earnings

Facebook's stock is on a tear today, poised to post its biggest one day gain since it went public in May. This comes a day after the company's strong third-quarter earnings report and, perhaps more importantly, its upbeat call with analysts in which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said flat out, "I want to dispel this myth that Facebook can't make money on mobile."

While Zuckerberg and his top execs stressed that Facebook is in the early days on this front -- it only started trying to make money from mobile in March -- they did share … Read more

Apple may disappoint investors tomorrow with fiscal fourth-quarter results that show weaker sales of its key iPad and iPhone product lines.

Wall Street is expecting Apple to report $36.27 billion in sales, with earnings per share of $8.91. Apple's own forecast for the quarter is $34 billion, with earnings per share of $7.65. Much of that tally is expected to come from the iPhone and iPad, which together made up 72 percent of the company's revenue last quarter.

This is the first quarter to include sales of Apple's iPhone 5, but only a few … Read more

AT&T sold twice as many iPhone 5 smartphones as its main competitor, according to mobility chief Ralph de la Vega.

AT&T's closest rival, Verizon Wireless, said last week that it sold 651,000 iPhone 5 units in the third quarter. Based on de la Vega's statement, this means AT&T rang up sales of roughly 1.3 million units. Sprint Nextel reports its results on Thursday.

AT&T further cemented its lead as the preeminent iPhone carrier in the U.S. with 4.7 million iPhones sold in the third quarter. But … Read more

LG Electronics said today it swung a third-quarter profit based largely on the success of its once-ailing handset division.

South Korean electronics maker posted a net profit of 157.1 billion won ($138.5 million) for the three months ended September 30, a dramatic recovery from the loss of 413.9 billion won ($366 million) it recorded in the year-ago period. However, third-quarter revenue fell 4 percent to 12.38 trillion won ($10.93 billion) due to a decline in demand for feature phones.

LG's mobile division recorded a third-quarter profit of 22 billion won ($19.4 million), compared … Read more

Mark Zuckerberg feels misunderstood. At least when it comes to how Facebook will flourish in the era of mobile computing.

Facebook's co-founder and CEO, speaking today on the company's third-quarter conference call with Wall Street analysts, stressed that investors just don't get what mobile can and will mean for Facebook's business -- in every way imaginable.

Mobile users spend more time on Facebook than people do when they access the social network on desktop computers. What's more, he said, they come back more frequently. In fact, Zuckerberg continued, some 70 percent of mobile users return … Read more

Zynga, the social-gaming company, is laying off 5 percent of its employees and shutting down its Boston office with plans to also close its U.K. and Japan studios.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus told his staff the news in a memo sent out today. The action affects roughly 140 of Zynga's 2,800 employees.

"We don't take these decisions lightly as we recognize the impact to our colleagues and friends who have been on this journey with us. We appreciate their amazing contributions and will miss them," he wrote. "This is the most painful part … Read more

Players are spending 20 percent less on Zynga games, which means Facebook is receiving less money from those games as well.

"Overall, gaming on Facebook isn't doing as well as I'd like," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's third-quarter earnings conference call today. He said the rest of Facebook's gaming network has been growing -- monthly payments revenue from other games has increased by 40 percent since last year -- but Zynga's numbers have fallen.

Zynga's payment revenue has gone down 20 percent since last year's third-quarter earnings, Facebook'… Read more

Facebook reported third-quarter earnings that came in slightly above Wall Street's estimates, and said that 14 percent of its ad revenue now comes from mobile devices.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at 12 cents in the third quarter ended September 30, a penny higher than analysts were expecting. Revenue rose more than 32 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $1.26 billion. That was also a bit higher than the Street's estimates.

Facebook's stock, which has been trading around $19 a share -- half of its May IPO price of $38 a share -- closed up … Read more

Netflix added fewer streaming subscribers in the third quarter than it needed to stay on track to reach full-year growth targets, but the company's financial performance was in line with analyst expectations.

Netflix, the online movie-rental service, reported a third-quarter net profit of $8 million, or 13 cents a share, on revenue of $905 million, the company said after the close of trading today. Revenue was up 10 percent from the $821 million the company reported in the same period a year earlier.

Netflix said that for the quarter ending September 30, the number of U.S. streaming subscribers … Read more