MercadoLibre Marches On

MercadoLibre (NASD: MELI), the leader in e-commerce in Latin America, announced fourth quarter earnings yesterday.

Their revenues for Q4 at $26.9 million, a year on year growth of 73.9%, were in line with market expectations. Their Marketplace revenues grew 61.5% to $21.1 million and Payments revenues grew 141.1% to $5.8 million over the same period last year. >>>

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Is Broadcom a Bargain?

Vijay Nagarajan recently completed his deep-dive analysis on Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM). My earlier posts are available here and here. >>>

What is Nortel’s Investment Thesis?

Last week on February 27, Nortel Networks Corporation [NYSE/TSX: NT] reported fourth quarter net loss of $844 million, or $1.70 per share. Added to the economic slowdown and low North American carrier spending, Nortel also had to deal with a change in Canadian tax profile with a $1.1 billion tax write-down. Following 2900 job cuts in 2007, it plans to save $300 million in 2008 by cutting 2100 more jobs and moving 1000 positions to high-growth, low-cost locations. Earlier coverage is available here and here. >>>

Dell Could Use a Mark Hurd

Yesterday, Dell posted its financial results for Q4 and fiscal year 2008 that ended February 1, 2008. Earlier coverage is available here and here. In my last post on Dell, I had said that its turnaround wasn’t going so badly, but that I would like to see a smartphone strategy. A smartphone isn’t on the horizon yet. Let us see how it fared this quarter. >>>

Intuit Needs a Painful Business Model Re-engineering

Last week, Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) reported its financial results. Earlier coverage is available here and here, where I have discussed that Intuit needs to move to a SaaS model, and get more of an International business going. >>>

No Weakness in ADP, Paychex

We have been looking at various Human Resources related services businesses recently, especially with a multi-part interview series with Michael Gregoire, CEO of Taleo (Nasdaq: TLEO). Taleo has not signaled any weakness due to the economy. One would expect the payroll providers to signal weakness. Let’s take a look at their numbers. >>>

Chips Look Cheap

I had earlier covered ST Micro, Texas Instruments, and ARM in the iPhone and The Future series and the iPhone’s Component Ecosystem series. Let’s take a look at them based on the Q4 earnings and current market dynamics. >>>

HP Results Delight, What Recession?

Are we in a recession? HP says a resounding NO.

Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ) joined Microsoft and IBM in producing excellent results. HP announced their first quarter results yesterday and beat all market expectations. With revenues of $28.5 Billion, they recorded a 13% growth over $25.1 Billion reported in the same period previous year. Sequentially the revenue was up marginally by 0.7% from $28.3 Billion for the previous quarter. The revenues were higher than market expectations of $27.6 Billion. >>>

SaaS Companies Perform Despite Recession Fears

In an earlier post, I had said that SaaS companies will see growth over the next 3-5 years with potentially some M&A activity this year. Let us look at them again based on recent results.
You can also read my interview with Michael Gregoire, CEO of Taleo and with Steve Singh of Concur. You can also read my Forbes article on why I think the next VMWare will emerge out of SaaS.

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Akamai Key to Net’s Future

On Feb 6, Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) reported its Q4 and 2007 financial results that were way above its guidance, driven by unexpected strength in media and entertainment. In after hours trading, Akamai shares went up 87 cents, or 2.9%, to $30.60.

I had earlier covered Akamai as part of the Online Video Beneficiaries series. I have also done an interview with its founder, Tom Leighton. >>>