That’s up 18 percent year-over-year for the fourth quarter, and it’s up 21 percent for the full 2012 earnings.

“We had a great finish to an excellent year, with fourth quarter results exceeding our expectations,” eBay president and CEO John Donahoe said in a statement. “eBay Marketplaces in particular had a terrific fourth quarter, with growth in the U.S. accelerating three points, outpacing ecommerce.”

Source: Google Finance

eBay stock today

Key payments division PayPal, which has been a critical revenue driver for eBay in previous quarters, continues to do well, with payment volume up 24 percent … which, given PayPal’s fairly linear revenue structure, means that earnings were also up 24 percent.

PayPal clients sent nearly $24 billion to each other in 2012 — 250 percent more than in 2011 — and PayPal reported adding two million accounts a month in the fourth quarter, which the company says is PayPal’s fastest growth ever.

PayPal’s growth is important for eBay, as mobile payments is an increasingly growing market. PayPal put mobile commerce first explicitly in July of 2012, when mobile boss Hill Ferguson was elevated to VP of global product and saw a huge jump in mobile payments this past Thanksgiving. The company also teamed up with NCR to attack Square just a few days ago.

eBay as a whole generated $2.6 billion of cash flow in excess of expenses in the past year and is now sitting on a nice little nest egg of $11.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and non-equity investments. Not exactly Apple-sized, but certainly nothing to sniff at.

And for 2013?

eBay expects to earn $16-16.5 billion and make between $2.23 and $2.29 per share. The company’s stock is up $0.40 on the day.

photo credit: Ryan Fanshaw Photography via photopin cc

Nvidia swats down analyst expectations with its second quarter earnings, showing a growth of 12.9 percent from last quarter. The company is currently resting at $1.04 billion, up from $924.9 million.

“Our investments in mobile computing and visual computing are both paying off,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, the president and chief executive officer of Nvidia. “Tegra has achieved record sales as tablets come into their own. Our GPU business made strong gains in a weak market, boosted by our breakthrough Kepler architecture. Looking ahead, we’re optimistic, as our investments position us right at the center of the fastest growing segments of computing.”

Analyst projections for Nvidia’s second quarter were not entirely positive despite Samsung’s success with the Galaxy S III tablet and Google’s $199 Nexus 7 tablet. The Nexus 7 utilizes the Nvidia Tegra 3 chip, which is a power-regulating quad-core processor. Microsoft also announced that the Tegra 3 is in its Surface tablets.

Nividia’s profitable leap caused its stock price to break $15 per share.

During the first quarter, Nvidia’s earnings were down 3.3 percent from Q4 2011, driven down by hard drive shortages caused by the a lack of demand for graphics processing units (GPUs). Nividia projects its Q3 earnings between $1.15 billion to $1.25 billion as products utilizing the Tegra 3 processor continue to sell well.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Still reeling from a disastrous fourth quarter, Groupon beat Wall Street’s expectations and reported $559.3 million in revenue and $39.6 million in operating income for the first quarter of 2012. Monday’s earnings report is Groupon’s second since opening on the NASDAQ in November.

The company, which now has 36.9 million active customers, reported earnings Monday after market close and said that revenue increased 89 percent year-over-year. The company’s operating income of $39.6 million compares with a $117.1 million operations loss in the first quarter 2011. Groupon also reported gross billings, or the total collected from sold Groupons, of $1.35 billion for the quarter, which is more than double its gross billings of $668.2 million for the same period last year.

“We are pleased to report a record quarter that demonstrates our progress in unlocking the opportunity in local commerce for merchants and customers worldwide,” CEO Andrew Mason said in a statement.

The company performed especially well in Q1 in North America, where revenue grew 75 percent year-over-year. Groupon, Mason said in a call with investors, was able to leverage “smart deals” technology to provide better targeting and deliver performance improvements in North America. The personalization technology is in the process of being rolled out to international markets, Mason said.

Groupon said it served a total of 100,000 unique merchants in the first quarter and surpassed 1.5 million Groupons sold via Groupon Now during the quarter.

Analysts predicted a strong quarter for the deals company and pegged revenue at $530 million and operating profit, or earnings after operating costs, at $32.7 million. Groupon beat their estimates, and the company’s net loss for the quarter improved to $11.7 million (from $146.5 million in Q1 2011), or a loss of $0.02 per share.

In late March, Groupon revised its fourth quarter earnings to report revenue of $492.2 million (down $14.3 million from its original report) and an operating loss of $15 million for the quarter. Wall Street was stunned by the news and punished the company with a downward spiraling market capitalization. Groupon said at the time that it still anticipated pulling in between $510 million and $550 million during the first quarter of 2012.

