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Sony Slides to Loss on Quake, Cuts Guidance

Sony Corp. said Thursday it slipped to a net loss in its fiscal first quarter, squeezed by the impact of the March 11 disasters, and lowered its earnings forecast for the fiscal year, citing weak sales of televisions as well as the yen’s strength versus the euro.

Obama Signs a Euro-iPad (Hey, It's Almost Thanksgiving!)

Here is a funny video sent to us of President Barack Obama, while at the Lisbon summit this past week, signing an Apple iPad using a touchscreen software program. “I’ve done this once before,” he said, as he signed like a pro. And, indeed, Obama had put his John Hancock on one in Seattle just a month ago. Despite all the unrealized hope for some more progress in the digital arena by his administration, I guess he is the Internet President.

Nokia: Losing the Smartphone War One Ugly Pink Handset at a Time

Earlier this year, Rick Simonson, outgoing head of Nokia’s mobile phone business, set an ambitious goal for the company: “By 2011…we will be at par with Apple and RIM in smartphones,” he said. “Not only [will] we draw level with them, we will also win the war.” Evidently, pulling that off has proven quite a bit more difficult than Simonson or Nokia imagined. Because this morning, the company slashed its second-quarter financial guidance.

Another Tough Quarter for Nokia

Well, this certainly adds a bit of perspective to Nokia’s rebound story. Reporting first-quarter earnings this morning, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones fell short of expectations for both sales and profit.

Nokia's Smart-Phone Slip

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo says the demand for mobile devices improved in many markets during the third quarter–but you wouldn’t know it to look at the company’s earnings. This morning, Nokia posted an unexpected 559 million euro ($836 million) loss for the period, its first in a decade. Worse, its smart-phone market share declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter.
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Nokia’s Smart-Phone Slip

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo says the demand for mobile devices improved in many markets during the third quarter–but you wouldn’t know it to look at the company’s earnings. This morning, Nokia posted an unexpected 559 million euro ($836 million) loss for the period, its first in a decade. Worse, its smart-phone market share declined to 35 percent from 41 percent in the previous quarter.
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Voices

Google: Lehman Trims Target, Estimates; Also Cuts Estimates on eBay, Amazon, Yahoo (Updated)

Douglas Anmuth, Internet analyst at Lehman, this morning trimmed his price target and EPS estimates for Google (GOOG) to reflect the strengthening of the dollar against the Euro and other currencies. Anmuth trimmed his 2008 EPS estimate to $19.21 from $19.46; for 2009, he goes to $22.41, from $23.52. He cut his price target to $600 from $620. However, Anmuth maintains his Overweight rating on the shares.

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Beware The Strengthening Dollar

The steady crumbling of the value of the U.S. dollar over the last two years has given a big boost to reported earnings at many U.S. companies that sell goods overseas in local currencies but report in dollars.