Apple mulling Hulu acquisition?

Apple has reportedly joined a growing list of companies said to be considering a bid for Hulu.
The iPad maker and iTunes purveyor is in early talks that may lead to an acquisition of the online video service, two unidentified sources told Bloomberg.
Apple could not immediately be reached for comment, and Hulu representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple, which currently holds $76.2 billion in cash and securities, has hinted that more content is coming to Apple's iTunes catalog, and Hulu's subscription service would instantly bolster its offerings and let it mount a greater challenge to Netflix and Amazon.
During Apple's Tuesday earnings call, Brian Marshall from Gleacher and Company asked why iTunes didn't have more TV and movie titles available and what Apple was doing to expand its offerings.
Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer responded, saying that the selection of movies and TV shows was "very, very broad," especially in the U.S., and that the company was adding more in other countries each quarter.
"Look for some more content later this quarter across the various stores," Oppenheimer said. "We have some neat stuff coming."
Hulu's current owners--Walt Disney, News Corp., Comcast, and equity firm Providence Equity Partners--have reportedly attracted a slew of interest from potential buyers since they put the company up for sale last month.
Yahoo has reportedly offered to pay up to $2 billion to acquire Hulu if the deal includes four or five years of exclusive access to current TV shows and older movies. However, Hulu's owners have reportedly been willing to offer the five years of access but only two years of exclusivity.
Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have also reportedly shown interest in Hulu, along with a host of other suitors. But Microsoft has since reportedly dropped out of the bidding.
In the last few years, Apple has held back on making major acquisitions, short of buying up mobile-advertising network Quattro Wireless for $275 million, and semiconductor maker Intrinsity for a reported $121 million, both in 2010.

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Microsoft results top expectations, led by Office, Xbox

Microsoft bested analyst revenue and earnings expectations today with fourth-quarter results buoyed by continued solid sales from its Office franchise and its server software business, as well as strong gains from its booming Xbox operations.

For the fiscal fourth quarter that ended June 30, Microsoft posted operating income of $6.17 billion, a 4 percent gain from the year-ago period, on sales of $17.37 billion, an 8 percent jump. Earnings per share climbed 35 percent to 69 cents.
For the year, Microsoft posted operating income of $27.16 billion, up 13 percent, on sales of $69.94 billion, a 12 percent gain from fiscal 2010. Earnings per share grew 28 percent to $2.69.
"Throughout fiscal 2011, we delivered to market a strong lineup of products and services, which translated into double-digit revenue growth and operating margin expansion," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said in a statement. "Our platform and cloud investments position us for long-term growth."
Wall Street analysts had expected Microsoft to earn 58 cents per share, up from 51 cents a year ago, on revenue of $17.23 billion, up 7 percent.
Despite the solid results, Microsoft's Windows franchise continues to slide. Revenue in Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division fell about 1 percent to $4.7 billion. Operating income for the group dropped 4 percent to $2.9 billion. The culprit: consumer PC sales, which fell 2 percent in the quarter, according to Microsoft. That dip comes amid a solid recovery in business spending, which helped push business PC sales up 8 percent.
Heading into results, analysts cast a wary eye on Windows revenue in the wake of recent projections from research firms IDC and Gartner that PC shipments rose just 2.3 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, in the quarter.
The Windows slide, though, was more than offset by gains in the company's other franchise business. Microsoft's Business Division--home of its Office productivity suite--continues to post sizable gains despite the age of its core product. The group generated $5.8 billion in sales, a 7 percent jump from the fiscal fourth quarter of 2010. That led to operating income for the group of $3.6 billion, a 12 percent bump.
Microsoft's Server and Tools division remains another consistent growth engine. Revenue at the unit grew 12 percent in the quarter to $4.6 billion, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. The division's operating income hit $1.8 billion, a 14 percent jump.
And the Entertainment and Devices division, home to the company's Xbox business, saw revenue soar 30 percent in the quarter to $1.5 billion on the continued strength of the console, which has outsold rivals for 12 of the past 13 months. In the quarter, more than 1.7 Xbox consoles sold, and Microsoft said it now has more than 35 million Xbox Live customers.
That helped the Entertainment division turn a $32 million operating profit in the quarter, compared with a $172 million loss in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2010.
"We've got great momentum in the marketplace," Klein said during a conference call with analysts after the results were released. "You see the strategy really coming together in that business."
Microsoft's Online Services division, which includes the Bing search engine, saw modest growth off a relatively tiny base but continues to hemorrhage cash. Operating losses at the unit expanded 6 percent to $728 million on revenue of $662 million, a 17 percent jump.
During the conference call, Klein also addressed the challenges that Microsoft is having with its adCenter technology, the system for buying and delivering online ads that Yahoo is now using. Yahoo, which reported lackluster results on Tuesday, noted that it continues to see lower-than-expected revenue per search from the Microsoft technology. Like Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz, Klein said Microsoft is working on the problem and expects to have it resolved by January.
"We still face monetization challenges and continue to work closely with Yahoo," Klein said. "We'll have this turned around by the end of the year and we're totally committed to doing this."
Microsoft continues to generate huge sums of cash from its core businesses. At the end of the quarter, Microsoft was sitting on $52.7 billion, up 43 percent from June 30, 2010.
That cash allows the company to continue returning money, in various forms, to shareholders. In the fiscal year, Microsoft spent $16.9 billion on dividends and stock buybacks.
Wall Street seemed largely unimpressed by the results. In after-hours trading, Microsoft shares have barely budged, falling 9 cents to $27.

