jatiN mahindrA doT coM

Yahoo Gets Stock Boost From “Outperform” Rating

Although this turned out to be a pretty "meh" day for the stock market as a whole – the Dow and S&P 500 slipped a little bit, while the Nasdaq didn’t gain much – Yahoo investors should be feeling pleased.  Yahoo’s stock rose by a significant amount as an analyst rated it "market outperform," up from "market perform." Sameet Sinha of JMP...

Estimate Puts YouTube’s Gross Revenue At $945m

An important, if not surprising, item: Another Google/YouTube exec has voiced his opinion that YouTube will be profitable this year.  More interestingly, an outside analyst has done the same, and also forecast a gross revenue figure of almost $1 billion. Let’s start by talking about Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney, who generated that estimate.  As Peter Kafka explained, Mahaney took...

Google’s CFO: “It’s Been A Great Time For Us”

Patrick Pichette joined Google as its CFO on August 12, 2008, and since then, he’s seen the company through both good times (a stock price of $620 per share) and bad (try $262).  So Google fans should find it comforting that Pichette, with his range of experience, has said the company’s doing quite well again. Pichette spoke during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference,...

Facebook Investor To Put $1B Into Social Media

The Russian investment firm that’s contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Facebook’s bank accounts is not even close to ending its involvement with social media.  According to Yuri Milner, who’s the CEO and founding partner of Digital Sky Technologies, his organization is interested in doling out another $1 billion. Obviously, that’s a stunning amount, and perhaps...

Video Site Veoh Files For Bankruptcy

Online video website Veoh has announced it will be shutting down and filing for bankruptcy. Veoh launched in 2005 and its backers included Shelter Capital, Spark Capital, Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, Intel Capital, Adobe, Gordon Crawford, Firefly3 and Jonnathan Dolgen. Those backers supported Veoh with $70 million in investments. Dmitry Shapiro, CEO and founder...

Twitter Puts Pixar’s CFO On Payroll

Twitter’s at last found someone to be its chief financial officer, and the man appears to be more than qualified for the position.  Ali Rowghani actually comes to Twitter from Pixar, where he also held the title of CFO. Pixar is, of course, the popular animation studio responsible for movies like Toy Story, The Incredibles, and WALL-E.  Disney bought it in 2006 for $7.4 billion, and...

TuneWiki Lands Investment From Motorola

Social media music player TuneWiki has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Motorola Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Motorola. Other new investors of TuneWiki include Intellect Capital Ventures, a venture fund initiative of TeliaSonera, HillsVen Capital, and Novel TMT. TuneWiki’s previous venture capital investor, Benchmark Israel, also participated in the round. "Teaming...

AOL Shares Financial Results of the Transition Period

AOL has announced it Q4 earnings, which show how the company performed during its final days as part of Time Warner, as well as the beginning of its transition to the current incarnation. "We have made significant progress in support of the long-term vision we see in the future of AOL, but today’s results continue to reflect the need for our focus and execution on the work required in the...

Baidu’s Stock Rises On Analysts’ Comments

The odds of Google leaving China appear to have been raised today.  Two financial experts made positive comments about Baidu, and while neither issued any carved-in-stone predictions about its competitor departing, investors are now buying more shares of the Chinese company’s stock. For what it’s worth, Credit Suisse analyst Wallace Cheung actually believes Google will stay in China. ...

Microsoft Reports Great Quarter, Credits Windows 7

Don’t be shocked if one or more shrines to Windows 7 are erected in Redmond today.  Microsoft released its quarterly earnings report this afternoon, and thanks in large part to the new operating system, the company’s numbers look quite good. Analysts thought Microsoft might report something like $17.84 billion in revenue and earnings per share of 59 cents.  Microsoft overshot...

Amazon Posts Strong Q4 Results

Amazon.com today reported strong fourth quarter profits that beat Wall Street analyst’s estimates. The online retailer said its net income increased 71 percent to $384 million in the fourth quarter, or 85 cents per share, compared with $225 million, or 52 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2008. Net sales increased 42 percent to $9.5 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $ 6.7 billion...

Bing Now Offering More Finance Information

Bing said today it has added new features to make it easier for users to search for and find financial information. Bing says it has developed a "stock and funds pages" which covers most U.S. stocks and funds. The Bing Search Blog offers more details. "To see the stocks and funds you are interested in simply enter a ticker in the search box e.g MSFT. Note our ‘Instant Answer’...

Yahoo’s Q4 Financial Results Draw Smiles

Yahoo’s fourth quarter earnings report has been released, and it seems that people who were preparing for some sort of drastic response – whether it would’ve involved either pitchforks or confetti – will have to wait for another day.  Although the confetti folks might win out, as Yahoo did all right, more or less in line with estimates. Yahoo reported $1.26 billion in net...

Facebook Investor Promises “No Near Term IPO”

Believe it or not, the stock market’s not looking too terrible these days; the Nasdaq’s risen almost 12.5 percent in the last six months, and just shy of 50.0 percent in the last year.  Still, it seems that Facebook absolutely will not go public in 2010. Accel Partners and DST are two of Facebook’s biggest financial backers, and at the Digital, Life, Design Conference in Munich,...

Brin, Page To Sell 10 Million Shares Of Google Stock

Sergey Brin and Larry Page are going to become much closer to their financial advisors over the next five years.  Google disclosed in a regulatory filing late last week that the cofounders each intend to sell about 5 million shares of the company’s stock during that period of time. To address one possible concern: This is no way signals that Brin and Page are abandoning Google.  Even...