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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

A Preview of Time Warner Earnings: Bummer at AOL, Bummer at Magazines–Just a Bummer

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When Time Warner reports its second -quarter earnings tomorrow morning, before the markets open, most Wall Street analysts are not expecting much from the media giant, as it continues to slog toward a rejiggering of itself.

Time Warner–which owns assets like the Warner Bros. movie studio, the AOL online unit, the HBO and Turner cable networks and Time Inc. magazines–is expected to earn 37 cents per share, compared to 72 cents a year ago, according to a poll of analysts from Thomson Reuters.

Revenue is expected to be $6.97 billion, down from $11.56 billion in the same quarter last year. This drop is mostly due to the March spinoff of its cable unit, Time Warner Cable.

But AOL and its magazine unit are expected to continue to drag on Time Warner’s financial performance.

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Liveblogging the Microsoft Fourth-Quarter Earnings Call: Look Out Below!

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How low can Microsoft go?

Very low, it seems, in announcing really bad fourth-quarter earnings, missing Wall Street revenue estimates by an astonishing $1 billion.

Talk about a game of extreme limbo.

No surprise–Microsoft shares have been taking a beating in after-hours trading.

BoomTown liveblogged the earnings call.

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Yahoo CEO Bartz’s Happy Talk About Microsoft’s Bing–As a Deal Nears, Goodbye to the Zings (Well, for Now!)

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And there it was in Yahoo’s second-quarter earnings call yesterday, when–as the first question–an analyst asked Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz what she thought about Bing, the new and innovative search offering from Microsoft.

“I think actually Bing is a good product,” said Bartz. “I think they’ve done a good job. I think Microsoft should be given kudos for Bing.”

It was a politic thing to say, to be sure, especially with Microsoft and Yahoo still zeroing in on a search and online advertising partnership deal, as has been previously reported by BoomTown.

Sources I have spoken to over the past two days say the deal is still on good footing and could be struck very soon, even as early as tomorrow, although it is still not a certainty–especially given the bumpy history between Yahoo and Microsoft.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Liveblogging the Yahoo Second Quarter 2009 Earnings Call: We Are the Kingmaker!

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If there’s an earnings call at Yahoo, you know BoomTown is going to liveblog it!

Will Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz say something naughty? (Nope!) What is new CFO Tim Morse like? (Nice!) Will they say anything about the talks with Microsoft about a search and online advertising partnership? (No!)

Oh, it might be a corker!

The earnings results for the second quarter certainly were not.

Here’s the conference call, updated as it happened.

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Yahoo Earnings Beat Low Expectations (It’s a Good Thing the Homepage Redo Is Pretty)

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Yahoo reported so-so second-quarter earnings results today, with a decline in revenue, but with a slightly stronger-than-expected improvement in net income.

For the three months ended June 30, the Internet giant said it had revenue of $1.14 billion, excluding traffic-acquisition costs, down from $1.35 billion in the same period a year ago.

Profit was up eight percent, due to cost-cutting. Yahoo said it earned $141.4 million, or 10 cents a share, in the quarter, compared to $131.2 million, or nine cents.

But that’s not really saying much since Wall Street analysts had such low expectations, estimating Yahoo would earn eight cents. But, with a weak advertising market, it is also not that bad.

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Liveblogging the Microsoft Earnings Call: Glum Chris at the Recessiondome

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Well, despite the news being as bad at Microsoft as it was at Yahoo earlier this week, the conference call after the software giant released its third-quarter earnings was 100 percent less naughty and 200 percent more glum.

In other words, while there were no F-bombs dropped, there were lots of E-bombs–as in econalypse.

Here’s BoomTown’s liveblogging of the call–featuring the software giant’s semi-apocalyptic CFO, Chris Liddell.

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Microsoft Gets Hit by the Econalypse: Earnings and Revenue Slide (Plus the Full Press Release)

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Microsoft’s earnings and revenue took a hit in its third quarter, as expected, with profits down 32 percent from a year ago on a six percent sales decline.

Before one-time charges, the software giant earned $2.98 billion, or 33 cents a share after one-time charges, on revenue of $13.65 billion.

The weak results were relatively in line with analysts’ estimates of 39 cents a share on $14.1 billion in revenue.

The culprit for the bad news was the decline in consumer and business spending on computers since half Microsoft’s operating income comes from sales of its Windows operating system.

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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A Bad Quarter Ends Today (But Will It Be a Happier New Year for Tech?)

Today, most companies in the tech and Internet sector will close the books on what is likely to be a very disappointing fourth quarter and also close out what has turned out to be a mucho depressing year, which got hammered starting in the third.

While financial results will not out for some weeks, one does not have to be a psychic to know what’s coming: A lot of weakness, with hopes for better days ahead.

It’s a far cry from how 2008 started out, with high valuations for all. Those were the days my friend, Silicon Valley thought they’d never end, to sing and dance forever and a day. As it turned out, it was more of a swan song for Web 2.0.

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Monday, July 7, 2008

Yahoo’s Next (Real) Challenge: July 22 Q2 Earnings Report

While a lot of focus has been put on Yahoo’s potentially ugly proxy fight with activist investor Carl Icahn–which could come to a head at its August 1 annual meeting unless both sides figure out a truce before then–more attention should probably be paid to the Internet giant’s second quarter earnings report on July 22 at 5 pm ET/2 pm PT.

It is highly unlikely Yahoo leadership will blow the quarter. Or–more to the point–they simply cannot, especially given all the unending turmoil that has engulfed the company.

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.

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Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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