Revenue | featured news

The company reports a swing to an operating profit in its broadcasting unit despite lower revenue, but warns that its return to overall profitability may be delayed.

Foursquare is rolling out its first revenue product as the company moves from focusing on user growth to generating cash. The new Promoted Updates enables businesses to send promoted content to users. These updates will appear at the top in a prominent position in the “Explore” tab in Foursquare. That’s the section of the app that is for users to find businesses nearby. The Promoted Updates, like Google search ads, there is “intent” there while users are looking for a restaurant, bar or other business nearby, says Steven Rosenblatt, Foursquare’s chief revenue officer. Businesses pay on a “cost per action” performance basis for these ads. In some ways these updates are also like Twitter’s promoted Tweets.

A $10 priority-boarding fee here, a $25 checked-bag fee there; pretty soon, you’re talking real money. $22.6 billion, in fact. According to the annual Amadeus Review of Ancillary Revenue Results released Monday, that’s how much ancillary revenue 50 airlines around the world reported making in 2011, a 66-percent jump from the $13.5 billion that the 47 airlines that reported such income made in 2009.

Google Inc's revenue increased 21 percent as strength in its Internet advertising business offset a persisting drop in ad rates, stirring hopes among investors the Web search leader is close to slowing that decline.

The iPad, considered a side business for Apple when it was introduced in 2010, accounted for $9.15 billion in revenue in the holiday quarter, about 20 percent of Apple’s total revenue.

For all the huge numbers in Facebook's IPO papers, a surprisingly small figure stands out: $4.39, the amount the site generated per user last year....

College students clash with administrators over steeply rising tuition. Public employees shut down statehouses amid cuts to pay and retirement benefits. Teachers and social welfare advocates protest budget cuts. Lawmakers struggle to cope with sharp declines in tax revenue.

While the nation's airlines continue to blame higher fuel costs for cutting into profits, the industry continues to pocket hefty revenue from fees.

Facebook's first-half revenue roughly doubled to $1.6 billion, underscoring the world's largest social network's appeal to advertisers.