Sony returns to quarterly profit on cheap yen

People take photos of tropical fish from waters around the southernmost Japanese island of Okinawa on display in a glass tank placed outside Sony Building in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. reported a 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) April-June profit, a reversal from the 24.6 billion yen loss it suffered the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

People take photos of tropical fish from waters around the southernmost Japanese island of Okinawa on display in a glass tank placed outside Sony Building in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. reported a 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) April-June profit, a reversal from the 24.6 billion yen loss it suffered the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Children get excited to watch tropical fish from waters around the southernmost Japanese island of Okinawa on display in a glass tank placed outside Sony Building in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. reported a 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) April-June profit, a reversal from the 24.6 billion yen loss it suffered the previous year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

TOKYO (AP) ? As a slew of big-name Japanese companies report improved quarterly earnings, one theme is taking the sheen off their rosy numbers: mainstay businesses are still struggling despite the perk from a weaker yen.

The latest example came Thursday from Sony Corp. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company reported a 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) April-June profit, a reversal from the 24.6 billion yen loss it suffered the previous year.

Sony also saw some improvement in its smartphone and entertainment businesses. But it still had plenty of areas where it was lagging, such as digital cameras, video game machines and flat panel TVs. Its results would have been far different if it weren't for the favorable exchange rate.

A weak yen boosts the earnings of Japanese exporters, although Sony has been trying to reduce its vulnerability to exchange rate fluctuations in recent years when the yen was high.

Quarterly sales jumped 13 percent to 1.71 trillion yen ($17 billion). But they would have slipped 3 percent if it weren't for the declining yen, the Tokyo-based company said.

In its electronics unit, Sony gained 19 billion yen ($190 million) in operating profit from a cheap yen.

Other Japanese companies whose earnings fared better largely on a cheap yen included video-game maker Nintendo Co., automaker Honda Motor Co. and Sony's domestic archrival Panasonic Corp.

Their test lies in how they hold up in global competition ? even without the benefits of a cheap yen.

Daniel Loeb, a U.S. hedge fund manager renowned for shaking up Yahoo Inc., sparked a rise in Sony's share price by proposing a spin off up to 20 percent of its movie, TV and music division. He says the money should be used strengthen Sony's ailing device manufacturing unit.

Sony has said it is considering the proposal from Third Point hedge fund, led by activist investor and billionaire Loeb, but it has also asked for more time to look at all sides. Sony shares have risen after the Loeb proposal.

Also helping Sony's bottom line for the latest quarter was its financial business, such as insurance, because of a recent recovery in the Japanese stock market, it said.

Sony, which makes the PlayStation 3 game machine and Walkman portable recorder, has suffered declining fortunes for several years.

It got slammed in portable digital players by the iPod and iPhone from Apple Inc. and intense competition from powerful South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co. has also taken its toll.

Sony sank to record losses for the fiscal year ended March 2012 ? the worst result in its more than six decade corporate history.

The company barely dragged itself back into the black for the fiscal year ended March.

An expensive yen had been a key culprit in its woes.

Sony's TV division has lost money for nine straight years. President Kazuo Hirai has repeatedly promised to end the TV losses during this fiscal year through March 2014. Sony achieved profitability in TVs for the latest April-June quarter on the back of its 4K TVs, an extremely high-end product.

Also for the quarter, Sony's movie business did well with the worldwide release of "Men in Black 3." Its music business included the release of popular albums Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" and "The Truth about Love," by P!nk, it said.

Sony is also set to come out with its latest video game machine, the PlayStation 4, for the year-end holidays in the U.S. and Europe.

But how the machine will translate into better profits for Sony remains unclear. Increased research costs sent Sony's game division into an operating loss for the latest quarter.

"It was a so-so quarter," Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said, as the entertainment and financial businesses did well, and the struggling electronics unit was showing signs of improvement. "We think the first quarter is a good indicator that we are going in the right direction."

Sony kept its profit forecast for the full fiscal year unchanged at 50 billion yen ($500 million), but raised its sales forecast slightly to 7.9 trillion yen ($79 billion) from the 7.5 trillion ($75 trillion) it projected in May.

Sharp Corp., a Japanese electronics maker in deeper trouble than even Sony, reported Thursday that April-June quarter losses totaled 18 billion yen ($180 million), better than its 138 billion yen ($1.4 billion) loss for the same period a year earlier.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-08-01-Japan-Earns-Sony/id-90d3f2d4359a4b34b5955c5b40aef415

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Grand Canyon University's strong 2Q growth helps fuel expansion into Mesa

Grand Canyon University is looking even stronger financially as it plans to invest $150 million to build a second campus in Mesa.

