DealBook: K.K.R. Profit More Than Doubled in Fourth Quarter

Quarterly Profit Tumbles at Fox, but Revenue Growth Is Strong

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Procter & Gamble Profit Falls

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Holiday Sales Help Push Profit Up at Microsoft

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Starbucks Boosts Profit Forecast Despite Slower Growth

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Samsung Electronics Fourth Quarter Profit Sags

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Business Briefing | Company News: Berkshire Reports 29% Jump in Quarterly Profit

States shouldn’t be allowed to register anonymous shell companies, which can be used for tax evasion and other bad deeds.

The epic Douglas firs that rule the Oregon woods grow from something small. So does a song, Eric Earley writes.

DealBook: Citi’s Quarterly Profit Misses Estimates

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At Virgin America, a Fine Line Between Pizazz and Profit

There were more convenient flights later that morning, but Ms. Wolaner’s affection for Virgin’s service, as well as for the Wi-Fi, leather seats and even what she called the “adorable” animated safety video, prompted her to get up earlier than was ideal. This despite the fact that she once flew American Airlines so often that she is “platinum for life.”

She spoke wistfully of a night in 1987 when a blizzard pounded Albany, and American, rewarding her loyalty as a frequent flier, got her a seat on one of the last flights out. “I’ll never forget that night,” Ms. Wolaner said, as if reminiscing about an old friend. But in the years since, she felt that American’s service had declined, her elite status devalued.

“I’m a Virgin convert,” she said.

She’s not alone. Virgin works hard to convey an easy vibe — a flirty package of self-awareness and charisma bathed in purplish mood lighting that has earned glowing consumer reviews and challenged the idea that an airline can’t wow its passengers.

But if the airline has worked for consumers, it hasn’t worked for its investors. Since it started flying out of San Francisco in August 2007, Virgin has lost $675 million. Last November, foreseeing intensifying losses, the airline announced a sharp retrenchment, killing plans for 10 new airplanes each year and modestly cutting capacity on existing service. Already one of the smaller airlines — at 53 airplanes, it is not even a tenth the size of the big carriers — it seemed destined to remain boutique, if it survived at all.

History is not on Virgin’s side: since airline deregulation arrived in 1978, all but a handful of roughly 250 new airlines have failed.

Virgin’s combination of consumer popularity and lack of profitability raises a question: Can it make money and still be beloved? A few — like JetBlue and Southwest — have managed that. But the tried-and-true method of most United States carriers has been to cut back on customer service.

At Virgin, which recently celebrated its sixth anniversary, there’s a glimmer of progress for its investors, including Richard Branson, the founder and entrepreneur in chief of the Virgin Group, the investment company that owns 25 percent of Virgin America (which is distinct from Virgin Atlantic, the international carrier). Last month, Virgin America posted a profit of $8.8 million for the second quarter and forecast stronger results for the current quarter, reflecting typically heavy summer travel. But it also posted a loss of $37.5 million for the full first half of the year.

Still, it’s progress that the company’s chief executive, David Cush, said had come none too soon. Virgin has worked for its customers, he said, but now it has to work for investors, too.

“We’re 22 years old in the life of a human,” Mr. Cush said in a recent interview. “We’ve had a lot of fun in life, and now it’s time to join the real world.”

His ambitions are bold. He wants to take the airline public in 2014 or 2015. Such a move could well serve its major investors — including Mr. Branson’s Virgin Group and Cyrus Capital Partners, a hedge fund — who in May agreed to convert $290 million of the company’s $800 million in debt financing to an equity position. If the company goes public, they could cash in.

And yet, some industry analysts say a solid financial quarter hardly proves the company can go where few start-up airlines have gone before — into long-term profitability. “They’re nowhere near out of the woods yet,” said Henry Harteveldt, a veteran travel industry analyst. “If pizazz were profits, Virgin would be the most successful airline, but there are fundamentals.”

And there is another catch. Joining the real world means doing things that can frustrate travelers. For instance, Virgin is tweaking prices to try to bolster the number of passengers on each flight, which could make boarding and deplaning more frantic and risk delays. It is also trying to attract more business customers, which could create hierarchies that undercut the airline’s more democratic feel. And it is charging more than the industry average on some established routes.

The other airlines have responded by doing some of the things for which Virgin was a pioneer: upgrading airplanes with amenities like mood lighting, Wi-Fi and advanced in-seat entertainment. They, too, have made viral safety videos, including one from Delta that, among other things, featured a man politely declining to sit in the exit row.

