Apple’s $1T dreams are on hold as it misses on iPhone sales in the holiday quarter

 Apple’s dream of becoming a $1 trillion company will have to wait — at least for a little while. But while iPhone sales this year were about flat (down about 1% to be exact), revenue from the iPhone rose 13% year-over-year. That means Apple is finding ways to get more revenue out of the same number of units, so it may indeed be finding demand for higher-priced phones amid the… Read More

Alphabet is tumbling after a fourth quarter whiff and names John Hennessy as new board chair

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - MAY 18: Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during Google I/O 2016 at Shoreline Amphitheatre on May 19, 2016 in Mountain View, California. The annual Google I/O conference is runs through May 20. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Google parent company Alphabet’s big run over the past few months came to a screeching halt today after it came out with its fourth-quarter results, which fell beneath expectations set by Wall Street for the advertising giant — sending the stock down around 5% and shaving off billions in market cap. While Google owns a massive chunk of the advertising system — and it still… Read More

Amazon reports nearly $2 billion in profit, blowing past Wall Street expectations for holiday quarter

Jeff Bezoz, CEO of Amazon. Amazon reported quarterly financials after the bell Thursday for its fourth quarter, the all-important holiday season for the e-commerce giant. And its numbers had some people doing a double take, after earnings per share came in at $3.75, more than double the $1.85 that analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance were estimating.  Net income was $1.9 billion for the quarter. For the full 2017 year,… Read More

Alibaba is picking up 33% of Ant Financial, its fintech affiliate that’s valued at over $60B

 Alibaba has added an additional angle to the announcement of its latest financial report today with news that it is taking a 33 percent stake in Ant Financial, its fintech affiliate that operates Alipay and other financial services. The deal, which both parties said stems from an agreement made in 2014, will see Alibaba pick up newly issued shares in Ant, seemingly paving the way for a… Read More

PayPal sees 24% revenue growth in its latest quarter

 PayPal impressed Wall Street when it reported fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. The global payments giant beat analyst expectations for both sales and profit. PayPal reported $3.71 billion in revenue on a foreign-exchange neutral basis, or 24% growth from the same period last year. Analysts were expecting $3.63 billion in revenue for the quarter. Adjusted earnings per… Read More

Nintendo’s Switch took just 10 months to outsell the Wii U

 Nintendo’s Switch has only been on sale for 10 months but already it has outsold its predecessor, the Wii U, the flop that heralded Nintendo’s first step into hybrid gaming. The Japanese tech giant shifted a little over 13.5 million Wii U consoles across its entire lifecycle, and today Nintendo revealed that the Switch has reached 14.86 million sales to date. Business was so… Read More

Samsung topples Intel to become the world’s largest chipmaker

 Samsung has ended Intel’s 25-year run as the world’s biggest seller of chipsets after it posted its 2017 end of year financials. The Korean tech giant’s chipset division — which has long been its biggest hitter — grossed total revenue of $69 billion in 2017, eclipsing the $62.8 billion Intel reported for last year. That was a record year for Intel — and… Read More

Intel does its best to tamp down impact of Spectre and Meltdown in earnings call

 Intel CEO Brian Krzanich was delighted to report that Intel had a record year in the company’s quarterly earnings call with analysts yesterday. Of course, he also had to acknowledge the Spectre and Meltdown chip vulnerabilities revealed earlier this month in perhaps the ultimate good news-bad news moment. Like any good salesman, Krzanich led with the good news. “2017 was a record… Read More