Yahoo stock falls 22 percent

Yahoo’s stock price plunged by nearly 22 percent Wednesday, marking its largest one-day drop ever after the Internet powerhouse postponed a pivotal change to the advertising formula that propels its profits.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company jarred Wall Street with the unexpected delay late Tuesday after announcing solid second-quarter results that mirrored analyst estimates.

On Wednesday, Yahoo Inc.’s shares plummeted $7.04, or 21.8 percent, to close at $25.20 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The downturn surpassed a 20.9 percent downturn in Yahoo’s stock in October 2000 after the company warned investors it was about to be hard hit by the dot-com bust.

•Spokane-based Ambassadors Group Inc. reported net income of $18.5 million for the second quarter of 2006, compared with $15.2 million in earnings from the same period one year ago.

The company, which arranges travel for youth and professionals, reported earnings per share of 86 cents compared with per-share earnings of 72 cents a year ago.

Ambassadors’ busiest seasons are the second and third quarters, covering the bulk of summer travel. During the first quarter of 2006, Ambassadors reported a net loss of $3.5 million.

For the year-to-date, Ambassadors had net earnings of $15 million, compared with $12.6 million during the same period of 2005.

•Intel Corp.’s second-quarter profit fell 56.6 percent Wednesday as revenue declined and costs for stock-based compensation mounted.

Intel, the world’s largest computer chip maker, said net income for the three months ended July 1 was $885 million, or 15 cents a share, compared with $2.04 billion, or 33 cents, in the same period last year.

Revenue fell 13.2 percent to $8 billion, at the low end of Intel’s forecast. The Santa Clara-based company reported sales of $9.23 billion in the second quarter of 2005.

•Northwest Bancorporation Inc., the Spokane-based parent company of Inland Northwest Bank, reported second-quarter net income of about $646,400, up 28 percent from the same period a year ago.

On a per-share basis, earnings were 29 cents a share in the second quarter this year, compared with 22 cents a share in the second quarter last year.

The company had assets of $263 million at the end of June, a 10 percent increase from assets of $239 million at the same time last year.

•Apple Computer Inc. on easily topped Wall Street’s income forecast for the spring quarter with a nearly 48 percent profit increase driven largely by the continued popularity of its industry-leading iPod music player. Company shares rose more than 8 percent in late-session trading.

For its fiscal third quarter ended July 1, Apple’s profit rose to $472 million, or 54 cents a share, up from $320 million, or 37 cents per share in the same period of 2005. That was 10 cents per share better than the mean forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

•Washington Mutual Inc. said second quarter earnings fell sharply because of two large one-time charges associated with major restructuring that the company also announced Wednesday.

The nation’s largest savings and loan reported earnings of $767 million, or 79 cents per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with earnings of $844 million, or 95 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

The results included a $101 million after-tax charge to reflect the company’s planned sale of $2.6 billion in mortgage servicing rights.

•EBay Inc. delivered a second-quarter profit that fulfilled analysts’ expectations Wednesday, but the online auctioneer signaled it isn’t content with the status quo by raising some of its listing fees and committing to buy back up to $2 billion worth of its slumping stock.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company said it earned $250 million, or 17 cents per share, for the three months ended in June. That represented a 14 percent decrease from $291.6 million, or 21 cents per share, at the same time last year.

•Investors in International Business Machines Corp., pushed the technology stock higher after the company said second-quarter profit rose nearly 11 percent.

Shares of IBM rose $1.81, or 2.4 percent, to close at $76.07 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

From April through June, IBM earned $2.02 billion, or $1.30 per share, on revenue of $21.9 billion.