Internet, Fourth Quarter Earnings | featured news

LinkedIn reported fourth quarter 2012 earnings that beat Street expectations, sending shares soaring in late trading.

The China-based search engine Baidu this afternoon reported Q4 results that were a smidgen ahead of the Street consensus estimates.

Facebook has faced a few controversies in the past few months, including controversies over privacy policies on its own site and on its photo-sharing site, Instagram. Still, the company has bolstered investor confidence with a series of moves that seem to lay the groundwork for Facebook to make more advertising dollars, particularly in the all-important mobile space.

Amazon.com Inc shares hit a record on Tuesday after it reported better-than-expected quarterly profit, fueled by the growth of higher-margin businesses during the fiercely competitive holiday quarter.

Netflix stock is on its way to its biggest one-day gain since the video subscription service went public more than a decade ago. The stock had climbed $38.40, or 37 percent, to $141.66 in early afternoon trading Thursday as investors celebrated a fourth-quarter earnings report that Netflix Inc. released late Wednesday. Earlier in the session, the shares hit a new 52-week high of $149.17.

EBay Inc reported holiday quarter results that just beat Wall Street expectations, but the e-commerce company also gave a cautious forecast for 2013. EBay shares climbed 1.7 percent to $53.80 in after-hours trading following the announcement. Expectations were high ahead of the results because sales data from outside sources suggested strong sales growth from eBay's online marketplace and a solid increase in transactions processed by the company's PayPal payments business.

Groupon Inc reported a quarterly net loss Wednesday as the largest daily deal company recorded higher taxes overseas.

The online travel website has seen better quarters, with higher taxes, increased spending on technology and content, and a push and pull between airlines and global distribution systems that took a toll in the last quarter of 2010. The stock was down more than 18% Friday at $21.06.

Amazon.com posted quarterly revenue that fell short of analysts' estimates on Thursday and its shares fell almost 10 percent.

Yahoo Inc's quarterly net revenue slid 4 percent and it forecast a further slide this quarter as it struggles to revive growth in the face of intense competition from Google and Facebook.