LG REPORTS Q4 LOSS

Korean manufacturing giant LG released its Q4 results and they were not good. The company posted a net loss of $230 billion compared to a profit of $325 billion for Q4 2009.

Overall shipments were down 10% to 30.6 million units, pushing LG into the No. 5 spot globally behind RIM. The company will look to new high-end smartphones like the Optimus 2X, Optimus Black and Optimus 3D as it attempts to reverse its declining mobile trend. LG remains the No. 2 TV company globally, as sales in its home entertainment division increased 15.8% compared to the third quarter of this year. Because competition forced LG to drop the average selling price on its television sets, however, the company’s home entertainment business still posted an operating loss in the quarter.

MOTOROLA MOBILITY RELEASES Q4 AND FULL YEAR EARNINGS; Q1 2011 FORECAST BLEAK

Motorola Mobility on Wednesday reported its fourth quarter and full year 2010 earnings. It also gave grim but anticipated guidance for the first quarter of 2011 as Verizon Wireless, the company’s top carrier partner, prepares to launch the iPhone 4. Motorola’s revenues were up 21% year-over-year to $3.4 billion and net revenues from the company’s Mobile Devices division grew 33% year-over-year to $2.4 billion. Smartphone shipments were well under Wall Street’s consensus, however, coming in at 4.9 million units. Some analysts’ expectations were as high as 5.6 million units. Shipments totalled 13.7 million smartphones for the full year, and the company shipped 37.3 million feature phones and smartphones combined in 2010. Motorola forecasts a loss of between $26 and $62 million in the first quarter of 2011, which amounts to $0.09 and $0.21 per share in the red. Analysts had projected a profit of $0.01 per share in the quarter.

GOOGLE REPORTS STRONG Q4 RESULTS

For Q4 2010 Google raked in $8.44 billion in revenue, a 26% increase year-over-year, rewarding its investors with $7.81 earnings per share. Operating income for the quarter was $2.98 billion, or 35% of revenues — down from 37% last year — and 52% of total revenues came from overseas. Google reports $35 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities along with 24,400 full-time employees as of December 31, 2010.

MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES RECORD FIRST QUARTER PROFITS

Microsoft just beat analyst expectations, announcing $16.20 billion in revenue for the first quarter of its 2011 fiscal year, with $5.41 billion in profit. Microsoft cites Office 2010, the sustained "PC refresh cycle," and 38 percent growth in the Xbox 360 biz for its good news, with overall revenue up 25 percent over the same quarter last year and a 51 percent gain in profit. [Engadget]

VERIZON WIRELESS RELEASES Q3 REPORT

Verizon Wireless, the joint venture of Vodafone and Verizon, has released its Q3 report.  They reported 997,000 net additions for the quarter, bringing the total customer base to 93.2 million, and a minuscule churn of 1.07%.  Total revenue increased by 6% over Q3 2009.  Also of note; data revenue increased 5.2% over Q3 2009; cash expense per customer dropped from $27.59 to $26.88; 183 billion text messages, 3.8 billion picture messages were sent and customers completed 22 million music/video downloads. [BGR]

GOOGLE POSTS VERY STRONG Q3 REVENUE

Yesterday, Google announced its Q3 results and they were impressive.  Revenues jumped 23% to $7.29 billion with a net income of $2.17 billion.  The giant G also reported cash of $33.4 billion.  Employees also increased approximately 1,500 from the previous year to 23,331 full timers.  Google's stock price was down 0.44% at end of trading on Thursday, but rebounded 8.9% in after hours trading, about $49 per share. [BGR]