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Tech companies forge ahead with earnings

Most technology companies slated to report quarterly results Thursday say they are going ahead with their announcements even though the stock markets may still be closed Friday.

3 min read
Most technology companies slated to report quarterly results Thursday said they were going ahead with their announcements even with the possibility of the stock markets being closed Friday.

The stock markets remain closed after Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The New York Stock Exchange said Wednesday that it would reopen no earlier than Friday and no later than Monday.

Oracle and Tektronix will go ahead with their quarterly announcements, but Oracle has postponed its quarterly conference call with financial analysts until the U.S. stock markets reopen. Verity, which has already reported its results, will proceed with its quarterly conference call. Only Adobe Systems has rescheduled its quarterly report to next week.

Steven Randich, the Nasdaq's chief technology officer, said Thursday that he still did not know when the exchange would reopen, or whether it would reopen before the NYSE, which faces many more difficulties because its trading floor is located in the heart of New York's financial district.

But Randich said the Nasdaq has "infrastructure and operability" issues to deal with. The headquarters of the Nasdaq, at One Liberty Plaza, were also damaged by the collapse of the twin towers.

Randich said a consortium of companies will hold their second day of meetings Thursday to determine when the markets can reopen.

Oracle will post its fiscal first-quarter results at 1 p.m. PDT Thursday. The software maker confirmed it was one of many tech companies to lose an employee on the hijacked flights that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Oracle is expected to report earnings of 8 cents a share, according to First Call's consensus estimate. The company said last month that its software sales could be up to 10 percent lower but reaffirmed its earnings target of 8 cents a share.

Tektronix was still slated to report its first-quarter results after Thursday's bell, at 1:30 p.m. PDT, though a company representative said Thursday morning that executives were still evaluating the possibility of a postponement. First Call expects the maker of measurement and monitoring equipment to report earnings of 11 cents a share.

Adobe, which was scheduled to report its third-quarter results Thursday, said it had delayed its announcement. The maker of graphic design and publishing software will now report its third-quarter results Wednesday. The company has reported no employees missing or damages related to the attack. It is predicted to report earnings of 28 cents a share, according to First Call's consensus estimate.

Verity, which makes business-portal infrastructure software, announced its first-quarter results Wednesday but delayed its conference call one day. The company's call will now take place Thursday at 1 p.m. PDT.

Verity reported a loss of 7 cents a share on revenue of $20.1 million. Losses were above the 12-cents-a-share low given in the company's August preannouncement. Verity had said it expected revenue in the range of $20 million to $24 million, compared with a prior estimate of $34 million to $36 million.

Among non-technology companies, Standard & Poor's 500 company General Mills said it has delayed its earnings report. The company was slated to release its first-quarter results Wednesday and has not rescheduled.

News.com's Wylie Wong contributed to this report.