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Ebay (NASDAY: EBAY), reported Q4 earnings late Wednesday.

4th quarter profit was up 24% with sales volume beating expectations.  Net income was up 5 cents a share over the prior year with net income at $346m.  Sales were up 29% to $1.72b.

The Paypal payments division showed robust growth with payments up 37% to revenues of $417m.  The communications division, home of Skype, showed revenue of $66m which according to comments by CEO Meg Whitman translated to “not yet developing as quickly as we hoped..”

For the coming year, Ebay raised guidance to project earnings for 2007 to be in the range of $1.25 to $1.29 a share; ahead of analyst average estimates of $1.23.  The increase is partly result of expected revenue from the acquisition of Stubhub (est. $120m) and growth at Paypal.

More detailed press coverage on Ebay’s finances can be found at:

Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Marketwatch

Yahoo  (NASDAQ: YHOO), reported Q4 earnings.

The company announced profit was down 61% to $269m from $683m but revenues were up 13% to $1.7b.   Free cash flow was $278m for the quarter.

Average analyst expectations were earnings of earnings of 13 cents per share on earnings. Excluding items including stock based compensation expense, the company had earnings of 21 cents a share.

Also of interest, the Yahoo Answers, Flickr, del.icio.us and Yahoo! Video properties surpassed 100m unique monthly visitors and 50% of those users are under 35 years old; a statistic the company says is better than both MySpace and Facebook.

In the company’s earnings call, there was significant attention on the coming quarters as well as high expectations for the implementation of the Panama modular advertising platform.

More detailed press coverage on Yahoo’s finances can be found at:

Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Marketwatch

I’ve been a long time Netflix customer.  I begrudgingly tolerate Netflix’ well documented throttling practices. (For those unfamiliar: throttling was the name applied to the intentional slow down of deliveries to insure an revenue maximizing ratio of movies delivered per rental fee).  I also tolerate little annoyances like bonus-feature discs (eg/ a disc with nothing on it but directors commentary and deleted scenes) being counted as a separate rental, or the lack of availability of an occasional title.  As a movie fan, I used to hate going to rent a film only to find my local store had none available, nor anything else I wanted to see. Netflix’s larger pool of titles, the convenience of home delivery service and lack of late fees won me over despite the occasional frustrations.

Netflix retains my business today because they have provided the best service of its kind.   They offered a real value. Now, in the increasingly competitive and bloody battles of the movie rental world, that value proposition is degrading.

Netflix is due to announce earnings January 24th.   The expectation is that both subscription and revenue numbers will be up and I imagine, will exceed expectations.  It’s also expected that battles with Blockbuster and ongoing litigation are taking a toll. Operating expenses, including heavy marketing costs (to fight Blockbuster), as well as legal expenses, will be way be up year over year. Whatever the numbers, or the reaction from The Street, Netflix faces a difficult future. In the spirit of analyst’s reviews around earnings announcements, here are three talking points from a list of their troubles:

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General Electric (NYSE: GE), parent company of NBC Universal, reported Q4 earnings.

Of the company’s entertainment properties, the NBC Universal Segment showed profit at $841m up from $801m, with revenue up 1% year over year.

Additionally, following a poor 4th place Nielsen rating for NBC TV in the prior season, prime time and non-news ratings were rebounding in December thanks to the success of the breakout hit Heroes and NFL Games broadcast under the  new long term deal (signed in April and valid through 2011) with the NFL.  Cable channels USA Networks, Bravo, and CNBC continue to do well with audiences.

More detailed press coverage of GE’s finances can be found at:

Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Marketwatch

General Electric (NYSE: GE), parent company of NBC Universal, reported Q4 earnings.

Of the company’s entertainment properties, the NBC Universal Segment showed profit at $841m up from $801m, with revenue up 1% year over year.

Additionally, following a poor 4th place Nielsen rating for NBC TV in the prior season, prime time and non-news ratings were rebounding in December thanks to the success of the breakout hit Heroes and NFL Games broadcast under the  new long term deal (signed in April and valid through 2011) with the NFL.  Cable channels USA Networks, Bravo, and CNBC continue to do well with audiences.

More detailed press coverage of GE’s finances can be found at:

Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Marketwatch

Apple  (NASDAQ: AAPL), reported Q1 earnings.

Profits were up to $1b ($1.14 share) compared to $565 m ($0.65 share) the prior year.   Revenue was at $7.1b up from $5.7b and well ahead of analysts forecasts of $6.42b
iPod sales accounted for $3.43b of revenue

iPod shipments were up over 50% 5o 21.1m units.   Gross margins for the company beat estimates and hit 31.2%.  Some analysts were estimating that that iPod margins were up more than 400 basis  points to around 30% and Mac margins were up slightly less to around 32%.

Sales guidance for the March quarter estimate sales in the range of $4.8b with profits in the range of $0.54 a share  – both numbers below analysts initial estimates of $5.24b and $0.60 a share.

More detailed press coverage of Apple’s finances can be found at:

Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Marketwatch

It’s still very early in the year but today, Cambridge MA based Brightcove announced the closing of the largest venture round of the year.  The two and a half year old Internet TV (and Ad Network) startup closed a $59.5 m series C private placement.  The round added a number of strategic corporate and international investors to Brightcove’s slate of stockholders which now includes:  AOL/Time Warner, General Electric, Accel Partners, Allen & Company, General Catalyst Partners, IAC/Interactive Corp, The New York Times, The Hearst Corporation, Brookside Capital and Transcosmos Investments (Japanese firm which also has money in CinemaNow).

The financing was a private placement in which Morgan Stanley and Allen and Company acted as placement agents. The capital, according to press releases, is earmarked for international expansion.  It may also be used to secure additional partnerships or even efforts toward consolidation in the developing, but crowded Net TV market.  (Brightcove acquired Metastories in March 2006, and could be out to buy up other companies to enhance its offerings).  

Notable to me is not so much the size of the deal (though it’s large) but the involvement from major media companies like the New York Times and Hearst co.  Brightcove has gained the confidence of many traditional media companies and this stands to expand those relationships.

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