In fact, Bartz practically sounded like a gushy “Entertainment Tonight” flunky when talking to Wall Street analysts about Yahoo’s Oscar news, games and other offerings. She proudly noted the site’s efforts generated more than a billion pages views.

There will be more of that, it seems, with the elevation of Yahoo exec Sam Silverstein (pictured here) as head of its special events coverage. Sources said it will be a major area of emphasis, given obvious advertiser interest.

It’s all part of a lot of dramatic changes being made in the media unit at Yahoo, which is run by its newish Audience head Mickie Rosen.

Previous to his new duties, Silverstein has been mostly focused on major sports events for Yahoo, but has also been managing content on its front page and in tech and green arenas.

The move to taking over more comes after Lawrence Yee–who led Yahoo entertainment efforts and was once the managing editor of its omg! celebrity site–headed to TMZ.com, the competing and much sassier celebrity site, owned by AOL. His new job is as managing editor of its TooFab site, TMZ overlord Harvey Levin confirmed to me.

Also gone recently is Annette Cardwell, who was managing editor of Yahoo’s Shine women’s site, who is now working as director of digital content and games at Future US, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Now it will be up to Silverstein, who is well-regarded at Yahoo, to run the upcoming Royal Wedding coverage by himself.

William and Kate, as well as Bartz, will be watching.

Earlier today, Yahoo reported its first-quarter earnings, which showed revenue and earnings declines, which the Silicon Valley Internet portal said was due to its search and advertising partnership with Microsoft.

BoomTown liveblogged the conference call with Wall Street analysts, but there’s more deets to peruse and numbers to crunch–in order to figure out whether to blame Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer or not.

Thus, here’s a deck by Yahoo, with all kinds of charts and graphs to wallow around in:

YHOO_Q111EarningsPresentationFinal

MicroHoo is funky!

At least according to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on the Silicon Valley search giant’s first-quarter earnings conference call about its recent financial performance.

Yahoo’s results showed a continued worrisome revenue growth stall, due in large part to a search advertising fall-off, and a still-turning turnaround.

Yahoo reported revenues of $1.06 billion, down six percent from a year ago, on net earnings of 17 cents a share, down 28 percent.

The results were essentially in line with Wall Street expectations.

2:03 pm PT: The call started right on time, as per usual. Maybe they can’t get search right anymore, but Yahoo execs sure know how to start an analysts’ confab.

Bartz started off the call, noting “overall, our turnaround is proceeding on schedule.”

Well, the schedule of a three-toed sloth, I suppose, but it’s on schedule!

Bartz is too smart, though, and quickly noted the problems with search revenue declines, related to its search and online advertising partnership with Microsoft.

Still, she then used the unusual term “funky comparisons” to dismiss the key issue.

But isn’t she the one who struck the funky deal with Microsoft that has resulted in these funky comparisons and these even funkier search advertising revenues?

Just askin’!

Bartz proceeded quickly to noting Yahoo’s advances due to technology improvements, which showed a doubling of impressions to big events such as the Super Bowl and the Oscars.

It’s a good point, since Yahoo–for all its troubles–is still a huge traffic driver, including serving up 1.3 billion page views for the Oscars.

Bartz talked about monetization and said a lot of other stuff, but got to the finances quickly.

“Search was a mixed bag,” she said flatly. You can say that again–but not in a good way.

Bartz tried to put a good-news spin on it, but had to admit that “on the downside [Microsoft's] adCenter is not seeing strong RPS,” she said.

That’s revenue per search and a key number that Yahoo had thought would be better by now.

Bartz noted that the paid search markets internationally will be delayed until MicroHoo gets its act together.

Good idea!

2:16 pm: CFO Tim Morse took over to go through the numbers.

“We had good display momentum around the globe,” he said.

But search was, um, bad. It underperformed, but Yahoo had that guarantee from Microsoft to pay out, which Morse called a “financial floor.”

Morse pretty much read the press release from here on out.

2:24 pm: Bartz was back talking up the huge audience Yahoo has abroad. And it is true–the Yahoo brand is a golden one globally.

Also video consumption is up too, as it is across the Web, in terms of views and time spent. Yahoo’s “Primetime in No Time” got 500 million streams in the quarter.

Bartz turned to mobile, which is weak no matter what she said about the laudable Livestand. It’s one of many in a very competitive market.

