Walt Disney Co. has not managed to avoid being ravaged by the recession, as the global media giant had posted a third-quarter profit drop of 26 percent. Thanks to the recession, less and less people are able to visit Disney’s massively popular theme parks and fewer advertisers are able to spend money.
 
Due to Disney’s significant drop in profits, the company’s film studio has posted a loss for the third quarter, while the main company’s net income has fallen to $954 million from $1.28 billion a year earlier. Sales also declined 7 percent to $8.6 billion, significantly missing the $8.81 billion …read more

Computer security software maker Symantec Corp. has posted a disappointing 58 percent drop in profits from a year ago in its fiscal first-quarter report, blaming the situation on the softening of demand on the part of corporate customers. In response to the company’s report, shares slid more than 7 percent to $15.90 in late trading.
 
Symantec took in $1.43 billion in revenue this quarter, down from $1.65 billion, and posted earnings of 34 cents per share, excluding special items. Analyst expectations had the software company doing somewhat better, predicting $1.49 billion in revenue and 35 cents per share. Symantec CFO James …read more

Image: FlickrAlthough Toyota once operated the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. auto-assembly plant as part of a joint venture with General Motors, GM’s bankruptcy forced it to pull out of the plant. This has left Toyota with the difficult decision regarding whether or not it should close the plant, especially after its CEO promised that it would not close any of its North America plants.
 
However, Toyota has announced that it will make the decision “quite soon,” depending on whether or not the plant will receive aid from California lawmakers, as well as on an analysis of the plant’s financial viability. …read more

GE profits cause some concern.

Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006, but the internet search giant has struggled with its attempts to turn the mega-popular video-sharing website profitable. However, Google CFO Patrick Pichette stated today that he expects YouTube to finally bring in a profit despite overwhelming analyst opinions echoing the contrary.
 
YouTube has experienced a surge in branded advertisements as more and more advertisers opt to run their ads alongside related videos. Google credits this trend to YouTube’s growing prominence as a home page for consumers, its massive popularity, and its relevance to the younger generation, one of advertisement’s favored targets.
 
Analysts like Spencer …read more

Today, Citigroup (Ticker: C) shocked Wall Street by reporting first quarter net income of $1.59 billion. With better than expected results, why did the shares close 9 percent?
Perhaps, because Citi’s owners didn’t really profit.
In situations like this it is good to know the basics of financial statements.
The income statement tracks a company’s revenues and expenses for a certain period of time. Net income is often referred to as “the bottom line” because it is the bottom line on a company’s income statement.
If revenues are greater than expenses, then the company has turned a profit and if revenues are less than expenses, then the …read more

 Well done Benson for setting up the donation  link for Burma. hopefully all you bullion traders will donate some of your returns to those who have lost everything, and let’s hope they open up the borders to help. 
 Today I’m including a post I made before about online payment companies. For those that think I’ve been after them, heres what I said two weeks ago:
There are surprising demographics. It is not only those who don’t have a credit card, or  who are cautious about putting credit card details online. More companies are using it to pay suppliers or freelancers who do work for them. Its a …read more