Last week, Groupon made its punchcard-alternative Groupon Rewards loyalty program available to all U.S. businesses. Mason has touted the program, previously piloted in Philadelphia, as one of four key initiatives that will transform the deals giant into an “operating system for local commerce.”

Valued as high as $17.8 billion on its first day of trading, Groupon’s market capitalization plummeted to around $6 billion in recent weeks but has today jumped back into the $7 billion to $8 billion range. The stock got off to a strong start Monday morning and was trading up as high as 20 percent in anticipation of today’s earnings report. Shares are up more than 13 percent in after-hours trading at the time of this report.

Groupon said revenue for the second quarter of 2012 is expected to be between $550 million and $590 million, and operating income should be between $25 million and $45 million.

For a look at how Groupon’s stock compares with Yelp and Pandora, two other consumer internet companies that recently went public, have a look at the chart below.

GRPN data by YCharts

Photo credit: swanksalot/Flickr

Expectations were astronomically high for LinkedIn’s first quarter 2012 earnings, and the professional social network more than delivered with $188.5 million in revenue and net income of $5 million.

The revenue figure is up 101 percent from the same quarter last year and represents the seventh straight quarter of greater than 100 percent year-over-year growth for the company. Net income more than doubled, growing from $2.1 million in the first quarter of 2011.

“We saw strength across all key metrics from member signups and engagement to significant revenue growth across our three product lines,” LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said in statement.

Analysts projected that LinkedIn would report earnings of $0.09 a share on revenue of $178.8 million for the quarter. LinkedIn, however, posted Q1 earnings of $0.15 a share on revenue of $188.5 million.

LinkedIn is making a majority of its revenue (54 percent in Q1) from its hiring solutions. The products’ combined revenue for the quarter totalled $102.6 million. The company made $48 million from marketing services and $37.9 million from premium subscriptions in Q1.

In an earnings conference call Thursday afternoon, Weiner said that LinkedIn, which has 161 million members, saw 58 percent year-over-year growth in member sign-ups, and is adding new members at a rate of two per second. More than 60,000 developers are using the company’s APIs, Weiner added.

The professional network said that revenue for the second quarter of 2012 is projected to range between $210 million to $215 million, and also upped its full-year 2012 revenue guidance range to $880 million to $900 million.

Today’s earnings report came on the heels of news that the company would be acquiring presentation-sharing startup SlideShare for $119 million in cash and stock.

LinkedIn’s stock is up nearly 3 percent in after-hours trading. LinkedIn earned $167.7 million in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2011.

Photo credit: nan palmero/Flickr

E-commerce juggernaut Amazon reported net sales of $13.18 billion for the first quarter of 2012, up 34 percent from the same quarter last year. But the company also revealed it made $130 million in net income, or $0.28 per diluted share, for the quarter, which is down 35 percent year-over-year.

Altogether, Q1 earnings were a plus for Amazon following a disappointing fourth quarter, and they ultimately beat Wall Street’s expectations of a first-quarter profit of seven cents a share on revenue of $12.9 billion.

Amazon closed out the first quarter with $192 million in operating income, down from $322 million in the first quarter of 2011.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire remains the company’s bestselling, most gifted, and most wished for product since launch, the company said in its Q1 2012 earnings report. Once again, though, Amazon did not reveal specific sales numbers for its Kindle product lineup.

In the second quarter of the year, Amazon expects to earn between $11.9 billion and $13.3 billion in revenue, or up to 34 percent year-over-year growth, the company said Thursday in an earnings call with investors and analysts.

Amazon’s stock price has climbed 14 percent in after-hours trading at the time of this report.

Photo credit: Robert Scoble/Flickr

Iconic tech company Yahoo‘s first quarter 2012 revenue saw a slight one percent increase compared to the same period last year, beating Wall Street’s estimates, according to the company’s quarterly earnings report.

But the earnings numbers are largely overshadowed by the company’s current strategy set forth by newly appointed CEO Scott Thompson.

Yahoo has suffered a great deal of turmoil over the past few years. Board members fired long-time CEO Carol Bartz in September 2011 as punishment for failing to increase revenues, as well as significantly losing advertising share from Facebook and Google. During her tenure (and prior to it), Yahoo’s products grew stagnant and failed to keep pace with innovation from competitors. Overall the company suffered from a lack of leadership, which is something Thompson was charged with fixing after assuming his post in January.

Thompson set his strategy for turning the company around into motion at the beginning of April by laying off 2,000 employees across all departments. The move was criticized by many due to the lack of details surrounding those plans, which have only vaguely been explained as refocusing all business efforts into three areas: Media, data, and enterprise.

The CEO is expected to explain the strategy in greater detail during the earnings call this afternoon.

As for the numbers, Yahoo’s revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs) was $1,077 million for the first quarter of 2012, a 1 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011. Income from operations decreased 11 percent to $169 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to $190 million in the first quarter of 2011. GAAP revenue was $1,221 million for the first quarter of 2012, a 1 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011.