Same for social, which Yahoo has essentially abdicated to Facebook. That said, Yahoo has tried to weave social within its myriad of sites and it gets it, especially compared to the socially awkward Google.

Bartz summed up that she hoped everyone gets that profitability and revenue growth were on track to get better, promising more at the investor day in May.

2:30 pm: Q&A time!

The first question is about display growth. It’s a softball, since display was up.

The next is about other revenue growth areas to come.

Bartz–who seemed not so prepped for such an obvious question–ticked off shopping, travel and uuuuuh….

Morse jumped in and talked about making internal connections, which I also did not understand.

An analyst then wanted to “dig into” search problems. I’d say it’s time to call in Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel!

Relative to RPS, Bartz acknowledged it was low and everyone was studying the issue. There is a plan, apparently. Again, Bartz was maddeningly vague.

I missed the next question and then it was back to search.

Bartz was not getting too specific about search, but would say video advertising was going to do well.

She did note that Yahoo expected a dip in Q1 related to search revenue, “but the dip went a little lower than we expected and lasted a little longer than expected.”

Bartz said she had recently sat down with Microsoft execs to go over the problems. How much would I have liked to have been a fly on that wall!

The next question was about video and it turns out Bartz loves the babbling babies too! I knew we had something cool in common.

The next question is about Japan and the possible deal to sell off Yahoo’s ownership of Yahoo Japan!

Morse said diddly, except “we continue to make progress.”

A question about display and possible content verticals.

Verticals Yahoo is interested in, according to Bartz: Entertainment, lifestyle, women, gossip.

“The things people really want to do, they want to disappear,” said Bartz, which was an interesting way of putting it.

Yet another question in what was beginning to feel like an endless call.

It was about Right Media, Yahoo’s advertising exchange. Cleaning it up, etc.

The next question is about communications, as in email.

Bartz even sounded bored and messed up a few words. “I’ve had too many Diet Cokes,” she joked.

Personally, I am considering disappearing into some content, since there is yet another question.

It’s–no surprise–an RPS question!

Funky!

Search guarantee payments from Microsoft are in place for another four quarters. Thank goodness.

Bartz got more detailed about the problems. There is some kind of prediction issue, which she said Microsoft is working on.

Now a local advertising question and its relationship with Facebook.

Bartz grabbed this one by the horns, noting you don’t have to run to the social networking powerhouse to get you a social ad!

It’s about branding with a social component. Which would be, um, Facebook, which was part of Yahoo’s Chrysler campaign referenced by Bartz.

A question about daily deals.

It’s growing, but more at Groupon and LivingSocial, which Morse does not mention.

Finally, the last question.

Another gigantic softball on engagement and Yahoo’s new content platform and some mobile deets query about whether Yahoo can make it there.

Bartz said she was working on it. As to content, Bartz said stats show big lifts.

“The good news is that it’s all in the right direction,” she said.

Up would certainly be good.

Yahoo announced its first-quarter earnings today, showing a continued worrisome revenue growth stall, due in large part to declines in search revenue from its partnership with Microsoft.

The Silicon Valley search giant reported revenue of $1.06 billion, down six percent from a year ago, on net earnings of 17 cents a share, down 28 percent.

The performance was essentially in line with Wall Street expectations, which had been estimating that Yahoo would report $1.05 billion in net revenue and earnings of 16 cents a share, after traffic acquisition costs (TAC) was taken out of its results.

That compared to revenue of $1.13 billion and 22 cents in earnings in the same period a year ago, results that were goosed by the sale of its Zimbra email asset to VMware.

Yahoo’s revenue growth drought was due largely to declines in its search advertising business, which fell 19 percent in the quarter from $440 million to $357 million.

Contractual guarantees paid by Microsoft, its search partner, masked even larger declines.

On a GAAP basis, search revenue was $455 million, a 46 percent decrease compared to $841 million for the first quarter of 2010.

Yahoo said display revenue ex-TAC increased 10 percent to $471 million, compared to $427 million for the first quarter of 2010.

It was a good performance, but by no means a barn burner, especially compared to Google’s 27 percent revenue growth year-over-year in its earnings last week.

Thus, it seems the turnaround efforts at Yahoo, much touted by CEO Carol Bartz, are still turning.

In a statement, she said:

“We are solidly executing toward our plan for returning Yahoo! to sustainable revenue and profit growth. During the quarter, we beat the midpoint of revenue guidance while continuing to deliver on the bottom line.”

