Goldman Sachs posts deeper-than-expected Q3 loss
Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein cited difficult market conditions and a lack of confidence among investors and corporate clients for the poor results.”Our results were significantly impacted by the environment and we were disappointed to record a loss in the quarter,” Blankfein said.Shares of the largest U.S. investment bank by assets were down 2 percent in premarket trading.Goldman’s loss-driver was its Investing & Lending division, which holds stocks, bonds, loans and private equity assets as long-term investments.The division reported negative revenue of $2.48 billion as the value of those assets dropped sharply. Goldman’s stock investment in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd alone generated more than $1 billion of paper losses.Goldman was also hurt by big declines in bond trading and investment banking revenue.Its fixed income, currency and commodities client trading business reported $1.73 billion in revenue, a 36 percent decline from a year earlier. Investment banking revenue dropped 33 percent to $781 million.Overall, Goldman’s net revenue totaled $3.6 billion, down 60 percent from a year earlier and down 51 percent from the 2011 second quarter.Its third-quarter loss amounted to 84 cents per share, compared with a profit of $2.98 per share a year earlier. On average, analysts had expected a loss of 16 cents per share.
RIM shares shed 5 percent after apps offer
RIM will offer premium apps worth more than $100 to customers and a month of technical support for businesses free of charge, hoping to stem fresh defections from the BlackBerry, whose market share was already shrinking before the incident.Analysts have said RIM needs to quickly repair the damage to its image caused by the outage and stem the loss of corporate customers who are now questioning the reliability of the BlackBerry.”RIM has responded swiftly but this won’t undo the damage done to its reputation,” analyst Geoff Blaber at CCS Insight told Reuters earlier on Monday. “This may go some way to appeasing customers but what’s critical is that the problem does not repeat itself.”The stock was trading 5.1 percent lower at $22.75 on the Nasdaq by 11:30 a.m. It has shed more than 60 percent of its value since the start of the year.The BlackBerry has in recent years lost market share to Apple Inc’s iPhone and devices powered by Google’s Android system. At the same time it has sought to make deeper inroads beyond its core corporate base, with a special focus on younger consumers and in emerging markets.Highlighting the challenges, Apple said it sold 4 million of its new iPhone 4S in the first three days after launch last week.”DEEPLY GRATEFUL”RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie told Reuters on Monday the company wanted to make amends with customers.”This is our way of expressing appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions and a tangible way of telling them how deeply grateful we are for their continued business,” he said in a phone interview.Balsillie declined to estimate how much the offer would cost RIM and said he was unable to say whether RIM might have to revise its earnings forecast for the current quarter, which ends in late November.The financial impact could prove sizable if a large enough portion of RIM’s more than 70 million subscribers take up the offers.Balsillie said RIM was not running any tests on its network at the time of the failure and was still investigating the precise cause of the breakdown, the company’s worst ever.The free apps on offer include games such as Bejeweled, and premium versions of a translation service and the music discovery tool Shazam.Richard Levick, who runs a U.S. consultancy that specializes in crisis management, praised the move but said the company should have made the announcement last week.”I think it’s a good start, but they are always late,” he said. “They are always behind the curve.”Francisco Jeronimo, an analysts at IDC, had a different perspective on the offer. He said the decision was a clever move by RIM because it would help customers to discover the app service.He said the company was likely to have struck a deal with app developers to keep the cost down.”For RIM, this is an interesting way to attract users to the App World and incentivize them to search and download apps,” he said.”More important than the offer itself, is that RIM is showing goodwill and being humble. They recognized the problem, apologized and now they are compensating their users.”
HTC loses early U.S. decision vs Apple
An ITC administrative law judge found “no violation” by Apple of four HTC patents that include technologies for power management and phone dialing.In February, the full commission will decide whether to uphold or reject the ITC judge’s decision.HTC had filed a complaint in May 2010, accusing Apple of infringing its patents. It asked the ITC to bar the importation of Apple’s iPods, iPhones and iPads.The complaint — one of several the two companies have filed against each other — is a proxy for the larger fight for market share between Google Inc’s Android cell phones and tablets, many of which HTC makes, and Apple’s product line.Apple and Samsung, which also makes Android products, are locked in similar court fights on at least three continents.The ITC, a U.S. trade panel that investigates patent infringement involving imported goods, is a popular venue for patent lawsuits because it can bar the importation of infringing products.The administrative law judge, Charles Bullock, also said in his ruling that that the four HTC patents were valid.The complaint at the International Trade Commission is No. 337-721.
