may the force be with you

Google's annual analysts' day on Thursday is shaping up as a test of the company's reluctance to provide financial guidance -- and of investors' tolerance of that tight-lipped approach.

When filing for its initial public offering in April 2004, Google Inc.'s co-founders warned prospective shareholders that they wouldn't give explicit financial guidance or try to smooth out quarterly earnings, departing from fairly standard practices. Citing the philosophy of legendary investor Warren Buffett, they said they were doing this to be free to make the best long-term decisions for the Web-search company.

Some investors groused that Google took this high-minded logic to an extreme at its last analysts' day, in 2005, when Chief Financial Officer George Reyes didn't make a formal presentation -- this, at an event in which even Google's chef got time on the stage to outline the day's menu. But investors were largely tolerant of the lack of financial details.

Analysts predict that things will be different this year. Google last month reported fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of analysts' consensus forecasts, breaking its streak of blowout quarters. In the weeks following the earnings announcement, Google shares were down as much as 27% from their closing high, though they have since crept partway back. Complicated tax considerations were largely to blame for the quarterly shortfall, but some investors say they felt blindsided and blamed Google's no-guidance policy. Some saw additional cause for concern in rising expenses, and underwhelming revenue growth outside the U.S.

Now, Google watchers expect analysts to bring tough questions on Thursday and to pressure executives for answers that might give analysts greater confidence in their forecasts. "It is going to be a highly charged atmosphere," predicts Benjamin Schachter, an Internet analyst at UBS Investment Research.

There's no reason to believe that Google will yield to any such pressures. "There is a cost to not providing guidance and I understand that," Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a Jan. 31 interview following the earnings report. "The reason that we don't is our business is so dynamic we'd have to give very broad ranges, and I don't think that would be constructive."

There is one recent sign that the company aims to be more analyst-friendly. Company representatives earlier this month solicited analysts for input on what investors wanted to hear about on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The big question, though, remains whether the company will be more forthcoming with information when it hosts analysts at the Googleplex this week.

"We look forward to welcoming the analysts to Google again this year, and are working hard to ensure that their visit will be informative and useful," said a Google spokeswoman.

source:http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114081739511082858-6fisI2CT8mQcxEXgJV6TD2r_NwE_20070224.html?mod=blogs

# posted by dark master : 2/27/2006 09:36:00 AM  0 comments

An artist's impression of Castorocauda lustrasimilis

The discovery of a fossil beaver that lived when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth could challenge some currently accepted ideas on mammal evolution.

Castorocauda lutrasimilis, which was unearthed in China, is a species previously unknown to science.

It dates back to 164 million years ago, a time when mammals were thought to be primitive creatures confined to land.

But this animal was adapted to life in water, meaning scientists may now have to rethink their theories.

The fossil was found in the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation, a deposit rich in the remains of dinosaurs, early insects and other organisms.

Like modern beavers, the creature had fur, a broad scaly tail, and webbed feet for swimming. It was about the size of a small female platypus and had seal-like teeth for eating fish.

Aquatic mammal

Such advanced features have surprised many scientists, suggesting mammals that lived during the hey-day of the dinosaurs had already conquered a variety of environments.

The mammals of the time were once thought to be largely primitive shrew-like creatures, scuttling at the feet of dinosaurs, and only flourishing when the dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago.

Commenting on the find, revealed in the journal Science, Thomas Martin of the Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg in Frankfurt, Germany, said it showed mammals had conquered the water 100 million years earlier than previously thought.

"This exciting fossil is a further jigsaw-puzzle piece in a series of recent discoveries, demonstrating that the diversity and early evolutionary history of mammals were much more complex than perceived less than a decade ago," he wrote.

# posted by dark master : 2/27/2006 09:29:00 AM  0 comments