Biz Break: For Apple, a record quarter; 4.7M iPads, 18.7M iPhones sold

Today: Apple (AAPL) reports record profit and revenue. Plus:President Barack Obama is visiting Facebook: And: California realestate; Silicon Valley tech stocks surge.

For Apple, a record quarter

Apple -- the Cupertino maker of Mac computers and "i" devices(iPad, iPhone, iPod) -- this afternoon reported a $5.99 billionprofit for its most recent quarter, up 95 percent from a year ago.Revenue jumped 83 percent to a record $24.67 billion.

During the quarter, Apple sold 4.69 million iPads. Mac salesclimbed 28 percent year over year to 3.76 million, and iPhone salesincreased 113 percent to 18.65 million. Sales of iPods, though,dropped 17 percent to 9.02 million.

"We're firing on all cylinders," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in astatement accompanying the results. "We will continue to innovate onall fronts throughout the remainder of the year."

Apple's earnings came in at $6.40 a share -- along with revenue,far exceeding Wall Street expectations.

"Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2011, we expectrevenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings pershare of about $5.03," Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimernoted.

The number of iPads sold was less than the 6 million or so manyanalysts had expected; there have been numerous reports of shortsupplies of the iPad 2 since it was introduced last month.

The outlook for the current quarter is below expectations,although Apple often offers investors conservative guidance on itsprospects.

Earlier, before the results were released, Apple stock finishedregular trading today at $342.41, up $4.55, or 1.3 percent, fromTuesday's closing price. The stock was somewhat higher in after-hours trading.

Obama at Facebook

President Barack Obama is visiting Facebook today for a "virtualtown hall" event that is being streamed live on the Palo Alto socialnetworking powerhouse's website.

Merc writer Mike Swift is covering the event itself thisafternoon, and our colleagues at the Palo Alto Daily News have beenlive-blogging the scene outside Facebook headquarters. You can watchlive on Facebook starting at 1:45 p.m. at www.facebook.com/FacebookLive or at the White House website at www.whitehouse.gov/live. Obama will be taking questions submitted by Facebook members.

Obama, you might recall, last visited the Bay Area in February todine with Silicon Valley tech executives including Facebook CEO MarkZuckerberg, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Cisco Systems (CSCO) CEO JohnChambers and Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison at the home of JohnDoerr, a senior partner at venture capital powerhouse KleinerPerkins Caufield & Byers.

According to a Merc report, after the event, Obama will travel toSan Francisco for three fundraisers. At one of the events, 60 donorsare paying $38,500 each to dine with Obama at the home of SalesforceCEO Marc Benioff.

Startup America

Cisco Systems, Google (GOOG), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Intel(INTC), Intuit (INTU), LinkedIn, Salesforce and Silicon Valley Bankare joining Obama's Startup America effort -- or adding to earliercommitments -- to help entrepreneurs throughout the U.S., accordingto a news release today.

"Today's announcement of new commitments highlights the progresswe're making to provide entrepreneurs with resources to grow andscale," Steve Case, founder of AOL and chairman on the nonprofitStartup America Partnership.

The nonprofit is holding an event at Facebook after Obama'svirtual town hall meeting.

More tech headlines

-- Google is giving a raise to Eric Schmidt, the Mountain ViewInternet juggernaut's former CEO, according to The Associated Press.As of April 4, when Larry Page took over as CEO and Schmidt becameexecutive chairman, Schmidt's yearly salary became $1.25 million, upfrom just $1.

-- Amazon will allow Kindle owners to download books from theirlocal libraries starting later this year. Libraries will be able topurchase a limited number of e-books for their patrons.

California real estate

There's mixed news today on the health of the real estate markethere in the Golden State.

"Distressed sales" -- foreclosure transactions or short sales forless than the value of the mortgage on a home -- were a lower shareof the real estate market in March compared with the month before,according to the California Association of Realtors.

Foreclosures and short sales accounted for 51 percent of themarket last month, down from 56 percent in February and flat fromMarch 2010.

"Consistent with the state as a whole, nearly all the countiesfor which we have data also experienced an improvement in distressedsales," association President Beth L. Peerce noted in an email."However, distressed sales in most of the counties were higher thana year ago, as the market continues to work through large numbers oftroubled mortgages."

The number of pending home sales -- deals with signed contractsbut which haven't closed -- was up 15.2 percent from the monthbefore, but down 0.3 percent from March 2010, when the state's realestate market was still benefiting from tax credits for manyhomebuyers.

The association's reports are based on information from localchapters and multiple listing services.

National market: The California data came on the same day theNational Association of Realtors reported a 3.7 percent seasonallyadjusted increase in existing-home sales in March from the monthbefore.

However, sales volume was down 6.3 percent from March 2010. Themedian home price dropped 5.9 percent year over year to $159,600.

"Existing-home sales have risen in six of the past eight months,so we're clearly on a recovery path," Lawrence Yun, theassociation's chief economist, said in a news release. "We projectmoderate improvements into 2012, but not every month will show again -- primarily because some buyers are finding it too difficultto obtain a mortgage."

Silicon Valley tech stocks

Up: Apple, Oracle, Google, Intel, Cisco, HP, eBay (EBAY), VMware,Gilead Sciences (GILD), Yahoo (YHOO) and most Silicon Valley techstocks climbed today after several strong tech earnings reports.

In particular, VMware, Intel and Yahoo surged after the SiliconValley tech giants reported financial results Tuesday afternoon thatsurpassed Wall Street expectations. Intel's jump, in particular,boosted both the Dow and the Nasdaq.

-- VMware shares skyrocketed $11.93, or 13.9 percent, to $97.90.According to Bloomberg News, the Palo Alto maker of virtualizationtechnology and cloud computing infrastructure has benefited from itspush into storage and desktop software.

-- Santa Clara chip behemoth Intel, of course, makes themicroprocessors that are the brains in most of our Mac and Windowscomputers. Intel has been hurt by weak consumer PC demand, but thathas been offset by corporate sales of PCs and expensive servercomputers. Intel stock surged $1.55, or 7.8 percent, to $21.41.

Other Silicon Valley chip stocks climbed, too, with gains of 4percent or more from Advanced Micro Devices, Altera, AppliedMaterials, Atmel, Cypress Semiconductor, Integrated DeviceTechnology, KLA-Tencor, Lam Research, NetLogic Microsystems,Novellus Systems and Rambus.

-- Sunnyvale Internet content powerhouse Yahoo reported a drop inprofit and revenue, but its online display ad sales were a brightspot. "We believe the stock is all about execution in Yahoo's NorthAmerican display business, which should grow much faster than itscurrent rate given its scale," Gleacher & Co. analyst Yun Kim notedtoday in an email. Yahoo stock climbed 75 cents, or 4.7 percent, toclose at $16.87.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Up 57.54, or 2.1 percent,to 2,802.51.

The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Up 186.79, or 1.5percent, to 12,453.54.

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Up 17.74, or1.4 percent, to 1,330.36.

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, asummary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The AssociatedPress, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Frank Russellat 408-920-5876. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercspike.