Here are a few highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) posted a big loss and warned of more to come.
• CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) beat expectations even though its fourth-quarter profit fell.
• DreamWorks Animation Inc. (NYSE: DWA) 2007 earnings and revenue soared, lifted by Shrek the Third.
• HJ Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) posted solid third-quarter earnings and revenue.
• Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP) beat fourth-quarter expectations and approved a share buyback plan.
• Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) raised its first-quarter and full-year guidance on subscriber growth.
• Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE: NT) missed expectations due to rising operating costs.
• Origin Agritech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEED) 2007 earnings sank, missing analysts' expectations.
• Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) beat fourth-quarter estimates and offered revised guidance.
• Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) narrowed its loss due to a surge in subscribers.
• Swiss Reinsurance Co. (OTC: SWCEY) quarterly EPS plunged but 2007 decline was less than expected.
• Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) reported strong fourth-quarter and full-year results.

Also, analysts predict that bank losses will be the highest in 20 years. Timothy Sykes recommends investors not become starstruck by superstar companies such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Upcoming results to watch for include Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS), Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST), and Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

Earnings highlights: AIG, CBS, NetFlix, Sirius, Viacom, Dreamworks and others originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI) is buying (subscription required) film download service Movielink. It's about time. The service is owned by several Hollywood studios.

While every company from Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) to Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has a movie download service, the largest retailer of premium video content does not. That appears to have been an important missed opportunity. According to The Wall Street Journal, the price was less than $20 million, which is another reason investors should wonder why the movie rental company would take so long.

Blockbuster has one huge disadvantage getting into the download business. That it that it is very late to the party. Cable and telecom fiber-to-the-home products already offer video on demand with large libraries. Huge DVD retailers, especially Wal-Mart, are already in the business, and digital stores, especially Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes, have already blown past a million video downloads.

But, Blockbuster has one massive advantage -- its customer lists. The video rental firm has data on all of the people who rent movies at its stores and all of its DVD-through-the-mail project which competes with NetFlix (NASDAQ: NFLX).

Blockbusters is almost certainly too late getting into the download business but, if it is very aggressive marketing the product to it millions of existing customers, it might just start to rebuild its revenues.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Blockbuster (BBI) gets into the download business originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.