Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Net income was $4.29 billion, or 45 cents a share, compared with $3.48 billion, or 35 cents, a year earlier, Sales surged 27 percent to $13.8 billion. Analysts had expected profit of 39 cents and sales of $12.57 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Shares soared over 9% in after-market trading.
Of course, the world's largest software maker, which until now was in Wall Street's dog house, couldn't have been more pleased. "This fiscal year is off to an outstanding start with the fastest revenue growth of any first quarter since 1999," said CFO Chris Liddell, in the earnings release. "Operating income growth of over 30% also reflects our ability to translate revenue into profits while making strategic investments for the future."
So does this mean that Wall Street is now going to get off Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's back about the billions the company is spending to catch up to Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)? Not very likely. One quarter does not make a trend even with its recent deal with Facebook.
But there is plenty for investors to like in the quarter. Vista sales seemed strong and the company hasn't been aggressively cutting xBox prices which has helped profitability, RCM Capital Management's Walter Price told Bloomberg News.
There is one perplexing side to the strong tech results this earnings side. If consumers are so worried about the future, how come they are willing to buy things like the xBox, Vista and Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: APPL) iPhone. Aren't they worried about housing, energy costs and life in general? Maybe they are so focused on their tech toys that they don't care about the rest of the world. Who knows.
A bill representing the "mother of all tax reforms" is set to be revealed Thursday, according to House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel. But Mother is going to have to be patient. No one expects Congress to deal with a tax overhaul this year - especially one estimated to cost $1 trillion. Individuals and businesses will see some tax breaks, and some will foot the bill more than others.
Home builders are slashing prices, yet a severe tightening of credit by mortgage lenders is keeping many buyers out of the market. Still others are taking a wait and see approach to home buying. The result: too many homes, too few buyers and the worst housing glut since the 1980s.
When you are a victim of a natural disaster, such as the devastating fires in Southern California, there are four things to do in order to receive aid: complete the application, have your property inspected, fill out the form for a Small Business Administration loan and search for other assistance, including grants. Follow this step-by-step guide to help put your life, home and family back together.
All the money in the world can't convince these wealthy dynasties to get along. Rich, dysfunctional families are back in vogue on prime-time television with new shows like Cane and Dirty Sexy Money. But these fictional families have nothing on the real-life tales of feuding billionaire clans, wracked by generational schisms, sibling rivalries, jealousy and greed. Forbes recaps some of the most riveting billionaire family sagas of the past decade.
Walter S. Mossberg, who writes the Wall Street Journal's "Personal Technology" column, reviewed Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) new Leopard operating system, and said it was "better and faster than [Windows] Vista".
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) is halting two small studies of the most promising drug in its pipeline, prasugrel, which it hopes will bring over $1B a year in sales for the drug maker, reported the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has beaten Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in a closely watched contest, winning a minority stake in Facebook for $240M, and the right to sell advertising on the Facebook site outside the U.S..
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is considering acquiring a stake in a Chinese brokerage as part of its expansion strategy in the country, said Gaby Abdelnour, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Asia Pacific, reported the Financial Times (subscription required).
The Financial Times reported that Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) raised its earnings outlook and announced that its 1H07 profits had tripled, thanks to the success of its Wii video game console and the DS, its handheld games player.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) invited the press and analysts yesterday to see just how well it is doing. Most people who attended were left with the impression that growth and innovation at the company are not slowing at all.
On the advertising front, according toReuters, "Tim Armstrong, president of North American advertising sales, said every one of its top 100 advertising accounts was increasing spending with Google."
Google also said it was getting increased penetration of its Gmail and Apps products, both of them aimed at Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) desktop Windows franchise.
One interesting observation made by an analyst from Reuters is that Google did not show off many new products. What it did do was demonstrate improvements to current ones.
This may be a change of direction for the big search company, which has hit the market with everything from Google Earth to its own social network Orkut. Google still maintains its own Finance site for investors and an online retail shopping network.
With the ranks of its employees growing by more than 2,000 people a quarter, Google may have decided to pause and improve what it has. That could be a better way to make money than putting out a new product every week.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
U.S. stocks futures continued yesterday's late session upward trend, pointing to a higher start on Wall Street as investors speculated the Federal Reserve would lower rates again before its next meeting. Ahead of a day full of earnings, durable orders and housing data, and with oil prices surging again, investors kept the climbs subdued.
