May 9, 2013
Will Mobile Save Groupon?
 Groupon’s (GRPN) numbers for the first quarter of 2013 showed that if the company was indeed near the brink, for the time being it has survived and bought itself some breathing room in the process. For Q1, Groupon lost $4 million, or $0.01 per share on revenue of $601.4 million, versus the prior year period during which the company lost $11.7 million, or $0.02 per share on revenue of $559.3 million. Adjusted earnings, excluding the cost of stock compensation, were $0.03 cents per share, which matched analysts’ expectations, while revenue came in well ahead of the expected $588.92 million. Furthermore, the company forecasted earnings for the current quarter of between $575 and $625 million, against expectations of $614 million. Late trading saw shares rocket upwards around 11 percent before pulling back slightly to just under 10 percent, to $6.14, after (more)…
May 8, 2013
CA Technologies Revenue Drops Again in Q4, Plans to Fire 1,200 Staffers
 CA Technologies, Inc. (CA) reported better-than-expected profits in its fiscal fourth quarter 2013, although revenue contracted, completing the full year of declining sales each quarter as compared to the same period a year earlier. Additionally, the software maker for mainframes and computer systems said that it intends to terminate about 1,200 of its 13,600 employees worldwide and consolidate development sites into centralized hubs in 2014 as it realigns its business priorities. The rebalancing of resources is expected to result in a charge of $150 million in the new fiscal year. CA said it expects most of the firings to happen in the first quarter with new employees being brought in over the year “with skills that will enable the company to better focus its resources on priority products and market segments.” For the latest quarter, Islandia, New York-based CA reported (more)…
May 7, 2013
Baidu Makes Impressive Gains for Second Straight Day After Announcing Purchase of PPS
 Chinese-language internet search service Baidu (BIDU) continued to gain on Tuesday as the company announced its acquisition of the Shanghai-based online video company PPS for $370 million. Shares for Baidu closed yesterday up 3.7 percent to $87.65, and rose over 2 percent on Tuesday to as high as $89.88. The acquisition is expected to be finalized during the current quarter, and is especially significant for Baidu as it allows the company a greater range of motion in its competition with China’s other dominant video site Youkou-Tudou. The company will integrate PPS into its own already-existing video service iQiyi, making it China’s largest video provider for mobile. In terms of industry consolidation, the move harkens back to Google’s (GOOG) $1.65 billion 2006 acquisition of YouTube. It is also an echo of Baidu’s purchase of iQiyi which began as a joint investment (more)…
Mercadolibre Soars on Earnings Miss and Inevitable Future Growth
 Argentinian e-commerce company Mercadolibre, Inc. (MELI) saw shares rise dramatically on Tuesday over 18 percent to as high as $124.40 in midday trading. Mercadolibre, with a market cap currently at $5.4 billion and shares up over 32 percent in 2013, runs online commerce websites throughout South and Central America. Tuesday’s stunning performance comes after the company released earnings in after hours the previous day. During the first quarter, Mercadolibre’s net income was $17.5 million, or $0.40 per share on revenue of $102.7 million, compares to the prior-year period during which the company earned $19.64 million, or $0.45 per share on revenue of $83.75 million. Analysts had expected earnings or $0.54 per share on revenue of $97.44 million. Adjusted earnings, however, were at $0.53 per share as the company, like so many others in the region and around the world, was (more)…
May 6, 2013
Facebook: To Mobile or Not to Mobile
 While perhaps not as anticipated as Apple’s (AAPL), Facebook’s (FB) earnings report last week was no small news. During the first quarter, two high-profile announcements about new developments and product offerings were a clear and unsurprising indication of the company’s intensifying focus on finding a growth formula for its mobile business, and investors were looking for any signs of how these new strategies are working out. The number of mobile app users around the world is predicted to increase from 1 billion active users in 2012 to over 2 billion in by 2016. With the rapidly expanding dominance of phones and tablets as the preferred gateway to the internet, tech companies as well as others are reorienting their strategies to capture a larger share of the lucrative mobile advertising market. With a nearly 180 percent increase in spending on mobile (more)…
Intel’s McAfee Makes $389 Million Offer for Stonesoft
