Twitter shares plunged by as much as 24 percent last night after the company delivered disappointing results for its first quarter.
Its revenue rose from $250.5m to $436m - well below the market expectation of close to $457m. Twitter's net loss increased from $132.4m to $162.4m.
On a positive note, monthly active users rose by 18 percent to 302 million - but the hammering that Twitter's shares have taken suggests that investors believe that the micro-blogging site is far past its prime.
The company has cut its earning forecasts for the rest of 2015.
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An interesting statistic has emerged from the Government's Spring Statement documentation - at the end of 2014 the Department of Finance valued its overall investment in the three bailed-out banks at €25.5bn.
That’s just €3.9bn short of the €29.4bn invested by the taxpayer to rescue the banks.
The exercise, which was completed prior to the positive valuation of Permanent TSB shares announced yesterday, confirms the State has recouped €5.4bn to date in accumulated fee and dividend income.
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Aer Lingus has reported operating losses for the first quarter of the year to the end of March of €48.4m, unchanged from the same period last year. Airlines generally tend to report operating losses during this period.
The airline says its revenues grew by nearly 8 percent during the period to €280m, driven by a near 40 percent lift in sales on long-haul routes to €82.5m.
Revenues from short-haul flights slipped by more than €6m during the quarter, there is evidence of very strong competition on these routes out of Irish airports.
Analysts predict Aer Lingus to make operating profits of €90m – €95m in the current year.
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Some €4.6m has been stolen from Ryanair accounts by hackers - the funds were removed from a bank account by an electronic transfer through a Chinese bank.
The story is reported in the Irish Times - it says that the fraud came to light when the Irish airline made contact with the Criminal Asset Bureau in Dublin to seek assistance recovering the funds.
A statement from the company says: "The airline expects these funds to be repaid shortly, and has taken steps to ensure that this type of transfer cannot recur," it adds that the matter is now subject to legal proceedings, and that Ryanair cannot offer any further comment.
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Bank of Ireland has issued a trading statement covering the year to date in advance of its Annual General Meeting in Dublin later this morning.
It says the Group is trading in line with expectations but adds that the strengthening of sterling against the euro is having a positive impact on profitability at Group level, boosting loan values by up to €3bn.
Defaulted loan volumes at the end of March were lower than at the end of December with reductions across all asset classes (including mortgages)
Net interest margins improved modestly from the 2.2 percent announced at the end of December.
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Less than a week after it was hit with a record fine for being implicated in a global market rigging scam, yesterday was another awkward news day for Deutsche Bank as its CEO Jürgen Fitschen was in court alongside his two predecessors, caught up in another scandal.
The trio are accused of misleading a multi-billion euro lawsuit filed against Kirch Gruppe - a defunct former media empire in Germany.
The company claimed that DB's former CEO Rolf Breuer triggered the fall of the media group by questioning its credit-worthiness during a TV interview - it is alleged that DB was in a position where it would gain from the fall of the company.
Deutsche Bank paid a €925m settlement over the incident in 2014 - the new legal action is against individual officials who are accused of fraud - they could hypothetically face 10 years in prison, if found guilty.
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After briefly taking the lead in the global smartphone market when Apple's iPhone 5 missed the 'big-screen' trend - Samsung has struggled over the last year as Apple has regained the upper hand - the company's first quarter results are solid, but far below last year's numbers.
That said, its operating profit was $5.64bn - just shy of its own projections - but this is 30 percent below the corresponding figure in 2014.
Samsung has a massive range of electronic interests - its business supplying components to other smartphone makers led to a 50 percent increase in the profit returned by its chipmaking unit.
The company released its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6 early in this quarter - Samsung reports that early sales have been strong (the reviews have also been positive) and it hopes that this will boost its figures during the second quarter.