At stake are travelers like Ms. Wolaner. She is infatuated with Virgin but is open to the idea that it may not last, having been let down by airlines before. On the Monday when she was traveling to Seattle, executives from Virgin were involved in two important meetings — one about a new safety video and another about ticket prices — very different sessions representing the cultural and financial sides of Virgin, both trying to help marry popularity and profit. It is a razor’s edge that few airlines have been able to navigate.

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Nestlé Posts Rise in Profit, and Warns of Falling Sales

GENEVA — The Swiss food and drinks giant Nestlé posted a 3.7 percent rise in first-half profits Thursday, but warned it would not be easy sticking to its sales targets as it tackled slowing markets around the world and “value-conscious” consumers.

Investors sent shares down 2.2 percent, to 63.30 Swiss francs on Thursday, after Nestlé released its first-half statement showing that underlying sales growth was at its lowest in four years.

Based in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé is the world’s biggest food and drink company by revenue and the maker of dozens of household name brands like Nescafé, Haagen Dazs, Jenny Craig and KitKat. It also is a major buyer of food commodities, and its results can serve as an indicator of the entire food industry, worldwide consumer demand and health of the global economy.

Nestlé said it had first-half profits of 5.1 billion Swiss francs ($5.5 billion) in the January-to-June period, up from a restated 4.9 billion francs in the same period last year.

Underlying sales growth fell to 4.1 percent for the first six months of the year, down from 6.6 percent in the comparable period a year earlier. In 2011, its first-half rate was 4.8 percent; in 2010, it was 6.1 percent. But midway through 2009, amid a global financial crisis, its growth rate fell to 3.5 percent.

The company said it expected first-half momentum in so-called organic growth to continue in the second half, however, increasing to about 5 percent. The Nestlé model calls for the company to sustain a 5 to 6 percent rate of organic revenue growth.

“It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a stretch,” the chief financial officer, Wan Ling Martello, said in a teleconference.

With consumers struggling in both Europe and emerging markets, Nestlé said its growth in developing markets slowed to 8.2 percent, down from 12.9 percent during the comparable period a year ago, while growth in developed markets fell to 1 percent, down from 2.6 percent last year.

Profit Flat at Disney, as ESPN and Parks Smooth Setbacks in Film

The film, released on July 3, cost about $400 million to make and market but has taken in only $175.6 million worldwide, roughly half of which goes to theater owners. While other studios have also had flops this summer, “The Lone Ranger” is by far the biggest: Disney on Tuesday said losses from the film would total $160 million to $190 million, depending on how well it does overseas.

For the fiscal third quarter that ended on June 29, prerelease marketing expenses for “The Lone Ranger” contributed to a 36 percent decline in operating income at Walt Disney Studios. That decline offset growth from Disney’s cable TV and theme park units, and Disney reported an overall profit of $1.85 billion — essentially flat from the same period a year ago.

That profit translated to $1.01 a share. In the year-ago quarter, net income was $1.83 billion or $1.01 a share. Revenue climbed 4 percent, to $11.58 billion.

Speaking to analysts in a conference call, Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive and chairman, did not point fingers at “The Lone Ranger,” starring Johnny Depp, directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

“We still believe that a tent-pole strategy is a good strategy,” Mr. Iger said, referring to big-budget movies. “You still have to make really strong films.”

The full write-down for “The Lone Ranger” will be taken in the current quarter, the fourth in Disney’s fiscal year.

As usual, the Disney division that includes ESPN drove the company’s financial performance; operating income at the Media Networks unit rose 8 percent, to $2.3 billion. ESPN benefited from contractual rate increases from cable providers and higher advertising sales, although programming costs also climbed. In particular, ESPN had to pay more for Major League Baseball rights.

Even though the Easter holiday fell in a different quarter this year, operating income at Disney’s theme parks increased 9 percent, to $689 million. The company said growth came from higher spending at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, both of which set attendance records.

In addition to trouble at its live-action Disney movie label, the entertainment giant faced trouble in the gaming and broadcast television divisions.

As expected, Disney’s video game and Web unit continued to struggle ahead of the release later this month of a major new gaming initiative called Infinity. Interactive operating losses widened to $58 million from $42 million.

Operating income at the ABC broadcast network and a string of local TV stations fell 21 percent, to $213 million, because of higher prime-time programming costs, lower sales of reruns and a decline in advertising revenue tied to a decline in ratings.

