Microsoft 1Q profit, sales top views; shares jump

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Microsoft posted quarterly revenue and earnings Thursday that easily topped Wall Street forecasts, marking a healthy start to a companywide overhaul it announced in July that should help the software giant transform into a devices and services company.

Its stock rose 6 percent in after-hours trading.

"Our devices and services transformation is progressing," CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement with the company's fiscal first-quarter results. Ballmer said in August he'll step down within 12 months and the search is on to find his successor.

Microsoft's net income in the three months to Sept. 30 grew 17 percent to $5.24 billion, or 62 cents per share, from $4.47 billion, or 53 cents per share, a year ago.

That beat the 54 cents expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue rose 16 percent to $18.53 billion, also beating the $17.79 billion analysts were expecting.

Microsoft's revenue from its Surface tablets hit $400 million, representing a gain in revenue and unit sales from the quarter that ended in June, though profitability in the division that houses Surface fell. It's the first time the company has broken out Surface results.

Revenue from its flagship Windows operating system from manufacturing partners declined, while enterprise software business grew.

Commercial licensing — representing enterprise products like Windows Server and System Center — is now by far Microsoft's biggest reporting segment. Its revenue rose 7 percent to $9.59 billion. Devices and consumer licensing revenue, containing revenue from Windows and Windows Phone, fell 7 percent to $4.34 billion.

It has been a busy year for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. Last month, it vowed to acquire Nokia's smartphone business for $7.2 billion and this month it launched sales of the latest version of its Surface tablets. Next month it will launch its latest game console, Xbox One.

The transformation of Microsoft's business is crucial as sales of personal computers — once Windows' mainstay — continued to fall. Research firm IDC said that global shipments of PCs fell 8 percent in the third quarter of the year for the sixth straight decline. Another firm, Gartner, put the decline at almost 9 percent.

Microsoft's shares rose $1.93 to $35.65 in extended trading following the release of the earnings report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-24-US-Earns-Microsoft/id-f2d75fb3f7bd40999bffd94b5fdd64e9
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Jobless Claims Dipped Last Week

There were 350,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance filed last week (the period ending Oct. 19), down 12,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration said Thursday.

A broader measure — the "4-week moving average" — rose by 10,750, to 348,250. That gives a sense of the pace of claims over the course of a month.

In Thursday's report, the ETA also revised upward its estimate of the number of claims filed during the week ended Oct. 12. Previously, it said there had been 358,000. Now, it says there were 362,000.

According to The Associated Press: The latest figure was "elevated ... by technical problems in California. California is still processing an applications delayed by a computer upgrade, a government spokesman said. The partial government shutdown appeared to have little impact on the figures, he added."

Since September, when claims were running at a pace near a 6-year low, they've edged up slightly. Like Tuesday's report showing relatively weak job growth in September, the claims news signals that the economy continues to chug along at a pace not fast enough to spur big employment gains.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/24/240467577/jobless-claims-dipped-last-week?ft=1&f=1001
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Brett Favre dismisses possibility of joining Rams

FILE - In this July 30, 2012, file photo, Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, left, now an assistant football coach at Oak Grove High School explains a pass route to receiver Shane McClendon in Hattiesburg, Miss. Favre dismissed the possibility of returning to the NFL with St. Louis Rams. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

FILE - In this July 30, 2012, file photo, Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, left, now an assistant football coach at Oak Grove High School explains a pass route to receiver Shane McClendon in Hattiesburg, Miss. Favre dismissed the possibility of returning to the NFL with St. Louis Rams. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brett Favre dismissed the possibility of returning to the NFL with St. Louis, and Rams coach Jeff Fisher declined to address reports he tried to lure the quarterback out of retirement to replace the injured Sam Bradford.

Favre told Washington sports station WSPZ-AM he doesn't feel physically able to compete and expressed fear that he has been affected by concussions.

"It's flattering, but you know there's no way I'm going to do that," Favre said.