Yesterday, U.S. stocks traded quite a bit lower throughout the session following Merrill Lynch's $7.9 billion write-down and Amazon.com's bearish margin forecast. Stocks recovered towards the ends of the day as investors started speculating the Fed might lower rates before its meeting next week in response to Merrill's heavy mortgage losses and a decline in existing home sales. While still finishing lower, these levels didn't reflect how much stocks dropped earlier in the session. The Dow Jones industrial average finished the session near breakeven after falling by more than 200 points earlier in the day, the S&P 500 fell 3.7 points or 0.24% and the Nasdaq composite was hardest hit with a 24.5 point decline or 0.88%.
Today, three main economic reports are due.
At 8:30 a.m. EDT, the Labor Department will report weekly jobless claims. These are expected to have declined from last week.
At the same time, the Commerce Department will report durable goods orders for September, which is expected to have ticked up compared to the previous month.
At 10 a.m. EDT, the Commerce Department will also release September new home sales data, which is expected to have fallen in September compared to August.
Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed with Japan finishing lower and Hong Kong gaining over 1.7%. China's benchmark index sank nearly 5% on worries that economic growth in China had peaked. European markets are up over 1% generally.
Oil prices continued to climb, extending yesterday's gains after the release of large and unexpected declines in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories last week. Violence in Sudan and fears of shortfalls from Mexico also supported prices.
Earnings today include Comcast, Motorola, Dow Chemical and EMC.
In other news, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) said it would cut 3,000 jobs as part of its restructuring, as well as making changes in the top brass.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is opening a new $3 billion factory in Arizona, switching to a new chip-making technique and widening its lead over rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD).The new microprocessors parts measure an average of just 45 nanometers, or 45 billionths of a meter. The transistors on such chips are so small that more than 30 million can fit onto the head of a pin.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) beat Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) in their attempt to grab a piece of the popular 3 1/2-year-old Internet hangout Facebook. Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.6% stake in the social networking site, valuing it at $15 billion.
As I posted earlier today, there was a face-off between Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) for a stake in Facebook and Microsoft won.
Specifically, Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook. This values Facebook's equity at $15 billion -- that's $100 for every one of the $150 million in revenue it's expected to generate in 2007. CEO and Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg's 20% stake is now worth $3 billion.
But the really stunning thing about Facebook's valuation is how it compares to Microsoft's and Google's. Specifically, $1 of Facebook's sales is worth 7.1 times more than a dollar of Google's -- whose Price/Sales (P/S) ratio is 14.1 -- and 17.5 times that of Microsoft which sports a P/S ratio of 5.7.
The beauty of private company math is that even though Facebook can't really be worth that much, the bidding between these two powerhouses makes it so. And it looks like the old school Harvard ties paid off (that's where Gates dropped out and Ballmer graduated). And whether Microsoft earns any revenue on its advertising deal, I'd be willing to bet that Microsoft's 1.6% stake will more than double today's $240 million when Facebook goes public.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) ended up owning. 1.6% of Facebook, the second largest social network. The investment of $240 million values the private company at $15 billion.
The Wall Street Journal writes that "the Microsoft agreement comes after intense lobbying by Microsoft and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) for Facebook's hand. In recent weeks, executives including Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer have courted the three-year-old Palo Alto, Calif., company."
Descriptions of the deal indicate that it focuses on helping Facebook to expand overseas with Microsoft supplying support by selling display advertising in the new markets.
But exactly what the world's largest software company gets for its money is a little unclear. It does keep Facebook out of the hands of Google.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported its third-quarter results yesterday and they were excellent. The stock is down $15 today so far to $85 as Amazon did not hit the "whisper number" that was circulating about the Street. Analysts were at $0.18 EPS, Amazon reported $0.19, but the "whisper" was at $0.21-$0.22. So, what do we do now? Simple, kill the name!! Then go back and buy Amazon and make it a core holding.
Amazon is a unique and interesting story, not to mention a category killer. No one can touch Amazon, and the proof has been shown with the shares tripling from $32 to $101 over the past 52 weeks. The so-called value guys who do not understand growth investing will pooh-pooh Amazon and give you the old "I told you so," as the shares are down $15 today from the $101 high. Value guys, take your victory lap, then get out of the way so you don't get run over. Oh, by the way, these are the guys that have been negative on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) since it was at $50 (now at $185) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) at $150 (now at $665).