As BoomTown had previously written, in the last quarterly call, Bartz had warned that MicroHoo had not grown yet into the beautiful swan expected in this ugly-searchling tale, noting that it might take until the second half of 2011 to see some prettier results.

Thus, Yahoo is right to focus on display advertising, an arena it dominates still, despite increasingly successful incursions from Google and Facebook.

Yahoo’s stock is certainly reflecting the worry, holding fast to its share price in between $16 and $17 for a while now. It closed today at $16.12, down 23 cents a share.

A year ago it was above $18.

The shares rose almost three percent in after-hours trading, though, to $16.57.

I will be liveblogging the conference call Yahoo’s top execs have with analysts, starting at 2 pm.

Until then, here’s the official Q1 earnings press release to peruse:

YHOO_Q111PressReleaseFinal

Will Yahoo’s revenue growth drought finally end this quarter?

We’ll see tomorrow when Yahoo reports its first-quarter earnings, after the markets close.

As usual, investors will be looking for some sign that the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s lackluster revenue results have improved in CEO Carol Bartz’s over-promised but still under-delivered turnaround effort.

And despite Wall Street worries that sales will remain flat, sources insist that display revenue will be slightly better than expected, although those from its declining search business will remain weak.

A poll of analysts is expecting Yahoo to report $1.05 billion in net revenue and earnings of 16 cents a share.

That compared to revenue of $1.13 billion and 22 cents in earnings in the same period a year ago, which was goosed by the sale of its Zimbra email asset to VMware, as well as some benefits from its search and online advertising partnership with Microsoft.

There’s no extra cherries on top this quarter, especially in the search arena, which BoomTown previously reported was troubled.

As I wrote last week:

In fact, although its display business will show a definite strong recovery in Yahoo’s quarterly results next week, its search business–both in market share and revenue per search (RPS)–has, as one person close to the situation put it succintly, “fallen off the cliff.”

That’s due, in part, to getting the new system with Microsoft delivering better results, which is not happening yet (if ever!).

In this quarter, Microsoft has honored its contractual guarantees and will make up the difference–which will result in masking the magnitude of the RPS loss. It’s a worrisome trend to watch.

In the last quarterly call, Bartz had warned that MicroHoo had not grown yet into the beautiful swan expected in this ugly-searchling tale, noting that it might take until the second half of 2011 to see some prettier results.

Thus, Yahoo will turn Wall Street’s greedy eyes to display, an arena it dominates still, despite increasingly successful incursions from Google and Facebook.

A win here is key, of course, with investors hoping for a strong performance.

Yahoo’s stock certainly is not doing that, holding fast to its share price in between $16 and $17 for a while now. A year ago, the stock was above $18 a share.

As Citi Investment Research’s Mark Mahaney noted in an earnings preview today:

Valuation remains interesting, with a highly attractive Asian Internet investment portfolio. In terms of risks, we focus on: 1) Competition in the Display Ad segment from Google, Facebook, etc; 2) YHOO’s overall Internet Usage Share Loss–now less than 10% of U.S. ’Net usage minutes; 3) YHOO doesn’t have assets in place to take advantage of trends in Social, Mobile & Local Internet, and Video Advertising; & 4) We are challenged to identify a near-term positive catalyst.

“Challenged” translates to Mahaney saying politely that Yahoo has zip coming down the pike to change its situation.

That means Wall Street is not yet in the mood to give Yahoo shares a break. Here is one of BoomTown’s fave videos–the great Diana Ross, with the infectious song hit, “I’m Coming Out”–to get the right vibe going:

According to Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes, Apple has locked up nearly 60 percent of the world’s touch-panel capacity, leaving behind a very tight supply for its rivals to scrap over.

“Touch panels are currently suffering the most serious shortage due to Apple holding control over the capacity of major touch panel makers such as Wintek and TPK, and with US-based RIM, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard also competing for related components,” says DigiTimes. “Second-tier players are already out of the game.”

So Apple ends up with a double advantage–not only has it secured supply enough for its own needs, but it has also caused scarcity in the market and disadvantaged its rivals. It’s impossible to say definitively, but my guess is this is the result of that mysterious $3.9 billion component supply investment COO Tim Cook mentioned during Apple’s first-quarter earnings call.

