Tech companies' quarterly earnings and stock market reactions in 2012

¶ … Sengupta, Somini. (2012). Facebook revenue surpasses forecasts. New York Times. Web. Retrieved October 23, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/technology/facebook-revenue-surpasses-forecasts.html?ref=business&_r=0

This article proves newsworthy because it shows how the newly public company Facebook has surpassed its quarterly numbers, after having a rough few months earlier in the year. Apparently, a change in management strategy helped make the company's strategy more relevant in a changing marketplace. By putting more focus on mobile devices, Facebook saw that 14% of its revenues came off of mobile devices. This is huge news for investors, as increasing revenues will undoubtedly increase stock prices. However, the visuals are a bit bare. It is just a picture of founder Mark Zuckerberg; a screen shot of some of Facebook's mobile ads would have been more powerful.

Article 2

Leder, Michelle. (2012). Google's earnings incident shines light on a stealth industry. New York Times. Web. Retrieved October 23, 2012 from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/googles-earnings-incident-shines-light-on-a-stealth-industry/?ref=business

Google's third quarter earnings were actually listed with the Securities Exchange Commission "Several hours ahead of schedule." This caused a serious debacle in the trading of Google stocks, as many did not expect the results to be in so early. As a result, Google's stock fell a dramatic 9%, and prompted the company to place the blame of R.R. Donnelley & Sons that has been the agent Google has relied on since early 2004. This clearly shows that filing agents have access to the earnings report of Google far in advance of other investors, which could comprise investor relations. It also shows how management has not been effectively delegating the filing of major reports, and has instead relied on a third party. The visual here is a Google employee hard at work, which does make the reader feel sympathy for the company after the incident which caused such a sharp decrease in stock prices that will undoubtedly affect all Google employees.

Article 4

Dietrich, Chirs. (2012). Blue chips drop 243 points. Wall Street Journal. Web. Retrieved October 23, 2012 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203406404578074151221809878.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Major company 3M failed to impress this third quarter. The filing of its revenue numbers showed a dramatic decline that has been continuing to affect the company's stocks since the beginning of the year. Not only did 3M's poor performance impact its own stock prices, it helped generate poor Dow Jones numbers in general within the industrials context. Poor management decisions have led to falling income, and as such the company's stock is suffering. The article presented a short video which helped explain how single companies and their poor performance could have such an impact on the Dow Jones in general.

Article 5

Lessin, Jessica. (2012). Apple drops an iPad Mini on rivals. Wall Street Journal. Web. Retrieved October 23, 2012 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204425904578074681343454060.html?mod=WSJ_business_LeadStoryCollection

In a general market decline for the third quarter, Apple just announced a major competitive product to help fight with its competitors that have cheaper tablets on the market. It announced the mini iPad to compete with Amazon's Kindle and other products, whose companies are showing higher stock percentage increases. However, as the article stated, "investors were underwhelmed, with most of the new products previously reported or rumored." This management decision may have been made too early, as the company will ultimately be competing with itself based on the recent launch of the iPad 2. As such, stocks fell about 3.3% after the announcement went public. The article has several vivid imaged that showcase the new iPad Mini alongside Apple sponsored videos unveiling the product. They help showcase the product in question, but really don't provide any insight into the negative impact the announcement had in terms of stock value.