Ahead of releasing their fourth quarter earnings yesterday afternoon, though, Netflix had given investors plenty of reason to expect unpleasant results. Surprisingly, Netflix announced that they actually exceeded Wall Street’s expectations by nearly $20 million by posting an earning of $875.5 million for the 2011 fiscal year. Netflix shares on the stock market were up to $0.73, higher than the original projection of $0.54.

Tracing back across the four financial quarters of 2011, Netflix never really took a substantial hit after their abysmal public relations adventure from the summer of last year. Incredibly, subscribers were apparently not terribly put off by being charged higher prices for subscribing to both streaming and DVD services because the amount of domestic describers actually increased from the Q3 to Q4.

Netflix also managed to contain the fallout of the price hike over the summer and subsequent snafu regarding Qwikster, or so it appears, because they actually collected 24.3 million subscribers, which is up from 24.3 in Q3 2011 and nearly 25% more subscribers than they had in Q4 2010 when they had 19.5 million subscribers.

Netflix’s net income, however, was substantially lower in the fourth quarter, down from $62.4 million in Q3 to $40.7 million in Q4.

In a Q&A following the release of the financial results, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Netflix CFO David Welles took some questions regarding the implications of their company’s financial performance in 2011. They discussed their plans to branch out into Latin America, where they launched services in September 2011.

A notable comment from Hastings during the Q&A pertained to the possible addition of video games to Netflix catalog. Addressing whether Netflix would begin to offer a video game subscription service, Hastings was brief in saying, “We have no plans to enter video games.”

So far today, Netflix shares appear to be experiencing quite a bounce this morning following yesterday’s financial release, as shares are now up nearly 20% and valued at approximately $114.

From the press release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced quarterly revenue of $20.89 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2011, a 5% increase from the prior year period. Operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $7.99 billion, $6.62 billion, and $0.78 per share, compared with $8.17 billion, $6.63 billion and $0.77 per share, respectively, in the prior year period. Prior year results include recognition of $224 million of deferred revenue related to the Office 2010 technology guarantee program.

That 5% increase is a pretty big take for Microsoft; a record-setting take, actually. This is also on the heels of a record-setting first quarter this year, as well, when Microsoft posted earnings of $17.4 billion.

“We delivered solid financial results, even as we prepare for a launch year that will accelerate many of our key products and services,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show, we’re seeing very positive reviews for our new phones and PCs, and a strong response to our new Metro style design that will unify consumer experiences across our phones, PCs, tablets, and television in 2012.”

“We saw strong demand for our business products and services, despite the soft PC market and continuing economic uncertainty in key parts of the world,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “We delivered record earnings per share by continuing to manage our costs while investing for future growth.”

Some of Microsoft’s beaucoup bucks this quarter can be attributed to their electronic devices that have remained pretty popular among people who like electronics.

“In addition to the continued strength of our commercial business, this holiday season was the strongest in Microsoft history, thanks to good sales execution and compelling products like Xbox 360 and Kinect,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “We are seeing a lot of excitement for new devices, from Windows 7 Ultrabooks to new Windows Phones, as well as growing anticipation for Windows 8.”

Oddly enough, Microsoft’s shares haven’t really seen any kind of bounce following this good news, but they are planning a press conference later today at 2:30PM PST, which will be broadcast as a live webcast, so maybe that will pump up the bucks for Microsoft’s stock.

Yahoo Finance was ahead in this market for years on end.  Offerings from Google, Microsoft, and whatever else you can think of never got ahead – regardless of its search standing, Yahoo was always on top.  Until now.

Michael Arrington reports, "AOL rose from 12.2 million unique visitors in November to 13.5 million in December, a 10% increase.  Meanwhile Yahoo dipped from 13.7 to 13.2 million unique visitors, and MSN Money dipped from 11.6 to 11 million visitors.  The combined decrease in Yahoo’s and MSN’s audiences is almost equal to the gains by made by AOL."

Of course, those numbers still don’t assure AOL of everlasting triumph – AOL Money & Finance Beta is just a small slip away from going back to second place (or worse).  This is a genuinely impressive accomplishment, though, and perhaps a sort of vindication of some of the recent layoffs.

Yahoo, on the other hand, might be looking at even more layoffs as a result.

Time Warner’s stock has sunk by about $1.25 over the past two days.  Granted, $1.25 doesn’t sound like much, but it equals a loss of roughly 6.75 percent.  Also, although lots of companies see stock fluctuations that don’t necessarily reflect a change in their core business – Google’s stock dropped $40 yesterday, for example – this isn’t one of those cases.

