Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which specializes in the sale of notebook processors, managed to avoid posting a loss as large as most analysts expected after an unexpectedly strong rally in sales toward the end of the quarter. While AMD’s results helped the struggling company to turn its core chipmaking business profitable, the results were not received well by investors and AMD’s shares dropped.
AMD has posted twelve consecutive quarters of losses, the latest of which resulted in a 5 percent slide in the value of its shares. This follows a 60 percent rally over the past three months as investors began …read more

On the heels of its $4.7 billion acquisition by Oracle, Sun Microsystems has posted a significant quarterly loss as sales fell to disappointing levels. The last quarter probably marks Sun’s last full quarter as an independent company before it is absorbed entirely by software giant Oracle.
 
In a report filed yesterday, Sun reported a loss in the quarter ended June 30, which is the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, of 20 cents per share. This compares to Sun’s profit of 11 cents per share, or $88 million, in the same quarter last year, highlighting the negative impact that the recession has had …read more

The widely-touted war between traditional video rental outlet Blockbuster and newer alternatives like Netflix seems to be decidedly in the latter’s favor, as Blockbuster’s same-store sales continue to suffer. This has led Blockbuster to report results that missed analyst expectations, even though they marked an improvement of the company’s potential losses.
 
Blockbuster has also decided to lower its unadjusted earnings target by $35 million to a range from $270 million to $290 million. According to Blockbuster CEO James Keyes, Blockbuster will not undergo any dramatic changes to turn the company’s fortunes around, despite growing levels of competition from low-cost DVD rental …read more

Want to earn more money for your freelance writing? Of course you do.
Peter Bowerman who, among other things, writes The Well-Fed Writer Blog has a great post with some very simple and easy to implement suggestions in a post called: Repeat After Me: “I Will Ask for More Money Next Time…”
And he’s absolutely right. Simply asking for more often gets more.
Like Peter, I’ve got stories… like the time instead of quoting a fee I asked “what’s your budget for this project?” It was exactly double the amount I was thinking of asking!
It isn’t always that easy. Often the potential …read more

SlackerManager has a guest post called: Productivity Tip: Know When You’re In the Red The author, Sandy Renshaw, has devised a way to make sure she knows when a project is pro bono and when it’s paid.
I suggest you go further. First of all, one definition of profit is: The return received on a business undertaking after all operating expenses have been met. Simple enough IF you really know what your expenses are. I went around for years in a fog about both my income and expenses, and I know for a fact I’m not the only writer who has …read more