterly profits down 72 percent, SNE's market value is now a stupefyingly low 58 percent of its book value. Steve must be tempted. Buy Sony. Shut it down. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by FiveStarEggRoll: Apple buying Sony makes about as much sense as Tesla, with a newly discovered coffer full of mad cash, buying... 3 Responses | Other threads
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earnings
Xbox, online boost Microsoft's numbers
Results for Microsoft's September quarter are in: $15.06 billion in revenues, versus analysts' expectation of $14.8 billion. A unit which includes Microsoft's Xbox game console pulled in $1.8 billion, $350 million more than analysts hoped for. And the company's online division surprised with revenues of $770 million. But what's really surprising? How small that number still is, despite Microsoft's years of investment. [CNBC]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Pragmatic: It's equally pathetic when you consider that the Aquantive parts of this division account for more than $180 million of... more » | Other threads
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bill me later
Why isn't Amazon.com talking about its $150 million windfall?
Amazon.com got a big payday when eBay bought Bill Me Later, the payment service, for $945 million earlier this month. So why isn't it admitting it? In an SEC filing, Amazon.com didn't name Bill Me Later as the source of a $150 million cash payment it will receive in return for an investment. But it's obviously Bill Me Later, which Amazon.com invested in last December. Here's the curiously vague wording of Amazon's disclosure to shareholders, and three possible reasons for it. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by SheridanCotys: I heard that the lst round was valued at a 1bbl so Amazon lost $$$ . more » | Other threads
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earnings
Amazon.com predicts bleak Christmas
In its third-quarter earnings call, Amazon.com executives say they expect sales between $6 billion and $7 billion for the December quarter. A consensus of Wall Street analysts had predicted $7.05 billion. The stock is down 14 percent. [Silicon Alley Insider] -
meltdowns
Apple CEO Steve Jobs pops up on earnings call
The last time Apple announced earnings, Steve Jobs's health was a hot topic on CNBC. Why wasn't he on the earnings call? CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau chief Jim Goldman had to slap his fellow pundits down, reminding them that Apple's CEO never, like never participates in the ungodly boring quarterly ritual. Guess what? Steve Jobs is on the Apple earnings call right now. Which means he really, really wants to reassure Wall Street about Apple's prospects, even after the company announced predictably boffo earnings. Strangely, that is not reassuring.
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By Owen ThomasComment by BartKela: Extraordinary times often means extraordinary measures. If Steve thinks that his participation in the quarterly earnings conference call will help... 3 Responses | Other threads
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meltdowns
Yahoo earnings as bad as everyone thought, or worse
Yahoo's earnings announcement was ghastly in two ways. The bad news: Its revenues were flat and earnings down 64 percent. The worse news: It is only cutting 10 percent of its workforce, or 1,500 employees, which will reduce expenses by $400 million. The cuts are not nearly deep enough. Yahoo is forgoing immediate pain for a prolonged period of uncertainty, as investors continue to abandon the stock and employees expect further layoffs down the road.
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By Owen ThomasComment by eknirb: just please don't buy AOL and make me have to change to an AOL address. Bokay? more » | Other threads
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earnings
Apple's guidance game
This is what we've been reduced to: Guessing at how much Apple will underestimate its forecasted December-quarter earnings in today's earnings call. No one actually believes Apple's "guidance." For years, it's been shown to lowball the actual number so it can surprise Wall Street, a maneuver that no longer surprises anyone. This has reduced Apple's quarterly earnings call to an exercise in which its chief financial officer pretends he's not lying, and bank analysts pretend they believe him. No wonder Apple CEO Steve Jobs avoids the charade altogether. -
earnings
MySpace wants to remind you that glitter text on profiles makes bank
Downturn? What downturn? Strategically placed sources are whispering that MySpace is likely to hit $1 billion in annual revenue, a jump from its $850 million in revenue last year. The milestone is impressive since MySpace is joining the $1 billion club in only five years, a year faster than Google. Facebook, meanwhile, is just too cool to worry about revenue or releasing products. [VentureBeat]
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Comment by TheDestructionator: Yeah, it's very impressive. And to think for months I thought Facebook was a better model for an SNS. more » | Other threads
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earnings
Google bores economy into submission
Not too cold, not too hot: Google's third-quarter earnings have come in at a level that will neither feed the ongoing panic nor calm people's jitters. Shareholders are enthused, though, with the stock up to $380 in after-hours trading. Look for the stock to drop as soon as Larry and Sergey start talking about their latest irrelevant side projects which will never make any money. (Google's homepage now supports widescreen widgets! If you're an investor, you'll wish I was kidding.) Here's the release, if you want to dive into the numbers: More » -
earnings
eBay would like you to forget about Skype now
You rarely see a photo of John Donahoe, eBay's Dennis-the-Menace lookalike CEO. But today's a good day to pull him out from under Meg Whitman's shadow. The auction deathstar's Q3 net income was $492.2 million, or 38 cents a share. Much better than last year, when chirpy little upstart Skype — a Whitman acquisition — forgot to destroy AT&T and instead cost the company a billion bucks. (Photo by AP/Ron Edmonds)
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By Paul BoutinComment by buzzzkilll: Looks less like Dennis the Menace and more like eBay's future ex-CEO to me. more » | Other threads
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earnings
Intel's good news: Not as bad off as AMD!
