Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Although eBay beat its downwardly-revised earnings numbers today, its earnings call was filled with glum news for investors. (Full earnings slides embedded below). After three flat quarters, revenues declined 3.6 percent from the second quarter to $2.2 billion. Free cash flow has been going down each of the last four quarters, and so has the total value of goods traded over the auction and e-commerce site. eBay is leaning much more heavily these days on merchant-dominated categories like autos than on auctions between ordinary people. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/15/as-ebays-core-business-hits-hard-times-skype-begins-to-shine 10/15)

Google, who’s stock is down 45% this year, announces third quarter financial results tomorrow, and Silicon Valley will be watching. Analysts expect revenues of a little over $4 billion and EPS of $4.79 - and most have price targets for the stock, which closed yesterday at $363, to bounce back up to the high 500’s. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/15/all-eyes-on-google-today 10/15)

Lil’ Bush creator Donick Cary is at it again with The Adventures of John McCain and the Straight Talk Express, a new website premiering this week on Hulu, YouTube, Break.com, Dailymotion and MySpaceTV. (The Straight Talk Express is the name of the candidate’s talking bus.) (Cynopsis 10/15)

Ahead of Thursday’s earnings announcement from Google, comScore just released its search market share figures for September. Google’s overall share of search queries in the U.S. dipped from 63% in August to 62.9% 62.2%. Yahoo and Ask (whose search is powered by Google) saw the biggest gains. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/14/comscore-googles-search-volume-accelerates-in-september-but-market-share-dips 10/14)

Liberty Media-owned Starz Media has inked a digital-distribution deal with Xbox Live that will bring titles in the company’s movie library to viewers in the U.K., Ireland and Canada. The deal was announced by Marc DeBevoise, Starz Media’s senior vice president of digital media and business development, who added that the company had other overseas deals in the works. Broadcasting & Cable (10/14) , TVWeek.com (10/14)

Cablevision has expanded its wireless Internet coverage throughout its New York tri-state region, adding high-traffic areas such as commuter rail stations and business districts in Connecticut, Long Island and select suburbs north of Manhattan. The service, free for subscribers to Cablevision’s Optimum Online broadband service, more than doubles the company’s previous wireless net. Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) (10/14)