Microsoft reported its first ever Y-O-Y quarterly drop in revenue, in its entire 30-year history! In its three decades of existence, Microsoft had never before seen a Y-O-Y quarterly drop. Probably this is a sign of how bad this recession is. Revenue for the company’s third fiscal quarter dropped 6 percent to $13.65 billion, from $14.45 billion a year ago.
Following is a snapshot of its revenues
Quarter ended 31st March 2009 - $13.65Bn
Quarter ended 31st March 2008 - $14.45Bn
9 Months ended 31st March 2009 - $45.34Bn
9 Months ended 31st March 2008 - $44.58Bn
While 9 months figure seem to be encouraging, a drop in last quarter revenues indicate that worst is not over yet.
Also, in the last quarter Microsoft posted net income of $2.98 billion down 32 percent from $4.39 billion recorded during the same period a year ago.
Following is a snapshot of its net income
Quarter ended 31st March 2009 - $2.98Bn
Quarter ended 31st March 2008 - $4.39Bn
9 Months ended 31st March 2009 - $11.52Bn
9 Months ended 31st March 2008 - $13.38Bn
Notice here that net income for the 9 months period is down by a whopping $1.8 billion
Online business
The company’s online business reported a 14 percent drop in revenue to $721 million, compared to $843 million a year ago.
Following is a snapshot of its revenues from online business
Quarter ended 31st March 2009 - $0.72Bn
Quarter ended 31st March 2008 - $0.84Bn
9 Months ended 31st March' 2009 - $2.36Bn
9 Months ended 31st March' 2008 - $2.38Bn
Notice here that for 9 months period revenue is down marginally
Also, in the last quarter online business posted a net loss of $575 million which is more than double of $226 million loss recorded during the same period a year ago.
Following is a snapshot of its net loss from online business
Quarter ended 31st March 2009 - ($0.57 Bn)
Quarter ended 31st March 2008 - ($0.23 Bn)
9 Months ended 31st March 2009 - ($1.52Bn)
9 Months ended 31st March 2008 - ($0.74Bn)
Notice here that net loss for the 9 months period is close to $1.0 billion. Also, net loss for quarter ended 31st March 2009 is almost equivalent to 9 months loss of 2008.
Perhaps its time for Microsoft to concede search engine battle to Google and give up its online advertising.
Buzzzzzzzz.......................... Headline Animator
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Google SearchWiki (Promote/ Remove / Comments)
How many of you use Google SearchWiki?Never heard about it....read on to know what is SearchWiki.
SearchWiki in simple terms is a tool offered by Google to customize your search results. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users so all the changes made by you are stored in your Google Account. This tool allows you to promote a website to a higher rank on a SERP or remove a website completely or even add Comments or notes to a website. I can even add a website to the SERP if i feel it is relevant to my search.
In the above image we get to see a normal SERP.
Notice the change in above image where you get to see and use 3 new tools. This tool appears coz i have logged into my Google account and am doing search for the desired keyword.
This new feature is an example of how search is becoming increasingly dynamic. Google being an innovator is giving people tools that make search even more useful to them in their daily lives.
How does Google promote, remove & comments actually work?
To use the same, simply log in to your google account and try doing a search for the keyword phrase "ipl 2009". Now on the SERP you may click on the promote button next to any of the results and you will immediately see it magically go above the previous result. You can continue to use promote button to move a web page to the first position. But is this gonna affect SERPs for other users around the world too> The answer is NO.
Log out from your account and search again for the same keyword, you will see your selected pages dropping back to its original ranking position. Log in again and you will notice your chosen pages are back to your promoted order.
If you click remove on any of your promoted website, it will return to its previous place in your Google search results. But if you click remove randomly on any un-promoted website, it will be permanently removed from any results. Oops, i deleted a good link, now what to do? To get it back to the search result simple click on restore at the bottom.
If you like a site maybe you'd like to add some notes about what you found on that site and why you thought it was useful. You can do the same by adding your comments.
SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the "See all notes for this SearchWiki" link.
SearchWiki in simple terms is a tool offered by Google to customize your search results. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users so all the changes made by you are stored in your Google Account. This tool allows you to promote a website to a higher rank on a SERP or remove a website completely or even add Comments or notes to a website. I can even add a website to the SERP if i feel it is relevant to my search.
In the above image we get to see a normal SERP.
