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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Apple results strong; record iPhone, iPad sales (AP) : Technet

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Apple results strong; record iPhone, iPad sales (AP) : Technet

Apple results strong; record iPhone, iPad sales (AP)

Posted: 19 Jul 2011 04:46 PM PDT

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Jul 19, 7:46 pm ET

NEW YORK – The iPhone is conquering Asia, the home of its strongest competitors. Sales there nearly quadrupled from a year ago and helped Apple Inc. trump analyst expectations for yet another quarter.

Apple also said iPad sales worldwide nearly doubled from a quarter ago, a sign that it has left the worst of its supply problems behind.

Apple's stock surged nearly 5 percent after the results came out.

Net income in the fiscal third quarter, which ended in June, was $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per share. That's more than double the $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $5.82 per share.

Revenue was $28.6 billion, up 82 percent from $15.7 billion a year ago. Analysts were expecting $24.8 billion.

The results were lifted by the sale of 20.3 million iPhones, millions more than analysts had expected. The phone's popularity in Asia, particularly in China, is helping. So is the fact that Apple keeps expanding the number of carriers that sell the phone. It was the first full quarter in which the phone was sold by Verizon Wireless, the largest carrier in the U.S. Before, only AT&T sold the phone in the U.S.

Apple usually has the year's new iPhone model out by early July. That hasn't happened this year, and analysts expect the new model to come in September instead. Apple executives didn't provide any specifics on a call with analysts.

Executives also resisted questions on whether Apple will produce a cheaper iPhone to compete against phones powered by Google Inc.'s Android software. Asian competitors like Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and HTC Corp. are selling tens of millions of Android phones every quarter at prices that undercut the iPhone.

"We will only make products that we are proud of, that are the best in the world. And if we can do that, and the price is lower, then we are great with that," Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook told analysts on the call.

IPad sales came in at 9.25 million units, also above analyst expectations. Last quarter, the company was struggling to make enough of the new iPad 2. Apple has sold nearly 29 million iPads since they first went on sale in April 2010.

In other product categories, trends were less impressive. Sales of Mac computers were 3.95 million, up 14 percent from a year ago. That's the lowest quarterly growth rate in two years.

Cook said some people were probably buying iPads instead of Macs in the quarter, but he said more people were buying iPads over Windows PCs. He said he was pleased with 14 percent growth compared with overall PC market growth of 2.6 percent, as measured by research firm IDC.

Some buyers may also have been holding off while waiting for Lion, the new version of the Mac OS X operating system. Apple had said it would go on sale this month, and Apple confirmed on the call that it will go on sale Wednesday. Lion will cost $29.99 and mimics some of the features of the iPhone and iPad interface.

IPod sales were down 20 percent at 7.5 million, as the music and video players continue to lose out to iPhones and iPads. It was the fastest quarterly decline yet.

Cook is running day-to-day operations while CEO Steve Jobs is on indefinite medical leave. The quarter was the first full one since Jobs went on leave in January. Jobs remains involved in major decisions, including announcements of new products. Analysts don't expect Jobs' leave to affect the company much in the short term. All the company's major products have still been shepherded by Jobs.

Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said he expects earnings of $5.50 per share and revenue of $25 billion in the quarter that just started. Both figures point to a decline from the third quarter. However, the company usually lowballs its financial forecasts, and analysts are unlikely to take the forecast seriously.

Apple's stock surged $18, or 4.8 percent, to $394.85 in extended trading after the company announced results late Tuesday. In the regular session, it hit a 52-week high of $378.65, before closing at $376.85, up nearly 1 percent.

Yahoo 2Q revenue drop overshadows earnings gain (AP)

Posted: 19 Jul 2011 04:06 PM PDT

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Tue Jul 19, 7:06 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo Inc. plodded through another disappointing performance in the second quarter, a familiar script that's wearing thin with exasperated investors.

The results released Tuesday are likely to intensify the pressure that had already been mounting on Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz as she enters the final 17 months of her four-year contract.

In a sign of discontent, Yahoo shares sagged after the numbers came out, deepening a steep drop in Yahoo's market value that has been driven during the past two months by uncertainty over a key investment in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group.

The second quarter yielded a "mix of good, encouraging and, at the same time, unsatisfactory" developments, Bartz told analysts in a Tuesday conference call.

Bartz said the biggest problem stemmed from a shakeout in Yahoo's advertising sales force that contributed to a revenue downturn in the U.S. during June.

"We didn't have enough sales people in front of the big clients," she said.

The trouble is spilling over into the current quarter, prompting Yahoo to offer a revenue forecast for the July-September period that fell below analyst estimates.

Yahoo shares shed 31 cents, or more than 2 percent, to $14.28 in Tuesday's extended trading. The stock has plunged by more than 20 percent since Yahoo disclosed in May that Alibaba had spun off an online payment service called Alipay. That move has cast doubt about the value of Yahoo's 43 percent stake in Alibaba.