“We’ve historically entered into certain agreements with different people to secure supply and other benefits. And the largest one in the recent past has been we signed a deal with several flash suppliers back at the end of 2005 that totaled over $1 billion because we anticipated that flash would become increasingly important across our entire product line and increasingly important to the industry. And so we wanted to secure supply for the company, and we think that, that was an absolutely fantastic use of Apple’s cash. And we constantly look for more of these. And so in the past several quarters we’ve identified another area and come to some recent agreements that [CFO Peter Oppenheimer] talked about in his opening comments, in that these payments consist of prepayments and capital for process equipment and tooling. And similar to the flash agreements, they’re focused in that area we feel is very strategic.”

Indeed. Funny how Apple now controls–largely—both the demand and supply sides of the touch panel business.

“We strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along, that we are in a unique position to take advantage of because of our strong cash position,” he said. “You know, we’ve demonstrated a strong track record of being very disciplined with the use of our cash. We don’t let it burn a hole in our pocket, we don’t allow it to motivate us to do stupid acquisitions. And so I think that we’d like to continue to keep our powder dry, because we do feel that there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future. That’s the biggest reason.”

That remark spurred all sorts of speculation about what sensible large-scale acquisitions Apple might make. And while it was certainly reasonable to conclude from Jobs’s remarks that Apple is preparing itself for some big M&A plays in the future, there was another equally plausible conclusion: What if by “strategic opportunities,” Jobs was referring to supply chain investments–money spent to overcome impediments to growth? Apple has done this before, most notably in 2005, when it arranged to purchase up to 40 percent of Samsung Electronics’ holiday NAND flash output for use in it iPods. It inked a similar iPhone-related deal in 2008, forcing Samsung to reduce its supply to other customers to fulfill its obligation to Apple. And there was another half-billion-dollar deal with Toshiba is 2009.

And according to COO Tim Cook, Apple just did it again–but on a much grander scale. During the first-quarter earnings call last week, Cook said the company had invested $3.9 billion to secure component supplies and capacity.

“We’ve historically entered into certain agreements with different people to secure supply and other benefits,” he said. “And the largest one in the recent past has been we signed a deal with several flash suppliers back at the end of 2005 that totaled over $1 billion because we anticipated that flash would become increasingly important across our entire product line and increasingly important to the industry. And so we wanted to secure supply for the company, and we think that, that was an absolutely fantastic use of Apple’s cash. And we constantly look for more of these. And so in the past several quarters we’ve identified another area and come to some recent agreements that [CFO Peter Oppenheimer] talked about in his opening comments, in that these payments consist of prepayments and capital for process equipment and tooling. And similar to the flash agreements, they’re focused in that area we feel is very strategic. And so I’d prefer not to go into more detail about what specific area it’s in, but it’s the same kind of thinking that led us to those deals that led us to the flash deal.”

For what particular components, he wouldn’t say. There are some likely candidates, though: The high-res LCDs used in the iPhone 4 and iPad; solid-state drives like the ones in the new MacBook Air, which are presumably headed to other portions of the MacBook line as well; or perhaps some new system on a chip that will infuse the next-generation iPad and iPhone with significant performance gains. I’m sure there are others as well. And all fit quite nicely into Jobs’s vision of “strategic opportunities.”

“The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to begin shipping in the U.S. in Q1,” RIM said in an email statement.

And there you have it.

Meanwhile, the device is garnering mixed reviews at CES. After some hands-on time with it, Engadget described the PlayBook as “blazingly fast, comfortable to hold, and intuitive to use.” Gizmodo liked it as well, talking up its hardware, responsive display and UI. “RIM’s got something here that could really stand on top of the bajillion other crappy tablets that are going to launch this year,” the site concluded. “They just have to take it the rest of the way.”

Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Robison agreed. “RIM’s PlayBook strategy [is] exceptionally compelling— pending successful execution,” he wrote in a note from CES. “The company’s ace card in tablets is sure-fire security for IT departments who loathe adding another piece of client software to enterprise networks.”

But others, like Wedge Partners analyst and RIM bear Brian Blair, were not so impressed. Though he praised the device’s sturdy build and crisp screen, he slagged its lack of native email and calendar support.

“There is not a built-in e-mail program that we saw, nor is there a calendar: arguably the two most critical features of a Blackberry,” Blair said. “Calendar and Email are only available, if the PlayBook is “tethered” to a Blackberry. Short of that, users need to use the browser for e-mail and calendar.”

And, admittedly, that does seem silly. Unless you’re a CIO. In which case, you probably prefer to push data (and remotely wipe it, if necessary) from one device instead of two, and appreciate the gesture.

