financials

Although Apple's iPad stole the show in the company's latest earnings report, its iPhone is the breadwinner.

Between April 2010 and March 2012, Apple was able to secure gross margins of 49 percent to 58 percent on U.S. iPhone sales, according to Reuters, which obtained the data from court documents unsealed yesterday and filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Apple's iPad, on the other hand, generated gross margins of 23 percent to 32 percent between October 2010 and March 2012.

Apple does not provide gross margin figures on individual … Read more

Facebook investors are bracing for yet another disappointing day on the Nasdaq.

The social network's shares are trading down 12.8 percent to $23.40 in premarket trading today. If this keeps up and the stock closes the day around that level, it would mark the stock's lowest per-share closing price since Facebook went public in May. Facebook's lowest closing price so far is $25.52.

Facebook's drop is due to a disappointing showing in the second quarter that saw the world's largest social network post a loss of $157 million on $1.2 billion … Read more

There's no slowing Apple's iPad shipments, according to one analyst.

Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Company, wrote to investors today that Apple shipped 20 million iPads during the three-month period ended June, according to AppleInsider, which obtained a copy of his comments. Wolf initially said that Apple would ship 13 million iPads during the quarter.

If Apple actually shipped that many iPads last quarter, it would set a new record for the company. During the same period last year, Apple sold 9.25 million iPads. During the first quarter of the year, iPad sales hit 11.8 million. … Read more

Daily-deals provider Groupon has watched its shares plummet as the weak European market scares investors away.

The company's shares hit an all-time low yesterday of $7.72 before eventually climbing back to end the day at $7.77. According to analysts, who spoke with Reuters recently, Groupon derives a large portion of its revenue from Europe, and continued softness in that market is driving many investors away.

Groupon went public last year at $20 per share. Soon after, the company's shares fell. However, they rebounded earlier this year, making some wonder if the worst was behind it. Since … Read more

It's no secret that Research In Motion is in deep trouble. But most analysts expect the company to only further prove that point later today.

After the market closes, RIM will announce its fiscal first-quarter earnings, which consensus among Wall Street analysts pegs at a net loss of 3 cents per share on $3.1 billion in revenue. During the same period last year, RIM posted a profit of $1.33 per share on nearly $5 billion in revenue.

As one might expect, the more bearish analysts out there have been chiming in on their expectations for RIM's … Read more

Can't Nokia catch a break?

Analysts at Nomura today wrote in a note to investors that they had cut their estimates on Nokia's revenue next year down to 6 billion euros ($7.5 billion), according to Bloomberg, which obtained the note. The analysts had initially anticipated Nokia posting 10.9 billion euros in sales next year.

The analysts say that the revision is due to Microsoft's announcement this week that Windows Phone 7-based devices won't be upgradeable to Windows Phone 8. Instead, the handsets will receive an upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8 -- an operating … Read more

As expected, Olympus has confirmed that it'll be reducing its workforce by 7 percent, as the company tries to regain its footing in the wake of its crippling scandal.

According to Olympus, the company will cut 2,700 employees from its global workforce between now and March 31, 2014. The move is part of a broader restructuring that could see major changes across the company's subsidiaries, global production sites, and other divisions.

The cuts Olympus plans to make are actually a bit deeper than expected. Last week, Japanese news outlet Nikkei Business Daily reported that the company would cut approximately 2,500 jobs from its payroll. … Read more

Last time Jill Schlesinger was here, she advised all our listeners to be patient and wait to see how the Facebook IPO would react to the hype machine leading up to last Friday's open trading. Two weeks later, we hope you listened, or you may have lost some money.

Maybe not as much as Zuckerberg eating $2 billion, but either way you should tune into today's episode as Aunt Jill explains the two debacles that sent Facebook into a downward financial spiral.

Everyone needs an Aunt Jill, right? She'll answer a few of our listeners' questions this … Read more

Last update: 1:37 p.m. PT.

The world's largest social network is now a public company, and though it got off to a good start, the share price story for the day wasn't terribly inspiring.

Facebook today kicked off its IPO day at $38 a share, and in early trading, the company's stock jumped 12 percent to $42.50, and touched a high of $43.20.

But the shares took a startling plunge soon thereafter back to about the starting price before trending upward once again to just over $41 by early afternoon Eastern time. The … Read more