A Time Warner report acknowledges that, in the third quarter of 2007, AOL’s overall revenues were down by 38 percent.  Subscription revenues suffered an even worse fall, plummeting by 56 percent.  Furthermore, as most people who are familiar with the AOL know, that last trend isn’t likely to reverse itself in the near future, which leaves the company in need of a quick substitute.

On that subject, the news isn’t all bad – Time Warner notes that losses were “offset partially by a 13% increase ($61 million) in Advertising revenues.”  Rumors about Platform A indicate that it will receive most of AOL’s attention in the future, too.

Still, the company’s not exactly a money machine in its current state.  Maybe the people who were fired are better off without it.

The site has plans to unveil a sports site in early 2007 and a site for teens by the end of the year. The sites will mix original programming and user- generated content.

“2006 was a wonderful year for Heavy. Visitors to the site more than doubled and we grew our ad sales and management team, resulting in a 350% revenue increase,” said David Carson, co-CEO of Heavy. “Our goal was to prove our advertising revenue model before expanding into new territories and markets, we’re now well positioned to expand with confidence and surpass those numbers in 2007. This investment enables us to do so quickly.”

Heavy also has plans to launch their site in international markets. Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia are on the list with possible future plans to enter the European and Asian markets.

Mike Hirshland, partner of Polaris Venture Partners said, “Heavy is building a true 21st century media company which combines internally developed content with great consumer generated content and with a sustainable revenue model. As advertisers expand their online video budgets in 2007, they are looking to work with the few online brands that can effectively deliver audience in scale. Heavy is ideally positioned to secure a place as an important player in the emerging media landscape. We are excited to partner with the Heavy team to help build this business.”

Current advertisers with Heavy are Axe, Coke, Burger King and Sony. The company has plans for a variety of branded entertainment campaigns.

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Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

The 63 percent increase in revenue corresponded to an overall sum of $104.7 million, but the on-demand software manufacturer still lost $229,000. On a per-share basis, this roughly broke even, but it represented a disappointing state of affairs. In the year-ago period, Salesforce.com earned about 4 cents per share, or $4.4 million, with only $64.2 million in revenue.

There is one major factor behind the sinking bottom line-a simple change in accounting. Last year, the company didn’t have to include the cost of stock options in its income statement. This year, it did. But even taking this difference into account, the company’s bottom line showed little improvement. Not counting the options cost, Salesforce.com would only have earned $5 million, which would still equal about 4 cents per share.

These numbers beat the company’s own expectations, though, and those of analysts. Expected revenue fell in the range of $99 to $102 million, with expected earnings per share of 2 to 4 cents.

In more mixed news, the company’s subscription rates were lower this year than one year ago, but still fell within analysts’ expectations. The company’s subscriber base of 444,000 is up roughly 66 percent from the same period last year, and the number of customers has increased by 46 percent.

These numbers seem to indicate an acceptable performance. Salesforce.com is not doing a booming business, but they’re hanging in there just fine.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

The online auction company’s net income jumped to $255 million for eBay’s third quarter, an increase from $182.3 million for the same period in 2004, eBay said in an earnings announcement.

Its revenues were at the higher end of analyst expectations, reaching $1.11 billion for the quarter. Last year’s same period revenue was just under $806 million. For the year, eBay has revised its earnings forecast down to between 96 cents and $1.01 per share, where Wall Street had expected $1.03 per share.

In the announcement, eBay’s CFO Rajiv Dutta said the company had been focusing on spurring more use out of its US and German customer basis. And by adding reviews on the site, search engines can pick up that information and include it in search results, a way to get free placement in indexes like Google and Yahoo that can help drive traffic to eBay.

Dutta will be changing jobs soon. After eBay finds a replacement for him as CFO, Dutta will become president of Skype, the VoIP provider eBay purchased recently in a deal that could end up being worth $4.1 billion.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

Next January, Time Warner will take Fortune.com, Business2.com, and FSB.com (Fortune Small Business), and merge them all with CNNMoney.com, according to AdAge.

It’s all about less movement and more viewers. Less movement, because visitors won’t have to go to four separate sites to find each one’s distinct content. More viewers, Time Warner hopes, will lead to happier advertisers.

Even by combining the audiences may not give CNNMoney.com much of a boost. Nielsen//NetRatings figures cited in the article show this breakdown of financial and news site traffic for August:

The combined unique visitors for the four merging sites only totaled 9.2 million in July, the article said.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

1) I will create and use a budget.

A budget helps you see exactly where your money is going from week to week and month to month. Creating and using a budget, no matter what your income level, will help you reach your financial goals more easily than without one.

2) I will use my budget to help reduce my credit card debts.