“In the first quarter, Yahoo!’s results came in at the high end of our guidance range and beat consensus on revenue and profits,” Thompson stated in the earnings report. “We also made changes to resize the organization and establish a new leadership structure to quickly deliver the best user and advertiser experiences at scale.”

From the Q1 2012 earnings report:

Business Highlights

• Yahoo! established a new leadership structure, organizing into three main groups — Consumer, Technology and Regions — bringing resources closer to users and advertisers.
• Yahoo! is home to 11 number one properties and ranks in the top three in 21 categories in the U.S. (comScore, U.S., March 2012)
• Yahoo!’s worldwide visitors during January and February grew 7 percent year over year with minutes spent increasing 14 percent in communications and communities and 8 percent in media properties. (based on comScore, Worldwide data)
• Yahoo! debuted a variety of original comedy Web shows as a part of a collaborative effort between Yahoo! and top-tier production partners. New shows include “First Dates With Toby Harris” featuring Seth Morris (Funny or Die);
  “Sketchy” (Electus/Principato-Young Entertainment), and “7 Minutes in Heaven” with “Saturday Night Live” writer Mike O’Brien (Broadway Video).
• Yahoo! also debuted the new ABC-produced daily series, “Power Players,” on Yahoo! News, featuring an ABC and Yahoo! News analyst team, and “Remake America,” a new weekly video series that follows the lives of six real families as they strive to get back on track towards achieving “the American dream.”
• Yahoo! announced the implementation of a Do Not Track (DNT) header solution that will be accessible across Yahoo!’s global network by early summer.
• The Yahoo! Board appointed five new independent directors: Alfred Amoroso, former President and CEO of Rovi Corporation; John D. Hayes, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of American Express Company; Peter Liguori, former Chief Operating Officer of Discovery Communications, Inc. and former Chairman and President of Entertainment of Fox Broadcasting Company; Thomas J. McInerney, former Chief Financial Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp; and Maynard Webb, Chairman of LiveOps, Inc.
• To protect the investments of Yahoo! and the inventions of its employees, Yahoo! sued Facebook for
  patents. Yahoo! has invested substantial resources over many years to innovate and earn this intellectual property and the lawsuit is intended to enforce Yahoo!’s rights.

First Quarter 2012 Revenue Highlights

• Display revenue ex-TAC was $454 million, a 4 percent decrease compared to $471 million for the first quarter of 2011.
• GAAP display revenue was $511 million, a 2 percent decrease compared to $523 million for the first quarter of 2011.
• Search revenue ex-TAC was $384 million, an 8 percent increase compared to $357 million for the first quarter of 2011.
• GAAP search revenue was $470 million, a 3 percent increase compared to $455 million for the first quarter of 2011.Cash Flow and Cash Balance
• Cash flow from operating activities for the first quarter of 2012 was $297 million, a 45 percent increase compared to $206 million for the same period of 2011.
• Free cash flow was $196 million for the first quarter of 2012, a 247 percent increase compared to $56 million for the same period of 2011.
• Cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable debt securities were $2,652 million at March 31, 2012 compared to $2,530 million at December 31, 2011, an increase of $122 million.
• During the first quarter of 2012, Yahoo! repurchased 5 million shares for $71 million.

Against all odds, streaming-video giant Netflix is actually making money and signing up new customers. The company beat Wall Street estimates with better-than-expected fourth quarter results, including a well-needed subscriber boost, it announced today.

Netflix had a particularly rocky 2011, with a 60 percent price hike on combined streaming-and-DVD rental plans and a failed plan of splitting Netflix into two companies. The company was punished with a loss of more than half of its stock price. Chief executive Reed Hastings ended up looking pretty bone-headed because the company appeared to wholly ignore its customers’ feedback.

For the fourth quarter, the company earned revenue of $876 million compared to revenue of $596 million in the year-before quarter. Net income fell to $41 million from $47 million in the year-before quarter. Earnings per share were $.73 per share compared to $.87 per share a year ago.

The best news for the company is a boost in subscribers. Netflix ended 2011 with 24.4 million U.S. subscriptions, which is better than last quarter’s 23.79 million subscriptions. Investors had been dismayed at the loss of more than 800,000 subscribers posted in the third quarter, but things now appear to be back on track.

The company had warned it would likely post losses because of costly international expansion into Europe and Latin America. But since it beat Wall Street expectations of $0.54 a share and $857 million in revenue, Netflix appears to be in a surprisingly stronger position.

Netflix’s stock price has risen by more than 10 percent to about $105 per share in after-hours trading, a sign that investors love the news.

The company reported revenue of $29.5 billion, up 2 percent year-over-year, and net income of $5.5 billion, up 4 percent year-over-year, during the fourth quarter of 2011.