Fisher changed the subject after practice, then said "Nice try" when asked whether the 44-year-old Favre could be ready to play. Bradford is out for the season with a knee injury.

"I don't remember my daughter playing soccer, playing youth soccer, one summer," Favre told WSPZ. "I don't remember that. I got a pretty good memory, and I have a tendency like we all do to say, 'Where are my glasses?' and they're on your head. This was pretty shocking to me that I couldn't remember my daughter playing youth soccer, just one summer, I think. I remember her playing basketball, I remember her playing volleyball, so I kind of think maybe she only played a game or two. I think she played eight. So that's a little bit scary to me. For the first time in 44 years, that put a little fear in me. ...

"I think after 20 years, God only knows the toll."

Rams defensive end Robert Quinn didn't think there was anything to the reports.

"Brett Favre is staying retired," Quinn said. "Brett hasn't played since 2010 and he's comfortable down there in Mississippi on a boat or something. Have fun with it, Brett."

Kellen Clemens, the backup the past two seasons, will make his 13th career start Monday night against the Seattle Seahawks. The Rams also signed Brady Quinn and Austin Davis.

Fisher said he wouldn't discuss players contacted after Bradford tore his left ACL on Sunday at Carolina, although he confirmed Tyler Thigpen also worked out.

"I don't feel any need to disclose information after the process," Fisher said. "That's how we are. I'll be happy to talk about Thigpen, and the two that we signed."

___

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-24-Rams-Favre/id-bb9fcf2ae6ac470caecccf6d46c0ea93
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Oracle gears up to battle Salesforce.com, IBM with Eloqua update

Oracle is rolling out a series of new features for its Eloqua marketing automation suite, hoping to get a leg up on rivals like Salesforce.com and IBM in the red-hot software segment.

Now generally available is AdFocus, which provides marketers with tools for running multichannel advertising campaigns. A key feature is the ability to deliver targeted display ads to customers and prospects, while comparing their effectiveness to so-called "owned" and "earned" media, such as company websites and buzz on social networks, respectively.

[ InfoWorld presents the Bossies 2013, the best open source software for data centers, clouds, mobile, and more. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld's Tech Watch blog. ]

Another update concerns Eloqua Profiler, which like its name suggests, is used to build out profiles of prospects based on their interactions with "assets" tracked in Eloqua, such as emails and web pages. Now Profiler can also include asset activity that's occurring on properties the marketer's organization doesn't own, such as video content hosted on a third-party website.

Finally it's now possible to tap Facebook's custom audience feature from AdFocus, giving marketers the ability to target discrete blocks of users based on their social profile.

There's perhaps no hotter area of enterprise software these days than marketing automation, following a rash of consolidation as platform vendors attempt to build out broad product suites.

Last week, Oracle bought Compendium in order to bolster the capabilities of Eloqua, which it acquired in December for $871 million. Compendium provides software for creating different types of content that can be used to entice customers to visit a marketer's web site or other property, said John Stetic, vice president of products, Oracle Eloqua Marketing Cloud.

Among others, Salesforce.com has also invested heavily in marketing software, scooping up ExactTarget, Buddy Media and Radian6 for its own cloud-based suite.

Oracle gets an edge over the competition with Eloqua, as its always been "built by marketers, for marketers," Stetic said. "We allow for really advanced targeting throughout the entire buying process."

In addition, Oracle is taking a more open approach, offering a full suite but not forcing customers to use it all, he said. "Lots of vendors want to think they'll have this whole stack and own the world, but what I hear from customers is, I want choice."

Meanwhile, as online privacy concerns mount in the wake of revelations over surveillance programs by the U.S. National Security Agency, marketers need to be mindful of the boundaries between themselves and customers, Stetic said.

"Ultimately what it comes down to things like government surveillance, people can't vote with their wallets on that, whereas in the commercial world if someone feels they're being overly tracked and overly monitored and not getting value out of it, they vote with their wallets," he said.

