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No Christmas in RIMville

John Paczkowski in News on December 14, 2011 at 3:02 am PT

Breakout the Mylanta: RIM reports earnings tomorrow.

Lala’s Fire Sale That Wasn’t: What Apple Really Paid

Peter Kafka in Media on December 7, 2009 at 10:49 am PT

On Friday, I reported that Apple was buying Lala at a fire-sale price, which meant that investors in the music service wouldn’t get their money. I was wrong. Apple ended up paying around $80 million for the company, according to multiple sources. That’s less than half what investors valued the company at in 2008, but it’s more than the $35 million the company raised throughout its life. Which means that some investors could get their money back and more.

NBC Cleans Up Its Earnings Act for Comcast

Peter Kafka in Media on October 16, 2009 at 4:27 am PT

After a couple of miserable quarters, NBC Universal finally has some good news to announce: Boosted by a one-time gain, earnings actually increased in Q3, even though the entertainment conglomerate’s revenue kept dropping. Perhaps those numbers will cheer Comcast investors, who have been beating up the cable company ever since news of its talks to buy NBCU surfaced last month.

Disney “Transitioning” Ideal Bite, Its $20 Million “Green” Lifestyle Newsletter

Peter Kafka in Media on October 12, 2009 at 6:27 pm PT

Ideal Bite, the green-flavored lifestyle newsletter business Disney bought in June 2008, faces an uncertain fate: Its parent company is shuttling the unit from one corporate silo to another and says it’s not sure what will become of it once that happens. Translation: The job market is going to see a few more resumes.

Happy Days Aren’t Here Again: Another Miserable Quarter for NBC

Peter Kafka in Media on July 17, 2009 at 4:38 am PT

Yesterday, Google told Wall Street that its business had “stabilized” during the spring, but it may be one of the only media companies that gets to say that. GE’s NBC Universal, for instance, just posted second-quarter results that were as bad as its first quarter. Jeff Zucker’s TV and movie unit said revenue was down eight percent, and profit down 41 percent for the three months ending June 30; in the previous quarter, revenue was only down two percent, while profit was down 43 percent.

Exclusive: Warner Music Group Gets Back Together–Very Cautiously–With Imeem

Peter Kafka in Media on June 15, 2009 at 11:58 am PT

Just a few weeks after a very public breakup, Warner Music Group and Imeem are getting back together again. Warner, which told investors last month that it had written off the $16 million it had invested in the Web music start-up, plus another $4 million in debt, has made a new deal with the company and will get another slug of equity. The big difference–this time, Warner isn’t cutting Imeem a check.

Another Down Quarter for Disney, but Cable’s OK

Peter Kafka in Media on May 5, 2009 at 1:14 pm PT

A bad quarter for Disney, but it could have been worse–at least Wall Street was expecting it. After factoring out one-time charges and write-offs, Bob Iger and company earned 43 cents a share on revenues of $8.1 billion. Wall Street had been looking for 40 cents and $8.15 billion, respectively. The bright spot for the entertainment conglomerate is the same one you see at every media giant these days: Disney’s cable business.

Wall Street Journal Promises New Pay Sites, Someday

Peter Kafka in Media on April 8, 2009 at 9:52 am PT

My colleagues over at The Wall Street Journal have been able to convince more than a million people to pay for full access to the paper’s Web site. Can it find even more people who are willing to pay for even more online stuff? We may find out: WSJ.com is contemplating what sounds an awful lot like trade newsletters.

Skype: It's Business Time

John Paczkowski in News on March 23, 2009 at 6:00 am PT

Describing its long-term financial outlook to analysts last week, eBay said it expects Skype to more than double its revenue to over $1 billion by 2011. Quite a claim to make about an Internet telephony business for which the company has taken some pretty nasty write-downs, a business that back in January eBay seemed to be looking to divest. But apparently, eBay sees quite a bit of promise in Skype’s new voice-over-IP service for businesses.