revenue

With its acquisition of NBC Universal finally done, Comcast today reported a boost in both sales and earnings for its fourth quarter.

For the quarter ended December 31, the cable carrier earned $1.02 billion, a gain of 6.6 percent from the $955 million earned in the prior year's quarter. Sales grew by 7.2 percent to reach $9.72 billion compared with $9.07 billion a year ago. Both results managed to beat the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, according to Reuters, and prompted the company to lift its annual dividend by 19 percent.

With … Read more

Everyone's favorite government agency, the Internal Revenue Service, has launched its own mobile application.

Released last week to iPhone and Android users, the free IRS2Go provides a few tidbits of information that could make April 15 a bit less stressful.

Those of us fortunate enough to qualify for a refund can find out exactly when Uncle Sam will be sending out that check. Entering your Social Security number (which the IRS says is masked and encrypted), filing status, and expected refund amount delivers the due date for your payment.

People who file their federal taxes electronically can check their … Read more

Twitter could more than triple its ad revenue this year but will still trail far behind Facebook, a new report claims.

Market research firm eMarketer predicted today that Twitter will generate about $150 million in advertising revenue this year, up from the $45 million it made last year. The vast majority of this year's revenue--$140 million--will come from inside the U.S., the firm said. eMarketer expects Twitter ad revenue to reach $250 million next year.

However, eMarketer also pointed out that its estimates aren't guarantees. And Twitter, which only joined the advertising game last year with &… Read more

The iPad, we can all agree by now, has been a hearty addition to Apple's product stable.

Many who closely watch Apple figured sales would be pretty good, but no one predicted Apple would sell a whopping 7.33 million of the touch-screen tablets during the last three months of 2010, as the company announced last week. That's close to doubling the number of Macs the company sold during the same time, a fairly amazing feat when you consider the time both have been on the market. The iPad landed in April, while Apple's been making Macs … Read more

Sales of its Android phones and internal cost-cutting helped Sony Ericsson returned to profitability in its fourth quarter. But overall sales were down, and results missed analysts' expectations.

For the quarter ended December 31, the Swedish mobile phone maker saw its net income hit 8 million euros ($10.8 million), a healthy swing from 2009's final quarter, which was hit by a loss of 167 million euros. Results were similar for all of 2010 as net earnings reached 90 million euros following a loss of 836 million euros in fiscal 2009.

Seeing 2010 as a turnaround year, the company … Read more

Tech, media, and telecom companies in emerging markets and those considered "digital innovators" are among the world's tops in providing value to their investors, according to a new study from the Boston Consulting Group.

Out today, the report "Swimming Against the Tide: How Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Companies Can Prosper in the New Economic Reality" found that seven of the top 10 telecom performers, five of the top 10 media performers, and four of the top 10 technology performers are in India, Taiwan, Mexico, China, and other emerging markets. But global companies tuned into the … Read more

If you think mobile applications are popular now, a new report predicts you haven't seen anything yet.

This year, consumers worldwide will have downloaded 10.9 billion mobile apps, according to a report from IDC released today. But that figure will pale in comparison to how many apps users download in 2014.

By that time, IDC believes 76.9 billion mobile apps will be downloaded in a single year. Given that popularity, IDC said that mobile-app revenue around the world could surpass $35 billion in 2014, up from an estimated $4.9 billion this year.

Going forward, IDC said … Read more

Cyber Monday appears to have been a huge hit among consumers this year.

According to Coremetrics, a division of IBM, online sales yesterday were up 19.4 percent, compared to Cyber Monday 2009. The average consumer's online order value was $194.89, representing an 8.3 percent gain over the average order value of $180.03 in 2009. Coremetrics also found that luxury goods sales were up 24.3 percent, compared to Cyber Monday 2009.

Coremetrics also reported that total sales on Cyber Monday were 31.1 percent higher than Black Friday's online sales. However, the research firm … Read more

Here's more proof that the transition to digital isn't making up for the losses occurring in the traditional music business .

Warner Music Group, the third largest of the four top record labels reported a net loss of $46 million for its fiscal fourth quarter. During the same period last year, Warner reported a loss of $18 million. Revenue declined 13 percent to $752 million from $867 million a year ago.

Warner, the home of such acts as Green Day and Linkin Park, reported digital revenue of $197 million or a 7.1 percent increase from the same period … Read more