Source: http://podcasts.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/oracle-gears-battle-salesforcecom-ibm-eloqua-update-229499?source=rss_business_intelligence
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Ellen DeGeneres' Staffers DO NOT Enjoy Haunted Houses

Looks like someone's ready for Halloween!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/ellen-degeneres-sends-employees-through-haunted-house/1-a-550679?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aellen-degeneres-sends-employees-through-haunted-house-550679
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Former Ohio doctor guilty in expectant mom's death

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A former Ohio doctor accused of killing a pregnant woman last year by injecting her with heroin after she answered a Craigslist ad pleaded guilty Thursday in her death and that of her nearly full-term unborn child.

Ali Salim entered the pleas in Delaware County Court north of Columbus ahead of his trial scheduled for next week. He faces 37 years in prison at a December sentencing.

Salim, 44, pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of Deanna Ballman and her unborn daughter, who was to be named Mabel Lilly. Ballman, 23, was nine months pregnant when she died.

Salim also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. He also entered a type of guilty plea to a charge of rape under which he maintains his innocence but acknowledges prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.

The tampering with evidence charge alleges Salim erased photos and video of Ballman from his phone, though the images were later recovered by investigators, said Kyle Rohrer, assistant Delaware County Prosecutor.

The guilty pleas avoid any uncertainties from a trial and gave Salim the chance to take responsibility in court, Rohrer said.

Ballman's mother and sister attended the hearing but declined to comment. The family appreciates the work of investigators and will speak at sentencing, their lawyer Greg Helser said Thursday. Salim remains free on house arrest on $1 million bond.

Ballman was last seen alive on July 31, 2012, when she left her home in suburban Columbus, telling her family she was answering a Craigslist ad for a housecleaner. She called her mother a few hours later saying she was feeling dizzy. The call was then lost and her family couldn't reach her again.

Ballman's body was found in the back of her car the next day on a rural road a few miles from Salim's house in an upscale neighborhood.

Salim's attorney, Sam Shamansky, has said Ballman was prostituting herself to feed a drug habit. Messages were left with Shamansky on Thursday.

Authorities say there's no evidence that Ballman was a drug user, but they have said she was responding to a personal ad, not a job ad.

Rohrer declined to discuss the allegations Thursday. He said a full presentation of the state's case would be made at sentencing.

Women who previously answered ads placed by Salim reported being accosted, sexually assaulted or asked to be alone in the house while he painted the human digestive system on their abdomens, according to police records.

Salim is also the target of a $40 million lawsuit filed by Ballman's family earlier this year blaming him for her death. That lawsuit, which also named Salim's employer and Craigslist, has been on hold during the criminal case.

___

Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-ohio-doctor-guilty-expectant-moms-death-160240418.html
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AT&T won't match T-Mobile's free data on the iPad Air, at least for now

October 24, 2013

By Martyn Williams | IDG News Service

AT&T won't be matching T-Mobile's offer of free wireless data for the iPad Air when the device debuts at the company's stores across the U.S. next month.

AT&T, the country's second-largest cellular carrier, said it will offer a $100 discount to customers who sign a two-year contract for tablet data service.

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For customers who don't want to sign a contract, AT&T will offer recently announced plans costing between $5 for 250MB of data for one day and $50 for 5GB for one month. Those customers won't get the $100 discount.

Subscribers will also be able to add the iPad Air to an existing data plan for an additional $10 per month.

On Wednesday, T-Mobile said it will give tablet owners 200MB of data per month for no cost. Once that's used up, customers will have the option of paying $5 for 500MB of data for one day or $10 for 1GB of data for a week.

T-Mobile, which is the fourth-largest of the country's four major carriers, is aggressively courting customers with cheaper pricing plans. It recently said customers heading overseas would get unlimited 2G data at no additional cost.

A spokesman for AT&T declined to comment on T-Mobile's announcement.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com

Source: http://podcasts.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/att-wont-match-t-mobiles-free-data-the-ipad-air-least-now-229448?source=rss_mobile_technology
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