Bloomberg

Hewlett-Packard Co. reported fiscal first-quarter sales and profit that topped analysts’ estimates as the personal-computer maker won new orders for servers to run data centers. Profit excluding certain costs in the period ended Jan. 31 was 90 cents a share on revenue of $28.2 billion, the Palo Alto, California-based company said today in a statement. Analysts had on average predicted profit of 84 cents and revenue of $27.2 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman is trying to reshape the 75-year-old company, which is headed for a third straight annual sales decline as the...

TOKYO – Sony Corp. unexpectedly forecast a $1.1 billion annual loss and will cut 5,000 more jobs as Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai widens his restructuring plan in the face of shrinking demand for TVs and computers. The net loss will total 110 billion yen in the 12 months ending March 31, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement today, scrapping its revised October projection of a 30 billion- yen profit. Sony will sell its personal computer business and split its TV division into a separate, wholly owned unit after saying it will lose money for a 10th straight...

Twitter (Nasdaq: TWTR) posted slowing user growth and a net loss that was wider than analysts’ estimates in its first earnings report as a public company, sending shares down as much as 15 percent in extended trading.  There were 241 million monthly active users in the fourth quarter, Twitter said in a statement today, up 30 percent from 185 million a year earlier and slower than 39 percent seen in the prior period. Usage also declined, with 148 billion views of Twitter timelines compared with 159 billion views in the prior quarter. Net loss was $511.5 million compared with...

TORONTO – BlackBerry Ltd. surged the most in a month after the U.S. Department of Defense said the company’s smartphones will account for 98 percent of devices in one of its new networks. About 80,000 BlackBerrys and 1,800 phones and tablets based on Apple Inc.’s iOS software and Google Inc.’s Android operating system will start being hooked up to the Department of Defense’s management system at the end of this month, the Defense Information Systems Agency said in a statement last week. BlackBerry rose 8.2 percent to C$10.80 at 4 p.m. in Toronto, its biggest gain since Dec. 20....

Verizon Communications’s victory in an appeals court challenge to U.S. equal treatment rules for the Internet could leave companies such as Netflix and Amazon.com facing higher charges for the fastest service. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on Tuesday sent the rules governing what’s known as net neutrality back to the Federal Communications Commission, saying the agency overreached in barring broadband providers from slowing or blocking selected Web traffic. The FCC rules, which the agency may attempt to rewrite, required high-speed Internet providers over wires to treat all traffic equally and disclose their network practices. U.S. Circuit Judge...

Time Warner Cable on Monday rejected an acquisition offer from Charter Communications valued at more $61 billion including debt, spurning the biggest unsolicited takeover bid since 2008. Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus called the $132.50-a-share bid a “low-ball offer” in an interview. The proposal included about $83 cash per share and about $49.50 in stock, according to Charter. Excluding debt, the deal would be worth about $37.3 billion. Charter, backed by billionaire John Malone, is seeking to create a provider of TV, Internet and phone service for about 20 million subscribers in 38 states. The combined company would...