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Yahoo’s earnings are out.  After the close of markets Tuesday, Yahoo launched this quarter’s wave of tech earnings announcements (along with Intel and IBM which also reported).   One headline reads “earnings slip again” another says earnings “encourage investors.”  That’s about right.  With the first 100 days of CEO Jerry Yang’s new tenure now finished, watchers aren’t’ yet sure what to make of Yahoo’s present state… or future prospects.  Some are still concerned while others are seeing the glass half full; maybe even getting fuller.

To the numbers: the trend was positive and analyst consensus expectations were beaten. 

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Yesterday after the close of market video game publisher Take Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) reported their 3rd quarter financial results.

The New York company has had a rough year.  Not only have they been embattled and burdened by investigations into their options practices but in early August they announced they their premier game, Grand Theft Auto, would miss its October launch (and the holiday shopping season).  The game’s arrival was pushed back into 2008.  Also, in March, shareholders revolted and booted board members and management.  This quarter’s earnings may be the first sign things may be improving.  Buoyed in part by the sale of their game based on the Fantastic Four movie franchise they beat expectations.

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Vivendi SA, the French-based entertainment conglomerate and owner of Universal Music, reported second quarter earnings earlier today.  They results were mixed. 

Second quarter earnings were reported at $813m (594m Euros). (Down heavily from last years $1.5b (1.1b Euros) largely due to gains from selling shares in DuPont).  Per share, the company earned 67c a share for the quarter.

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Usually when a company’s name or product becomes a verb, or otherwise enters the vocabulary of pop culture lexicon, it means the company created something pioneering (and usually lucrative) or utterly atrocious.  For Tivo (Nasdaq:TIVO), the pioneering title is an unquestionable fit but the moniker of lucrative is more elusive.  People may be "Tivo-ing" shows but TiVo isn’t making a lot of money. Wednesday after the close of Market, Tivo reported earnings for their second fiscal quarter.  The numbers were uninspired. Click to Read More

Wednesday, News Corporation, the media empire of Rupert Murdoch and newly minted owner of the Wall Street Journal, reported their fiscal 4th quarter and year end financial results.  The numbers were impressive and suggest, at present stock prices, that the company, which is trading at about 15times projected 2008 earnings per share, is undervalued.

By the numbers, News Corp. reported net income for the period ended June 3oth of $890m (28c/share) up from a year ago return of $852m (27c per share or 23c/share less one time gain from sale of Sky Radio Ltd.)   Revenue was in at $7.37b, up from $7.78b.  Consensus analyst expectations were for revenue of $7.27b and earnings of 28c per share. Click to Read More

With nice weather and incentive to be outside and active, the summer quarter is a cyclic weak point for gaming companies. Wednesday, after the close of markets, Game publisher Electronic Arts (EA)  (NASDAQ: ERTS), reported their fiscal first quarter earnings (for the period ended June 30th). The loss for the quarter, and other results were appropriate to the season, they also easily beat Wall Street analysts expectations, (though expectations were far from lofty.) Click to Read More

If you’re not a preteen, a relative of one, or someone following the media industry, you probably haven’t’ heard of Club Penguin or its rival Webkinz.     The sites provide interactive games and social network like features for preteens. Club Penguin, launched in 2005, was designed to be a fun, safe, game and activity environment for today’s internet enabled children aged 6 to 14; MySpace for the younger set. On the site, kids can adopt and interact with virtual Penguins or chat and play games with other kids on the site.

Wednesday, coinciding with their earnings release, Disney announced they were buying the British Colombia based company for $350m in cash plus revenue performance incentives that could make the kids social network worth as much as $700m. 

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