G+ goes up to 40 million+ users

Riding on the success and growing popularity of Google Plus, the California-based company saw a better than expected rise in its third quarter earnings ending September. As Google Plus came out of the limited trial phase and was opened for the public in late September, its member base has shot up from an earlier 10 million to over 40 million now. The financial results of the company have beaten earlier estimates by Thomson Reuters of earnings of $8.74 per share and as on October 13, Google delivered earnings of $9.72 per share. Profits surged as paid clicks rose by 28% and cost per click ticked up by 5% compared to last year. The company reported an overall revenue of $9.7 billion, an increase of 33% over the last year. Excluding the advertising sales which Google shares with its other partners known as 'traffic acquisition costs', revenue stood at $7.5 billion & beat analysts' forecasts of $7.2 billion. As capital expenditures amounted to $680 million in Q3, Google revealed that it has $42.6 billion on hand to support its huge investments into massive data centres and full-time staffers that amounted to 31,353 as on September 30, up by 9% qoq.

Blackberry's messenger on leave

Ask any business executive or professional, and they will readily tell you about its excellent communication capabilities and why BlackBerry smartphones are nothing less than a craze! But the three days of disruption in BlackBerry services were a major jolt to the reputation the company, whose aftereffects could last much longer. Research in Motion, the Canadian manufacturer, has around a million subscribers in India. But the debacle faced by the brand is likely to fuel calls for a management shake-up and a possible sale or split of the company. The cataclysm affected customers on multiple networks across Europe, Middle East, Africa, India, Canada, Latin America and US. The problems included customers being unable to access any services including BlackBerry Messenger, e-mails, internet browsing, social networks & WhatsApp messenger. Though the issue has been resolved now, there is still no clarity among operators on offering any rebate on tariff packages during the disruption. Surely RIM has to be wary of another failure like this.