 Computer security software company McAfee Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (INTC), said Monday that it has executed a definitive agreement to launch a conditional tender offer to acquire Stonesoft Oyj, a maker of next-generation network firewall products. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Stonesoft trades on the Nasdaq OMX (NDAQ) Helsinki exchange under the ticker SFT1V. Stonesoft has more than 6,500 customers globally, comprised of governments, retailers and more. The all-cash deal values Stonesoft at $389 million. Stonesoft closed trading on Friday at 1.97 euros. The McAfee offer puts a value of 4.50 euros per share, representing a 128 percent premium. “We plan to integrate Stonesoft’s offerings with other McAfee products to realize the power of McAfee’s Security Connected strategy,” said Michael DeCesare, president of McAfee. Stonesoft products will benefit from the collective expertise of more than 7,200 McAfee (more)…
May 3, 2013
LinkedIn Beats on Earnings but 2013 Outlook Worries Investors
 Momentum for shares of the career-oriented social media company LinkedIn (LNKD) could be in for a rough Friday after the company’s largely positive earnings report was undermined by a disappointing outlook for the rest of the year. LinkedIn netted $22.6 million, $0.20 per share on revenue of $324.7 million during Q1 2013, versus earnings of $5 million, or $0.04 per share on revenue of $188.5 million in the prior year period. Earnings, after adjustments, were $0.45 per share, putting the company significantly ahead of estimates of $0.30 per share. Additionally, LinkedIn’s revenue was up over 70 percent from the previous year, and beat expectations of $317.6 million. Shares closed on a 3.52 percent gain to $201.67 in anticipation of the release of the company’s financials, but plummeted in late trading by 10 percent, as the snag in the report was (more)…
May 2, 2013
Yelp Soars on More Users and Strong Growth in Mobile
 Shares for online consumer and business resources website Yelp (YELP) hit their all-time high on Thursday, leaping to as much as $32.14, a gain of nearly 26 percent, as the company’s earnings report released late the previous day. Taking advantage of a market-wide rally fueled by unexpectedly good news about jobs, Yelp shares soared on figures that showed the company losing $4.8 million, or $0.08 per share on revenue of $46.1 million, against the prior year period during which the company lost almost twice that amount, $9.8 million, or $0.31 per share on revenue of $27.4 million. Forecasts, meanwhile, had the company losing $0.06 per share on revenue of $44.5 million. With losses down considerably from last year, and revenue up only slightly, the company’s stock is standing on how its earnings vindicate its business strategy. Yelp’s average number of (more)…
Facebook Posts Flat Q1 Earnings and Significant Increase in Revenues
 Facebook’s (FB) reported net income for the first quarter at $219 million, or $0.09 cents per share on revenue of $1.46 billion. Excluding one-time items, the company made $0.12 per share, which is largely in line with what analysts had been expecting. During the prior-year period, the company earned $205 million or $0.09 per share on revenue of $1.06 billion. Revenue for the first quarter represented a 38 percent increase on the prior year, slightly ahead of expectations of $1.44 billion. But the red meat in the report was largely to be found in the impressive 43 percent year-over-year increase in mobile ad revenue that now accounts for 30 percent of the company’s entire gross income from advertising, and is a figure that hit the higher end of the spectrum of analyst expectations. For Q4 of 2012, mobile made up (more)…
May 1, 2013
Netflix Dips after Massive Content Loss to New Time Warner Service
 Netflix (NFLX) officially shed 1,700 videos from its streaming library on Wednesday, as all programming previously available from Warner Brothers, MGM Studios, Allied Artists, and RKO through the company’s online service now become the exclusive material of Time Warner’s (TWX) new video service Warner Archive Classic. The news put a damper on the last few days of gains made by the company on the heels of last week’s earnings report that was interpreted as a vindication of the company’s recent moves, and particularly its highly successful foray into original programming with the House of Cards series. The company recently contended with a great deal of skepticism when it decided to release all episodes of the series to users at once. The first quarter earnings report came as a counter-argument, as it showed Netflix beating expectations on earnings, excluding losses, by (more)…
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