Earnings

AT&T activates 4.7M iPhones in Q3, 77 percent of total smartphone sales

Carrier AT&T, which had a multi-year exclusivity on iPhone sales in the United States, this morning posted its third-quarter earnings, reporting it activated 4.7 million iPhones, representing more than three out of four smartphones activated on its network during the quarter. The number represents approximately a 178 percent increase over the year-ago quarter, when it activated 2.7 million iPhones.

The company in total activated 6.1 million smartphones in the third quarter. Of the 4.7 million AT&T iPhones, 18 percent went to new customers as the carrier, like everybody else, was struggling to meet pent-up demand from the existing subscribers amid the widely reported iPhone 5 supply constraints, which AT&T said affected its postpaid performance as well...

Google prematurely posts bad Q3 earnings, stock plunges

A strange thing has just happened: Google has posted its third-quarter earnings prematurely, giving Wall Street analysts and investors a pause as the company missed expectations substantially. Compared to Google's stellar results in past few quarters, largely driven by soaring sales of ad slots and Apps hosted solutions for businesses, the September quarter saw the search giant stumble a bit.

The Mountain View, California-headquartered company reported a huge 20 percent dive in net income to $2.18 billion (operating income was $3.26 billion). Net revenue was $11.3 billion versus the $11.9 billion that investors had been expecting. Google earned $9.03 a share versus an analysts' estimate of $10.65, a huge disappointment  analysts had expected, on average.

Doesn't look good at all. I guess that $12.5 billion acquisition of unprofitable handset maker Motorola Mobility has really 'paid off', so to speak...