Still, Blair came away with the impression that the PlayBook isn’t yet fully baked, and to be fair, it isn’t–after all, this is a pre-release device.

“We know this is an early build and that bugs are being worked through over the next couple of months, but nearly every feature we tried on our demo unit was having problems,” he concluded. “The video player froze and the games wouldn’t play. The only thing that worked was the ‘Coverflow-like’ scrolling of the different applications, which the device did with ease.”

But as Blair himself observed, a lot can change in three months. And presumably RIM is doing its damndest to ensure that it does–before Apple debuts the iPad 2, which will undoubtedly become the new standard against which all tablets are compared.

In the meantime, here are a few PlayBook promo videos RIM released in conjunction with CES.

No details yet on price, though RIM Co-Ceo Jim Balsillie is on record saying that the first iteration of the device, which relies on Wi-Fi or BlackBerry tethering for a data connection, will be sold for “under $500.”

And as for the recent controversy over the PlayBook’s battery life, RIM says it’s overblown and claimed the device will last at least as long as other 7-inch tablets. One could view that as an admission that the PlayBook’s battery life won’t rival the 10 hours of the iPad–a 10-inch tablet. On the other hand, it’s also an assertion that it will match Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, which claims six hours of battery life. Evidently, that’s what RIM meant when it said back in December that the PlayBook would have “comparable battery life.”

UPDATE: As noted in the comments below, RIM is telling media at CES that its “target and … attainable goal” for PlayBook battery life is eight hours.

The software maker forecast first-quarter earnings of 54 cents to 59 cents a share on revenue of $1 billion to $1.05 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of 51 cents on revenue of $992 million for the current quarter.

In after-hours trading on Monday, Adobe shares were up 4.5% to $30.48 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Research In Motion CEO Mike Lazaridis arrived at D: Dive Into Mobile with more than just his BlackBerry–he also showed off various features of RIM’s forthcoming PlayBook tablet, including the ability to play Adobe Air applications.

“It’s really simple to use, very fluid,” Lazaridis said, demonstrating various Adobe Air apps, a Flash-based calculator and revamped versions of the productivity applications RIM got through its acquisition of DataViz. He also showed the device’s multitasking capabilities, with 1080p video running alongside other applications.

“This is how we like to be entertained,” Lazaridis said.

As for the size, Lazaridis said it was ultramobile but doesn’t compromise in performance or display. “Seven inches is just the perfect size.”

Pressed on that point, Lazaridis did say it might not be the only size. “We’ve got different sizes potentially coming,” he said.

The PlayBook, which RIM unveiled earlier this year, is due on the market early next year. “It’s tracking first quarter,” Lazaridis said.

Lazaridis said that the QNX operating system used by the PlayBook will make it into smartphones when RIM moves those devices to multicore chips.

A liveblog of his talk can be found here.

On a conference call with analysts, Chambers said Cisco expects revenue to grow by just 3 percent to 5 percent in the current quarter, compared to last year–not even close to the 13 percent Wall Street was projecting. “Our view on this guidance is, we’re disappointed,” Chambers said, adding that sales orders were below the company’s initial Q1 forecast by more than $500 million. “We hit a couple of air pockets,” he said. “We wish we‘d seen them coming.”

Air pockets. Interesting way to describe the challenges the company’s facing these days, which according to Chambers include everything from Cisco’s set-top box to the public sector, service providers and European businesses.

Sounds like Cisco’s flight this past quarter has been a bumpy one, but as Chambers observed, “When you hit an air pocket, that doesn’t mean that what you have been doing strategically is wrong.” I suppose it doesn’t. And keeping that in mind, Cisco will stay the course as it moves forward.

“We are going to power through what we believe to be some short-term challenges in the next several quarters,” Chambers said. “We also believe that the intermediate and long-term growth opportunities far outweigh the short-term challenges. With that in mind we plan to continue to invest in new markets and technology. It is realistic to return to a 12 to 17 percent growth goal in the not too distant future, assuming a return to a good economic growth.”

Posting first-quarter results after the bell today, Cisco reported earnings per share of 42 cents on revenue of $10.75 billion, up from 30 cents a share and $9 billion a year earlier. Analysts had been expecting 40 cents a share, on revenue of $10.75 billion.

So a beat, but one couched in some pretty subdued language from CEO John Chambers.