At least 21 arrested at Occupy Denver protest site
About 150 state troopers and Denver police were at the scene of the protest, he said.The arrested were transported to Denver County Jail where they will have an opportunity to post bond, he said.
US STOCKS-Wall St falls after China data, JPMorgan earnings
* China trade surplus narrows* Indexes off: Dow 0.9 pct, S&P 1.02, Nasdaq 0.4By Chuck MikolajczakNEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Thursday
as earnings from JPMorgan and soft economic data in China
reinforced worries about a slowing global economy, giving
investors reason to pause after the recent run-up.JPMorgan Chase & Co slipped 3.5 percent to $32.04
as the biggest drag on the Dow, after the first major U.S. bank
to announce third-quarter earnings said they fell 4 percent as
the European debt crisis pushed investment banking clients to
the sidelines. The KBW Bank index shed 2.2 percent.China’s trade surplus, in a reflection of global economic
weakness and domestic cooling, narrowed for a second straight
month in September as both imports and exports were lower than
expected,”(JPMorgan) is kind of a lead into earnings, a little bit
better than expected, but it really wasn’t a knock your socks
off number either, so it’s not going to sway the market too
much,” said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at
OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.”You probably are seeing a little bit of profit taking, but
nothing too dramatic.”The S&P 500 has run up 11.4 percent from its intraday low
hit last week on Tuesday and had its largest seven-day rally
since March 2009 on growing optimism European leaders were
making progress in tackling the region’s debt problems.The Dow Jones industrial average was down 104.52
points, or 0.91 percent, at 11,414.33. The Standard & Poor’s
500 Index was down 12.31 points, or 1.02 percent, at
1,194.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 10.93
points, or 0.42 percent, at 2,593.80.On the U.S. economic data front, new claims for jobless
benefits were little changed last week and the trade deficit
narrowed marginally in August, indicating a modest improvement
in the economy.Google is reporting third-quarter earnings after
the close and investors will be looking to see how the slowing
economy is impacting its advertising business.A report on Wednesday that Akamai Technologies Inc
was close to being acquired by Google has no merit, a person
familiar with the matter said. Akami shares were up 4.1 percent
to $24.32 and Google edged up 0.15 to $549.31.
UPDATE 1-Oracle to pay $199.5 mln to resolve false claims case
WASHINGTON Oct 6 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) has
agreed to pay $199.5 million plus interest to settle
allegations that the software giant failed to give promised
discounts to the federal government, the U.S. Justice
Department said on Thursday. The world’s No. 3 software company was also accused of
making false statements about its sales practices and discounts
and failing to meet its contract obligations to provide
complete information about its sales practices. Additionally, Oracle did not disclose higher discounts
given to other customers and as a result the federal government
paid more for its products than it should have, according to
the Justice Department. The settlement over false claims allegations is the largest
involving the General Services Administration, which handles
procurement for the federal government. “Resolutions like this one - the largest GSA false claims
settlement in history - demonstrate our commitment to ensure
taxpayers are not overpaying for the products and services they
receive,” Tony West, head of the Justice Department’s Civil
Division, said in a statement. Oracle denied any wrongdoing or that it engaged in fraud as
part of the contract, which dates back to 1998, and argued that
many of the witnesses were no longer available or did not
remember the events. Nevertheless, company spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said
“Oracle has therefore decided to avoid the distraction and high
cost of litigating this case by settling.” The settlement represents about 11 percent of the $1.84
billion in net income Oracle had in the quarter that ended Aug.
31. The case involved a former Oracle employee who became a
whistleblower, Paul Frascella, and he will receive $40 million
as his share, according to the Justice Department. Oracle shares closed up 56 cents, or 1.9 percent, at $30.07
in regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
