Spending on hardware and software is slowing, Cisco CEO John Chambers said yesterday. Faced with big-picture uncertainty, U.S. and European customers are becoming "increasingly cautious" Chambers told analysts during yesterday's earnings call. He said Cisco sales slowed in January after a solid December. One analyst said the warnings were "more harsh than I expected." (Photo by World Economic Forum)
Cisco's second-quarter revenues grew 17 percent to $9.8 billion, surpassing the consensus forecast of $9.8 billion from Thomson Financial. Cisco reported net income of $2.1 billion or 33 cents a share. In the same quarter last year, Cisco reported a net profit of $1.9 billion, or 31 cents per share. [Marketwatch]
CNET, under pressure from activist investors trying to win board seats, has posted strong numbers, with revenues of $125.5 million, up 11 percent in the fourth quarter compared to last year. This quarter's revenues are expected to rise 2 to 7 percent. We think that's unduly pessimistic: Natali Del Conte's show just launched. [PaidContent]
Disney reported a 9 percent increase in revenues year-over-year but a 20 percent drop in earnings per share in the most recent quarter. In a strong showing, Disney's cable and broadcasting division — which includes ABC and ESPN — showed a 28 percent rise in profit, making $908 million on $4.2 billion in sales. Nope, TV isn't dead yet.Disney press release]
Apple can have its missing iPhones. Let Yahoo worry about a softening economy. Google just reported its business grew 51 percent in the last year. Expect Larry, Sergey and Eric to gloat even though revenues after traffic acquisition costs missed expectations. Stick with us for live coverage of Google's fourth-quarter 2007 earnings call.
Under Jeff Bezos, Amazon has ever played the chameleon, morphing from bookstore to discounter to supermarket. Most recently, it's tried, through the guise of its Amazon Web Services arm, to get people to think of it as a supercomputer to rent. Amazon's earnings were financially solid: The company raked in $1.4 billion in operating cash flow, and by more conventional measures, it earned $207 million on $5.7 billion in revenues. You won't read about that in the blogs, though, because Amazon earned that money the old-fashioned way — by shipping books and other physical goods to customers.
Google reported revenues of $4.8 billion for the quarter ended December 31, representing a 51 percent increase over fourth quarter 2006 revenues of $3.2 billion and a 14 percent increase over third quarter 2007 revenues of $4.2 billion. Net of payments made to partners who carry Google's ads on their websites, the company's revenues were $3.39 billion. Those numbers fell short of expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who believed Google would post earnings of $4.44 a share on $3.45 billion in revenue. Google reported fourth-quarter profits of $1.2 billion, up from $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2007.
Amazon.com doubled its profit last quarter as sales increased to $5.7 billion, up 42 percent. Books, movies and music revenue rose 33 percent — still the core of Amazon's business — while electronics and other merchandise jumped 58 percent. Amazon expects sales to grow between 31 and 38 percent in the current quarter. [WSJ]
We're blogging Yahoo's fourth-quarter earnings call live. Rumor had it the company would hold an all-hands at the same time. Now we're hearing that's tomorrow. For what's going on during the call, stay with us.
Yahoo reported a fall in fourth quarter earnings year over year to $205.7 million or 15 cents/share from $268.7 million or 19 cents/share last year. Total revenue rose 8 percent to $1.8 billion, while net sales, which excludes traffic acquisition costs, rose to $1.4 billion from $1.2 billion. A Thomson Financial poll of analysts estimated earnings at 11 cents/share on net sales of $1.4 billion. [MarketWatch]
Who needs the iPhone? Verizon Wireless added 1.9 million customers last quarter, more than analysts had predicted. In its financials, Verizon met expectations, making $1.1 billion on $23.8 billion in sales. The company also reported broadband subscribers were up 18 percent year over year, in part because of the rollout of its Fios fiber-optic service. Verizon now has more than 1 million Fios subscribers, though higher than predicted capital expenditures — including on the Fios rollout — hurt earnings. [Wall Street Journal]
MSN and Microsoft's other Internet ventures are a sizeable business: $863 million in the most recent quarter. CBNC's Jim Goldman calls the quarter a "stunner." Perhaps, if he meant stunningly bad. Microsoft's growth rate is flat, Henry Blodget notes. Not counting Microsoft's aQuantive acquisition, it's been growing only 24 percent a year. And it's still losing money: about $200 million in the most recent quarter. No wonder Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo: For all of its woes, the Web giant still has its act more together than Microsoft.
Sun Microsystems made money too! "Revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2008 were $3.615 billion, an increase of approximately 1.4 percent as compared with $3.566 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2007. Total gross margin as a percent of revenues was 48.5, an increase of 3.5 percentage points, as compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2007. Net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2008 on a GAAP basis was $260 million, or $0.31 per share, as compared with a net income of $133 million, or $0.15 per share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2007." [Sun Press Room]
Microsoft reported sales growth of 30 percent year over year, listing $6.5 billion in profit on $16.4 billion in sales in the second quarter. The $16 billion in revenue exceeds Microsoft's previous record by $2 billion, the company eagerly notes — though one would expect a growing company to regularly post so-called "records." Redmond's financial wizards prognosticate revenue to be between $14.3 billion and $14.6 billion with $5.6 billion to $5.7 billion in operating income during the third quarter. The full release is after the jump. (Photo by AP/Koji Sasahara)
Motorola stock has fallen to a four-year low after a bad earnings report yesterday. The company reported earnings of 4 cents a share on $9.65 billion in sales. The profit numbers were an 84 percent drop year over year. Additionally, Motorola's market share in mobile handsets continues to decline, down to 13 percent globally. For fiscal 2007, Motorola lost $49 million compared to a $3.67 billion profit in 2006. Ouch. The largest drop came from the handset division, which reported an operating loss of $388 million. Motorola execs say a new line of "innovative" cell phone will jumpstart earnings. Unless MOT comes up with another hit phone, like the RAZR, we find that hard to believe.
"It is a sad day for sure," Wall Street blogger and Wallstrip.com creator Howard Lindzon writes on his blog. "I still love Apple, but the stock no more." Here's why. As of 8:49 Pacific time, Apple's share price is down over 16 percent on the day. "Apple is in no man's land now," Lindzon writes. "It will take time for the stock to heal no matter how well the company does." Apple share prices dropped most precipitously after yesterday's market close, but the stock continues to sink this morning. Pundits blame recession fears and Apple's underwhelming forecast for the months ahead.(Photo by rore)
Apple beat the street with its 2008 first-quarter earnings, but the company is pitching a low forecast for the coming months. It's expecting earnings of 94 cents a share on $6.8 billion in revenues for the second quarter. We're liveblogging the conference call as Apple explains that one to investors.
Apple reported record earnings today for the quarter ending December 31. The company had a net profit of $1.6 billion or $1.76/share on $9.6 billion in sales compared to $1 billion profit on $7.1 billion last year. Gross margin rose to 34.7 percent from 31.2 percent last year. Apple sold more than 2.3 million Macs representing 44 percent unit growth year over year. The company also sold 22.1 million iPods and 2.3 million iPhones. The forecast, however, was unsettling: Apple projects earnings of 94 cents a share on $6.8 billion in revenues. While sales grew 35 percent year-over-year in the December quarter, the company's projection for March shows only a 29 percent increase.
