Rocket Fuel Inc. recently said it suffered a loss of $20.5 million or 49 cents a share in the fourth quarter versus a loss of $2.2 million or 7 cents a share reported in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding one-time items, adjusted loss came to 18 cents a share for the quarter versus earnings of 6 cents a share in the year ago period. Rocket Fuel reported sales of $139.5 million for the three-month period, higher from $85.5 million a year ago. Analysts had projected an adjusted loss of 21 cents with $147 million in sale for the quarter. The company said revenue was hurt by the stronger dollar.
U.S. auto supplier Delphi Automotive PLC has agreed to sell its lower margin automotive heating and cooling business to German rival Mahle GmbH in a deal valued at about $727 million. The move is the latest since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009 to concentrate on higher margin technology offerings for combustion engines, electric cars and fuel-cell vehicles.
Separately, Delphi entered into an agreement to sell its Shanghai Delphi Automotive Air-Conditioning System Co. to Mahle, for which the financial terms were not disclosed. Although Delphi said it will receive the proceeds apart from the $ 727 million paid for the other business.
Marvell Technology reported slightly better than expected fourth-quarter profit, but revenue of $857 million missed expectations for $890 million. The chipmaker also provided weak first-quarter outlook. For the current quarter, the company forecast earnings excluding items of 18 cents a share, plus or minus a cent, with revenue in a range of $810 million to $830 million. Analysts currently expect earnings of 22 cents a share on revenue of $884 million.
Ball Corp. has reached a stock plus cash deal to acquire Rexam Plc to create the world’s biggest maker of food and beverage cans. The total value of the deal is about $6.8B. Pursuant to the terms of the bid, Rexam shareholders are entitled to receive 407p a share in cash and 0.04568 new Ball shares. The deal price is up 36 percent over Rexam’s closing price as of Feb. 4, 2015 and 17 percent higher than Rexam’s closing price on Wednesday. The deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016.
Intuit beat Wall Street expectations for earnings and revenue. The tax software provider posted an adjusted second-quarter loss of 6 cents a share and $808 million in revenue. Analysts had expected a loss of 13 cents a share with $786.6 million in revenue.