Mr. Iger said he is “bullish” on the new programs ABC plans to introduce in the fall, but added, “until the season unfolds, you can never quite tell.”

Television Review: On ‘The Profit,’ Marcus Lemonis Rescues Small Businesses

Maybe it was the recession, but that tale has changed. The new American dream begins with a failure, a humbling in the face of a circumstance in which your eyes were bigger than your stomach. The new fantasy is that in your darkest hour, a white knight might come to rescue you from the thing you strove for but did not know how to execute properly. This is a story that celebrates the big guy.

That version, at least, has a reliable narrative, which means that it can make for reliable television, the latest example of which is “The Profit,” which begins on Tuesday night on CNBC.

What Gordon Ramsay is to floundering restaurants, what Tabatha Coffey is to hair salons on the fritz — that’s what Marcus Lemonis aspires to be for any number of small businesses. Mr. Lemonis is the chairman and chief executive of Camping World, but also a jack-of-all-enterprises, spotting and stomping out inefficiencies in pursuit of profit.

Profit that Mr. Lemonis shares, naturally. “The Profit” is an extension of reality television’s long-running charitable impulse, but like the cheery moguls on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” Mr. Lemonis has skin in the game. He writes checks and takes temporary control, makes significant changes, then hopes his new partners can make him money.

His practices are politely predatory, feasting on small businesses that don’t have the resources to advance or to save themselves from eventual collapse. In the first two episodes, there’s an additional twist: the companies are run by the founders’ children, who are finding it hard to continue their parents’ legacies. These are enterprises ripe for takeover, and owners looking to fill an authority vacuum.

The full extent of the business relationship between Mr. Lemonis and his targets is left vague. He offers cash infusions in amounts that are, to an extent, meaningful — $100,000 here, $200,000 there. For businesses on the precipice of significant debt, that matters, but those numbers probably pale in comparison to the sheer value of the airtime. The conclusion of the premiere, which focuses on Car Cash, a Manhattan-based used-car purchaser, helpfully reminds the viewer that since Mr. Lemonis entered into partnership with the owners, several new licensees have opened in places like Columbia, S.C.; and Buffalo.

Even though the premiere focuses on the tension between two brothers who inherited the business from their father — Jon, the older, is moody and authoritarian; Andrew, the younger, is creative and constantly holding a tiny dog — Mr. Lemonis is more interested in the potency of the brand name and the easy exportability of the concept. The family trauma is a speed bump.

Perhaps Mr. Lemonis is just heartless, though he was the subject of a particularly hokey charity-themed episode of ABC’s kind-capitalist reality show, “Secret Millionaire.” But this being CNBC, which is making its programming increasingly narrative-driven, it’s just business. There are PowerPoint-ready tips in each episode. Watch the premiere, and when Car Cash is lowballing your estimate, you’ll know why. You’ll also see a truTV-worthy staged encounter in which one brother cuts ties with wholesaler middlemen, who look like central-casting henchmen from a third-tier Mafia film.

There’s a warmth to Mr. Lemonis’s sternness: invariably he’s the voice of reason, though there’s little competition. That’s especially true in the second episode, which focuses on Jacob Maarse Florists, in Pasadena, Calif., which is lagging under the leadership of the founder’s son, Hank, who still borrows money from his mother to keep the business afloat. The store is cluttered, there’s no inventory tracking system, and the delivery drivers still use paper maps.

Mr. Lemonis calmly runs roughshod over the place, even going so far as to suggest to Hank that perhaps he doesn’t want to run the business anymore. It’s a sly and disturbing scene, and perhaps a step too far. Whether from resentment or self-doubt, Hank says he’s possibly reneging on the deal, which may leave Mr. Lemonis, and his token investment, in the wind.

But Mr. Lemonis has his handshake deal, and whatever contracts may have been signed off camera will not go quietly. Through a representative, Mr. Lemonis said he has filed a lien on the property. “I always gear my offers toward minimizing my risk,” he says — that’s big-guy stuff, the new American dream.

The Profit

CNBC, Tuesday nights at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Produced and created for CNBC by the Hochberg Ebersol Company in association with Machete Productions. Justin W. Hochberg, Charlie Ebersol and Amber Mazzola, executive producers for the Hochberg Ebersol Company. Jim Ackerman and James Bolosh, executive producers for CNBC.

