earnings

Sony records its first net profit in five years

Sony returned to the black for the first time in five years, thanks largely to one-time gains from the sale of assets rather than its core consumer electronics products.

The Japanese electronics giant on Thursday reported a net profit of $458 million in the 2012 financial year ending March 31 compared with a loss of $5.7 billion the year earlier (PDF). It also recorded an operating profit of $2.45 billion in 2012 compared with a loss of $820 million last year.

The company recorded $72 million in sales, a meager increase of 4.7 percent over the previous … Read more

Tesla hits first profitable quarter ever

In his quarterly earnings letter to shareholders on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that "Tesla reached profitability in the first quarter of 2013 for the first time in our 10-year history."

Not only did the electric car company exceed analyst expectations, but Musk said (PDF) Tesla even outdid its own expectations for deliveries and gross margin. The company reported adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share on revenue of $562 million, which is far higher than the expected 3 cents per share. Its profit was $11 million after charges.

Tesla's total revenue for the first quarter … Read more

AOL profit rises thanks to boost in ad revenue

AOL has continued to shed subscribers but managed to turn a decent profit last quarter thanks mostly to its advertising trade.

The online Internet provider scored a 9 percent increase in global advertising revenue for the first quarter, compared with the year-ago quarter. Global display revenue climbed by 8 percent year over year thanks to 6 percent growth in the U.S. and ongoing double-digit growth abroad.

AOL also saw a 9 percent rise in search revenue due to gains in global queries and higher revenue per search at AOL.com.

"Growth continues at AOL," AOL CEO Tim … Read more

LinkedIn beats Street, but stock takes a dive

LinkedIn earned 45 cents per share on revenue of $324.7 million in the first quarter, up 72 percent from the year-ago quarter. Though the results were good enough to handily beat analyst estimates, LinkedIn's shares are down around 10 percent in after-hours trading.

The professional social network, which now counts 225 million members, posted net income of $22.6 million.

"Q1 was a strong quarter for LinkedIn with member engagement and financial results reaching record levels," CEO Jeff Weiner said in a statement. "We remained focused on delivering great products that increasingly make LinkedIn the … Read more

HTC Q1 profit plunges 98 percent, despite HTC One launch

The HTC One launched too late to save the Taiwanese company's first-quarter results.

Net profit for the handset maker tumbled to NT$85 million ($2.85 million) from NT$4.5 billion ($152 million) a year ago, a drop of 98 percent.

It's the company's lowest quarterly profit since 2004. Revenue plunged too, to NT$42.8 billion from NT$67.8 billion, the company confirmed in Thursday's earnings call.

The company did not reveal how many units of the HTC One it has so far sold, but said it expected revenues to jump in the … Read more

Zuckerberg's steady hand paying dividends in latest Facebook earnings

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his top lieutenants talked with Wall Street analysts Wednesday perhaps the only real surprise was that there were no surprises.

Facebook, it would appear, has blossomed into your average public company with a steadily growing business. Its formidable captain, who has been able to right a ship that was all but upside down just one year ago, now looks the only man for the job.

The social network had a solid quarter with revenue of $1.46 billion, good enough to beat analyst estimates. It posted acceptable, though not great, earnings per share of … Read more

Facebook's Q1 by the numbers

Facebook's Q1 results are in and there's food for both bulls and bears to chew over. One bullet point in particular stands out: The number of people using the social network via smartphones and tablets soared 54 percent from a year earlier. Here's the year-over-year comparison to the same quarter in 2012. (We'll update the stats after Facebook's conference call gets underway this afternoon.)

Daily active users: 665 million, up 26 percent Monthly active users: 1.11 billion up 23 percent Mobile monthly active users: 751 million, up 54 percent Instagram: 100 million monthly active … Read more

Facebook's Q1 rides mobile surge, with slight earnings miss

Facebook reported first-quarter 2013 earnings that were close to Wall Street's expectations.

The social network came in with earnings per share of 12 cents, excluding one-time items, and revenue that grew 38 percent to $1.46 billion compared to the same quarter one year ago. The company said mobile advertising accounted for around 30 percent -- which amounts to about $375 million -- of its advertising revenue for the quarter. Revenue from advertising in the quarter totaled $1.25 billion, or 85 percent of total revenue.

Facebook had 1.11 billion monthly active users as of March 31. The … Read more

Amazon's slim profits beat analyst expectations

Even as Amazon keeps spending to expand operations, its first quarter results, announced Monday, beat analysts' earnings expectations.

Net income dropped 37 percent to $82 million, or 18 cents a share. That still topped analyst expectations of 9 cents a share. Sales climbed 22 percent to $16.1 billion just a smidgen below consensus expectations of $16.2 billion.

The online retail giant is seemingly always in investment mode, and this quarter was no exception. The company acquired Goodreads, a social network for people who love books. It inked new deals for its Prime Instant Video service with A+E … Read more