Verizon earnings fall short of expectations, but users are strong Wireless growth

The company's net income was $ 2.64 billion, or 93 cents a share, compared to $ 617 million, or 22 cents, a year before. The increase was largely the result of adjustments to the value of retirement and pension plans of the company. Without them, would have been earnings 54 cents a share, one cent below the average of analysts ' forecasts.

Income fell 2.6% to 26.4 billion, from 27.1 billion the previous year, mainly due to the decrease in revenue from voice services.

Verizon has fallen behind its peers in moving towards mobile devices and wireless data services to profit, said Harry Wang, Director of mobile search in Parks Associates, a research organization. But he said that seemed to have picked up the pace in the fourth quarter.

"Verizon has been adjusting its business and deals in recent years to respond to the changing market," said Mr. Wang. "This dynamic is captured in these results more so than ever."

Verizon Wireless, a venture with Vodafone in the UK, reported a sharp increase in subscribers, adding 872,000 contract customers in the quarter. Although it is less new subscribers were added in the fourth quarter of last year, there were so many analysts expected.

Nearly 75% of new subscribers acquired Smartphone company, mainly because of its strong portfolio of elegant new handsets powered by Android, the Google operating system.

Smartphone users represent about a quarter of the Verizon Wireless contract subscriber base. That is a smaller share than its rivals, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, which each pass close to 40 percent, said Mr. Wang.

In a presentation for analysts and investors, Lowell McAdam, Verizon's chief operating officer, said that the company expects half its mobile customers to your smartphone by year end.

"May be even higher," he said. "We are thrilled to revive a vibrant cycle in this area of growth".

Mr. McAdam says Verizon would concentrate on the promotion of its fourth-generation wireless network, which uses a technology known as LTE market, and would strongly different mobile devices that can run on it.

"We're going to get that penetration up, he will obtain profitability," said Mr. McAdam.

Verizon executives said that the appetite for devices compatible with LTE had already risen since it started last year with the introduction of the network.

More than 65,000 LTE laptop modem were sold in their first month on the market, he said. The initial response to tablet computers and their accompanying data plans has been positive, with more than 86,000 IPAD and Samsung Galaxy cards sold in the quarter, he said. During the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month, Verizon demonstrated by a dozen of smartphones and tablets can run on the new network.

For the quarter, revenues increased wireless almost 6%, 6.3 billion, compared to the previous year. Wireless data revenues, increased by 25 percent, accounted for more than 5 billion of the total wireless revenues, Verizon said.

Mr. McAdam expected data consumption would increase more than 40 times before the end of the Decade.

Verizon stock rose 55 cents to $ 35.79 after the announcement of earnings.

The quarter can offer a preview of greatest interest in Verizon announced two weeks ago that it would soon begin offering a version of the iPhone running on your network.

The company has refused to provide a baseline specification for how the release of iPhone affect revenues and profitability. But he said it would begin offering various incentives, including trade-in options and unlimited data plans for the device, to entice existing customers to upgrade and attract customers from rival carriers. It warned that can eliminate the unlimited data plans at some point.

Verizon said it expects to sell iPhone as ben 11 million next year, but wouldn't the Bank entirely on a partnership with Apple to help buoy the company.

"We worked very hard to get here so we would have a balanced approach," said Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and chief executive of Verizon. "We have always said we will not be a business-focused, and we will certainly be one-focused device."

View the original article here

Higher income but tepid growth at Yahoo

Carol a. Bartz, who joined Yahoo as chief executive two years ago, has sought to revive growth after several years of slow results and an inability to capitalize on the rise of social networking, now dominated by Facebook.

She has cut costs, largely through a series of layoffs, while Google, for example, added employees. She has been outsourcing plans to eliminate unsuccessful products, including the Delicious bookmarking service and services.

His strategy was to concentrate on the strengths of Yahoo, which include editorial content, display advertising and online communications such as e-mail. Still says that it will take time before Yahoo shows signs of great progress. The earnings report seemed to support this point of view.

Display advertising banner and other ads — graphics — was a bright spot. But a first quarter revenue forecast that was below expectations sent shares down in business analysts to appreciate.

Yahoo reported that net income in the fourth quarter, which ended in December, doubled to $ 312 million, or 24 cents a share compared with the year-ago quarter.

The company said revenue fell 12 percent to $ 1.53 billion. Practically all the decline came from the sale of the career site Listings and changes to Yahoo's search activity.

Income was slightly above the correct income of 26 cents a share, beating the 22 cents a share that was expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Excluding payments to advertising partners, revenue was 1.21 billion, or modestly more than 1.19 billion that analysts had expected.

Display advertising increased 14 percent to $ 635 million.

In a conference call with analysts after the report was published, Yahoo executives repeatedly to what is described as positive momentum of the company and talked about their trust that Yahoo will turn corner in several important areas during the second half of this year. Stressed the earnings growth and cast of the decreasing revenue as a natural consequence of their strategy.

"We have just completed a quarter and the year very encouraging for Yahoo," MS. Bartz said in the call. She went on to say that "we're making progress evident on our plan."

The estimated revenue for the first quarter was $ 1.02 billion to $ 1.08 billion, compared to analysts ' expectations of 1.13 billion. In the market appreciates, shares dropped by more than 2 percent, to $ 15.64.

Youssef h. Sharks, an analyst at Jefferies & co., said that he was still waiting for Yahoo to show some signs of progress. Cutting costs is well said, but what investors really want is for society to restore growth, and that management will be intense pressure to do so this year, they have promised.

"Growth, is a show-me story," said Mr. sharks. "The jury is still out on this."

As a sign of cost reduction of MS. Bartz, Yahoo, which is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, said Tuesday that would have eliminated 1 percent of its workforce, or approximately 140 jobs, especially in marketing. Following cuts last month another 600 jobs, most of them within the product group.

Yahoo layoffs contrast sharply with Google, which said Tuesday that it would add more than 6,000 employees this year. Although Yahoo said it will continue to hire in some areas, it is surprising disconnect between companies and their trajectories.

Not only is Google taking, is growing rapidly, reporting a rise of 26% in fourth quarter revenue last week.

Yahoo has bet a large portion of its revival on its research in partnership with Microsoft, which has taken over its search engine and associated advertising in North America. The switch in Europe and Asia will take place this year.

But MS. Bartz suggested that there are still problems to be worked out in terms of financial benefits of the partnership research. Important measurements of its financial performance, including revenue on research, have been less than what was hoped for during the quarter, although he expressed confidence in an improvement in the second half of the year.

View the original article here