Demand Media’s much-anticipated initial public offering is coming next week, according to Kara Swisher, reporting for the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital. She says numerous sources "with knowledge of the situation" say it will happen after the company’s road show for investors. 

The fourth quarter of 2010 – which of course coincided with the all-important holiday shopping season – was a pretty good period for eBay.  The company reported its financial results this afternoon, and managed to come in above analysts’ forecasts.

The Russian search company that has had little difficulty fending off Google in its homeland is also doing rather well financially.  Today, Yandex announced its 2010 financial results, and the company saw its revenues increase by an impressive 43 percent compared to 2009.

That puts Yandex’s revenue for 2010 at about $410 million, which is a tidy enough sum.  As for some other achievements, an official announcement explained, "Revenues from contextual advertising grew 45% year-over-year."

Apple has announced its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2011. The company would appear to be way over consensus estimates, as it has posted yet another record quarter. 

We’ll be covering the call live, which is scheduled to begin at 5pm Eastern. Press release info below.

Live coverage begins (paraphrased)…

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer:

Extremely pleased: announces all time record quarterly revenue and earnings. (see release below).

Often enough, products, services, and contests that originate in the U.S. are just available and/or open to American citizens.  Now, in an unusual reversal of that custom, Goldman Sachs has announced that only clients who aren’t based in the U.S. will be allowed to buy shares of Facebook’s private stock through the firm.

BankSimple, the startup that’s supposed to disrupt the banking industry, has apparently made an important hire that may or may not have a direct impact on whether that actually happens. 

There are six days to go until Google announces its first quarter financial results, and as people begin to weigh in with predictions, the analysts at investment banking firm Evercore are optimistic that things will go well.  Indeed, Evercore upgraded Google and raised its price target today.

With respect to the first half of that development, Swetha Gopinath reported, "Evercore Partners upgraded Google Inc to ‘equal-weight’ from ‘underweight’ citing positive advertising trends on strong e-commerce spending but said Facebook remains a concern."

Mobile app maker Bump Technologies has raised a $16m series B round of funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz, and including investments from Sequoia and others. Netscape founder Marc Andreessen will also be joining their board along with Greg McAdoo from Sequoia.

Groupon announced that it has completed its $950 million round of financing, which has been discussed in the tech press over the last couple weeks. The company says it will use the funds to fuel global expansion, invest in technology, and provide liquidity for employees and early investors.

BGC Partners, a firm with roots dating back to 1945, has new confidence in eBay.  Today, BGC upgraded its outlook on eBay’s stock from hold to buy, and raised its price target by 25 percent, as well.

The new price target is $35, up from $28.  That’s not a huge vote of confidence, considering that eBay’s stock is currently trading at $27.77, but at least shows BGC doesn’t think eBay is stagnant.

By all accounts, private shares of Facebook are incredibly popular, with wealthy investors causing a virtual stampede over who will get to buy them through Goldman Sachs.  It’s a good bet that there will be widespread interest if/when Facebook goes public, too.  So to avoid being overshadowed, LinkedIn may IPO this year.

Everyone awed by Facebook’s $50 billion valuation may want to break away for at least a moment to consider Amazon’s future.  An analyst with Morgan Stanley has predicted that Amazon will generate an impressive $100 billion in revenue in 2015.

To put that in perspective: Amazon reported $7.56 billion in revenue during the third quarter of 2010, $6.57 billion during the second quarter, $7.13 billion during the first quarter, and $9.52 billion during the fourth quarter of 2009 (totaling $30.78 billion), so $100 billion in a single year will represent a huge increase.

It’s a happy new year indeed for Mark Zuckerberg and everyone with financial ties to Facebook.  Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies have invested $500 million in the company, according to a new report, and in doing so, valued it at $50 billion.

A couple points of reference: it was only 38 months ago that Microsoft drew laughter by paying $240 million for a 1.2 percent stake in Facebook, valuing it at $15 billion.  And Yahoo and eBay just have market caps of about $21.7 billion and $36.3 billion, respectively.

Anyone who’s looking to invest a little Christmas money might want to listen up.  While we’re neither backing nor attacking this advice, Hudson Square Research has initiated coverage on Google and Yahoo, labeling them both a "buy" and setting price targets significantly above the stocks’ current prices.

Groupon has reportedly closed a new round of funding at $950 million. According to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, who cites "a source with knowledge of the financing," Groupon is now valued at $4.57 billion.  Update: Arrington is now saying they have only closed half of that funding. 

Don’t look for employees at these companies to break out shredders – or even break a sweat – quite yet, but the Securities and Exchange Commission might be curious about certain details related to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Zynga.  Unconfirmed rumors indicate the SEC is looking into their privately traded stock.

The company that supposedly turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google has now given another sign that it has some very interesting financial plans.  Groupon announced today that it’s secured Jason Child, a high-ranking exec at Amazon, as its chief financial officer.

Child held the title "Vice President of Finance" for Amazon’s international business prior to this move, and that role put him in within a department worth about $14 billion.  So Child has valuable experience with large, public companies that operate in more than one country.

Shareholders may grumble, but there’s perhaps a bit of good news regarding the four percent of Yahoo’s employees who were laid off last week.  Yahoo’s calculated the pre-tax cost of the layoffs at somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million.

Early reviews of Hulu Plus weren’t too favorable, with most folks coming to the conclusion that Netflix was a better deal.  The newer service has cut its price and improved its content selection, however, and as a result, apparently caught on to the point that it helped Hulu earn an unanticipated $20 million.

Less than 24 hours after Twitter raised $200 million in funding at a valuation of $3.7 billion, there’s good news about Facebook on the financial front, as well.  A report’s claimed that Facebook will pull in a whopping $2 billion in sales revenue this year.

For most people with a financial interest in Twitter, these are going to be some happy holidays indeed.  The company’s confirmed a new round of funding, and reports indicate that it raised $200 million at a valuation of a stunning $3.7 billion.

Dick Costolo confirmed on the Twitter Blog that Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers was, as had been rumored, the leading force behind this round.  Then other "existing investors" participated, too, according to Twitter’s new CEO.