Business software maker
Oracle Corp. (NDAQ:ORCL) posted quarterly profit and revenue on Tuesday that topped Wall Street forecasts as new software license sales rose. Oracle's fiscal Q3 net profit rose to $1.03 billion, or $0.20 per share, from $765 million, or $0.14 per share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $4.4 billion from $3.47 billion as Oracle sold more software that helps companies manage everything from accounting to human resources to inventory management. New license revenue rose to $1.39 billion from $1.1 billion in the Q3 ended February 28. Sales of new software applications, including acquisitions, rose 57% while new database and middleware software license sales increased 17%. Oracle shares rose more than 4% to $18.28 in extended trade from a Nasdaq close of $17.55.
The chairman and chief executive of struggling movie-rental company
Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI) got the company's board to give him a slightly bigger bonus for 2006, but not without agreeing to give up his job. John Antioco, who has been the CEO for nearly a decade, will leave the company by the end of the year, Blockbuster announced Tuesday. Shares closed down $0.25, or 3.5%, to $6.86 in trading on the NYSE, then lost another $0.06 in after-hours trading. When he leaves, Antioco will recieve a lump sum payment of $5 million, considerably less than the $13.5 million he would have been entitled to receive if he had been terminated without cause or had resigned for good reason at year's end.
An investment group that includes the founder and chairman of
Affiliated Computer Services (NYSE:ACS) is offering $5.93 billion in cash to take the information technology services company private. Affiliated Computer Services Inc. Chairman Darwin Deason said Tuesday he has teamed with investment partner Cerberus Capital Management to make the $59.25 per share bid. That represents a 15.5% premium to ACS's closing price Monday of $51.29 on the NYSE. ACS shares rose above the offered price Tuesday, climbing $8.69, or 17%, to close at $59.98 on the NYSE. They have traded in a 52-week range of $46.50 to $63.61.
Adobe Systems Inc. (NDAQ:ADBE) reported flat Q1 sales but easily exceeded Wall Street expectations with a 37% surge in profit, prompting bullish executives to raise guidance Tuesday as the software company prepares its biggest-ever product launch. Net income for the three months ended March 2 was $143.9 million, or $0.24 a share, up from $105.1 million, or $0.17 a share, in the same quarter of last year. Adobe said it expects to earn $0.23 to $0.26 per share on revenue of $700 million to $740 million in the second quarter. The San Jose-based company, which employs 6,100 people and makes graphic design, publishing and imaging software, reaffirmed its annual revenue growth target of 15%.
The printing for the final Harry Potter book will not only be the biggest, but also the greenest.
Scholastic Inc. (NDAQ:SCHL) announced Tuesday that it had agreed with the Rainforest Alliance, a conservation organization that works with the business community, on tightened environmental standards for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," coming out July 21 with a first printing of 12 million.The paper used to write the 784-page book will contain a minimum of 30% post-consumer waste (pcw) fiber. A "deluxe" edition of the new book, which has a first printing of 100,000, will be printed on paper that contains 100% post-consumer waste fiber. Scholastic would not say at the time how much recycled paper it used, but said it did not use paper from ancient or endangered forests on the other HP books. Sales, apparently, were not affected: "Half-Blood Prince" sold 6.9 million copies in the first 24 hours.
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF) Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Fairbank received compensation the company valued at more than $18.1 million in 2006, almost all of it in options awards and roughly the same amount as the past two years, according to a regulatory filing made Tuesday. Fairbank, 56, received options awards with an estimated value of $18 million at the time they were granted, but did not receive a salary, a bonus or any other cash and equity-based incentives. In November 2005, Capital One bought New Orleans-based Hibernia Corp., which had branches in Texas and Louisiana, for $4.9 billion. In December, the company completed its $13.2 billion acquisition of North Fork, which operates banks in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The deals, which make Capital One the 11th-largest bank in the U.S. by deposits, drew mixed responses from Wall Street. The stock was flat for the first half of 2006, then plunged in the summer because of credit concerns, especially in the United Kingdom. Shares in Capital One closed up 57 cents, or 0.75 percent, at $76.21 on the NYSE. In the past year, the company's shares have traded in a range of $69.30 to $87.50.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) claims that with "plenty of room" to grow in Canada, it is on track to open 29 discount and supercenter stores in the country this year.
Claire's Stores (NYSE:CLE) became the latest US retailer to go private as it accepted a $3.1 billion takeover from Apollo Management, the US buy-out group run by Leon Black. The deal caps an auction for the Florida-based jewellery and female accessories store chain that lasted about three months and included Apax Partners, the British private equity group, in the final round. Private equity groups have found fertile ground for investments in all corners US retailing, from luxury department stores to discount chains and specialty stores.