Microsoft profits miss forecasts

FOR ITS third fiscal quarter ended March 31, Microsoft said its net profit was $2.74 billion, or 49 cents a share, up 12 percent from $2.45 billion, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier.

The Redmond, Washington-based company had been expected to show net earnings of between 49 cents and 52 cents per share, with an average estimate of 51 cents a share, according to analysts polled by Wall Street tracking firm Thomson Financial/First Call.

Very interesting.  They offset their one-time gain on the sale of Expedia with a write down of investment losses.  Very interesting.

Why so interesting?  Well, Microsoft is a master at managing earnings.  They knew what the expectations were, and there's no doubt in my mind that they could have squeezed out an extra 2 pennies of earnings if they'd wanted to.  Especially when you consider the write-down they took.  Surely they could have reclassified a few things and gotten an extra $100MM or so. 

Which begs the question: if they didn't HAVE to miss earnings, why did they choose to?  Perhaps it has something to do with the trial?  Could they want to look more vulnerable? 

Then there's this analysis from TheStreet.com:

There was confusion about the company's earnings performance as its bottom line included both gains and charges and it was unclear whether analysts' estimates incorporated them. But, after crunching the numbers, Microsoft appears to have beaten expectations.

via Christopher

2:19:20 PM  comment []    

Senate defeats Arctic drilling

My God, now we're entirely dependent on Iraq for our oil supply!  It's so sad that we've tried everything else and those head-in-the-sand environmentalists are putting our energy future in the hands of terrorists. 

Excuse me, but I've got to go fill up my SUV.

2:07:48 PM  comment []    

Reporter Recounts Israeli Detention

After being held handcuffed and blindfolded for 20 hours, part of a sweep in which dozens were detained before dawn Tuesday in the West Bank city of Nablus, I was led to the camp gate, given a letter saying I had been freed and told to go.

But I faced a major problem: I was at least six miles from the home I shared with my wife and three sons in Nablus, which is under strict curfew. Israeli troops were positioned all along my route.

I thought about asking to stay at the base until morning, then decided against it and began walking.

This is harrowing and unfortunate, but as I read it, I couldn't help but wonder how things would have played out if he had done just that. 

At some level, what you expect to happen will happen in your life.  This reminds me of the time when in college when I dropped my (black) roommate off at his house on the south side of Chicago late one night as we were heading to visit my grandfather in Libertyville. 

This is a bad neighborhood.  We were lily-white youngsters in a late-model Nissan Sentra station wagon, craning our necks to see what street we're on, trying to correlate the signs with the directions we'd been given. 

In other words, we were the perfect victims....

So what did we do?  We stopped at a gas station, politely asked directions from the half-dozen grizzled black men hanging out in front, thanked them kindly, and soon were on our way, pointed in the right direction.

I was frightened at some level.  But I didn't let it turn me into someone who was timorous, beligerent, or even particularly wary. 

I know that what I've described doesn't begin to match what's going on in the Middle East, but a simple: "I have a problem, could you help me?"  goes a long way.

8:52:29 AM  comment []