Eyes are on Facebook’s first earnings report
After a disappointing Wall Street debut, all eyes will be on Facebook on Thursday when it makes its first quarterly earnings report as a public company.
The world's largest social network is under a lot of pressure to show strong numbers and, more importantly, to show that the company has strong business potential. Shareholders and Wall Street will be paying particular attention to this first earnings report since Facebook's initial public offering didn't go quite as planned.
When the company went public in May, the stock was first offered at $38 per share and was expected to shoot up to $50, $60 or even $90 per share. The stock didn't meet those expectations, and didn't hold its opening price.
At noon today, Facebook's stock was trading at $28.64 a share on the Nasdaq. Read more...
Google to likely make modest profit on Nexus 7, IHS teardown reveals
A teardown of the Nexus 7 tablet reveals Google is likely to break even on the $199, 8 GB version of its tablet while earning a modest profit on the 16 GB version, priced at $249.
IHS iSuppli said the 8 GB version of the Nexus 7 has a bill of materials (BOM) and manufacturing total cost of $159.25. The 16 GB version total is $166.75.
"Google will at least break even on the 8 GB model ... and will make a modest profit on the 16 GB version," IHS said in a statement last week.
With the 16 GB version, Google is charging $50 more at retail by adding only $7.50 more in memory cost, adding $42.50 to Google's bottom line, IHS said.
IHS said its teardown totals are preliminary and don't include software, licenses and royalties.
IHS analyst Andrew Rassweiler said the Nexus 7 competes more with Amazon's Kindle Fire, also a 7-in. tablet that sells for $199, than the
$499, 9.7-in. iPad. Read more...
Smartphones fuel Samsung profit to record
A surge in Galaxy smartphone sales fueled earnings at Samsung Electronics to a record high in the first quarter, usually a tough season for the global consumer electronics industry, outshining handset rivals such as Nokia Corp.
Samsung sold more smartphones in the first three months of the year than Apple Inc. and raked in more than 70 percent of its operating profit from mobile businesses. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co. shot up nearly 3 percent.
Net profit nearly doubled from a year earlier to a record 5.05 trillion won ($4.46 billion) for the fiscal quarter ended March 31.
Operating profit also logged a record high: 5.85 trillion won, which was in line with the company's guidance provided earlier this month. Sales rose 22 percent from a year earlier to 45.3 trillion won. Read more...
Nokia sees weaker times after strong first quarter
Nokia Oyj warned operating profit margins at its key phone unit would slip through the rest of the year, taking the shine off higher-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Thursday.
The company signed a final agreement to start using Microsoft Corp software, enabling it to slash annual costs by 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion). Yet it faces an awkward transition in which profitability is getting squeezed.
Nokia's key phone unit reported an operating profit margin of 9.8 percent for January-March, well ahead of analysts forecast of 8.6 percent, but the group said for the full year the margin would fall to within a 6 to 9 percent range.
Analysts on average had expected the margin to drop to 8.5 percent. Read more...