Adobe Lays Solid Foundation

Digital document specialist Adobe posted strong
fourth-quarter results in its last quarter before folding in Macromedia.

The company posted earnings of $156.3 million, or 31 cents per share, for
the three-month period. That’s up from $113 million, or 23 cents per share,
for the same period last year.

The results don’t include contributions from Macromedia, which Adobe
recently agreed to buy. That acquisition closed Dec. 3, the day after the company’s
fourth quarter ended.

Shares of Adobe added 41 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.93 ahead of the news
and tacked on another 2 percent in after-hours trading.

Oracle also posted results after the market closed. The
company’s net income slipped during its second quarter of fiscal 2006,
thanks to mostly one-time charges and amortization costs.

The enterprise software player reported revenues of $3.3 billion for the
quarter, up by 19 percent from the same, year-ago quarter of $2.7 billion.
But at 15 cents, earnings per share slipped by a penny from the same time a
year ago.

Net income was $798 million, down about 2 percent from last year’s quarterly
profit of $815 million.

Amortization costs were among the key reasons, ballooning to $126 million
from $7 million during the same time a year ago, as Oracle continued to
digest its acquisitions and support PeopleSoft customers. Sales and
marketing costs rose by 27 percent $706 million.

Although Oracle stock closed up at $12.83, it had slipped by 3.5 percent to
$12.38 after-hours trading.

Elsewhere, semiconductor and memory chip makers enjoyed a strong day.

Leading the way was Flash storage card maker SanDisk Corp. , which jumped $4.97, or nearly 10 percent, to $56.20.

Macronix also helped the integrated circuit sector’s
results, gaining 6 cents, or nearly 5 percent, to finish at $1.27 per
share. Intel bucked the trend, giving away a nickel to
26.58.

Meanwhile, Apple’s stock, which suffered two downgrades on Tuesday, held its ground today. Shares of the Mac and iPod
maker gained 17 cents to close at $72.18.

The Nasdaq shed nearly 2 points to 2,260. The S&P 500 dipped 2 to 1,270. And
the Dow lost almost 2 to 10,881. NYSE trading volume was fractionally lower
at 2.1 billion shares and unchanged on the Nasdaq, with 1.76 billion shares
trading hands.

Advancers couldn’t beat out decliners on either the NYSE
(1,230 to 2,084), nor the Nasdaq (1,182 to 1,841) today.