The steadfast technology company beat Wall Street’s profit expectations, but slightly missed revenue projections of $29.7 billion.

The corporate IT supplier saw gains in its core areas. IBM’s services and software categories were up 3 percent and 9 percent respectively in the fourth quarter. The company’s hardware revenue, however, was down 8 percent year-over-year.

“We had a strong fourth-quarter performance, capping a year of record earnings per share, revenue, profit and free cash flow,” newly appointed IBM president and CEO Virginia Rometty said. “We delivered outstanding results in all four of our strategic initiatives for the quarter and the year, as we continued to realize the benefit of our long-term investments in growth markets, business analytics, Smarter Planet solutions and cloud. We are well on track toward our long-term roadmap for operating earnings per share of at least $20 in 2015.”

The market reacted with a calm and collected response to Big Blue following the earnings report. IBM shares closed at $180.52, but the stock price has been in flux in after hours trading. Shares have surged as high as $185.28, up 2.64 percent.

[Image via mamchenkov/Flickr]

The company generated net income on a GAAP basis of $3.2 billion ($2.7 billion in non-GAAP net income) for the full year. eBay closed out the year with $3.4 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter, according to an earnings report released Wednesday.

The retail giant, which operates PayPal, GSI and X.commerce, saw its fourth quarter earnings jump 35 percent from the same quarter last year, in part by a gain on the sale of its remaining investment in Skype.

“We had a strong fourth quarter finish to an excellent year, increasing our confidence in our three-year outlook,” eBay president and CEO John Donahoe said. “We are a different eBay today, no longer just an ecommerce leader but a stronger, more diverse global commerce company shaping the future of shopping and payments.”

During an earnings call with analysts, Donahoe talked up eBay’s impressive holiday sales and the success of its mobile applications, which helped the company rake in money faster than ever. On Cyber Monday, eBay processed more than 10,000 transactions per second, a new transactions per second milestone for the company. And altogether, eBay mobile payment volume reached $4 billion for the year, up five times from the mobile payment volume of 2010, Donahoe said. eBay expects mobile payment volume to reach $7 billion in 2012.

Donahoe also spoke of eBay’s ability to capitalize on an inflection point, driven by consumers and enabled by new technologies, happening in the shopping space. He stressed that the company is no longer just an e-commerce site but a full-service business with products that merge the online and offline shopping experiences.

“We intend to make shopping more locally convenient and more globally accessible,” Donahoe said.

The company launched digital distribution, iDevice and gaming tablet businesses earlier this year and says they are significantly contributing to its gross margin expansion. Console digital sales rose 63 percent, while PC digital sales grew 51 percent. Investment in digital and emerging businesses is part of a long-term strategic plan the company has developed over the last three years and GameStop chief executive Paul Raines said during today’s earnings call it will supplement GameStop’s retail business this holiday season.

GameStop reports total sales for Q3 2011 were $1.95 billion, up 2.5 percent compared to $1.90 billion in the third quarter of 2010. However, lower than expected sales of new software, which Raines attributes to cash-strapped consumers, led to a 0.6 percent decrease in total company comparable store sales. The company expects comparable store sales to range from flat to 2.0 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011. Net earnings were also down for the third quarter, $53.9 million compared to $54.7 million during the same time period last year.

On a positive note, Raines says he is expecting a good start to the holiday season thanks to strong sell-through of new title releases in November like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which recently broke sales records by earning $775 million in five days for publisher Activision Blizzard.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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AOL is in the midst of pumping its resources into popular blogs like The Huffington Post and local news organization Patch. The company has been trying to innovate to keep up with other media companies, and it just launched its “Editions” iPad magazine. The company also plans to launch a subscription-based music service later this summer.

The company reported a net Q2 loss of $11.8 million, which was certainly better than its $1.06 billion the year before. Total revenues for the quarter came in at $542.2 million, down 8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2010.

AOL’s biggest culprit for its losses was weaker-than-expected advertising growth. Ad revenues grew just 5 percent to $319 million, but the company tried to keep that portion of the news upbeat.

“AOL’s return to global advertising growth for the first time since 2008 reflects the hard work of our team and another meaningful step forward in the comeback of the AOL brand,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO, in a statement.

The company also had a 23 percent loss in subscription revenues for the quarter with $201.3 million earned compared to $260.2 in Q2 2010. But these numbers aren’t surprising as fewer people use AOL to connect to the Internet each year.

AOL’s share price fell to a 52-week low of $13.40 per share after news of its weak second quarter was released. However, it should be noted that this movement follows an extremely volatile day on the stock market due to the downgrade of U.S. debt by Standard & Poor’s.

Do you think AOL will figure out how to make enough money on advertising to account for its high operating costs?