“Cisco delivered solid financial results, during a challenging economic environment. While we have seen capital spending moderate in some areas of our business, our execution in the areas we can control and influence speak to the success and relevance of the company’s strategy. Our position in the market, including continued product innovation, market share momentum and operational excellence, positions us for growth and flexibility well into the future as we strengthen our role as a trusted business partner to our customers.”

“challenging economic environment”
“capital spending moderate”
“execution in the areas we can control and influence”

All red flags for investors, who don’t seem to have much cared for Chambers’s remarks. Cisco shares are down 4.3 percent as I write this.

Earnings per share were 62 cents on revenue of $16.2 billion, better than the 55 cents per share on $15.8 billion in revenue that analysts had been expecting. Net income spiked from $3.57 billion in the same quarter a year ago to $5.41 billion in the current one, bolstered by strong sales of Windows 7 and Office 2010. And pretty much all of the company’s divisions showed significant growth.

• Revenue at Microsoft’s Windows division rose to $4.8 billion from $2.9 billion, with a profit of $3.3 billion.
• Revenue at the company’s business unit, which includes Microsoft Office, rose to $5.1 billion from $4.5 billion. Profit was $3.4 billion.
• Revenue at its Entertainment and Devices Division rose to $1.7 billion from $1.5 billion. Profit was $382 million.
• Finally, revenue at Microsoft’s money-losing online services division rose to $527 million from $487 million, though it did post a wider loss of $560 million.

“This was an exceptional quarter, combining solid enterprise growth and continued strong consumer demand for Office 2010, Windows 7 and Xbox 360 consoles and games,” Microsoft CFO Peter Klein said in a statement. “Our ability to grow revenue while continuing to control costs allowed us to deliver another quarter of year-over-year margin expansion.”

Later today after the markets close, Microsoft will make its first-quarter earnings announcement, which a consensus of Wall Street analysts expect to show earnings of 55 cents a share on $15.8 billion in revenue.

That’s a big lift from the year before, of course, when earnings were 40 cents a share and revenues were lower.

Nonetheless, Wall Street has been downgrading Microsoft’s stock, mostly due to worries about the surging popularity of the Apple iPad, the introduction of even more upcoming tablets and the trend’s overall impact on PC and, especially, netbook sales that run the company’s software.

Along with a growing focus on cloud computing, many will be looking for any sign of weakness in Microsoft’s core Windows software business, due to the interest by both consumers and businesses in the tablet phenom.

Microsoft is also working on a tablet offering, which is not slated for arrival until next year, along with a plethora of other companies from Google to Hewlett-Packard to Research in Motion.

The question on the minds of many: Can Microsoft be more nimble with regard to tablets than it has been in the smartphone race?

Also of interest: Sales of its new Office 2010–which came out in the quarter–and news of the progress of its Bing search service, as well as any sign of what the software giant has to say about some recent key exec departures.

That includes Business Division President Stephen Elop heading to Nokia and Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie simply retiring.

Microsoft is certainly not the hot mess Yahoo has been, but it will be interesting to hear the kind of signals coming out of the company later today.

An interesting bit of news, particularly given recent remarks from Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg that seemed to suggest the iPhone wasn’t headed to the carrier’s network in the near future. “We would love to carry [the iPhone], but we have to earn it,” he said earlier this month. “I can’t speak for Apple.”

Misdirection. Honesty? Perhaps the next Verizon iPhone rumor (sigh) will shed a bit more light….

UPDATE: The Journal has updated its story to say, explicitly, that Verizon will sell the iPhone. Evidently, the company’s won the right to carry it.

Pick your data point:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau says U.S. spending on Web ads hit $5.9 billion in the first quarter of 2010. That’s a record for the first quarter of the year, but it’s a relatively modest 7.5 percent increase over a very crummy comparison in 2009.

And bear in mind that the IAB’s data include search spending, which means that the spike is in large part a reflection of Google’s (GOOG) health.

Want a bigger number? Try comScore, which says that the volume of display ads, i.e., the kind you might see on this page, shot up 15 percent in the last year. But while comScore (SCOR) says total spending on display ads hit $2.7 billion for the quarter and that the average CPM (cost per thousand impressions) hit $2.48, it isn’t reporting how those numbers compare to last year’s results.

ComScore spokesman Andrew Lipsman says his company isn’t putting out comparative numbers because it has changed its reporting methodology, so it doesn’t have apple-to-apples data. But he allowed that overall spending, and prices, have at least increased “modestly” in the last year.

