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Sometimes bad news is actually good news in disguise. That the case at game publisher Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS). Thursday, EA released their earnings report for the 2nd quarter 2007. Relative to the same quarter last year revenue was down and earnings went from the black to the red but the bad news was good, really.

EA posted a net loss of 62cents a share ($195m) on revenue of $640m but a significant part of the loss was due to changes in accounting practices regarding revenue recognition. Click to Read More

The period leading up the the Thanksgiving holiday tends to be among the quieter times for venture investments but plenty of checks are getting written. In fact, despite an increasingly crowded market and lack of new "disruptive" technologies, Internet video remains hot. mDialog and Vitrue are among the slate who’ve gotten new capital. Here’s a roundup of five recent deals.

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The PS3 and Blu Ray may be Sony’s bigger bets but camera’s and consumer electronics are increasingly proving to be their steady hand. When earnings were announced today, it was the strength of camera’s and televisions that carried them. Net profit for September was in at $646.7m. That was largely thanks to strong electronics sales (which account for 2/3rds of annual sales). On the quarter Sony hit their highest earnings results in three quarters. They also adjusted forecasts upwards for the fiscal year (which ends March 2008).

Despite keeping on track for their 5% operating margin goal, however, gaming remains the leading story. The beleaguered game division returned the 7th consecutive losing quarter. And the losses are only getting worse. This quarter was a negative hit of $848m, nearly double the loss for the same quarter last year.

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There are surprises and then there are Surprises with a capital S.  Apple trouncing earnings estimates this week fits in the first category.   The results were stellar but hardly a shock; more of “wink wink” we did it again.  Netflix handedly beating earnings estimates Monday was blind-siding surprise that was hard to see coming.

When Netflix reported late Monday, the expectation was much as it has been for recent quarters: competition from Blockbuster would be a drag on margins, price cuts would weigh on revenues and customer growth should fall into the moderate but not terribly impressive category.  Click to Read More

When Apple issued earnings guidance at the end of the third quarter they attempted to reset analyst (and investor) expectations.   An ambiguous new product launch (which turned out to be both new macs and the new iPod line) would decrease margins and profits, they cautioned.  They advised a conservative view.  They forecast meager revenue of $5.7 billion and earnings of only 65 cents a share. That seemed way too low. Call it conservative finance, call it sandbagging, or overly cautious analysis, call it what you want, but whatever the name – there seemed little reason for it.  Now there’s proof. was , in fact, no reason for caution at all.

After the close of markets Monday, Apple announced their results for the 4th quarter.  For football fans, the numbers were like yesterday’s first half score between the Patriots and the Dolphins: a blowout.   For Q4 Apple reported the highest September earnings in their history.

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If someone provides a service that can be used by their patrons to break laws, there are legal questions of responsibility that get asked.  With user-generated content, and the websites that act as repositories for it, these issues center on copyright liability.  It’s a question of how much responsibility a site that acts as a forum should take. 

Is a service like YouTube responsible for policing their site and actively looking for infringement?  Or is it enough to remove an offending article (video/etc) when notified it’s a copyright violation (via a formal  DMCA “Take Down Notice”) ?  The experts aren’t in agreement.  The Digital Millennium Copyright laws provide guidance but in many cases the legislation falls short and interpretation is being sent the courts.  As of now, there’s already a billion dollar case on dockets with more likely to follow.

So, rather than wait for court or Congress, Thursday a group of broadcasters and web power houses,  a mix of content owners and distributors,  announced they would take the responsibility themselves. Click to Read More

Last quarter Google shocked the world – not with their success, but with a failure.  Much to the surprise of analysts and others’ they stumbled and failed to meet second quarter earnings expectations in July.  The numbers were good, just not as high as the stratospheric expectations being asked of them.   It was only the second time since going public in 2004 they’d come up short.    So Thursday, rebuked for aiming too high last time (Google doesn’t give sales or earnings guidance) analysts were watching carefully to see if their picks were better when Google announced this quarters results. 

Was last quarter a fluke of mismanagement? A rogue wave to an otherwise steady ship?  Were analyst’s just too optimistic?   Investors who bid up the stock 19% during the last month haven’t thought so.  They’ve expected a windfall. Today, they all got their answer: all’s well in Mountain View.

Despite occasional criticism for being a “one trick pony” and deriving most of their revenue from one advertising strength, Google proved that pony still has plenty of speed and strength.  Click to Read More