In Tuesday's conference call, Bartz reiterated her confidence that Alibaba will fairly compensate Yahoo for the Alipay spinoff. She didn't provide a timetable for reaching a resolution.

Bartz, 62, was hired in January 2009 to engineer a turnaround after Yahoo had fallen further behind Internet search leader Google Inc. under its two previous CEOs, its co-founder Jerry Yang and former movie studio boss Terry Semel.

The change in command hasn't paid off yet, although Yahoo is making more money under Bartz because of layoffs, service closures and other cost-cutting moves since her arrival.

Google, though, has gotten even stronger in the past two years while Facebook, the owner of the Web's most popular hangout, has emerged as a formidable threat that's attracting more of the major marketing campaigns that once went to Yahoo.

Even a much-ballyhooed Internet search partnership with Microsoft Corp. has gotten off to a rough start. The alliance so far hasn't produced as much revenue as Bartz hoped, although she said the shortfall wasn't as bad in the spring as it was during the first three months of the year. Enough progress has been made to encourage Yahoo to proceed with its plans to adopt Microsoft's technology for selling search advertising in other countries outside North America later this year.

Yahoo earned $237 million, or 18 cents per share, during the three months ending in June. That's an 11 percent increase from $213 million, or 15 cents per share, at the same time last year.

The earnings matched the projections among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

But Yahoo's revenue sank at a time when advertisers are pouring more money into the Internet.

Revenue totaled $1.23 billion, a 23 percent decline from $1.6 billion at the same time last year.

That comparison is misleading because Yahoo had to change the way it booked revenue to account for the Microsoft partnership. Among other things, the deal requires Yahoo to give Microsoft $12 of every $100 in ad revenue flowing from searches on Yahoo's website.

Yahoo's net revenue — the amount the company keeps after paying advertising commissions_ provides a more telling indication of how the company is faring.

Net revenue totaled $1.08 billion, down 5 percent from last year. The drop looks even worse compared with what's going on at Google, where revenue surged by 36 percent in the second quarter.

As a privately held company, Facebook doesn't release its financial results but research firms tracking the Internet ad market say it's gaining a bigger piece of marketing budgets. By the end of this year, eMarketer expects Facebook to overtake Yahoo in the U.S. market for online display advertising — a term used to describe commercial messages that include video, pictures and other graphics.

If not for the effects of the Microsoft search deal and the closure or sale of some services since last year, Yahoo said its net revenue would have been 1 percent higher than last year.

No matter how the figures were sliced, Yahoo's net revenue for the second quarter fell about $20 million below analyst forecasts.

The mid-range of Yahoo's third-quarter revenue outlook is $50 million below what analysts hoped.

Zillow sets IPO at $20 per share in Weds. (AP)

Posted: 19 Jul 2011 04:01 PM PDT

– Tue Jul 19, 7:01 pm ET

NEW YORK – Real estate listing and information service Zillow Inc. will sell shares for $20 apiece in its initial public offering Wednesday.

That's $2 higher than the top of the range it predicted on Friday.

The company, based in Seattle, said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it will sell roughly 3.5 million shares, meaning it aims to raise just over $69.2 million through the sale of common stock. It also plans a private placement of about 275,000 common shares, which would raise about $5.5 million more.

That means the company expects to tally about $74.7 million, above the $71.6 million it said it expected to raise on Friday.

In addition, it's giving underwriters the option to buy up to an additional 519,300 shares to cover any over-allotments.

Zillow plans to use the funds for general corporate purposes, including a possible acquisition.

The company will trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "Z."

Zillow was founded in 2004 and launched its website in 2006. It has since rolled out applications for accessing its content through mobile devices.

The company holds data on more than 100 million U.S. homes and provides listings for homes for sale and rent. It also features a mortgage marketplace where users can solicit mortgage quotes.

The portal is best known for its "Zestimate," a proprietary home-valuation model it uses to provide an estimate for property values on more than 70 million U.S. homes.

Zillow makes money from real estate and mortgage brokers' subscription fees and advertising.

In the first quarter Zillow's loss narrowed to $826,000 from $2.8 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue doubled to $11.3 million. Zillow lost $6.8 million in 2010, although revenue jumped 74 percent to $30.5 million from 2009.

Citi is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. Allen & Co. LLC is acting as senior co-manager and Pacific Crest Securities, ThinkEquity LLC, and First Washington Corporation are acting as co-managers.

Woman spends $10,000 on invisible art, hopes she doesn’t lose it (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 19 Jul 2011 06:34 PM PDT

Subscribe to ‘Netflix for baby clothes’ and swap outgrown kid garb through the mail (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 19 Jul 2011 06:25 PM PDT

100 YouTube Videos Come Together to Cover Led Zeppelin [VIDEO] (Mashable)

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 06:23 PM PDT

Brenna Ehrlich Brenna Ehrlich – Mon Jul 18, 9:23 pm ET

Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks.

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