Comcast
Higher fourth-quarter earnings were propelled mainly by a boost in broadband and phone revenue. And on the eve of congressional hearings over its proposed purchase of a controlling stake in NBC Universal, Comcast said Wednesday it will change the name of its cable-TV, Internet and phone services to XFinity.
Comcast earned $955 million, or 33 cents per share, in the fourth quarter. That’s more than double the $412 million, or 14 cents per share, earned in the year-earlier period, which included a $600 million writedown of its investment in Clearwire Corp. Revenue rose 2.9 percent to $9.06 billion.
Cisco
Its first sales increase in a year blew past its own forecast for the latest quarter as it leaves the recession behind. Chief executive John Chambers said Wednesday that improvement was dramatic “across the board” and provides “a clear indication that we are entering the second phase of the economic recovery.”
Cisco said it earned $1.9 billion, or 32 cents per share. That’s up 23 percent from $1.5 billion, or 26 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 8 percent to $9.8 billion.
Time Warner
Improving results at its movie studio and cable networks boosted fourth-quarter revenue, and smaller one-time expenses helped it post a profit after reporting a loss a year ago.
Time Warner, which also owns Time Inc. magazines, said it earned $627 million, or 53 cents per share, in the last three months of 2009.
Pfizer
Fresh from its mega-acquisition of rival Wyeth, the drugmaker posted a big jump in revenue that beat Wall Street expectations. The maker of Viagra and cholesterol fighter Lipitor said its revenue in the fourth quarter came to $16.54 billion. Net income amounted to $767 million.
