Wednesday, January 31, 2007

NASDAQ Technical Picture - Bounce on Fed Policy

Markets rally on the Fed policy statement. Investors were happy to hear that the soft landing strategy is still in play. The NASDAQ rallied into resistance on increased volume.

DELL - AH traders were enthused to hear that Michael Dell assumes role of CEO - Kevin Rollins is toast.

Dell: Michael Dell Assumes Duties as CEO, expects Q4 results to be below estimates (24.22 -0.07) -Update : Co announces that Michael Dell will assume the duties of CEO, effective immediately. Dell, who will retain his duties as Chairman of the Board, will replace Kevin Rollins. Co also said that it expects its 4Q07 results to be below the average of First Call estimates for both rev and EPS. (Briefing.com)

GOOG earnings - big beat, but not as big as the whisper numbers I guess. After the shakeout, the AH session closed where this morning's session began.

Google beats by $0.27, ex items (501.30 +6.98) : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $3.18 per share, excluding tax benefits and stock based comp expense, $0.27 better than the Reuters Estimates consensus of $2.91; revenues including Traffic Acquisition Costs rose 67.0% year/year to $3.21 bln vs the $3.14 bln consensus. Revenues excluding T.A.C. were $2.23 bln vs $2.2 bln First Call consensus. GOOG owned site revs rose 80% YoY to $1.98 bln, represents 62% of total revs; paid clicks rose 61% YoY.

Google Conference Call Summary -Update : Says business continues to be very strong... says they are gaining share in almost every country... says developing products that are appropriate for global companies... says showing fewer ads per search but they are experiencing better click thrus... says starting to see the benefits of partnerships; notes YouTube business is going well... notes GOOG Checkout is doing well for the co... AdSense business saw significant traffic gains... aggregate paid clicks grew 61% y/y, 22% sequentially; CheckOut adoption rates exceeded co's expectations... Co says International business was strong in Q4; notes did receive some benefits from currency conversion rates... see 'encouraging growth' in Asia markets... expect continued growth in headcount; says will continue to invest in distribution partners and content... Says had a good session with Ernst & Young regarding Google Checkout revs; says magnitude is hurt revs by ~1% sequentially due to accounting methodology of Checkout... co notes conversion rates have been strong and that customers are looking at it as an investment; notes Blue Nile (NILE) gave co feedback... says 2007 will be the year that mobile search query will grow significantly; making a significant investment in mobile and expects to see results in 2008... Co notes running YouTube separately; looking into revenue sharing with people who submit the data; says too early to know when but expects that YouTube will be a potentially large revenue stream for them... CapEx: as long as we have a growing business like we do today, we have no choice but to invest in the business... co notes they will not comment on specific rumors... does note that YouTube have a number of 'interesting deals' for content coming... YouTube as a destination media brand: co says pushing hard for the success of YouTube as a brand; says taking time with the integration to preserve the value of it... is encouraging copyright owners to submit videos to them for presentation; says will be ways of linking advertising with their partners and customers to various engines they have... Personalization: co still pursuing this; notes have a ways to go in promoting those features; says excited about this area and starting to see some traction... co notes International markets are growing faster than the U.S. but states that the U.S. markets are still growing at a very strong rate... Asked about traditional TV advertising: Co says they are experimenting with traditional TV advertising; says it is fair to say that whatever they do will be different from the models that business currently operates under... call has ended. (Briefing.com)


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