finance

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--SolarCity is a cross between a solar installer and software company, which will give the company an edge as solar leases become commonplace, according to CEO Lyndon Rive.

The San Francisco-based start-up is one of the pioneers in offering financing for residential solar power, which eliminates the hefty upfront cost of photovoltaic panels. The model has served SolarCity well, which has grown rapidly in the past three years and could go public within two years, Rive said.

Consumers can lease panels from SolarCity, which owns and maintains them for 20 years. Through the arrangement, customers' monthly electricity bills … Read more

You could call this a sign of the economic times coupled with the current populist enthusiasm for renewable energy.

The financing arm of solar manufacturing giant SolarWorld just announced it will offer new types of financing options to attract would-be solar panel owners who might not have the money to buy upfront.

Under a new program, homeowners can choose to defer payments on solar equipment altogether until they receive their eligible state and/or federal incentives. Residents in some states in the western U.S. are also being offered an option to lease Sunkits, SolarWorld's panels-to-nuts solar system kits … Read more

The financial software market is so competitive that there's really no reason to settle for a mediocre program; there are plenty of great ones to choose from. Unfortunately, jGnash falls into that group of programs that just don't cut it. Although the program works, there are many things about it that turned us off.

We got off on the wrong foot with jGnash immediately; it took an extremely long time to load, and once it was up and running, it had a huge negative impact on our system's performance. Our litmus test for personal finances software is … Read more

The standby "pool on the roof" prank so often played on gullible incoming students will no longer be possible at schools in San Diego.

The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education has approved a contract with Amsolar to build and operate 5.2 megawatts worth of solar panels on its properties.

Amsolar specializes in building solar projects in conjunction with schools specifically, and offers an unusual space-for-electricity financing model.

Essentially it works like this. Schools provide their rooftops for use by Amsolar to build and operate solar projects. Amsolar owns, operates, and maintains the solar panel … Read more

Demand Media, the publishing company that achieved both impressive revenues and industry notoriety for its business model of fast, cheap content, is planning to go public.

The company filed an S1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. The SEC filing reveals that Demand's revenues in 2009 were $114 million, with losses of $22 million. Demand hasn't yet specified a value for the IPO or the index on which it plans to trade.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based Demand popularized the model that has become known as a "content farm" or &… Read more

Wall Street didn't have high expectations for AOL's quarterly earnings--after all, one of the company's executives exclaimed at a conference last week that "we have a big f-ing problem!"--but the Internet service provider turned new-media conglomerate still failed to meet the mark. AOL posted revenues of $584.1 million, a 26 percent decline from the previous quarter, when analysts were expecting about $602 million.

In an earnings release, AOL attributed the losses to slimmed-down search and advertising operations internationally, particularly in France and Germany, as well as to costs incurred by some properties which … Read more

They say launching a tech company is a gamble in and of itself, but sometimes that just isn't enough to bet on.

An Antigua-based sports betting site called Bodog has opened up speculation on when Facebook will reach the milestone of one billion users around the world--and also whether the company will go public by the time this happens.

The odds are good for both of them. Bodog places 4/6 odds on Facebook hitting a billion users before January 1, 2012, and 11/10 on the company going public before reaching that user count. A release from the … Read more

CommonCents from EnDevelopment is a personal financial tool based on the tried-and-true envelope budget system, which traditionally involves putting money for expenses aside in paper envelopes so that you're forced to live on whatever is left over. Such cash-oriented budgets enforce old-school financial discipline, but they have limitations, especially when it comes to record-keeping. CommonCents improves the envelope method with a comprehensive suite of tools for managing everything from cash and credit cards to banking, loans, and mortgages, not to mention complete transaction histories and real-time account and envelope balances.

CommonCents' main interface, My Vault, features a main display … Read more

Wall Street was predicting that tepid performance by eBay's auction business would offset strong gains by its PayPal division in its second-quarter earnings, but the e-commerce giant ended up beating expectations: It posted revenue of $2.2 billion, when $2.16 billion had been predicted.

That's a 6 percent gain from the second quarter of 2009, or a 15 percent gain if you consider that eBay sold off the majority of its ownership in telephony service Skype last November. PayPal performance was strong, as expected, posting record revenue for a second-quarter time frame.

"We delivered strong second … Read more