Stories related to: corporate earnings

Sony reported fourth quarter profits of $277 million yesterday, driven largely by its once-sputtering PlayStation 3, which passed Microsoft's Xbox 360 and is nipping at the heels of Nintendo’s Wii . The results vastly improved on a loss of $643.6 million a year ago, reports the Wall Street Journal .  More »

Sprint Nextel continued to hemorrhage customers in the first quarter, losing more than 1 million subscribers and tallying losses of $505 million, more than double its losses in the same period last year, reports Bloomberg. Sales slipped nearly 8% to $9.33 billion. The carrier, rumored to be a takeover target of Deutsche Telekom, said it would likely sell assets. More »

MySpace fell short of revenue targets in the most recent quarter, but, Adam Ostrow argues in Mashable, it’s still proven a phenomenal deal since Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought it for $580 million in 2005. Revenues from its unit are pulling close to its purchase price and it’s on track to make more with music downloads, sponsorships and targeted ads. More »

Even Toyota—with its array of popular gas-sipping vehicles—is struggling in a slumping global economy, according to the latest figures. The world’s No. 2 automaker today reported that earnings for the last quarter fell 28% to $3.05 billion from $4.2 billion a year ago, reports the AP. "We are facing a severe business environment," said Toyota's president. More »

Even rising gas prices couldn’t dent Disney’s second-quarter earnings. The company’s theme park earnings climbed 33%, helping push its overall net up 22% from a year ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. Disney also recorded a 61% jump in earnings from its movie arm and a 14% bump from its media networks. Only consumer product earnings declined, about 14%. More »

Apple and Nokia chewed away at Motorola’s cellphone market share, pushing the troubled handset maker to a larger first-quarter loss than expected, Bloomberg reports. Moto lost $194 million, or 9 cents a share, and revenues fell 21% to $7.45 billion. The company also  issued a bleak forecast for Q2 as handset shipments plunged 40%. Moto plans to spin off its handset unit this year. More »

Ford today posted an unexpected first-quarter profit of $100 million, Bloomberg reports, the result of cost cutting in North America and strong overseas sales. Analysts had anticipated a loss on the order of last year's first-quarter drain of $282 million. The world’s third-largest automaker said its revenues increased 1.2% to $43.5 billion. It was only the second quarterly profit for the company in the past two years.  More »

All eyes will be on Yahoo's first-quarter earnings report tomorrow; the company hopes to use solid results to pressure Microsoft into sweetening its takeover bid, the Wall Street Journal reports. The report comes just 2 days before Microsoft's own and 4 days before the deadline the latter set for a deal to avoid a hostile takeover. Yahoo is expected to meet modest projections for first-quarter growth. More »

More than $6 billion in subprime writedowns sent Bank of America profits skidding for the third straight quarter today, as the nation's second-largest bank posted a 77% decline in net income for the first quarter. Earnings were $1.21 billion, down from $5.26 billion a year ago, reports Bloomberg. The losses exceeded analysts’ expectations by some 44% and sent market futures into a slide this morning. BofA—in the process of acquiring troubled home lender Countrywide Financial—said revenue slipped 6%. More »

Battered National City—which has seen shares plummet 78% as it's been overwhelmed by the subprime fiasco—is close to a $6 billion bailout funded by some of its largest shareholders and private equity firm Corsair Capital, reports the Wall Street Journal . The infusion for the Cleveland-based bank would be the third rescue package this month for a struggling bank that offers discounted shares to raise capital. More »

General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt faced the music yesterday, as his predecessor, Jack Welch, raked him over the coals on his own cable TV network for missing first-quarter earnings forecasts. Immelt admitted GE “let people down” in downgrading its outlook for 2008, the Wall Street Journal reports. But he said he won’t change the direction he’s set for the company, or cave to demand he split it up. More »

Stocks staged a rally today on the strength of profit reports from JP Morgan and Intel. "The bear market is bottoming, and folks are beginning to look beyond the valley of widely known problems to better times ahead," a strategist tells the Wall Street Journal . The Dow ended up 256.80 to 12,619.27, the Nasdaq 64.07 to 2,350.11, and the S&P 30.28 to 1,364.71. More »

JPMorgan Chase, battling $5.1 billion in subprime writeoffs and deteriorating consumer credit, reported first quarter profits fell 50%, reports the Wall Street Journal. CEO Jamie Dimon warned the outlook for the remainder of 2008 was likely as grim. Morgan—the 3rd-largest US bank—said profits dropped to $2.37 billion, or 68 cents a share, down from $4.79 billion, or $1.34 a year earlier. More »

Global demand for computer chips helped Intel power to a 9% first-quarter revenue gain, beating analysts' estimates and sending a message that while US sales may be slumping, the world’s largest chip maker’s still got game. Intel stock rose 7.7% in after hours trading, the New York Times reports, as the news allayed worries that computer sales are slowing. More »

An expanding health-care sector in China couldn’t help Royal Philips Electronics offset poor television and video sales in North America, as the world’s leading lighting company reported core profits fell 28% in the first quarter, Reuters reports today. The company said it expects the global economic slowdown will continue to hurt its consumer-electronics sales. More »

Biotech firm Genentech said sales of its blockbuster cancer drug Avastin fueled a first-quarter profit increase of 12%, reports the Wall Street Journal, but the $600 million in sales was below analysts’ projected $622 million, causing some to grumble the drug may have reached a sales plateau. Genentech stock edged up 0.3% in after-hours trading. More »

Strong North American sales helped Research in Motion to a 54% fourth quarter earnings increase, despite a global economic slump, reports the Wall Street Journal. The BlackBerry smartphone maker said quarterly sales doubled to $1.88 billion. RIM yesterday also projected first-quarter sales of $2.3 billion, topping analysts' estimates of $2.01 billion. RIM stock rose 4.8% in after-hours trading. More »

Oracle missed its third-quarter revenue projections yesterday and investor reaction was swift and dramatic: shares of the software maker dropped 8% in after-hours trading, reports the Wall Street Journal . This despite the fact that Oracle’s profits rose 30% to $1.34 billion, 26 cents per share, from $1.03 billion, 20 cents per share a year ago. Revenue rose 21% to $5.35 billion, short of analysts’ $5.42 billion expectations. More »

A day after posting its biggest gain on Wall Street in more than a decade—shares rose 18% to $42.86—securities firm Morgan Stanley today reported a second straight quarterly loss, as first quarter earnings fell 42% to $1.55 billion, from $2.67 billion a year ago, reports Bloomberg. But Morgan joined Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers in beating analyst expectations, prompting a runup in early trading. More »

Continuing US housing market woes, showing no signs of letting up, helped drag Home Depot’s fourth quarter profits down 27% over the same quarter last year, to $671 million from $925 million. The world’s largest home-improvement retailer also predicted fiscal-year earnings will drop 19% to 24%, more than twice the decline analysts had expected, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »