Live Coverage: Apple Q3 earnings call
Surprise. Apple is expected to report another dazzling quarter on Tuesday, propelled by strong demand for its bestseller iPhone and the sleeker iPad 2 tablets.
Apple share rose nearly 2.5 percent on Monday to $373.80 in anticipation of better-than-expected results for the fiscal third-quarter, which saw an easing of the supply constraints surrounding iPad2.
The stock, which touched an all time high of $374.65 earlier in the session, appeared to have emerged out of the limbo it has been since Chief Executive Steve Jobs took leave last January for unspecified medical reasons.
But will the call following the earnings report touch on succession issues, which some board members are now pondering, according to the WSJ?
Investors are looking for a 60 percent increase in revenue for June quarter but all eyes will be on the outlook for the second half of the year, which Wall Street is betting will be huge as it may include the launch of a new iPhone, its best-selling product that accounts for about 40 percent of its revenue.
Join Reuters correspondents Noel Randewich and Poornima Gupta for a chat. Joining them from Twitter will be Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at consulting firm Current Analysis, and Michael Gartenberg, technology analyst at Gartner.
Dow Jones Hinton’s resignation letters
Memo to employees
Dear all,
Many of you will be aware by now that I resigned today from Dow Jones and News Corp. I attach below my resignation letter to Rupert Murdoch.
It is a deeply, deeply sad day for me.
I want you all to know the pride and pleasure I have taken working at Dow Jones for the past three-and-a-half years. I have never been with better, more dedicated people, or had more fun in a job.
News Corp under Rupert’s brilliant leadership has proved a fitting parent of Dow Jones, allowing us to invest and expand as other media companies slashed costs. This support enabled us together to strengthen the company during a brutal economic downturn, developing fine new products – not to mention one of the world’s great newspapers led by one of the world’s great editors, my dear friend and colleague Robert Thomson.
However difficult this moment is for me, I depart with the certain knowledge that we have built the momentum to take Dow Jones on to ever greater things.
Rupert Murdoch’s global empire
A scandal rocking Rupert Murdoch’s media empire deepened on Thursday with claims his best-selling News of the World paper hacked the phones of relatives of British soldiers killed in action. The latest allegations prompted News Corp to shut down the 168-year-old tabloid. Here’s a look at the rest of the empire.
This half the picture of his empire …!!! It doesn’t show the 175 newspapers magazines he owns
Steve Jobs’s biggest gadget yet
“Apple’s grown like weeds” begins Apple CEO Steve Jobs at a presentation to the Cuptertino City Council. Jobs rocked the PC industry with the Mac. He’s roiled the music industry with the iPod. Then back again to the PC industry with the iPad. Now, he wants his own UFO/HQ. Business Insider summarizes.
Here are some images of illustrations included in the proposal for the new Apple Campus, courtesy of Cupertino City Hall:
Shame it isn’t in the shape of the Apple logo! That would be more impressive!
Sony not out of the woods
Sony cranked up its video game networks over the weekend starting with the Americas after an unprecedented breach led to the theft of personal information from more than 100 million user accounts. But experts continued to criticize the Japanese electronics giant for failing to plug other potential holes in its vast global network.
Using little more than a web browser, a search engine and a basic understanding of security systems, one researcher found more than five entryways into Sony’s systems in the United States and elsewhere shortly after the story went to press. ”"Sony still has several external security issues that need to be addressed,” John Bumgarner, chief technology officer for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, tells Reuters’ Jim Finkle.
Bloomberg weighed in on Monday to lay out how hackers of Sony’s networks and others have Amazon.com’s cloud computing services to launch attacks, citing unnamed sources.
Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s No. 2, has played a prominent role in dealing with the crisis. Whether Sony recovers from the drubbing to its brand will decide if he takes his place as leader of the company.
We’ll have some tips for Hirai later this week at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York and Paris, where we plan to ask a broad range of tech chiefs how they would fix the one-time mighty electronics giant.
Live coverage of the iPad 2 launch
Live coverage of the expected announcement of Apple’s iPad 2. The event will begin Wednesday March 2 at 10 a.m. Pacific/ 1 p.m. Eastern.
Will Steve Jobs show up? Will Tim Cook pull off a major Apple launch alone? Is the rumored iPad 3 the one to wait for? How have investors traded on the news of big Apple launches?
Until Apple launched the iPad last January, the market for tablet computers was little more than the junkyard heap of laptops with touchscreens found on eBay. On Wednesday, Apple aims to secure its dominance in a market it (re)created with the expected launch of the iPad 2. Join our correspondents Gabriel Madway and Alexei Oreskovic at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center and others around Reuters for a live discussion of the biggest tech event this week.
Did they mention that the wifi problems would be solved?
Liveblog: Verizon set to launch the iPhone. Finally.
Verizon is set to launch the iPhone today — January 11, 2011 at 11am ET. Cheeky.
Will antennagate be fixed? Will Verizon launch a 4G version by summer? Will Steve Jobs make an appearance on stage or by hologram? Can Verizon Wireless’ network survive the crush? Will AT&T customers in San Francisco stop dropping calls?