Notice the change in above image where you get to see and use 3 new tools. This tool appears coz i have logged into my Google account and am doing search for the desired keyword.
This new feature is an example of how search is becoming increasingly dynamic. Google being an innovator is giving people tools that make search even more useful to them in their daily lives.
How does Google promote, remove & comments actually work?
To use the same, simply log in to your google account and try doing a search for the keyword phrase "ipl 2009". Now on the SERP you may click on the promote button next to any of the results and you will immediately see it magically go above the previous result. You can continue to use promote button to move a web page to the first position. But is this gonna affect SERPs for other users around the world too> The answer is NO.
Log out from your account and search again for the same keyword, you will see your selected pages dropping back to its original ranking position. Log in again and you will notice your chosen pages are back to your promoted order.
If you click remove on any of your promoted website, it will return to its previous place in your Google search results. But if you click remove randomly on any un-promoted website, it will be permanently removed from any results. Oops, i deleted a good link, now what to do? To get it back to the search result simple click on restore at the bottom.
If you like a site maybe you'd like to add some notes about what you found on that site and why you thought it was useful. You can do the same by adding your comments.
SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the "See all notes for this SearchWiki" link.
Sangakkara NOT OUT, Boucher dislodged bails with his gloves
Bangalore Royals played extremely well to beat Kings XI Punjab, but the win was overshadowed by a hugely controversial incident.
Kumar Sangakkara was bowled by Anil Kumble, but the replays suggest wicketkeeper Mark Boucher dislodged the bails with his gloves before the ball struck the stumps. Both bails were down before the ball struck and as per rules of the game it’s not out.
Unaware of this, Sangakkara walked out of the park and no one protested. It was beauty of a delivery by Kumble and it very much deserved the wicket but if aware, Boucher should have ideally informed the umpires and called the batsman back.
It will be interesting to see if this incident leads to a controversy or not.
Above image shows ball just missing Sangakkara's bat, in the mean while bails get dislodged by Bouchers gloves
Above image shows impact of ball after it hits the stumps.
Kumar Sangakkara was bowled by Anil Kumble, but the replays suggest wicketkeeper Mark Boucher dislodged the bails with his gloves before the ball struck the stumps. Both bails were down before the ball struck and as per rules of the game it’s not out.
Unaware of this, Sangakkara walked out of the park and no one protested. It was beauty of a delivery by Kumble and it very much deserved the wicket but if aware, Boucher should have ideally informed the umpires and called the batsman back.
It will be interesting to see if this incident leads to a controversy or not.
Above image shows ball just missing Sangakkara's bat, in the mean while bails get dislodged by Bouchers gloves
Above image shows impact of ball after it hits the stumps.
What's new in Twitter?
Twitter has recently come up with updates with a host of new features. You can now search for anything on Twitter, and see real time results immediately. Save searches that you know you'll repeat, and use Twitter to discover what's happening in the world. To improve user experience several exciting search features have been launched by Twitter.
Search in your sidebar
Under your usual sidebar options, you'll now see the search box. Enter any word, city, location, or search operator to find tweets about things that interest you!
Try typing in Wolverine to see latest movie reviews before checking it out. If you want to get fancy, try typing search operators directly into the search box. For example, near:"san francisco" within:5mi shows you tweets from everyone within 5 miles of San Francisco!
Saved Searches
If you think you'll search for something more than once, you can simpy save it. Clicking on the link of a saved search will show you a view of all real time tweets. You can save up to 10 searches, which are easily removable- just click the red x next to "remove this saved search."
Click the Saved Searches tab to show or hide your saved searches.
Trending Topics
With the new search integration comes a new tab for trending topics, which lists the top 10 topics people all over the world are tweeting about. Click the Trending Topics tab to show or hide the topics.
Collapsible Following bar
If you have a lot of saved searches, or you'd like to see trends instead of your following mosaic, you can now hide the photo grid of people you follow by clicking on the Following tab in the side bar.
RSS feeds for search queries
Add a query for a favorite search to your feed reader to see certain tweet searches without logging into Twitter. Click "rss feed for this query" to grab the feed and add it to your favorite feed reader.
Search in your sidebar
Under your usual sidebar options, you'll now see the search box. Enter any word, city, location, or search operator to find tweets about things that interest you!