Siemens to Oust Chief After String of Setbacks That Prompted Profit Warning

FRANKFURT — The supervisory board of Siemens, one of Germany’s largest companies, said that it would fire its chief executive at a meeting on Wednesday and replace him with an insider following a string of problems that led to a profit warning last week.

Peter Löscher, an Austrian who has been chief executive of the electronics and engineering giant since 2007, is taking the blame for a series of missteps that have plagued the company during the last year, including a late delivery of high-speed trains for the German national railroad and delays in completing offshore wind turbine projects.

The German news media reported that Joe Kaeser, a member of Siemens’s managing board and its chief financial officer, would be most likely to replace Mr. Löscher, but a company spokesman said on Sunday that he could not confirm the reports. In a statement Saturday, Siemens, based in Munich, said its supervisory board would name another member of the company’s executive board as chief executive, but it did not say who.

Siemens’s fortunes have consequences for the German economy as a whole because it is one of the country’s largest employers, with about 120,000 workers, and because it is something of a bellwether for the country’s industrial sector.

Along with automobiles, the German economy is based on the production of high-priced goods that are sold to governments and corporations. Siemens’s broad array of products includes gear for power generation, trains and other transportation equipment, and medical devices like X-ray scanners. Problems at Siemens are potentially a bad omen for the country.

On Thursday, Siemens shares plunged 6 percent after the company said it would not meet its profit goals for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Siemens did not give a detailed explanation for the expected shortfall, attributing it to “lower market expectations.” But it appeared to reflect a combination of weaker-than-expected economic growth in crucial markets as well as management mistakes.

The profit warning fed concern that demand for German exports from China and other developing markets may no longer be strong enough to compensate for the weak European economy. Sales in the United States, where Siemens has 60,000 employees, also appear to be falling short of expectations despite the recovering growth in America.

Germany has weathered the euro zone crisis better than other countries because its machinery and engineering divisions have been able to tap developing markets, especially China. But recently the Chinese economy has been cooling, while Europe remains in recession.

Siemens had already reported a 7 percent decline in sales during the first three months of 2013, to 18 billion euros, or about $24 billion. On Thursday, the company is scheduled to announce earnings for the quarter that ended June 30.

Mr. Kaeser, reported as the likely replacement for Mr. Löscher, is a 56-year-old Siemens veteran credited with keeping the company on a steady course after the previous chief executive, Klaus Kleinfeld, resigned under pressure in 2007. Mr. Kleinfeld is now chief executive of the aluminum producer Alcoa.

Mr. Löscher, 55, was the latest in a line of Siemens chiefs who have tried to focus the sprawling company on its most profitable businesses and make it easier to manage. Under Mr. Löscher, Siemens spun off its Osram lighting unit, and this month it sold its half of a joint venture with Nokia that supplies equipment for mobile telecommunication networks.

Those moves raised money and simplified the company but were not enough to compensate for other problems, including delays in delivering high-speed ICE trains to Deutsche Bahn, the German railway.

Members of the supervisory board met informally on Saturday and will make the management changes formal at a regular meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

Siemens C.E.O. to Leave Following Profit Warning

Siemens said in a statement late on Saturday that at a meeting on July 31, the supervisory board would pass the decision on Loescher's early departure.

"In addition, it will decide on the appointment of a member of the managing board as President and CEO," it added.

Siemens, among Germany's three biggest companies by market value, did not provide further details.

Two people familiar with the matter earlier told Reuters that the majority of Siemens' 20-member supervisory board favored finance chief Joe Kaeser as replacement for Loescher. The company declined to comment.

There have been persistent rumors over the past year that Kaeser, who was already on Siemens' management board when Loescher joined in 2007, had his eye on Loescher's job, though the two have repeatedly said they worked well together.

Late last year, when questioned about the rumors, the CFO said the two complemented each other like "light and dark".

OVERPROMISED, UNDERDELIVERED

When Loescher became CEO six years ago as the first company outsider to take the helm at Siemens, he was presented as a hero who would lead Siemens out of a massive bribery scandal that had tarnished its image and its finances.

But after tackling that task, Loescher started losing credibility as he repeatedly misjudged demand development in its main markets.

A bellwether of Germany's economy whose products range from gas turbines to fast trains and hearing aids, Siemens is suffering from the stuttering global demand that saw German exports fall the most since late 2009 in May.

