The presidential candidates have come to Michigan, to do a slick pagan money-sucking dance on CNBC in front of the citizens of one of the more screwed states in the country. It should be great! Oh, and now Tea Party patriarch Rick Santelli will be there, asking questions. Oof. So put some dollar bills in your collar, down a jug of Blue Label, and let's kill some poors — together.
Google reported revenues of $5.4 billion for 2008's second quarter, which after payments to Web publishers which carry Google-sold ads, comes to $3.9 billion, just $30 million ahead of Wall Street's expectations. Second-quarter revenues grew 39 percent over the same period last year and increased 3 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Google earned $1.25 billion in profits in the quarter, down from $1.31 billion in the first. In statement, CEO Eric Schmidt said "Strong international growth as well as sustained traffic increases on Google's web properties propelled us to another strong quarter, despite a more challenging economic environment." Wait — we thought Google was immune to such paltry outside influences. Guess not: Google operating expenses in the second quarter of 2008 included $810 million in payroll-related and facilities expenses, compared to $809 million in the first quarter of 2008, which means the company's made sure to clamp down on expenses. Live coverage of Google's second quarter 2008 earnings call, below.
What's Yahoo CFO Blake Jorgensen so happy about? Try Yahoo's first quarter earnings on for size. Widely expected to surpass Wall Street expectations, Yahoo did not disappoint, reporting $1.35 billion in first quarter revenues after traffic acquisition costs, a 14 percent percent increase over the first quarter 2007. Still, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said earlier today that positive earnings would not cause him to raise Microsoft's $31 per share offer for Yahoo. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, president Sue Decker and Jorgensen respond in our live coverage of Yahoo's analyst conference call, below.
Pessimism has been replaced by optimism: After Google shares traded down 1.2 percent today, traders responded to the release of Google's first-quarter earnings by sending the shares up nearly 12 percent in after-hours trading, crossing $500. Fear, in short, has been replaced by greed. As I expected, the call was filled with chest-thumping glee from never-modest CEO Eric Schmidt. That's why I listen, by the way — not to hear numbers I could read in analyst reports, but to hear how Google's executives talk about the company on one of the brief occasions that they leave the bubble of the Googleplex. Live coverage, starting at 1:30 p.m. Pacific:
Do not want fail? Why then, can has win, say the folks behind the curtains at Flickr, Digg, Media Temple, and StumbleUpon. Six of them showed up at a panel organized by Kevin Rose to explain how to make websites that stay online, more or less. Being a not very clever gossip, I just listened in for the quips. Oh, and the drama. Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg almost didn't make it. Check out how his fellow panelists updated the lineup right before he showed up.
AUSTIN, TX — 4:32 p.m. Central Time: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the stage at Pangaea, a downtown Austin bar. The crowd is standing-room only all the way back. "As if yesterday's interview wasn't enough fun," he wryly notes as he opens the floor for questions. First question is about the Facebook Wall. The developer wants more access to write software that gets and writes posts to Facebook users' profiles. Zuckerberg doesn't answer the question.
Microsoft has offered $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo in a cash-and-stock deal. Here are highlights from the conference call Microsoft is holding to discuss it.
5:35 a.m. Pacific: Steve Ballmer calls offer "significant." He called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang last night to discuss it. A year ago, Yahoo management it "wasn't the right time" to discuss an acquisition.
5:37 a.m.: Kevin Johnson, who heads up Microsoft's Windows business and led its acquisition of aQuantive and the investment in Facebook, is talking about online-advertising industry economics. He describes it as a "scale" business in the areas of search advertising and ad serving. "Requires significant investments" in technology and infrastructure" leading to "a period of consolidation." The market is "dominated by one player" — he's obviously talking about Google. In other words, the antitrust argument has already begun.
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.
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.
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.
Jordan Golson and I blogged live, but briefly, via Twitter from the Macworld 2008 expo at Moscone West in San Francisco. Read on for the full report:
For the gadget blogs, Macworld Expo is the Olympics. Liveblogging, as Macworld veteran Paul Boutin explained to me recently, is all about speed and precision. A bit like a relay-race baton-toss. Mechanical, uncomplicated — and yet people crowd stadiums to watch those. As significant as the event is to Apple — it's a vital showcase for the only consumer-electronics company that seems to matter anymore — Macworld is even more important to the online tech press, which has turned real-time blog coverage into an art, and Macworld into a stage on which it shows off the power of the Web as a medium. As a business story, the latter aspect is what fascinates me.
Special correspondent Paul Boutin and I are at Moose's, a historic bar in San Francisco's North beach district. "23 people have posted on the Facebook wall for Megan's farewell party, but no one's actually shown up," I tell Boutin. "So Web 2.0," he says. "Fail." The Uncov guys aren't even here to give Boutin shit for stealing their line. Unbelievable. People, unplug already. Moose's has a cool bar, a hot bartender named Valen (above), and even trippy vacuum-tube lighting for the geeks. After the jump, photos of the bash in progress, such as it is. Come on and join us!
EXILE IN SOHO — Despite my best efforts — a suit, Brylcreem, and a side part — I didn't convince a posse of ID-checking Outcast flacks to let me into Facebook's invite-only ad event at Loft Eleven in Hell's Kitchen. But insiders are still keeping us informed about the event, where Facebook is launching new targeted ad products for Madison Avenue's big agencies. Here's what a tipster tells us.
So I'm here at Keplers, the bookstore in Menlo Park, with a bunch of Stevetards waiting for Dan Lyons, the faux Apple CEO who pens The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs and the new book Options, a parody memoir of Steve Jobs. He's here for a book reading, and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has taken the podium to introduce him. Woz starts speaking a mile a minute, referencing his on-again, off-again romance with comedienne Kathy Griffin. And then he spins into a weird numerological digression. I'm starting to think this guy is actually kind of nuts. Either that, or Lyons has written this routine for him. And then Wozniak presents him with a genuine Apple turtleneck. It's only getting weirder from here, I fear.
It's 1:33 p.m. Pacific Time and we're going. CEO Eric Schmidt, founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, departing CFO George Reyes are all on the call. Ready to hear oh so much good news?
Apple's stock was up more than two bucks to close at $137.26 today, as the company gets set to report June-quarter earnings. Investors have recovered somewhat from the revelation that AT&T activated fewer iPhones in the last couple days of June than some on Wall Street hoped for. With only two days of sales, no one expects the iPhone to contribute much to sales. MarketWatch states the obvious: Mac and iPod sales will make up for most of Apple's sales for the quarter, which analysts think will come in at around $5.2 billion. Nonetheless, the cell phone, as Apple's big growth opportunity, will be the focus of everyone's attention. I covered the call live, blogging the highlights here. On the call: CFO Peter Oppenheimer and COO Tim Cook. CEO Steve Jobs usually doesn't show for these things, and he didn't tune in for this one, either, even with all the iPhone buzz.
Success has many fathers; failure is an orphan. Or so the saying goes. Google's second-quarter earnings — how to put this delicately? — sucked. At least compared to Wall Street's predictably overhyped expectations. Profits rose 28 percent, but that wasn't enough, and the stock fell 5 percent in after-hours trading, which means someone's got to take the fall. I dialed into Google's conference call, and listened closely to who did most of the talking. When it's bad news, the chief financial officer usually gets stuck with the unpleasant job, and sure enough, that's what happened, with CEO Eric Schmidt quickly handing the call over to CFO George Reyes and flipping tough questions to his colleagues. That tells me even Google insiders thought it was a bad quarter, too. Also on the call: Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and top executives Jonathan Rosenberg and Omid Kordestani.
