Microsoft Second-Quarter Earnings Call: Put on a Happy Face?

It was back to normal for Microsoft, at least if you looked at its stellar results in the second quarter, which the software giant reported earlier today. BoomTown liveblogged the company’s call with Wall Street analysts, which began at 2:30 pm PT today. It was hard to tell if Microsoft–which has been one of the grumpier tech companies publicly, due to its weaker results over the last year–would start to put on a happy face or not.

Guess That’s What You Call a “Pre” Forma Loss, Eh?

Too bad Palm launched the Pre a week after the close of its fiscal fourth quarter. If it had brought the device to market earlier, the quarterly results it posted Thursday afternoon might have been even better. After market close, Palm posted a narrower-than-expected loss despite a steep revenue decline, sending its shares up more than 10 percent.
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IPO Market Just Really, Really Lousy

To hear tell from the National Venture Capital Association, the VC landscape is as burned out and desolate as the ashen vistas of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” According to its latest data, not a single venture-backed company went public in the first quarter of 2009 or the one that preceded it. That’s the first time the association has ever recorded two consecutive quarters with no issues.
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