In addition, Siemens' earnings have been hit repeatedly by one-time charges related to project delays and other issues.

Loescher was forced to put on the back-burner a strategy to increase annual sales by about a third to 100 billion euros last year, announcing instead a plan to save 6 billion euros over two years to compete with rivals such as General Electric Co.

The plan, which unions fear could affect 10,000 jobs, was meant to boost Siemens' core operating profit margin to at least 12 percent from 9.5 percent by 2014.

On Thursday, the company scrapped that target, issuing a brief statement in which it cited lower expectations for how its markets would perform.

Siemens is scheduled to release third-quarter results on Thursday when analysts expect Loescher to elaborate on what prompted the company to scrap its margin target.

(Reporting by Jens Hack.; Writing by Maria Sheahan. Editing by Andreas Cremer and David Evans)

Samsung’s Profit Rises, but So Does the Competition

Samsung, which is based in Suwon, South Korea, said net income rose to 7.77 trillion won, or $6.9 billion, from 5.19 trillion won a year earlier. Sales rose to 57.46 trillion won, from 47.6 trillion won.

But the report showed a decline in earnings from the first quarter in Samsung’s mobile phone business despite the introduction of a new flagship model, the Galaxy S4.

Though the S4 has been selling at a brisk pace, it has fallen short of some analysts’ expectations. Promotional events like an introductory gala for the S4 at Radio City Music Hall have driven up marketing costs, while rivals continue to roll out competing models.

“The strong growth streak for the smartphone market is expected to continue in the third quarter, albeit at a slower pace,” Samsung said in a statement.

Market reaction to the report from Samsung was muted because the company issued an earnings forecast earlier this month; the results reported Friday were broadly in line with that outlook, though below previous expectations.

The results from Samsung follow the earnings report from the company’s chief rival, Apple, which showed similar trends in the smartphone business.

Apple reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, but its profit declined from a year earlier and its revenue was flat. While Apple’s posted strong iPhone sales in the United States, the company showed weakness in China and in sales of iPads.

In recent months, the shares of Apple and Samsung have been hammered by investors, who worry that even as the companies report continued growth in sales of smartphones, they will struggle to maintain their momentum.

“In a way, Apple and Samsung have become victims of their own success,” Pete Cunningham of the research firm Canalys said before the Samsung results were released. “When these companies report many billions of profits every quarter, it’s hard to say they are doing anything wrong.”

Many say the high end of the smartphone market, which Samsung and Apple dominate, is looking saturated. Most wealthy consumers in developed markets already own such devices, so growth is increasingly occurring in lower-price brackets in developing markets, where Apple does not compete.

Samsung, with a broader product range, may be better positioned, analysts say, though it faces stiff competition at the low end of the market from Chinese makers.

For expensive phones, the companies face renewed competition from Sony, HTC and Nokia, though analysts say innovations in smartphone design and technology are becoming more incremental.

“If you combine all these players and look at what they are doing, it’s hard for Samsung or Apple to keep growing market share,” said Bryan Wang, an analyst at Forrester Research. “But the expectations for both companies are still high.”

IDC, a research firm, said Samsung’s share of the smartphone market slipped to 30.4 percent in the second quarter, from 32.2 percent a year earlier.

Samsung’s smartphone sales rose by 43.9 percent, outpacing Apple, which showed a 20 percent gain. But smaller smartphone makers that focus on lower-cost devices did even better, with Lenovo and LG, for example, more than doubling their sales.

“The smartphone market is still a rising tide that’s lifting many ships,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst at IDC, in a statement. “Though Samsung and Apple are the dominant players, the market is as fragmented as ever. There is ample opportunity for smartphone vendors with differentiated offerings.”

While Samsung does not break out the number of devices it sells on a quarterly basis, another research firm, Strategy Analytics, estimated that the company shipped 76 million smartphones in the second quarter, 56 percent more than a year earlier and more than double Apple’s total of 31.2 million.

With growth picking up in the low end, Strategy Analytics said, the smartphone market over all is expanding faster than it was a year ago. That helps Samsung in another way, because the company also is the world’s biggest producer of semiconductors, an important component in smartphones and other electronic devices.

Samsung said operating profit in its semiconductor division rose to 1.76 trillion won from 1.03 trillion won a year earlier, as it experienced strong demand from its own mobile business, as well as from other phone makers to which it supplies chips.

But Samsung said its television business was hurt by sluggish demand in Europe, where an economic recovery has struggled to take hold.