GCU officials announced plans today for a campus that could be as large as 160 acres at a time when net income and revenue continue to increase.

For the three months ended June 30, GCU reported $19.1 million in net income on net revenue of $141.5 million. That?s up from $15.6 million in net income of $119.3 million in net revenue during the same period in 2012.

Six-month earnings also look solid, with $40 million in net income on $283.5 million in net revenue for the first half of 2013, up from $30.1 million in net income on $236.4 million in net revenue during the first half of 2012.

Enrollment at its 115-acre Phoenix campus at 33rd Avenue and Camelback Road was 3,415 as of June 30, plus an additional 47,785 online students. Overall, GCU reported 51,200 students, an increase of 15.2 percent from a year earlier. Broken out, ground enrollment increased 47.6 percent and online enrollment increased 13.4 percent over the prior year.

Brian Mueller, president and CEO of GCU, told analysts in an investor conference call today that he plans to spend $50 million initially to start building classrooms, laboratories, a student union, library and some athletic fields. He said he would expect to spend another $40 million each year in 2016, 2017 and 2018 to build out the campus to house 7,000 to 8,000 students.

?We would have the option to purchase 60 more (acres) from there,? he said.

Plans also call for moving GCU?s 100,000-square-foot administrative center with 1,000 employees to the Mesa campus.

Angela Gonzales covers health, biotech and education.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_13/~3/ZgMzZLY9vQ4/grand-canyon-universitys-strong-2q.html

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Opinion: Home windows RT: time?s up regarding Microsoft?s poor idea

Microsoft didn?t have a clue what it was doing along with Windows RT. And if it would, its method was a total fiasco and it spent an awful lot of money believing its own buzz.

Now that Asus will be pulling again from the beleaguered ARM-only OS, describing that "it feels right not very promising." It ties together an elite band of traditional Laptop or computer vendors which decided that Microsoft?s Windows touch fantasy was happier running with an Intel processor chip. You know, a single with the ability to use legacy programs and the Desktop computer just as everybody has done considering that Windows 89.

Asus joins Check out the, which was the opposite vendor most invested in Home windows RT. It unveiled the Ativ Bill RT which was rarely available everywhere, then terminated its upcoming Windows RT product plans.

Then there were Toshiba, which usually just did not bother introducing. And Asus also joins Lenovo, which usually launched the particular Yoga 11 only to usurp the idea with the Intel-powered Yoga exercises 11S within a few months.

Microsoft: emphasis on Start off Screen shackled Glass windows 8

That just leaves Microsoft?s Surface RT and the Dell XPS Ten hanging within. But they will not around for very long. Despite House windows RT 8.1 having been previewed, RT is actually dead using this latest news.

Microsoft isn?t praoclaiming that, of course, nevertheless it has just intensely discounted Surface RT, which it created far too many of. How can RT quite possibly have a upcoming?

End of the road

The unfortunate thing is the idea of RT was sound. More affordable Windows units were likely to make touchscreen-capable Windows increasingly offered. But suppliers didn?t are interested ? not least because most of them have big deals with Apple company ? as well as consumers were totally bemused from the proposition.

Windows RT products were generally more expensive when compared with an apple ipad tablet, while you could get a House windows 8 touchscreen laptop approximately the same price.

But it isn?t like many of us didn?t observe all this on its way. Two years in the past we wondered how Microsof company would take care of buyers? hope that the desktop computer in Windows RT would support legacy applications.

Last October following the Windows 7 and Glass windows RT launch, we all again wondered why the main difference between the House windows 8 variations wasn?t being explained, even with Microsoft guaranteeing us only two days previously that the distinction would be made clear.

If you don?t consider us, check out this official Microsoft page in Surface RT. This doesn?t happen even take the time mentioning legacy of music or desktop apps. Microsof company just didn?t give RT the support it badly needed. And that?s why it cannot have had a clue what it had been doing.

Microsoft?s reshuffle needs to be Ballmer?s last throw of the dice

Not minimum, it was without a clue using the name. Windows RT isn?t Windows 8. Home windows RunTime? That which was that regarding? If it had not been originally meant as a client brand, what?s it doing on the Microsoft Surface internet site? And considering that it does end up being the client brand, exactly what were the marketing department on?

