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Cisco Systems Inc.
The world's No. 1 maker of computer-networking gear is forecasting revenue growth for the first time in a year, and said Wednesday it will start to hire more employees after shrinking the workforce by about 3,500 over the past year. Cisco's forecast is for revenue growth of 1 to 4 percent in the current quarter, which ends in January. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a decline from last year. Cisco reported Wednesday after the market closed that its net income dropped 19 percent to $1.8 billion, or 30 cents per share. Revenue fell 13 percent to $9 billion. Wall Street was expecting even steeper declines, though. Excluding one-time charges, Cisco earned 36 cents per share, ahead of estimates for 31 cents per share in net income, on that same basis.
Comcast Corp.The nation's largest cable TV operator reported a 22 percent increase in third-quarter earnings, buoyed by an investment gain and a lower tax rate as it stepped up promotions on its bundled video, phone and Internet plans. Comcast also surpassed AT&T Inc. in the quarter as the country's largest Internet service provider. But investors were more eager to find out how the purchase of a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal would burden Comcast's finances. A deal between Comcast and General Electric Co., which owns 80 percent of NBC Universal, could be announced soon. In the third quarter, Comcast earned $944 million, or 33 cents per share, compared with $771 million, or 26 cents, in the same quarter a year earlier. Analysts were expecting earnings of 25 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. Revenue rose 3 percent to $8.8 billion.
Pulte Homes Inc.The home builder lost $361.4 million in the third quarter, but with the acquisition of Centex Corp., new orders increased by more than a third. Pulte completed its purchase of Centex in August, turning the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based company into the nation's largest builder. The deal gave Pulte more communities with cheaply priced homes for first-time buyers, as well as desirable land in Texas and the Carolinas. By combining their operations, Pulte now expects to save $440 million annually -- $90 million more than when the deal was announced last spring. Pulte lost $1.15 a share during the three months ended in September. The company offered no combined figures for the third quarter last year, when Pulte lost $280.4 million, or $1.11 a share. Earnings were hurt by $86.7 million in costs related to the Centex acquisition. Revenue dropped to $1.1 billion from $1.6 billion the year before.
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Blog: Patent Pending
Lights out at U energy conference. Irony police notified.
Just as Lawrence Kazmerski, a top official at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was about to give the keynote address at the University of Minnesota's annual E3 conference at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, the lights went out, bathing the audience in darkness and a deep sense of irony.
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