Amazon, Apple and Google should be core portfolio holdings for any individual investor -- heck, it's a core holding in most growth mutual funds. So what do they know that the naysayers and purveyors of doom and gloom don't know? It's called dominance -- category killer. Try and replicate any one of these three companies ... Impossible, OK, almost impossible!!
When I wrote last week that cocaine prices rose at a faster rate than the Dow Jones industrial average, I overlooked something: methamphetamine may be an even better "investment" than cocaine, when compared with the index. Marijuana isn't doing too shabby either.
According to data on the DEA's website, the average price per pure gram of all domestic methamphetamine soared 37% between January and June 2007, beating the 24% gain in cocaine, and eclipsing the broad market index, which rose about 7% during that same time.
I wasn't able to find comparable data for marijuana but did come across an interesting story from Bloomberg News saying that prices for marijuana in Holland have soared 20% because of an increase in police raids. So any college students planning a trip to Europe should take note. U.S. pot prices have climbed over the last few years, according to the folks at High Times. I'll update this post if I get more information.
Does this mean that people should dump their Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares and set up a crystal meth lab or start growing weed? Of course not.
As Mr. Mackey from South Park says, "Drugs are bad." They're bad for your health and bad for society. People should just say no to drugs, but they don't and that's the problem. Prohibition didn't stop people from drinking in the '20s, and isn't stopping people from getting high today. My argument is that if we decriminalize drugs, the government can tax them and use that money to treat addicts.
Legalization is no utopia, but given the failure of the War on Drugs, it seems like it's worth a try.
DealBook reports that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is shoving more chips to the middle of the table in its battle for a stake in Facebook.
Facebook's investors, which include Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, want a deal that values Facebook between $10 billion and $15 billion. That would mean that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) or Google would have to fork over $1.5 billion for a 5% to 10% stake.
Who will win this Facebook face-off? Google wants to raise the price so high that Microsoft will walk away. But Microsoft is said to be willing to pay any price to keep Facebook away from Google. We'll know who wins in 24 to 48 hours.
But we won't need to wait that long to find the real winner -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his investors are guaranteed to make big bank on this deal regardless of who wins the Google-Microsoft face-off.
Update: The New York Times reports that Microsoft won the Facebook face-off -- paying $240 million for a 1.6% stake -- valuing Facebook at $15 billion. That's 100 times its expected $150 million in 2007 revenue -- valuing $1 of Facebook's sales at 7.1 times more than a dollar of Google's -- whose Price/Sales (P/S) ratio is 14.1 -- and 17.5 times that of Microsoft's which sports a P/S ratio of 5.7. It looks like the old school Harvard ties paid off (that's where Gates, Ballmer, and Zuckerberg attended college).
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has cut a deal with TV ratings service Nielsen that will give the search company access to demographic data for ad targeting. Reuterssays that, "Google will combine the data it receives from television set top-boxes with information that Nielsen, the dominant TV ratings company in the United States, provides on viewers by gender and age."
Google hopes that the additional layer of targeting will make its TV advertising sales package even more effective at aiming marketing messages at people who are most likely to respond to them. Today the company has access to a relatively small part of the country's ad inventory, about 14 million homes, through a deal with Echostar (NASDAQ: DISH).
Adding the Nielsen data to its current ad target system, which is used primarily on the internet, is likely to make network TV executives and sales organizations a bit tense. If the system works well, it could take the marketing and the pricing of inventory out of the hands that traditionally hold it. In other words, Google could destroy a system for selling TV ads that has been in place for decades.
It may not matter that networks and cable systems do not want Google to take away their roles as middlemen. If the new systems works, they are out of luck, and time.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor of 247wallst.com.
Changes Coming for the AMT? Congress Better Act Fast
If lawmakers want to protect tens of millions of taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax, they'd best make it snappy. If Congress does not act in the next two weeks or so, 25 million to 50 million taxpayers will see the processing of their returns and their refunds delayed, the IRS said Tuesday.
Most Trusted Brands in the World That You Haven't Heard Of
Sure Coca-Cola, Nestle and Nokia loom large in every market in the world. But that doesn't mean they can't be beat. But when it comes to trust, customers still think local. What is the most respected brand in India, China, Russia, Brazil and more? Check out the top brands around the world in various countries.
