Microsoft Corp. has posted an 18 percent decline in quarterly profits, results that are not desirable on their own but actually hint at the possibilit of a larger recovery in the ailing technology sector of the economy. While business spending for Microsoft products was weak in the last quarter, Microsoft saw increased demand for personal computers and videogames.
Microsoft’s results have provided optimism to the rest of the technology sector that consumer demand may be on its way to making a full recovery, especially after the impact that the economic recession has had. Investors also took Microsoft’s results as a sign …read more

Netflix Inc, which is the largest mail-order movie-rental system in the United States, has experienced significant 48 percent rise in profits in the third quarter off of an increased number of subscriptions. Net income has increased to $30.1 million, or 52 cents per share, from $20.4 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier, according to a statement released today by the company.
Netflix’s results managed to surpass analyst expectations for its profit, with the average analyst estimate coming in at 47 cents across twenty-two predictions. While much of Netflix’s competition has been forced to shrink operations due to weak …read more

Amazon.com has posted a third-quarter profit increase of 68 percent, a signal that things could be getting a lot better for online retailers as the holiday season remains just around the corner. A 44 percent rise in sales of electronics and general merchandise was one of the main factors in Amazon’s strong performance, a category that now comprises 43 percent of Amazon’s total sales.
The company also posted a 17 percent increase in sales of media, a figure that was surprisingly low in the second quarter because of disappointing video game sales. This result was strengthened by the release of several popular …read more

Skype has proved to be an important part of eBay’s third quarter results, even as the online retailer and auction host continues to try to sell Skype. The online communication hub has posted a revenue growth of 29 percent, a growth that has helped eBay to post a revenue growth of 6 percent to $2.24 billion.
Analysts did not expect eBay’s revenue to grow so much, instead predicting an average of $2.14 billon for the company. According to eBay, this year-over-year growth was mostly driven by continued growth in its PayPal and Skype divisions, as well as by the expansion of its …read more

Caterpillar, the maker of bulldozers and excavators, has posted surprisingly high third-quarter earnings that managed to beat analyst expectations and raised its full-year forecast to a level that beats the highest analyst prediction. The company has struggled immensely under the weight of the economic downturn and it believes that the third quarter marks the bottom of its own downturn.
Profit fell from $868 million, or $1.39 per share, last year to $404 million, or 64 cents per share, this year, according to a statement released today by the company. Caterpillar has undergone vigorous cost-cutting measures to battle decreasing revenues, slashing inventories …read more

Memory device maker SanDisk Corp. has a posted a surprisingly strong third-quarter profit after experiencing a period of unexpectedly high sales and income from previously written-down inventories. While the market for memory products went through rough times at the height of the economic downturn, companies like SanDisk have been enjoying an upturn in demand for their products.
SanDisk’s results prompted an 11 percent rise in the company’s shares, sending the value up to $23.81 in after-hours trading following reassuring statements issued by the company concerning their prospects for the fourth quarter and beyond. SanDisk has also experienced a massive recovery since …read more

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which specializes in the sale of notebook processors, managed to avoid posting a loss as large as most analysts expected after an unexpectedly strong rally in sales toward the end of the quarter. While AMD’s results helped the struggling company to turn its core chipmaking business profitable, the results were not received well by investors and AMD’s shares dropped.
AMD has posted twelve consecutive quarters of losses, the latest of which resulted in a 5 percent slide in the value of its shares. This follows a 60 percent rally over the past three months as investors began …read more

European electronics maker Royal Philips Electronics has posted an unexpected third-quarter profit due to the fact that the company’s operating earnings in its consumer unit almost doubled. Considering the dire straits that the technology industry has been through since the onset of the witehring recession, Philips’ performance has come as something of a surprise to many analysts.
The company’s third-quarter net income rose to $256 million, marking a rise of almost 300 percent from the same period last year’s figures. Philips’ performance completely smashes analyst expectations, with analysts expecting a net income loss of 44.7 million euros, or about $66 million. Sales, …read more

Texas Instruments has raised its third-quarter earnings forecast on the expectation of a gradual recovery in the global semiconductor market, predicting much stronger earnings than it predicted back in July. TI has not stated that it expects end demand to increase, but it has revealed that TI customers have been increasing production. 
 
Several other companies in the semiconductor industry, such as Intel, seem to be raising their expectations for the third quarter, hinting at an overall improvement in an industry that originally suffered because of the recession’s crippling impact on demand and corporate technology spending. In particular, Intel’s brighter forecast provided …read more

Walt Disney Co. has not managed to avoid being ravaged by the recession, as the global media giant had posted a third-quarter profit drop of 26 percent. Thanks to the recession, less and less people are able to visit Disney’s massively popular theme parks and fewer advertisers are able to spend money.
 
Due to Disney’s significant drop in profits, the company’s film studio has posted a loss for the third quarter, while the main company’s net income has fallen to $954 million from $1.28 billion a year earlier. Sales also declined 7 percent to $8.6 billion, significantly missing the $8.81 billion …read more