And after that there were your apps. The newest Windows 8/Windows RT apps aren?t yet a solid enough environment. A lot of big-name apps are still missing (like Facebook or myspace, in which ?microsoft? owns any stake). A number of are dreadful, like the Skype app (which Microsoft owns). Among others just never fit with Computer?s desktop workflow, just like Dropbox or SkyDrive (that is Microsoft?s personal cloud support).

What next with regard to Microsoft?

ARM must be furious, and also other Windows RT partners such as Qualcomm and Nvidia ? indeed, the latter?s Top dog Jen-Hsun Huang didn?t mince terms when he recently said "everybody expected to have sold over we does."

If there is a winner here, it really is Intel, which in turn once again offers little danger to its Computer processor monopoly. However as it is furthermore struggling within the tablet marketplace, it?s a somewhat hollow triumph.

The new ?microsoft? ? known as One ?microsoft? in its restructuring blurb * needs to study this ordeal quick sensible, repair the damaged relations with companions and get several incredible Home windows 8.A single hardware available.

Source: http://www.lazyhacks.com/2013/07/opinion-home-windows-rt-times-up-regarding-microsofts-poor-idea.html

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Mirrors: Tortured souls

This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Mirrors: Tortured souls"

You may edit this first post as you see fit.

Disorder | Rating
Paranoid: Moderate
Schizoid: Moderate
Schizotypal: Very High
Antisocial: Low
Borderline: Very High
Histrionic: Low

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/BqYV24mMwh4/viewtopic.php

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Ingenious Dutch research center boasts one patent created 'every 20 minutes'

The city responsible for the first solar-powered family car and a building shaped like a UFO is no stranger to creativity. Eindhoven, Netherlands was recently named "most inventive city" by Forbes magazine, probably thanks to the High Tech Campus (HTC) research and development center located there. The HTC is the result of the Dutch government's initiative to bolster high-tech innovation in the region after rounds of layoffs from companies like Philips. Scads of tech firms are holed up within HTC's walls including IBM, Intel and Accenture, with a focus on open cooperation and sharing of ideas and resources. Apparently, this has paid off in spades. According to the HTC's website, the campus is responsible for roughly 50 percent of the Netherlands' almost 10,000 patents each year. Yowza.

[Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: Phys

Source: Forbes

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/nOYqBp-wEMI/

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The Secret Deals That Make YouTube Buffer - Gizmodo

If you ever find yourself having to wait for YouTube to buffer video?but ads, they load just fine?then don't worry, you're not alone. In fact, it's likely you're on the receiving end of a corporate deal which limits how much you can enjoy online video.

Ars Technica has a wonderful feature about how the world's biggest Internet providers and video services enter into negotiations about how much networks should pay to connect to others. More importantly, the article discusses what happens when those talks go sour:

These business decisions involve "peering" agreements that Internet companies make to pass traffic from one to another and negotiations over caching services that store videos closer to people's homes so they can load faster in your browser. When Internet providers refuse to upgrade peering connections, traffic gets congested. When ISPs refuse to use the caching services offered by the likes of Google and Netflix, video has to travel farther across the Internet to get to its final destination?your living room.

It all comes down to every party being greedy?hardly shocking?and hazy rules surrounding the technicalities of peering:

The core of the Internet, the closest thing it has to a "backbone," is a dozen or so networks consisting of data centers throughout the world. These networks, operated by private businesses, are called "Tier 1" because they can reach every part of the Internet simply by peering with one another... Tier 1 networks don't need to buy "transit"?an arrangement where one company pays another to accept its traffic and distribute it to all networks connected to the Internet. Smaller networks do...

All in, the conflicts that brings are many, varied?and enough to screw the users. You should definitely read the Ars article, which spells all this out in great detail. But there is, perhaps, some good news:

Traditionally, traffic loads have been thought to be "in balance" if each peer sends about as much traffic to the other peer as it receives... But the direction in which traffic flows has no impact on how much it costs to carry it. Because video streaming traffic dominates the Web, so-called "eyeball" networks (ISPs who deliver traffic over the last mile) can never be in balance with the networks that deliver video under the old measurement. Instead, [there's a move] to measure via "bit miles," the distance traffic is carried and the number of bits carried, regardless of which direction the traffic flows.

Of course, whether that'll catch on remains anyone's guess?because it's not necessarily something that works in the favor of the big players. Sadly, you may have to watch that spinning circle a while longer. [Ars Technica]

Image by Rego - d4u.hu under Creative Commons license

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-secret-deals-that-mean-you-have-to-wait-for-youtube-947766871

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