We’re live blogging and analyzing the event today. Joining us for the liveblog from New York will be NPD analyst Ross Rubin, Gartner’s Michael Gartenberg and Ritsuko Ando, Reuters correspondent. Sinead Carew of Reuters will also be on scene in New York covering the announcement.
Tribune unplugged
What will the newspaper of the 21st century look like? Can Tribune cut its way to growth?
What can possibly be done to cheat the death spiral its papers and those of the industry faces?
Tribune COO Randy Michaels offered one solution during its latest call with lenders:
“We went around to see what we could unplug. It turns out we were still maintaining the 1998 mainframe from Times Mirror. Nothing goes into it. Nothing goes out of it. And then we unplugged it and nothing stopped. So we’ve stopped the service contract, stopped the maintenance. We’ve actually disconnected about half of the equipment on the eighth floor. We have surplus air conditioning. While that may not be material, it represents the kind of opportunity that exists here. We’re busy changing the culture to save money.”
In other words, people don’t kill newspapers. Machines kill newspapers.
But not quite. People are to be blamed as well, Michaels suggested in the same breath, especially congregations of them:
“I realized that in the first few months here, I was always busy, but not getting a lot done … Twelve people would show up in the office. We had a culture of meetings. I’m sure they were informative and helpful. Everyone could stay busy going to meetings. We’re actively campaigning against meetings if something could be handled by a conversation in the hall or a quick email. We’re having a lot fewer meetings and getting more done.”
‘Overpayers’ social network
Are Microsoft and WPP gearing for an asset swap?
Advertising Age’s Abbey Klaassen is reporting that the two companies — criticized for overpaying for their respective digital advertising acquisitions — have rekindled six-month-old discussions to scratch each others itch.
Microsoft may possibly be seeking to shed its Avenue A/Razorfish, one of the units of aQuantive it purchased last year in a $5.9 billion deal. Avenue A accounted for about 60 percent of aQuantive’s revenue. But getting anywhere close to $3.5 billion would be far-fetched. The division’s market value is close to $800 million, Klaassen calculates.
Enter WPP’ s Martin Sorrell, who has also sought to unload Open AdStream, the ad-serving division of 24/7 Read Media, which WPP purchased for $649 million.
The hitch: Sorrell sees m&a activity in emerging markets like China, not the United States.
Keep an eye on:
- Merrill Lynch may seek to revise its contract with MGM to see if the studio violated any terms by “axing” Paula Wagner as UA’s CEO (NY Post)
- Beijing Olympics were a big ratings success for NBC, but profit estimates of as much as $100 million are too high. (FT)
- Consumer electronics companies want your TV to talk to your fridge. (NYTimes)
So far I don’t see or hear anything from the current President or the Senators seeking his office which will be of any immediate help to homeowners in foreclosure. The current Bailout plan on the table does not appear to contain what is best for the average American homeowner.
However, if the homeowner and the economy are to benefit in an immediate fashion there must be an infusion of cash flow. Why not do something that would accomplish this regardless to the present plan being hashed out in Washington? Before the President leaves office he should call for or sign by executive order a stay of all proceedings in regards to all Americans presently in foreclosure. Americans who are presently in foreclosure should begin to pay their regular payments, portions thereof or at least the interest on the loan while the stay of proceedings is in place. This action would at least create a cash flow in the industry for the mortgage companies affording them to pay their obligations or whatever they deem necessary.
This stay of proceedings would also allow time for a more well thought out plan with the supposed 700 billion dollar bailout funding as to how it will assist the average American homeowner and the economy. In the mean time no other American homeowner will suffer the loss of their home. Is this not the goal and one of the focal points of the bailout?
If the President does nothing until the bailout plan is finally prepared and accepted many more home owners will have lost their homes before receiving any benefit from these monies. By the time monies are available, that is if the average American home owner is benefited at all, it will be too little too late. This action will show the American people that President Bush can in fact do what is best for the average American before he leaves office. President Bush can leave office with a more positive impression in the minds of the American people.
Verizon, Google nears deal
Media companies aren’t the only ones who needed Google’s help. The Wall Street Journal is reporting Verizon and Google are nearing a wide-ranging agreement that will see Google as the default search provider on Verizon handsets.
It’s not the first time the two have reportedly come close to landing a partnership. They were in discussions last year as well.
At issue, according to the report, is Google’s desire to save information from user searches in order to enhance the relevancy of its ads. Verizon, like other carriers, have been unwilling to part with such valuable consumer data. Another hang-up is the revenue split from the ads.
Regardless, Google’s Android phones are expected to hit the market shortly, making deals like this just one part of the Internet search leader’s massive mobile ambitions.
Keep an eye on:
- Courts warn media companies on take-down notices (Wired)
- Advertising slowdown continues, says WPP (Reuters)
- Apple’s iPhone 3G launches in India with no mass hysteria and a price tag of $700 (Reuters)
(Photo: Reuters)