Intel's revenues for the most recent quarter were flat, but its profits were up 12 percent on expense cuts. (Read: layoffs!) Intel CEO Paul Otellini says the company expects to "outpace" its competition. Right: That would be AMD, the chipmaker which is trying to shed its chipmaking facilities. Outpacing AMD is like running a three-legged race against a double amputee. [WSJ]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Nekoni: If by three legged race you mean 2 people with a leg strapped together, surely the double amputee and his/her... more » | Other threads
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earnings
IBM didn't get the memo, thank God
The world's largest computer services company pre-announced Q3 earnings with profits beyond analysts' forecasts. Even the Nasdaq is up on the news. Quick, ask your parents for that iPhone now.
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By Paul BoutinComment by thekevin: Bad timing, I had just shoved all my savings under the mattress too. more » | Other threads
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earnings
Ballmer flips, admits Microsoft will take a hit
"Financial issues are going to affect both business spending and consumer spending, and particularly ... spending by the financial services industry," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told reporters at a news conference in Oslo earlier today. That's a reversal from his claim last week that tech sector worriers were probably watching too much CNBC. On the last day of the sales quarter, the always-bouncy Ballmer was refreshingly blunt: "Whatever happens economically will certainly effect itself on Microsoft." (Photo by AP/Erlend Aas)
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By Paul BoutinComment by macbeach: "Whatever happens economically will certainly effect itself on Microsoft." This is the first I knew that English was not his native... more » | Other threads
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earnings
Amazon.com sales bogged by Wall Street's black hole
"Nearly half of consumers are delaying purchases due to uncertainty in the economy, while 42 percent are planning to decrease their usage of credit cards," Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian wrote this morning. Don't make too much of it yet: Lazard's lowered Amazon.com earnings estimates only a sliver, from $1.58 to $1.55 per share for 2008. Annual revenue for 2009, likewise, is lowered only a quarter-billion from $24.75 billion to $24.50 billion. That's 250 million bucks to you and me, but not much to Bezos and company. (Photo by AP/Ted S. Warren) -
microsoft
Bouncy Steve Ballmer sees "buoyancy" in tech
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told a meeting of Silicon Valley civic leaders yesterday that despite Wall Street's woes, the tech sector continues to thrive. "Our industry is not immune to what goes on in the global economy. And yet as I travel, given the current circumstances, people still see a certain buoyancy in the market," Ballmer said. Microsoft doesn't report its quarterly earnings until next week. More »
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Comment by michaellamb: I work in IT and while clients are being a bit cautious, they're not cutting back. IT already got hammered... more » | Other threads
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stocks
Oracle profits up 28 percent — take that, Wall Street
Larry Ellison's database peddler saw profits in the most recent quarter jump to $1.08 billion, up 28 percent from the same period last year. As recently as 2006, Oracle got 12 percent of its revenues from banks, brokers, and insurers. Some of its best customers are bankrupt, while others are merging, a move which usually leads to cuts in tech spending. And yet so far Oracle seems unscathed by Wall Street's debt-driven crisis. Even so, free advice for Oracle's New York City sales office: Try the soft sell for a change. [WSJ]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Churchill: Hey Larry, nobody cares about you anymore. The 90's are calling, they want you back! LOL more » | Other threads
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earnings
Nintendo makes more per employee than Google or Goldman
Damn it feels good to be a gamer: The Financial Times has calculated that Nintendo will make $1.6 million per employee in 2008. That beats Goldman Sach's 2007 record — impressive when you consider Goldman's average salary was $660,000 per year, versus only $90,900 for Nintendo. (Photo by Geek on Stun)
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By Paul BoutinComment by Alaska Miller: I wanted this pic: [aefermiano.files.wordpress.com] 6 Responses | Other threads
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earnings
How does Google compare to Microsoft after ten years?
