ADP Reports Layoff Details

On February 4, Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) reported in its latest ADP employment report a loss of 522,000 jobs in the private sector. Later, on February 6, the US Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls plunged 598,000 in January, the largest drop in 34 years. About 3.6 million US jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007, with the last three months showing the greatest declines: payroll losses were 577,000 in December and 597,000 in November. The unemployment rate has reached 7.6%, the highest since September 1992. Despite the worsening economy, ADP did reasonably well in its second quarter. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

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Good News From Netflix

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) does not seem to be affected by the recession, at least going by its Q4 results announced on January 26. The company’s stock rose 16% to $34.82 after the results announcement. It had crashed to a record low of $17.90 in October. >>>

Amazon’s Impressive Trajectory

In a season where so many companies are reporting disappointing results, Amazon managed to surpass the Street’s expectations in their recently announced Q4 results. And this week, it has launched the new Kindle, part of an effort to scale the long-stalling e-Books reader market, after kicking it open during the holiday season in November 2007. I really enjoy the way Jeff Bezos does things! >>>

NVIDIA Struggles Without Losing Focus on Innovation

Yesterday, NVIDIA, the leading graphics chip maker, reported its results for the fourth quarter 2009 and fiscal year 2009. As we saw with Intel and AMD last month, demand has been weak in the chip sector, and NVIDIA has been hit hard by it, with a wider-than-expected loss and a 60% slump in sales. >>>

More SaaS: SuccessFactors Steady, Concur Cautious

Yesterday we saw how the SaaS sector is doing well, with RightNow achieving profitability and Omniture going strong. Today, we’ll analyze the results of SuccessFactors and Concur. >>>

SaaS: Omniture Grows, RightNow Profits

Despite the worsening recession, the SaaS sector is doing pretty well. Omniture reported growth of more than 100%, and RightNow achieved profitability. Let’s take a closer look at their results as well as those of Citrix, not a pureplay SaaS company, which explains its more shaky results. SaaS business models have immense predictability buried in them, so mostly, if they miss forecasts, it isn’t by that much. >>>

Networking Sector: AKAM, F5 Strong, ALU Weak

Here’s more on the Networking sector, to finish up the series. We’ll cover Akamai, Alcatel-Lucent and F5 in this piece.

On February 4, Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading web acceleration provider, also reported Q4 and fiscal year 2008 results. Q4 revenue grew 16% y-o-y and 8% q-o-q to $212.6 million versus Street estimates of $205.46 million. Net income increased 22% q-o-q to $40.5 million, or $0.22 per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income was $82.2 million, or $0.44 per diluted share versus analyst estimates of $0.40. Cash from operations in Q4 was $92 million. By all accounts, stellar performance. >>>

The Times At Time Warner

Continuing our coverage of media & entertainment results, here is a quick analysis of Time Warner’s (NYSE: TWX) Q4 results, which were announced yesterday. Like Disney, Time Warner reported earnings much lower than the Street’s expectations and despite some bright spots (CNN, HBO), the outlook for many of the company’s divisions is bleak as the recession continues. >>>

Networking Sector: Cisco, Juniper, Polycom

Yesterday, Cisco, the networking giant with 2008 annual revenue of $39.5 billion, reported second quarter results that beat analyst estimates but were still disappointing as revenue and profits plunged. >>>

Disney Should Go Shopping

The $38 billion entertainment and media giant, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), announced depressing Q1 results yesterday. It was the first major US media company to report results for the quarter. >>>