Here Come Tech Earnings–Or, This Quarter, Maybe Not So Much
by Kara Swisher
Posted on January 20, 2009 at 8:30 AM PT
Over the next two weeks, tech companies will be reporting their fourth-quarter earnings and the expectations are pretty much what you might imagine: Bad to very bad to very, very bad.
That’s bad, of course, because tech has been one of the bright spots in the U.S. economy, with strong returns quarter after quarter for a long time now.
But the economic meltdown–which began in the financial sector–has infected everything, including digital companies that have heretofore been healthy and strong.
IBM (IBM) kicks off today at 1:30 pm PST with its fourth-quarter results.
Then tomorrow, it’s eBay (EBAY) and Apple (AAPL) on deck.
Obviously, Apple will be of great interest because of what its execs will say about CEO Steve Jobs, who recently announced he was taking a medical leave due to ongoing health issues.
As to eBay, many believe the online auction site will report its first quarterly revenue decline in nearly 10 years.
Then Thursday come the two archrival powerhouses, Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT), which are both expected to look a little less powerful.
Both are bellwethers, with analysts expecting weaker results, even though they will both probably have the sunniest stories in the very cloudy outlook.
Yahoo (YHOO) is another story next week, when new CEO Carol Bartz will get the privilege of delivering what most expect to be a very weak performance. Some analysts are estimating that Yahoo’s results could scrape the bottom of a very well-scraped barrel.
Let’s hope, in Yahoo’s case and for others, that it is always darkest before the dawn.
