In today’s Bulldog wrapup of tech and life science news:
- LabCorp’s revenue climbs but earnings decline
- Centice in RTP makes big sale in drug abuse technology
- Facebook’s advertising soars
- Old Apple sells for a lot of money
- FTC’s new top technologist is a privacy expert.
The details:
- LabCorp Revenues Up
Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE: LH) reported a 6 percent increase in revenues to $1.55 billion in its most recent quarter year-over-year.
However, in the earnings report on Tuesday the global lab testing firm said earnings fell to $136.2 million and $1.59 per share compared to $148.3 million and $1.63 a year ago.
Holdings (LabCorp®) (NYSE: LH) today announced results for the quarter ended September 30, 2014.
“We continue to execute our five-pillar strategy, with the goal of delivering revenue and earnings growth in 2015 and beyond,” the company said.
- Centice Makes Tech Sale to a Federal Agency
RTP-based Centice Corporation says it has made a sale to a “major federal agency” of its drug tracking technology.
“Centice’s MFL-3000 drug analysis system has become law enforcement’s “go to” tool for the rapid, non-destructive detection of pharmaceutical and narcotic substances,” said John Goehrke, CEO of Centice. “The system quickly and accurately identifies illicit narcotics, cutting agents street mixtures, precursors, and controlled prescription drugs.”
Terms and the name of the agency weren’t disclosed.
- Facebook Advertising Soars
Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) grew its advertising revenue by 64 percent in the third quarter, helped by a boost in mobile ads that are becoming an increasingly large chunk of the social networking giant’s overall advertising business.
The steady increase indicates that Facebook has succeeded in steering advertisers to its mobile platform at a time when most of its users are using Facebook on phones and tablets. Investors were initially worried about the desktop Web era-born company’s ability to succeed in mobile advertising, but those concerns are long gone.
Though Facebook’s results surpassed expectations, investors sent the company’s stock down sharply not long after the results came out, possibly spooked by comments during a conference call that 2015 will be a “significant” year for expenses. The company said it expects costs to grow by 55 percent to 75 percent next year as it ramps up investment in its work force, growing existing products and new areas such as WhatsApp, Oculus and video.
This year, Facebook spent $22 billion in cash and stock to buy the messaging service WhatsApp and about $2 billion to buy the virtual reality company Oculus.
The Menlo Park, California-based company’s stock fell nearly 11 percent in extended trading. Daniel Morgan, a portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company, who focuses mostly on technology stocks, was surprised by the downturn.
- Old Apple Brings Top Dollar
A vintage Apple computer that was one of only 50 made in Steve Jobs’ garage in 1976 sold for $905,000 at auction on Wednesday, far exceeding pre-sale estimates and outdoing a previous high price of more than $671,000 paid in Germany last year.
Bonhams auction house said Wednesday’s winning bid, which includes its premium, came from The Henry Ford museum.
The computer, which had been estimated to sell for $300,000 to $500,000, has an intact motherboard and a vintage keyboard and monitor. It also has a power supply contained in a wooden box and two tape decks, Bonhams said.
“The provenance on the Apple-1 is excellent and the condition is outstanding, so it was not surprising that it did so well,” the auction house’s specialist for the sale, Cassandra Hatton, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have broken the world record for its sale, and are even more thrilled that it is going to a wonderful new home at the Henry Ford Museum.”
An Apple-1 computer sold last year in Cologne, Germany, for $671,400. Apple, the maker of iPads, iPhones and iMac computers, is based in Cupertino, California.
The auction was Bonhams’ first in New York City of items connected to science and technology. Other lots included a letter by Charles Darwin to a colleague about the sex life of barnacles and the earliest electrical keyboard, a Helmholtz sound synthesizer from 1905. There were a number of globes, books and other documents and a telescope from 1870. There also was a framed painted portrait of Bill Gates.
In the letter, which sold for $25,000, Darwin says he wants to learn more about the sex act of barnacles, such things as “were the specimens under water at times” and “if the recipient was in full vigor?”
- FTC Names Privacy Expert as Chief Technologist
The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday named an outspoken Internet privacy expert, Ashkan Soltani, as its chief technologist in a move that signals the agency’s focus on protecting consumers’ online privacy.
A computer scientist and technology researcher, Soltani has advised several leading news organizations in reporting on complex technical issues related to Internet privacy. Over the last year, he co-authored a series of Washington Post articles that examined government surveillance programs first revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The series earned a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service earlier this year. Soltani was a staff technologist for the FTC in 2010 and 2011, worked for the computer security company Sophos and has written about privacy vulnerabilities in consumer technology products on his own blog.
FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a statement that Soltani will advise the agency on “evolving technology and policy issues.” The FTC has shown a growing interest in online privacy, investigating complaints against major consumer Internet companies including Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., and negotiating several legal settlements with those companies.