Google is celebrating its tenth birthday this month — so how is it doing compared to Microsoft, which is a ripe old 33? Microsoft is still the big dog, earning three times the revenue in the last year. But Bill Gates and company had only booked $140 million in revenue by its tenth year. Google employees are also punching above their weight, booking $1 million per head to Team Redmond's $672,000. If Google figures out how to make money on anything besides search advertising, the $99 billion market value differential might evaporate in time for a bar mitvah in Mountain View. [NYT]
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By Jackson WestComment by XuanNymph: What a silly comparison - one is a software company one is an advertising company. more » | Other threads
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earnings
New York Times losing everywhere but online
The New York Times Company's total revenue dropped 10 percent in July, to $235.9 million. Total Internet revenue, which now makes up 12 percent of the Times's roughly billion-dollar annual business, was up 2.6 percent — which only looks good compared to the rest of the newspaper industry. [PaidContent]
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By Paul BoutinComment by jaybaer: When I first read this, I wasn't too concerned about the declining online ad growth. But then I looked a LOT... more » | Other threads
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digital music
Napster finds music-buying sucker market shrinking
Napster — or rather, the pathetic music store which picked up the famous file-sharing service's brand — reported a drop in quarterly revenues to $30.3 million, despite the launch of an MP3 store. Subscribers fell from 760,000 to 708,000 in a quarter's time. Here's Napster's latest commercial, obviously not effective at drumming up business. [PaidContent] -
earnings
Google's billion-dollar AOL bet takes a dive
In a statement filed with the SEC late today, Google stated that its 2005 purchase of 5 percent of AOL "may be impaired." Analyst guesstimates of AOL's value peg it at about $10 million, or half the value at which Google bought in. It's a blow to Google, but not a big one — a couple hundred million in paper value lost, to a company that takes in more then ten billion a year. The investment still met its primary goal: Cockblocking Microsoft. [AP] (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)
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By Paul BoutinComment by imhotep1976: Looks more like Senator Palpatine more » | Other threads
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earnings
AOL ad revenue basically flat, probably because who goes to AOL.com anymore?
Time Warner beat second-quarter earning estimates, posting revenues of $11.55 billion against Wall Street's guess of $11.45 billion. But AOL, the company's online division, which is strangely coveted for acquisition by both Yahoo and Microsoft, didn't do nearly so well, reporting a 15 percent revenue decline to $1.05 billion. A shrinking Internet-access business is mostly to blame for the drop, but execs said AOL's online-advertising division didn't help much either. It grew only 2 percent, primarily on the strength of ad sales on third-party websites. AOL's owned-and-operated websites lost revenue. In good news for shareholders, the company did not have any news to report about improper vote counting at the company's last shareholder meeting.
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Comment by WillVille: @aoltech1: That sounds like a good idea, they don't deal in technology anymore, so why have technology centers.. But Question,... more » | Other threads
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earnings
Sprint lost a lot, Qwest did okay
Sprint Nextel just can't stop the bleeding, losing $344 million and 901,000 subscribers last quarter. This was actually better than Q1, when they lost $505 million and 1 million subscribers. Qwest — communications provider to Bill Gates country and the rural Midwest — meanwhile earned $188 million, which was a 24 percent drop compared to $245 million in the same quarter the year before. Qwest also only signed up 31,000 high-speed Internet subscribers. [KansasCity.com, Reuters] -
online advertising
Fox exec on MySpace: Google's ads aren't working, but ours are
News Corp. reports earnings tomorrow — but no one's worrying about how many copies of The Simpsons Fox sold on Blu-ray. Wall Street's worries are centered on how ads are doing on MySpace. After months of denials, a Fox executive has conceded the obvious to the Wall Street Journal: Google's keyword-pegged ads are bombing on MySpace. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said as much in discussing his company's results, but MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe was quick to deny a problem at the time. With Fox Interactive's parent company, News Corp., reporting quarterly results tomorrow, we suspect the Fox source let the bad news leak early in an effort to mix a hint of optimism in the story. The result: More »
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Comment by sggrf: I seriously doubt that Google renews the content part of this deal. more » | Other threads
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earnings
Q2 reports continue to suck as Nortel's losses triple
Nortel Networks lost $113 million last quarter. Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski told analysts that orders for CDMA cellular gear — both in Norta America and through a deal with South Korea's LG Electronics — didn't meet expectations. In CEO-speak, "The macro environment in the U.S. and the U.S. carrier spend continues to be challenging." -
earnings
Sun squeaks by in Q2 earnings
Sun Microsystems earned a piddly $88 million on $3.78 billion in sales for the second quarter. The company is still trying to recover from a $5 billion loss after the dot-com bust killed the market for its servers. Massive layoffs and restructuring have run up additional charges. But there's an upside: Analysts had expected worse. The Valley's former destination of choice for overachieving young engineers may yet save itself.