(Credit: Microsoft)

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Bill Gates calls for reinvention of toilet: Why?

Bill Gates may have given up running Microsoft, but he isn't taking his retirement sitting down. The software-entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist's charitable foundation has launched a new initiative aimed at improving the health of the billions of people who have no safe, sanitary way to get rid of their waste.
That's right, Bill Gates wants to reinvent the toilet.

"No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by invention of the toilet," Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's global development program, said in an address at a conference in Kigali, Rwanda, according to a written statement released by the foundation. "But it did not go far enough. It only reached one-third of the world. What we need are new approaches."
Forty percent of the world's population lacks access to flush toilets, and more than a billion people defecate in the open, according to the statement. That's not only revolting, but also tragic. UNICEF estimates that at least 1.2 million children under age 5 die of diarrhea each year, and contact with human feces is the main cause, Time reported.
Access to toilets could go a long way to preventing these deaths, the statement said.
In addition to preventing diarrhea, better access to toilets could boost school and work attendance of girls and women, who risk embarrassment and sexual assault when forced to relieve themselves in the open or use public restrooms.
To jump-start the effort, the foundation is ponying up $42 million in grants aimed at spurring innovation in the "capture and storage of waste." It will also work with local communities to end open defecation and boost access to "sanitation solutions."
What sorts of solutions are envisioned? The foundation is working to develop waterless toilets that do not rely on sewer connections and that might turn human waste into fertilizer, fuel, or even safe drinking water.
In one project the foundation is funding, a team from Stanford University is looking to build a system in Nairobi, Kenya, that would turn human waste into charcoal, the Seattle Times reported. And a Swiss team is working on a toilet that would turn urine into water used for cleaning.
The World Toilet Organization has more on toilets, sanitation, and health.

 

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Google launches iPhone app for Google+

Google has launched an iOS app to use its Google+ service, an important milestone for the fledgling social network that today caters to the techie in-crowd.
Google Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra announced the iOS Google+ app today. "Share just the right stuff, with just the right circles," he said.
Google+ expanded to reach more than 10 million people last week and still is growing. When it launched, Google issued an Android app to use it, but iOS customers were left only with the Web interface.
Like the Android app, the iOS version lets people monitor their stream of posts from people they follow, the "incoming" posts from people who follow them, and nearby posts from those who are geographically proximate.
It also lets people publish posts to circles, the groups of people that Google+ users define when they want to communicate with a private group.
Also in the mobile app is the huddle feature to set up impromptu chat rooms with contacts.

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