April 30 (Reuters) – Groupon Inc appointed two
directors for its board to replace Starbucks Chief
Executive Howard Schultz and venture capitalist Kevin Efrusy as
the company addresses criticism over its accounting practices.

Groupon said Robert Bass, a Deloitte LLP vice chairman, and
Daniel Henry, chief financial officer of the American Express Co
, would join its board, and they will serve on the audit
committee. Henry joined last Friday. Bass needs to be elected at
the June shareholders’ meeting.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s stellar quarterly results are helping convince skeptics on Wall Street that a bout of intense spending is beginning to pay off for an Internet retailer trying to transform itself into a technology company.

Shares of Amazon leapt 16 percent on Friday, after it reported first-quarter earnings and margins late on Thursday that were well above investors’ most bullish expectations. The gains tacked on some $10 billion in market value and marked its biggest single-day gain since October of 2009.

By Alistair Barr

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s stellar quarterly results are helping convince skeptics on Wall Street that a bout of intense spending is beginning to pay off for an Internet retailer trying to transform itself into a technology company.

Shares in Amazon leapt 15 percent on Friday after it reported first-quarter earnings and margins well above investors’ most bullish expectations, tacking on some $10 billion in market value and marking its biggest single-day gain since October of 2009.

By Alistair Barr

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s quarterly earnings beat Wall Street’s most bullish expectations as the world’s largest Internet retailer brought costs under control, sending its shares up almost 15 percent.

Investors cheered first-quarter earnings that came in several times above average forecasts, saying the Internet giant, which has been spending aggressively on expansion, is beginning to rein in expenses.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A recent acquisition spurt by Facebook Inc may add about a week to the social network’s journey to public markets, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

Facebook recently agreed to buy photo-sharing start-up Instagram for about $1 billion and on Monday the company said it would pay $550 million for hundreds of patents from Microsoft Corp.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc said its
revenue declined sequentially in the first quarter, the weakest
performance by the world’s largest social media network since at
least 2010.

Facebook, which is preparing for an initial public offering
that could value it at up to $100 billion, said spending roughly
doubled over the past 12 months, outpacing the 45 percent
revenue increase during the period.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 20 (Reuters) – Splunk Inc’s
impressive debut on Nasdaq Thursday, where it doubled its $17
initial public offering price, has investors suddenly paying
attention to a sector that has grown in relative obscurity: big
data.

Essentially a catch-all term, big data refers to the ability
to collect and analyze massive amounts of information on almost
every dimension of the human experience.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – EBay Inc’s (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) strong first quarter bodes well for Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) results next week – especially Amazon’s own online Marketplace business and e-commerce in general, analysts said on Thursday.

EBay shares surged to a six-year high after quarterly results showed the company’s efforts to turn around its online Marketplaces business are paying off.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18 (Reuters) – EBay Inc
reported better-than-expected increases in quarterly sales and
profit on Wednesday, driven by growth in the e-commerce
company’s Marketplace and PayPal businesses.

EBay said first-quarter profit was $725 million, or 55 cents
per share, compared with $619 million, or 47 cents per share, a
year earlier. Revenue was $3.3 billion, up 29 percent from the
same period in 2011.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 5 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc, preparing
what would be Silicon Valley’s largest IPO, has picked Nasdaq
over the New York Stock Exchange for its listing in a major
victory for the technology-laden U.S. bourse, a source familiar
with the situation said on Thursday.

One of the most coveted stock listings in recent years,
Facebook’s choice of its future exchange translates into a
relatively small sum in annual listing fees. But it bestows
major bragging rights on Nasdaq OMX Group Inc, already
home to the likes of Apple Inc and Google Inc.