Try typing in Wolverine to see latest movie reviews before checking it out. If you want to get fancy, try typing search operators directly into the search box. For example, near:"san francisco" within:5mi shows you tweets from everyone within 5 miles of San Francisco!
Saved Searches
If you think you'll search for something more than once, you can simpy save it. Clicking on the link of a saved search will show you a view of all real time tweets. You can save up to 10 searches, which are easily removable- just click the red x next to "remove this saved search."
Click the Saved Searches tab to show or hide your saved searches.
Trending Topics
With the new search integration comes a new tab for trending topics, which lists the top 10 topics people all over the world are tweeting about. Click the Trending Topics tab to show or hide the topics.
Collapsible Following bar
If you have a lot of saved searches, or you'd like to see trends instead of your following mosaic, you can now hide the photo grid of people you follow by clicking on the Following tab in the side bar.
RSS feeds for search queries
Add a query for a favorite search to your feed reader to see certain tweet searches without logging into Twitter. Click "rss feed for this query" to grab the feed and add it to your favorite feed reader.
Monster posts a net loss of $10.3 million
Monster Worldwide has reported a net loss of $10.3 million, as against net profit of $22.6 million a year ago. Revenue declined 31% to $254 million, compared with $366 million in the comparable quarter of 2008. Monster generated 43% of its revenue outside the United States and total revenue was negatively impacted by $27 million from unfavorable foreign exchange rates.
Over the past 4 quarters, monsters revenue has been sliding at an alarming rate and is down by over $100 million when compared with Q1 2008 (Jan-Mar). Following is snapshot of their revenue earnings
Q1 2008 - $ 366 million
Q2 2008 - $ 354 million
Q3 2008 - $ 332 million
Q4 2008 - $ 290 million
Q1 2009 - $ 254 million
Income from continuing operations for the three months ended March 31, 2009 includes the following pre-tax pro forma adjustments: $11.0 million of expenses associated with the Company’s restructuring plan; $3.0 million of legal fees, primarily related to the Company’s obligation to indemnify former officers for their defense in connection with the ongoing litigation related to historical stock option grant practices; and a $1.0 million reduction to total revenue due to the purchase accounting adjustment for ChinaHR. As a result, the Company recorded total pre-tax pro forma adjustments of $15.0 million.
Sal Iannuzzi, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Monster, said, “As anticipated, the challenging global economy continued to severely impact customer demand during the first quarter of 2009. We were able to leverage the power of our brand to drive awareness and higher levels of user engagement following our new product launch in early January. Our strict and disciplined approach to cost containment enabled us to preserve our liquidity position, maintain necessary investments and report a break-even quarter.”
About Monster Worldwide
Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW), parent company of Monster(R), the premier global online employment solution for more than a decade, strives to inspire people to improve their lives. With a local presence in key markets in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, Monster works for everyone by connecting employers with quality job seekers at all levels and by providing personalized career advice to consumers globally. Through online media sites and services, Monster delivers vast, highly targeted audiences to advertisers. Monster Worldwide is a member of the S&P 500 index. To learn more about Monster's industry-leading products and services, visit www.monster.com
Over the past 4 quarters, monsters revenue has been sliding at an alarming rate and is down by over $100 million when compared with Q1 2008 (Jan-Mar). Following is snapshot of their revenue earnings
Q1 2008 - $ 366 million
Q2 2008 - $ 354 million
Q3 2008 - $ 332 million
Q4 2008 - $ 290 million
Q1 2009 - $ 254 million
Income from continuing operations for the three months ended March 31, 2009 includes the following pre-tax pro forma adjustments: $11.0 million of expenses associated with the Company’s restructuring plan; $3.0 million of legal fees, primarily related to the Company’s obligation to indemnify former officers for their defense in connection with the ongoing litigation related to historical stock option grant practices; and a $1.0 million reduction to total revenue due to the purchase accounting adjustment for ChinaHR. As a result, the Company recorded total pre-tax pro forma adjustments of $15.0 million.
Sal Iannuzzi, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Monster, said, “As anticipated, the challenging global economy continued to severely impact customer demand during the first quarter of 2009. We were able to leverage the power of our brand to drive awareness and higher levels of user engagement following our new product launch in early January. Our strict and disciplined approach to cost containment enabled us to preserve our liquidity position, maintain necessary investments and report a break-even quarter.”