Let’s say you are able to save $20 a month by budgeting your money. You could take that $20 and place it in a savings account where you would earn minimal interest. Or you could use that same $20 and add it to your budgeted credit card payment reducing your credit debt in two ways. You’ll be reducing the amount you owe your creditor and you’ll also reduce the finance charge on next month’s bill.

3) I will pay more than the minimum due on my credit card bills.

If you just pay the minimum due on credit card bills, you’ll barely cover the interest you owe. It will take you years to pay off your balance and you’ll end up spending thousands of dollars more than the original amount you charged.

4) I will make my payments on time and avoid late fees.

Making late payments adds to your debt load and may increase the annual percentage rate (APR) your creditors charge you. Additionally, late payments are reported to the credit reporting agencies and negatively affect your credit rating.

5) I will not use my credit card at an ATM or a bank for a cash advance.

Cash advances on credit cards are assessed special fees and higher interest rates than what you pay for purchases made with your credit card. Creditors apply the majority of your monthly payment to your purchase debt rather than cash advance debt which increases the overall amount of interest you’ll pay to your creditor.

6) I will spend my money sensibly.

Using your budget, you may find that you’re spending a good chunk of your income on discretionary items: morning coffee and donut, a weekly magazine, fast food lunches, etc. Each purchase seems like a small amount of money at the time, maybe $3-5. But these small purchases add up quickly and amount to hundreds of dollars a year. Ask yourself if you really need these items and reduce your amount of discretionary spending. Use your savings to pay down credit card debt.

7) I will live within my means.

Are you an impulse buyer? Do you use your credit cards to supplement your income? Do you feel the need to have the latest fashions, cars, stereos, etc.? If you answered yes to any of these questions, chances are good that you are overspending. And overspending means more debt – debt that will keep you from achieving your financial goals.

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James is editor of “TO YOUR CREDIT”, a free
weekly newsletter with tips to help you manage your personal
finances. Subscribe today and receive his e-book IDENTITY
THEFT- How To Avoid Becoming the Next Victim! and other
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I have determined that financially, people fall into one of three categories.

1. Family 1 has all the money they need for necessities and more and manage it very well.

2. Family 2 has all the money they need for necessities and more but live payday to payday with ever increasing debt.

3. Family 3 don’t have enough money for necessities.

The funny thing about the three families above is that they could have exactly the same income and family size. This is not to say that special circumstances has nothing to do with it, but on the average most people live above their means.

Family 1 has established a workable budget. They don’t pay more than they can afford for housing, transportation, utilities, etc. They also have money set aside for long and short term savings. This short term savings provides two things. First, it makes money available when the car breaks down, you need a new washer or any number of unexpected expenses that crop up. Second, it prevents the need to use credit cards for these items. The savings here could be hundreds of dollars. Family 1 planned.

Family 2 is still struggling to establish a budget. In many cases their house payments or rent is much more than they can afford. They don’t take the time to evaluate the money that could be saved with little effort. Usually there is no short term savings, let alone short term. They use credit cards as if they were cash and pay hundreds of dollars in unnessary finance charges and penalities. These people find themselves with financial problems that often leads to bankruptcy. Family 2 either didn’t plan or may not know how the handle their finances.

Family 3 has given up on a budget. No matter what they do there isn’t enough money to pay for housing and other necessities. They struggle to put food on the table. Most don’t qualify for credit cards, which is a good thing. In some cases this situation is self inflicted and some are due to circumstances.

What is the answer to these problems?

Family 1 – Leave these people alone unless you plan to ask their advice.

Family 2 – These are the people that need to seek help and stand a chance of becoming a family 1 family. The possible solutions include a debt management company like Consumer Credit Counseling Service. They need to establish a budget and stick to it. If their housing and other expenses are too high, then they need to cut back, even if they have to move. They also need to cut up the credit cards and think about consolidating. Depending on how far they are in debt, this could take years.

Family 3 – While their struggle seems useless, there are things that can be done. First, they need to see to it that everything is being done to keep expenses down. The electric bill is a good example. There is federally subsidized housing that only charges a small fee based on your income. Make sure that they are receiving all federal and state benefits that they are entitled. If they are able, they should seek job training or some other means to make their life a little better.

Which family are you? No matter whether your are family 1, 2 or 3, there is hope. The primary thing that must be done is to educate everyone that learning to managing their finances is absolutely for their peace of mind. With the vast amount of information on the internet providing help, this is possible.

If you are a family 2 or 3 family, “The Complete Budget and Bill Organizer” http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/BBOonline.html can help.

Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means – The Easy
Way http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage.html and editor
of The FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and Budget Stretcher
web site http://www.homemoneyhelp.com. He has 25 years of
experience counseling individuals and families concerning their
personal finances.