These high-quality winners have the wind behind their sail. At first glance this sure looks like a high-quality group. But, as always, take a close look before you throw a bounce pass in the direction of any of these stocks. They include Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, McDonald's, Wrigley and Cypress Semiconductor.
Spooked by the possibility of identity theft, increasing numbers of people are taking a radical approach to thwart criminals: They are putting their credit reports on permanent freeze. Before you put a lock on yours here is what you need to consider.
Looking to Buy or Sell a Mutual Fund in Weeks Ahead? Tread Very Carefully
Many mutual funds are estimating that they'll make big taxable distributions to shareholders this year, and that means investors planning to buy or sell fund shares in the weeks ahead should tread carefully.
Everyone knows the secret to investment success is to buy low and sell high. The problem is most of us lack clairvoyance. There are never any guarantees when investing, but avoiding these 10 missteps will better your chances of success.
Time is money, the old adage goes. If you consider yourself a busy person, you probably don't feel that you have enough time to do everything that you want. Here are six ways to help you find an extra hour or two in your busy day. They include combining tasks, reworking your commute and reducing your television watching to name a few. 6 Ways to Wring Extra Time From Your Day - TheStreet.com
World's Spookiest Spots
If you're looking for ghosts and ghouls this month, chances are you'll get a better fright in Romania than you will trick-or-treating down Elm Street.
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that as counterintuitive as it seems, there are many stocks that will rise despite this huge bad news.
We're back in 1990 again. That was when commercial construction threatened to wipe out the U.S. banking system and the S&P 500 went down 13% in a heartbeat between the spring and the fall.
I trotted out this analogy in the summer to explain what a disaster could look like if the Fed, which at that time knew nothing, didn't do anything or, heaven forbid, did what the clueless Bill Poole wanted them to do, and tighten.
The market's been fighting with 1990 ever since. When I read about the losses and the need for the banks and the insurers to shore up capital -- $7.9 billion for Merrill, Dougie? Say it ain't so! -- I think to myself, "Oh my, it is 1990 when funding became a problem for every major bank." (Tremendous credit to my friend Doug Kass for flagging this.)
If AT&T (NYSE: T) were to acquire EchoStar Communications (NASDAQ: DISH) or DirectTV Group (NYSE: DTV), it's estimated that it would cost between $30B and $40B, and that should concern investors, according to the Wall Street Journal's (subscription required) "Heard on the Street" column.
Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) is signing up tens of thousands of new subscribers tor it FiOs high speed TV and Internet service, that uses fiber optics, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the push is threatening the cable industry.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is expected to announce a partnership today with the Nielsen company for measuring how many people are viewing TV ads on a second-by-second basis, reported the New York Times.
Carlos Ghosn, head of Nissan Motor Co (NASDAQ: NSANY) and Renault, continues to be interested in a partnership with a U.S. automaker, but says he 's not now speaking with anyone, reported the Associated Press.
Yes, I remain deaf, dumb, and blind. I am not impressed with the Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) earnings report. I am sure the amazonian shareholders will confirm my ignorance. What is all the excitement about? So what if it almost quadrupled it's earnings. That is not hard to do when you barely have any. Nineteen cents a share -- oh my gosh!
So now if they can keep it up and earn perhaps $1.00 in the next 12 months Amazon only has a forward P/E of 100. Are you kidding me,100? Are we to believe that a dollar invested in Amazon is worth 3 times what Google is worth? I don't think this makes any sense at all. There must be a few folks out there that are equally unimpressed. After Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported earnings both stocks shot up. Amazon on the other hand is off over 10% in after market trading.
Maybe I'll feel different in the morning after further thought or the enlightened commentary of one of our readers. In the mean time I'm left thinking, is this all there is?
Investing in Ontario: Research in Motion (RIMM), Nortel Networks (NT), and IMAX (IMAX)
The Fed's job isn't getting any easier
EMC quarterly profit up 77%
Google 
U.S. stocks futures continued yesterday's late session upward trend, pointing to a higher start on Wall Street as investors speculated the Federal Reserve would lower rates again before its next meeting. Ahead of a day full of earnings, durable orders and housing data, and with oil prices surging again, investors kept the climbs subdued.
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that as counterintuitive as it seems, there are many stocks that will rise despite this huge bad news..gif){kind=logo}