About Monster Worldwide
Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW), parent company of Monster(R), the premier global online employment solution for more than a decade, strives to inspire people to improve their lives. With a local presence in key markets in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, Monster works for everyone by connecting employers with quality job seekers at all levels and by providing personalized career advice to consumers globally. Through online media sites and services, Monster delivers vast, highly targeted audiences to advertisers. Monster Worldwide is a member of the S&P 500 index. To learn more about Monster's industry-leading products and services, visit www.monster.com
Friday, May 1, 2009
Twitter Quitters a worry
According to a study by Nielsen Online more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month. This suggests that Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent.
According to the study, Twitter is still fledgling and some other sites that eventually lived up to Twitter-like hype suffered from poor retention in the early days. When compared with early days of social networking heavy weights like Facebook and MySpace, their retention rates were twice as high. When they went through their explosive growth phases, that retention only went up, and both sit at nearly 70 percent today.
So is Twitter worth all the hype?
According to the study, Twitter is still fledgling and some other sites that eventually lived up to Twitter-like hype suffered from poor retention in the early days. When compared with early days of social networking heavy weights like Facebook and MySpace, their retention rates were twice as high. When they went through their explosive growth phases, that retention only went up, and both sit at nearly 70 percent today.
So is Twitter worth all the hype?
Google breaks $100bn brand value threshold. Emerges as worlds No 1 brand
According to BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2009 ranking, Google has emerged as the world’s number one brand and become first company to break $100bn brand value threshold. Microsoft, with a brand value of $76.2 billion, occupies the second rank. Other popular online websites like Amazon.com, eBay and Yahoo have been placed at the 26th, 54th and 81st positions with a brand value of $21 million, $12.9 million and $7.9 million respectively.
The BrandZ top 100 ranking is an authoritative ranking report about the most valuable brands in the world. The valuations are based on economic and market data and the proprietary consumer research from BrandZ – the world’s largest study of consumers and business-to-business users’ brand preferences. The result is the most comprehensive and authoritative brand valuation available.
The Valuation Process
1. Branded Earnings
What proportion of a company’s earnings is generated “under the banner of the brand”?
First, the branded earnings are identified. For example, in the case of Coca-Cola some earnings are not branded Coca-Cola, but come from Fanta, Sprite or Minute Maid. Once identified capital charges are subtracted. This ensures only value above and beyond what investors would require any investment in the brand to earn is captured: The value the brand adds to the business. This provides a bottom-up view of the earnings of the branded business.
2. Brand Contribution
How much of these branded earnings are generated due to the brand’s close bond with its customers?
The portion of these earnings driven by brand equity is called “Brand Contribution”: The degree to which brand plays a role in generating earnings. This is established through analysis of country-, market-, and brand-specific consumer research from the BrandZ database.
This guarantees that the Brand Contribution is rooted in real-life customer perceptions and behavior, not spurious ‘expert opinion’: in some categories, brand is important — luxury, cars, or beer, for instance. In categories like motor fuel, on the other hand, price and location play a very strong role. Furthermore, as markets develop, consumer priorities and the role of brand may change. And even in strongly branded categories, some successful brands that compete heavily on price.
3. Brand Multiple
What is the growth potential of the brand driven earnings?
In the final step, the growth potential of these branded earnings is taken into account. Both financial projections and consumer data is analyzed. This provides an earnings multiple aligned with the methods used by the analyst community. It also takes into account brand specific growth opportunities and barriers. To capture the weaker economic outlook, all projections have been validated using IMF economic growth forecasts. The Brand Momentum™ indicator that indicates each brand’s growth is based on this evaluation. It is presented as an indexed figure that ranges from 1 to 10 (10 being high).
Brand Value = Intangible Earnings * Brand Contribution * Brand Multiple
Despite the economic downturn, the value of the top 100 brands has risen by 2% to about $2.00tn
The Top 100 list is dominated by American brands with no Indian brands making to the list.
There are 15 new brands entering the ranking this year. Pampers is the highest entrant at no. 31, followed by Nintendo (no.32) and VISA (no.36). Trends identified from this year’s rankings are:
Value — Brands that represent good value for money have done well, this is about quality as much as price, for example Wal-Mart (+19 percent), ALDI (+49 percent) and Auchan (+48 percent). H&M (+8 percent) is now the number one apparel brand.
Vice — People still reward themselves with little treats when money is tight. Brands such as McDonald’s (+34 percent), Marlboro (+33 percent) and Budweiser (+23 percent) have all done well.
