Technology Markets News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Wednesday, led by financial shares, including Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae , on hopes Washington will come through with a rescue for the housing market.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Yahoo Inc. shares moved higher Wednesday even after the company reported a drop in earnings and missed Wall Street's forecasts.

SAN FRANCISCO - With Microsoft's $47.5 billion takeover bid off the table and his company's stock price down 20 percent during his 13-month reign as Yahoo's CEO, Jerry Yang has a message for his exasperated shareholders: Things aren't as bleak as they look.

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo on Tuesday said second-quarter profit tumbled 19%, as it grapples with a wheezing economy and the specter of Microsoft's takeover bid.

InformationWeek - New CEO Paul Maritz, who took over the CEO reins from Diane Greene in an abrupt changeover July 8, timed the ESXi announcement with VMware's 2Q earnings report.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Fears that belt-tightening U.S. consumers will bruise third-quarter earnings for makers of MP3 players, cell phones and other gadgets, pummeled the stocks of consumer electronics companies like Apple Inc and SanDisk Corp on Tuesday, a day after they issued grim forecasts.

SAN FRANCISCO - STMicroelectronics NV narrowed its losses in the second quarter as the chip maker recorded lower charges related to the spinoff of its flash memory division and other restructuring efforts.

Yahoo missed second-quarter sales and earnings forecasts Tuesday and narrowed its full-year outlook, but that didn't faze investors who saw hope in U.S. ad sales despite a weakening economy.

Yahoo's financial results came in lower than analyst expectations for revenue and net income, but the stock is trading higher after hours. Here are highlights from what Chief Executive Jerry Yang, President Sue Decker, and Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen have to say about the second quarter during the company's conference call.

Shares of Apple Inc. fell sharply as investors focused more on the company's cautious guidance for the current quarter than on the blockbuster Macintosh and iPod sales during the previous three-month period.

Apple reported its best ever June quarter for revenue and Mac computer sales Monday - but Wall Street didn't like its projections for the next quarter.

BETHESDA, Md. - Lockheed Martin Corp. said Tuesday that second-quarter earnings rose 13 percent as a drop in its fighter jet business was offset by higher sales in its space, electronic systems and information technology units.

NEW YORK - Wall Street shook off early doldrums and closed sharply higher Tuesday after another drop in oil prices encouraged investors to set aside financial sector worries and go bargain hunting across the market. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 130 points.

(Reuters) Stock futures pointed to a lower start on Wall Street, tracking a slide in European equities after dismal results from U.S. blue chips American Express , Apple and Texas Instruments .

NEW YORK - Shares of Texas Instruments Inc. took a beating after its second-quarter earnings missed Wall Street estimates.

Venture capital investors have high hopes for green-tech companies. Not only do they expect clean-tech firms to garner the most attention in the coming year, but they also see them reviving the anemic market for initial public offerings (IPOs).

Apple's stock plunged in after-market trading on concerns for Steve Jobs' health and a worse than expected earnings forecast.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - On the eve of a release of its latest earning figures Yahoo has struck a truce with corporate raider Carl Icahn, ending his fight to oust the struggling Internet pioneer's board.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Monday its current-quarter earnings would be well below Wall Street targets, sending shares of the iPhone, iPod and Macintosh maker down 10 percent.

SAN FRANCISCO - Brocade Communications Systems Inc. is plunking down $3 billion for Foundry Networks Inc., melding two companies with presence deep in the data center and posing a direct challenge to industry behemoth Cisco Systems Inc.

Apple appears to be having trouble keeping its new iPhone 3G in stock in the U.S., as reports suggest few phones were available in Apple's stores.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Specialty chemical maker Albemarle Corp on Monday posted higher-than-expected second-quarter earnings on strong results for catalysts and other technologies used in petroleum refining.

Apple on Monday posted a profit of $1.07 billion on revenue of $7.46 billion for its fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2008, making it the best June quarter in the company's history in both revenue and earnings. In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs also indicated that the company is preparing several other products for release in the coming months, which will help future quarters.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.S. computer giant IBM shed more of its stake in top Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd (0992.HK), offloading up to $80 million worth of stock at a 3.9 percent to 7 percent discount to its closing price on Monday, according to a document sent to investors.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. shares plunged nearly 10 percent Friday after the Internet search leader's second-quarter earnings missed analysts' expectations.

Google paid a price for what an analyst called a failure to communicate.

InformationWeek - The handset manufacturer sees weak sales in the mid and high-end markets and plans to cut 2,000 jobs.

InformationWeek - For the fiscal fourth quarter, Microsoft said sales increased 18% over the prior year to $15.8 billion. Net income rose 41% to $4.3 billion.

SEATTLE - Shares of Microsoft Corp. sank more than 5 percent on Friday, a day after the company missed Wall Street's earnings forecast by a penny, and issued softer-than-expected guidance for the current first quarter.