The week ahead: A peek at earnings

Following are some of the notable tech-related events scheduled for the week of Oct. 8 through Oct. 12.

Earnings season is a few weeks away, but investors will get a preview this week of some key companies in the tech industry that will tell their most recent quarter's story to Wall Street.

Manufacturing giant Motorola starts things off on Tuesday and analysts surveyed by First Call expect a third-quarter loss of 7 cents a share compared to last year's profit of 8 cents during the same quarter.

Internet industry observers interested in how the dot-com advertising industry fared will watch for Yahoo's earnings on Wednesday and DoubleClick's report on Thursday.

Analysts expect Yahoo, a popular destination on the Web, to post a profit of one cent a share. That compares with a 3-cent profit during the same quarter last year. Wall Street pegs the third-quarter loss of Internet advertising provider DoubleClick at 10 cents a share versus a loss of 4 cents last year.

On the conference front, many top-notch tech executives will have a chance to go hit the rides at Disney World while attending the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Fla. CEOs from Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Intel, Compaq Computer and Sun Microsystems are scheduled to make keynote presentations.

The information was gathered from First Call, Hoover's Online, CCBN's StreetEvents, The Dismal Scientist and CNET Investor.

Other events scheduled this week:

	Tech Events

Monday, Oct. 8

• Research firm Gartner will host the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo at the Walt Disney World Dolphin, Walt Disney World Swan and Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts in Orlando, Fla., Oct. 8 to Oct. 12. The event features about 250 analyst-led sessions that address issues within the information technology industry. Keynote speakers include Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett, Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Compaq CEO Michael Capellas and Sun CEO Scott McNealy.

• The Competitive Telecommunications Association, or CompTel, will hold its fall conference at the Sheraton in Boston, Oct. 7-10. The conference will focus on issues effecting start-up telecom carriers, which makes up a significant portion of CompTel's membership. Keynote speakers include Velocita chairman Robert Annunziata and Bruce Mehlman, assistant secretary for technology policy for the U.S. Commerce Department.

Tuesday, Oct. 9

• Microsoft and Intel will co-host a seminar for software developers on .Net at the Irvine Marriott in Irvine, Calif., on Oct. 9. Microsoft's .Net is a software-as-a-service platform geared toward the Internet.

• Electronic Conference World 2001 takes place at the McCormick Place Complex in Chicago, Oct. 9-12. The event is for business executives interested in e-business technology and covers areas like supply-chain management, procurement, business-to-business marketplaces, security, XML, customer-relationship management and data mining.

• ISPCON occurs at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Oct. 9-11. The gathering is for representatives from various areas of the ISP (Internet service provider) industry. Keynote speakers include Sycamore Networks CEO Dan Smith and Transmeta CTO David Ditzel. The conference is co-located with Last Mile Fall 2001, which is for high-speed Internet service providers in metropolitan areas and ASPCON, which is geared towards application service providers, or companies that provide software and other services over the Internet.

Wednesday, Oct. 10

• File-swapping service Napster will meet its archenemy, the Recording Industry Association of America, in federal court once again Oct. 10 as part of an ongoing copyright battle between the two parties over music and the Internet.

• Marcus Evans will conduct a conference on bandwidth trading at the Hotel Adolphus in Dallas, Oct. 10-12. The event will address how bandwidth is traded and the roles of various market players like carriers, ISPs and businesses. Executives from Lucent Technologies, Enron Broadband and Telseon will make presentations.

• Internet Billing East takes place at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, Oct. 10-12. The event is for companies involved in billing customers electronically over the Internet. Companies like AT&T, J.P. Morgan, BellSouth, Sprint, Allstate, and Sears, Roebuck and Co. are scheduled to make presentations.

• Microsoft kicks off its Pocket PC Summit at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., Oct. 10-12. The event is for business executives, developers and IT professionals who want to build mobile or wireless data capacity in their organizations. Executives from Microsoft, Intel and Compaq will make keynote speeches.

• Telecom Business World takes place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, Oct. 10-12. Executives from telecom service providers are encouraged to attend and learn about trends affecting the industry including the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Thursday, Oct. 11

• Microsoft and Intel will co-host a seminar for software developers on .Net at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston on Oct. 11. Microsoft's .Net is a software-as-a-service platform geared towards the Internet.

	Earnings

Tuesday, Oct. 9

• Motorola is a major manufacturer of pagers, cell phones and computer chips. Per-share estimate for the third quarter: loss of 7 cents.

Wednesday, Oct. 10

• E*Trade Group runs an online stock trading Web site. Per-share consensus estimate for the third quarter: zero cents.

• Redback Networks makes communications equipment for telecom carriers. Per-share consensus estimate for the third quarter: loss of 29 cents.

• Yahoo operates a popular Web portal. Per-share consensus estimate for the third quarter: one cent.

Thursday, Oct. 11

• DoubleClick provides advertising services to Web sites. Per-share consensus estimate for the third quarter: loss of 10 cents.

• Network Associates makes antivirus and security software for PCs and networks. Per-share consensus estimate for the third quarter: zero cents.

• RSA Security also makes security software for computer networks, including software for authentication and encryption purposes. Per-share consensus estimate for the third quarter: loss of 6 cents.

• Sonus Networks makes equipment for telecom networks. Per-share consensus estimate for the third quarter: loss of 6 cents.

	Economic Reports

Wednesday, Oct. 10

• Wholesale Inventories represent the percentage change in the amount of goods in wholesale inventories in the United States as tracked by the Department of Commerce. Analysts expect inventories to fall 0.2 percent for the month of August from a 0.7 percent drop in July.

Thursday, Oct. 11

• Initial Claims refers to the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits each week as reported by the Department of Labor. Claims will be reported for the week of Oct. 6.

• The import and export price index from the Department of Labor indicates the percentage change in import and export prices for September. No estimates were available, but import prices in August, excluding oil, fell 0.4 percent from the previous month. Export prices, excluding agriculture, dropped 0.3 percent.

Friday, Oct. 12

• The Producer Price Index is expected to stay unchanged in September from last month's rise of 0.4 percent. The core PPI, which excludes food and energy prices, is expected to gain 0.1 percent from a drop of 0.1 percent in August. This Labor Department index tracks the cost of what manufacturers pay for raw goods to make products.

• The Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is a measure of consumer confidence as reported monthly by the University of Michigan. No estimates were available for the preliminary release of October's numbers, but the index fell to 81.8 in September from August's 91.5.

• Retail Sales for the month of September are expected to fall 0.6 percent compared with August's rise of 0.3 percent as reported by the Commerce Department. Excluding automobile sales, Wall Street expects retail sales to fall 0.3 vs. the previous month's gain of 0.5 percent.