DealBook: Profit at Nomura Surges on Rally in Japanese Markets

Verizon Reports 23% Profit Gain, Aided by Wireless Expansion

A surge in wireless subscribers and smartphone sales, combined with more subscribers to its digital TV and Internet services, propelled the company to a profit of $2.25 billion in the second quarter, up 23 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Verizon, which is based in New York, said investment in its fourth-generation wireless network, called LTE, helped its growth. For its wireless business, the company added 941,000 contract subscribers, the most valuable type of customer.

The company also reported improved smartphone sales, partly on the back of demand for the iPhone. In the quarter, Verizon sold 7.5 million smartphones, including 3.9 million iPhones. In the year-ago quarter it sold 5.9 million smartphones, including 2.7 million iPhones.

Like other wireless carriers, though, Verizon appears to be keeping an eye on industry data showing that fewer people are upgrading to new smartphones year after year. To combat that trend, two of its top competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile USA, recently announced plans that would make it cheaper for customers to upgrade their phones before the typical two-year wait.

On Thursday, Verizon, the No. 1 wireless carrier, announced a similar plan. Verizon’s program, called Edge, will allow customers to pick the phone they want and then sign up for a monthly payment plan. The full price of the phone will be spread over 24 months. The customer can upgrade in as little as six months by paying off 50 percent of the original phone by then.

“Our customers have been asking for another option,” said Francis J. Shammo, Verizon’s chief financial officer, on the company’s earnings call. He said some people did not want to wait two years before buying a new smartphone.

But Verizon’s early-upgrade plan appears likely to attract only a small portion of the market, the high-spenders who must have the latest and greatest smartphones. Craig Moffett, an analyst at Moffett Research, said that plan was unlikely to add much to the company’s profits. But Verizon’s move, he said, shows that it is reacting to T-Mobile, the fourth-largest American carrier, which was the first carrier to introduce early-upgrade plans.

“I think T-Mobile’s plan is taking share, and they have to do something about it,” he said.

Over all, Verizon’s revenue rose 4.3 percent, to $29.8 billion, compared with the same quarter a year ago. The company’s net income was 78 cents a share, compared with 64 cents a share in the period a year ago. After excluding a one-time gain related to pension benefits, Verizon’s net income was 73 cents a share, beating analyst expectations of 72 cents, according to data from Thomson Reuters. Shares of the company were down 1.5 percent to close at $49.97 on Thursday.

Verizon is planning to invest even more money in the 4G network. It said it would increase capital spending this year to between $16.4 billion and $16.6 billion, an increase from its original plan to spend $16.2 billion.

The company also said that it added 161,000 subscribers to its Internet service and 140,000 to its video service. Verizon’s Internet service now has 5.8 million subscribers and its video service has 5 million.

Microsoft Profit Misses as Surface Tablets Languish; Shares Drop

The stock fell 5 percent after hours from 5-year highs.

The massive charge underlines the struggles of the world's largest software company, which last week announced a deep reorganization to transform itself into a "devices and services" leader, but is struggling to make mobile computing as attractive as Apple Inc or Google Inc.

"That's the biggest miss we've ever seen from Microsoft, the biggest that I could remember," said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "It looks like everything was weak."

Before the sell-off late Thursday, Microsoft shares had risen 32 percent this year, beating a 19 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Microsoft said the $900 million charge was related to its Surface RT tablet, the version of its tablet running on ARM Holdings-designed chips. The Surface was meant to challenge Apple's iPad when it was launched alongside Windows 8 in October, but has not sold well.

Earlier this week, Microsoft said it was drastically cutting prices and expanding distribution of the model to entice buyers, reducing the value of Surface devices in its inventory.

"We do know we have to do better, particular in mobile devices," Amy Hood, Microsoft's new chief financial officer, said in a telephone interview. "That's a big reason we made the strategic organizational changes last week."

Microsoft's biggest shake-up in five years, unveiled by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer last week, creates a single devices unit for the first time at the company, suggesting that it will double down on its so-far unsuccessful move into hardware.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of 59 cents per share, compared with a 6 cents per share loss in the year-ago quarter when it wrote off the cost of a failed acquisition.

Wall Street had estimated earnings of 75 cents per share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Excluding the Surface charge, Microsoft reported 66 cents per share profit, a less drastic miss.

