Technology companies have begun releasing their earnings reports for the latest quarter. The reports come as consumers shift their spending toward tablets and a weak global economy curbs corporate spending on computers. They also come as Microsoft prepares to release a new version of Windows on Friday. Here is a summary of recent earnings and reports for selected technology companies and what they reveal about the state of spending and the overall economy.
- Oct. 5: Samsung Electronics Co. forecast another record quarterly operating profit, likely driven by strong sales of high-end smartphones that offset weak semiconductor orders. Samsung estimated that its July-September operating income nearly doubled to 8.1 trillion won ($7.3 billion) from 4.25 trillion won a year earlier. The result was better than the market consensus of 7.6 trillion won. Full results are expected Oct. 26.
- Oct. 16: Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, says net income fell 14 percent from last year in the latest quarter, and it's looking at tough conditions in the new quarter. Intel blames a difficult global economy for declining sales, but analysts believe a shift in spending from PCs to tablets and smartphones may be contributing.
IBM Corp. says revenue slipped below Wall Street's expectations in the third quarter as the technology company dealt with jittery customers and a weakening euro that undercut its results. Despite the problems posed by the wobbly economy, IBM's earnings held steady.
- Oct. 17: eBay Inc. says its third-quarter net income grew 22 percent, helped by higher revenue at its PayPal payments service and the marketplaces business that includes eBay.com.
- Oct. 18: Google Inc. reports earnings and revenue that fell well below analyst projections. Most of Google's third-quarter headaches were concentrated in Motorola Mobility, the troubled cellphone maker that the company bought for $12.4 billion in May.
Microsoft Corp. says net income fell 22 percent in the latest quarter as it deferred revenue from the sale of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system to PC makers - and as PC sales in general took a dive. The economic troubles in Europe also weighed on results, which missed Wall Street expectations.
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. says it will cut nearly 1,800 jobs, about 15 percent of its workforce, by the end of the year in order to reduce spending in the face of dwindling sales.
Verizon Communications Inc. reports a blow-out number of new devices on its wireless network, boosted by the revolutionary Share Everything plan, which made it cheaper for households to add wireless service to non-phone devices like tablets and laptops. Verizon Wireless added a net 1.5 million devices to contract-based plans in the third quarter, more than it has in many years.
- Monday: Yahoo Inc. issued a third-quarter earnings report that topped analyst estimates. Yahoo's net revenue barely grew at a time when advertisers are spending more money marketing their products and services online. But the numbers were slightly better than analysts projected. It's the first quarter under new CEO Marissa Mayer.
Coming up:
- Tuesday: Facebook Inc., Netflix Inc.
- Wednesday: Zynga Inc., AT&T Inc.
- Thursday: Apple Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Amazon.com Inc.
- Friday: Samsung Electronics Co., Comcast Corp.
- Nov. 1: Sony Corp., LinkedIn Corp.
- Nov. 8: Groupon Inc.
- Nov. 13: Cisco Systems Inc.
- Nov. 20: Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc.
- Dec. 20: Research In Motion Ltd.