So that’s not-bad news for display giants like Yahoo (YHOO) and AOL (AOL). And most definitely not for Facebook, which is now selling more ad impressions than any other Web publisher in the U.S.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected the company to break even on revenue of $671 million. Sirius added 171,441 net subscribers during the period and reiterated its view that it expects to add more than 500,000 subscribers this year.

With quarterly net subscriber additions of 171,441, Sirius (SIRI) ended March with 18,944,199 subscribers. Quite an improvement over the year-ago quarter, when it lost 404,422 subscribers.

“Continued positive subscriber growth, double-digit growth in revenue, and a sharp focus on costs resulted in the highest quarterly adjusted operating income in the company’s history,” Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin said in a statement. “The continuing recovery of the automotive sector and expanding signs of increased consumer spending are encouraging signs for the company’s growth prospects.”

Still more good news for the company, which last week avoided delisting from Nasdaq. That said, at $1.14, Sirius shares are trading down 7.32 percent this morning. Evidently, the revenue miss didn’t go over too well with investors.

Evidently the Taiwanese hardware manufacturer took one look at Palm’s (PALM) books and decided an acquisition isn’t worth the trouble. “There just weren’t enough synergies to take the deal forward,” a source close to talks between the two companies told Reuters.

And so speculation about a potential acquirer is turning elsewhere. Lenovo seems to be the leading candidate at the moment. The company has big aspirations in China’s mobile market and a penchant for making big foreign acquisitions. It purchased IBM’s (IBM) ThinkPad business a few years back and tried to buy Packard Bell, so why not Palm?

Well, for one thing, Palm’s market share is too small to be of real benefit to Lenovo. For another, the company is already committed to Google’s (GOOG) Android for the OS to run on its soon-to-debut Lephone.

Finally, Palm’s asking price is said to be around $1.3 billion. Lenovo had about $2.4 billion in net cash reserves on hand the end of 2009. Would Lenovo really spend more than half of that on Palm, a company whose books frightened off HTC? As Larry Dignan writes at ZDNet, it’s hard to make the case that it should.

So if not Lenovo, then who?

How about Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)? With handheld sales that fell by more than half year-over-year in its first quarter, HP is surely looking for a way to revive them and capture a larger portion of the important mobile market. Acquiring Palm could be a good way to do it. Here’s why:

• Yes, HP is a Windows shop with, no doubt, big plans for Windows Phone 7, but that OS will likely figure in devices aimed at the enterprise market. With Palm’s assets, HP could target the consumer space as well.
• Palm’s webOS is scalable. HP could use it in other devices–tablets, for example–differentiating them from those of competitors using open-source operating systems like Android.
• In Palm, HP would gain a turnkey smartphone division–a venture with a slick smartphone OS, a deep mobile patent portfolio, a talented R&D team, the beginnings of an app ecosystem and established carrier relationships.
• Palm and HP both call Silicon Valley home, and former Palm exec Todd Bradley currently heads up HP’s Personal Systems Group. Obviously, there would still be integration risks, but there are clear synergies in culture and location that would at least temper them a bit.
• HP has some $14 billion in cash on hand, more than enough to cover Palm’s rumored $1.3 billion asking price with plenty left over.

That seems to me to be a pretty compelling case. Has it been made inside HP? I can’t say for sure, though we may find out in the weeks ahead.

Quite a showing considering the consensus estimate had Amazon (AMZN) reporting earnings of 61 cents a share on revenue of $6.87 billion.

In a statement, Amazon once again touted the Kindle e-reader as its “#1 bestselling product” and once again declined to offer any hard sales figures on the device, which is becoming increasingly more relevant with the arrival of Apple’s iPad and the expectation that other tablet devices will be landing soon. In a statement, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said:

“We remain heads-down focused on customers. Amazon Prime has just celebrated its fifth anniversary, adoption of Amazon Web Services continues to accelerate, Kindle remains our #1 bestselling product, and earlier this week, Kindle selection reached 500,000 titles.”

Verizon Wireless’s usual bread-and-butter—so-called post-paid subscribers willing to spend more each month and stick with the service–failed to show up during the period. For the first time, the carrier had to rely on reseller partners who sign up lower-end prepaid customers to offset a 67% decline in the number of new contract customers.

The struggles of the country’s largest wireless carrier underscore a growing dilemma facing an industry traditionally dependent on adding lucrative contract customers.

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