At Home — Brands that can be experienced at home have shown strong growth. This includes home shopping: Amazon (+85 percent) and eBay (+16 percent); Coffee that can be prepared at home: Nespresso (+27 percent) and Nescafe (+23 percent); and gaming — Nintendo jumped into the ranking for the first time at no. 32.
Wireless — The increased popularity of using the internet on the move through devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry has led to huge increases for the mobile operators category as a whole, driven by demand for data services. Vodafone enters the top 10 for the first time this year (+45 percent).
Following are the top 10
# Brand
1 Google
2 Microsoft
3 Coca Cola
4 IBM
5 Mc Donalds
6 Apple
7 China Mobile
9 GE
10 vodafone
Visit following link to read entire report BrandZ Top 100 2009 Report
The BrandZ top 100 ranking is an authoritative ranking report about the most valuable brands in the world. The valuations are based on economic and market data and the proprietary consumer research from BrandZ – the world’s largest study of consumers and business-to-business users’ brand preferences. The result is the most comprehensive and authoritative brand valuation available.
The Valuation Process
1. Branded Earnings
What proportion of a company’s earnings is generated “under the banner of the brand”?
First, the branded earnings are identified. For example, in the case of Coca-Cola some earnings are not branded Coca-Cola, but come from Fanta, Sprite or Minute Maid. Once identified capital charges are subtracted. This ensures only value above and beyond what investors would require any investment in the brand to earn is captured: The value the brand adds to the business. This provides a bottom-up view of the earnings of the branded business.
2. Brand Contribution
How much of these branded earnings are generated due to the brand’s close bond with its customers?
The portion of these earnings driven by brand equity is called “Brand Contribution”: The degree to which brand plays a role in generating earnings. This is established through analysis of country-, market-, and brand-specific consumer research from the BrandZ database.
This guarantees that the Brand Contribution is rooted in real-life customer perceptions and behavior, not spurious ‘expert opinion’: in some categories, brand is important — luxury, cars, or beer, for instance. In categories like motor fuel, on the other hand, price and location play a very strong role. Furthermore, as markets develop, consumer priorities and the role of brand may change. And even in strongly branded categories, some successful brands that compete heavily on price.
3. Brand Multiple
What is the growth potential of the brand driven earnings?
In the final step, the growth potential of these branded earnings is taken into account. Both financial projections and consumer data is analyzed. This provides an earnings multiple aligned with the methods used by the analyst community. It also takes into account brand specific growth opportunities and barriers. To capture the weaker economic outlook, all projections have been validated using IMF economic growth forecasts. The Brand Momentum™ indicator that indicates each brand’s growth is based on this evaluation. It is presented as an indexed figure that ranges from 1 to 10 (10 being high).
Brand Value = Intangible Earnings * Brand Contribution * Brand Multiple
Despite the economic downturn, the value of the top 100 brands has risen by 2% to about $2.00tn
The Top 100 list is dominated by American brands with no Indian brands making to the list.
There are 15 new brands entering the ranking this year. Pampers is the highest entrant at no. 31, followed by Nintendo (no.32) and VISA (no.36). Trends identified from this year’s rankings are:
Value — Brands that represent good value for money have done well, this is about quality as much as price, for example Wal-Mart (+19 percent), ALDI (+49 percent) and Auchan (+48 percent). H&M (+8 percent) is now the number one apparel brand.
Vice — People still reward themselves with little treats when money is tight. Brands such as McDonald’s (+34 percent), Marlboro (+33 percent) and Budweiser (+23 percent) have all done well.
At Home — Brands that can be experienced at home have shown strong growth. This includes home shopping: Amazon (+85 percent) and eBay (+16 percent); Coffee that can be prepared at home: Nespresso (+27 percent) and Nescafe (+23 percent); and gaming — Nintendo jumped into the ranking for the first time at no. 32.
Wireless — The increased popularity of using the internet on the move through devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry has led to huge increases for the mobile operators category as a whole, driven by demand for data services. Vodafone enters the top 10 for the first time this year (+45 percent).
Following are the top 10
# Brand
1 Google
2 Microsoft
3 Coca Cola
4 IBM
5 Mc Donalds
6 Apple
7 China Mobile
9 GE
10 vodafone
Visit following link to read entire report BrandZ Top 100 2009 Report
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