Revenue rose 10 percent to $19.9 billion, helped by sales of Microsoft's Office suite of applications, but fell short of analysts' average estimate of $20.7 billion.

Sales of Windows rose slightly, but only because of the inclusion of some deferred revenue, weighed down by an estimated 11 percent dip in PC sales in the quarter.

Microsoft's Windows 8 has sold more than 100 million licenses since launching in October, but is struggling to win over many consumers confused by the new design which is more suited to tablets than traditional PCs. Acknowledging this, Microsoft is releasing a revamped version of the system called Windows 8.1 later this year, which brings back the iconic 'start' button.

(Additional reporting by Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)

Target Cuts Outlook as Profit Drops 26%

NEW YORK — Target Corp. reported a 29 percent drop in first-quarter profit as unusually cool spring weather and financial pressures chilled customers' appetite for spending.

The company, based in Minneapolis, also on Wednesday cut its annual profit outlook, sending its stock down.

Target is the latest in a string of companies including rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that say bad weather and financial pressures like the higher payroll tax have squeezed business in the first couple months of the year.

While chilly weather was a big factor in depressing sales of spring clothing and other seasonal goods, Target said that a yo-yo economic recovery has continued to make shoppers stick to shopping lists and plan their spending.

"We remain cautiously optimistic about both the macroeconomic environment and consumer behavior," Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and CEO, told investors in a call after the earnings report. "Both of these business drivers continue to reflect slow, uneven growth and ongoing cross-current of positive and negative indicators, just as they have for the past few years."

In fact, while the housing market is showing signs of recovery and claims for unemployment insurance have been declining, shoppers, particularly younger customers, are still facing a weak job market, Steinhafel said.

A big hurdle for many low-price retailers has been tax changes. An increase in the payroll tax of two percentage points, which took effect Jan. 1, means that take-home pay for a household earning $50,000 a year has been sliced by $1,000.

Target said Wednesday that three-quarters of its customers surveyed were aware of this year's payroll tax increase. Among those, a majority have noticed the impact of the tax increase on their paychecks and indicate it's affecting their spending.

Still, Target, whose sales growth has been uneven since the recession, remains confident in its strategies to attract shoppers.

Target has reached out to customers with two big growth initiatives. It has been offering a larger selection of food and also a program, started in 2010, that gives shoppers a 5 percent discount when they pay with Target-branded credit and debit cards.

At the same time, Target continues to team up with new designers for limited-time partnerships. Earlier this month, Target announced its latest designer collaboration, with Phillip Lim. The collection is due out in September.

Last year, Target expanded into urban markets using smaller versions of its big-box stores in Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Target also started to expand into Canada earlier this year, its first foray outside the U.S. The company is opening the stores in waves that should add up to about 125 stores at locations once owned by Canadian retailer Zellers by the end of the year. During the first quarter, it opened 24 stores in Canada, and plans to open 20 more later in the second quarter.

Target said it earned $498 million, or 77 cents per share, for the three months ended May 4. That compares with $697 million, or $1.04 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items related to its Canadian expansion and retirement of certain debt, the company earned $1.05 per share.

Sales rose 1 percent to $16.71 billion.

Analysts had expected earnings of 95 cents per share on revenue of $16.82 billion.

Revenue at stores open at least a year slipped 0.6 percent as the number of transactions fell 1.9 percent. That's considered an important measure of retail performance because it strips out the effect of stores that open or close during the year.

Target says that measure should improve to anywhere from a 2 percent to 3 percent gain in the current quarter. And while traffic should improve, it will continue to be challenging, Target told investors.

Target expects that adjusted earnings per share will be in a range between $1.09 and $1.19 for the current quarter.

For the full year, the company now expects $4.70 per share to $4.90 per share. That's down from its original guidance of $4.85 per share to $5.05 per share.

Analysts had forecast $1.11 per share for the second quarter and $4.63 per share for the year.

The results come a week after Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, reported that its first-quarter profit edged up just slightly, and the company struggled with a sales malaise in its namesake business.

Revenue at stores open at least year at its namesake U.S. business dropped 1.4 percent, the first decline since the second quarter of 2011.

Wal-Mart also offered a quarterly profit outlook that came below Wall Street's projections. Wal-Mart blamed a litany of factors affecting its budget-conscious customers, including a payroll tax increase, delayed tax refunds, job worries and bad weather. The company did say that sales this month have been rebounding.

Target's stock dropped 4 percent, or $2.86, to close at $68.40 Wednesday.