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By Paul BoutinComment by masterofmonkeys: @masterofmonkeys: okay, but i see your point, they did beat expectations. fucking a, these sun people are so sorry i... more » | Other threads
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earnings
CBS wants 50 percent revenue growth from digital in three years
In a conference call to discuss CBS's quarterly results, CEO Les Moonves pointed to the recently announced selloff of radio stations and acquisition of CNET as an effort to jumpstart growth. Profits for the quarter were up a measly 1 percent, and the stock price was down slightly on the news. Moonves is looking for the CBS Interactive division to grow its annual revenue to $1 billion in three years. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Sir Winston Thriller: Well, maybe if they move Big Brother 11 to the CNET mothership down by the Embarcadero... more » | Other threads
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earnings
Comcast earns $632 million, laughs in your face
Someone forgot to tell Comcast that by slowing down BitTorrent and only appointing a single Twitter Appeasement Specialist, the company had banished itself to the long tail of failure. The world's most hated ISP reported $632 million in earnings on $8.55 billion in revenue. Wall Street analysts had expected closer to $700 million, but investors kicked the stock upwards anyway. Traders beware: Silicon Valley now has a hundred influencers who will blog Comcast out of business in Q3. Dump now! (P.S. Firefox doesn't think "influencer" is a word.)
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By Paul BoutinComment by BobDope: Maybe we can tell the AFA Comcast doesn't hate gays as much as Fred Phelps does and they can boycott... more » | Other threads
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earnings
IAC down more than half a billion in second quarter
In the second quarter, IAC swung from a $94.6 million profit last year to a $421.6 million loss this year. Don't blame Jakob Lodwick! His former company, Vimeo, is nowhere near the top of IAC/InterActiveCorp's expense report for the past quarter. The real problem at Barry Diller's Internet empire is Cornerstone Brands, a rollup of catalog companies undermined by weak consumer spending in home and apparel retail. Cornerstone's losses led to a $300 million writedown in goodwill in IAC's second quarter. In addition, the soft real estate market cut revenue for home financing site LendingTree nearly in half. More » -
earnings
Sony, Toshiba not so hot — slack sales lead to weak Q2 results
Sony missed expectations for the second quarter of 2008, posting a 47 percent fall in net profit to $326 million. Sony execs blamed weak phone sales. Toshiba reported a loss of $108 million, blaming a downturn in semiconductor sales.
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By Paul BoutinComment by jackparsons: They blame a downturn in semiconductor sales. I blame the woefully inadequate faux reflections. more » | Other threads
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earnings
Amazon.com does what Apple, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft couldn't
Amazon.com beat Wall Street expectations in reporting its second-quarter earnings today. Profits were up 41 percent to $158 million, compared with $78 million during the second quarter last year. Revenues hit $4.06 billion, better than the $3.95 billion expected by Wall Street analysts. Shares up are 3 percent in afternoon trading. [Reuters]
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Comment by Tim Faulkner: Everyone's been too quick with the press release. They missed if you subtract the one-time gain from selling a Euro... more » | Other threads
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earnings
Yahoo misses Wall Street's lowered expectations
Yahoo reported second-quarter profits of $131 million, down from $161 million the first quarter. Even after lowering their expectations, Wall Street analysts hoped the company would report profits of $140 million. The company also missed on revenues, reporting $1.35 billion in revenues after payments to Web publishers which carried Yahoo-sold ads. Wall Street wanted $1.37 billion. Hoping to breed some optimism, CFO Blake Jorgensen told Reuters Yahoo has not changed its financial guidance for 2008, despite advertising woes.
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Comment by tillman: Market reacted the way it did because many of them perhaps thought that if Yahoo! doesn't generate stellar financial results... more » | Other threads
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Fri Jul 10
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