Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Motorola (MOT), XM Satellite Radio (XMSR), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Market matters, Verizon Communications (VZ), Amgen Inc (AMGN), iPhone, Economic data, Kraft Foods’A’ (KFT), Unilever ADR (UL), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH)

U.S. stock futures were lower early Monday as investors concerns over the banking sector grew. Federal regulator seized two more banks, 1st National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank, which were scheduled to reopen on Monday as Mutual of Omaha Bank branches. The Senate also passed a major housing bill over the weekend, and this could actually give a boost to mortgage lenders like Fannie (NYSE: FNM). Meanwhile, oil prices rebounded as European markets declined. As of 8:00 a.m., it seems Wall Street would start weak.

Reporting earnings today are Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) - Kraft reported 58 cents earnings per share excluding items, beating estimates of 50 cents; Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) - Verizon reported earnings of 67 cents per share, excluding items, beating estimates by 2 cents; and after the close of trading, Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN).

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) stock is jumping over 17% in premarket trading after announcing late Friday its experimental osteoporosis drug, denosumab, significantly reduced the risk of bone fracture in post-menopausal women in a large trial. Rodman & Renshaw and Jefferies & Co both upgraded Amgen to Market Outperform and to Buy respectively.

Unilever NV (NYSE: UL) will sell its North American laundry detergents business to private equity investor Vestar Capital Partners for $1.45 billion (euro924 million). Unilever said the sale consistent with its strategy of divesting non-core businesses and concentrating on a few core ones.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) will reorganize its home and networks mobility unit — its second largest — by splitting it into three separate businesses. This could facilitate future sales should Motorola tries to divest any business units.

Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. will go public on the New York Stock Exchange through a takeover of its Amsterdam-listed investment fund KKR Private Equity Investors LP. The original plan for a $1.25 billion initial public offering didn’t pan out due to credit market turmoil.

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) shares are gaining over 1.5% in premarket after announcing preliminary results. It said it expects its adjusted loss during the second quarter to narrow to $24 million from $79 million as revenue rose 25% to $283 million. Sirius said it’s planning to sell $375 million of its own stock and up to $65 million more from time to time. Only a few days ago the FCC has finally approved the merger of Sirius with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: XMSR), in which Sirius would take over XM.

Ryanair Holdings (NASDAQ: RYAAY) dropped as much as 26% after it reported a surprising 85% drop in first-quarter profit on Monday, citing the high cost of fuel and recessionary fears. It also warned it could post its first-ever annual loss.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission is probing four rumors regarding Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH).

Could Cuil be the search engine that threatens Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)? Cuil Inc. is a startup founded by engineers from Google and other tech giants. Cuil is said to cover three times as many Web pages as Google and aims to deliver better results than other major search engines. The site’s results page resembles an online magazine.

The USA Today says Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is “experiencing serious Microsoft-type growing pains with its launch of the new iPhone that went on sale two weeks ago.” The problems it lists include not enough supply to satisfy demand and a longer procedure to activate the phone.

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Filed under: Launches, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Going into the search business and targeting Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) must carry odds of success which are at least a million to one. But, the market is rich. Google has a market cap of over $150 billion. Even a little piece of that could make a start-up some money. That is if anyone wants another search option beyond Google, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), and a number of other services with tiny customers bases.

Some former Google engineers believe they can master their former master. According to The Wall Street Journal, “A startup founded by engineers from Google,Inc. and other tech giants is launching a search engine that claims to cover three times as many Web pages as Google.”

The new service is called Cuil. Wish them luck.

Cuil’s problem is deeper than is evidenced at first blush. Google not only controls over 60% of the US search market. It also probably indexes as much of the web as almost any user would need. Tripling the number of possible search results is not useful to the huge majority of search engine users.

Search usefulness is driven by the relevance of the results. Cuil has not demonstrated that it can out-Google Google on that front. If it cannot deliver that higher level of relevance, and deliver it by an order of magnitude much greater than the largest incumbent, it will not go anywhere.

In search, quality trumps quantity.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Small business

Former Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) engineers recently launched a new-fangled search engine, called Cuil. The goal was pretty ambitious; that is, to be the next Google.

Well, the debut was shaky, as the online reviews were mostly negative. Basically, the quality of the search results were lackluster — and the overall performance was erratic.

No doubt, in the social media world, things can get brutal. Yet, it’s something that many businesses need to think about.

So, how do you deal with negative reviews?

First of all, it’s a good idea to monitor the chatter about your company. To this end, you can use services like Google alerts. There is also a free application called Social Media Firehose that monitors various social media channels.

Show Up

In many cases, an online review site will provide for comments. And, according to Todd Defren — a principal at SHIFT Communications — it’s a good idea to respond to negative comments. However, be diplomatic.

Here’s one of his approaches:

“We were really sad to see that you had a bad experience with our product. Even though we have thousands of happy customers, we’re always striving to improve and I can assure you that we’re going to use your review as ammunition to make sure we do a better job in the future. We appreciate the time you took to put our product through its paces; even though we seem to have stumbled this time, our success is a marathon not a sprint, and you’ve helped us train for more success in the future.”

Having such an approach shows that you are serious about customer feedback and that you’re proactive. And, in light of the fact that many customers research the Net before buying products, it’s a good idea to have some participation.

“A bad review is an opportunity for a company to learn about a failing they might not have otherwise known about, connect with and win over a consumer and fix a problem,” said Marc Karasu, who is the president of MeasuredUp.com.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), General Motors (GM), Motorola (MOT), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Market matters, Walt Disney (DIS), Aetna Inc (AET), Altria Group (MO), Kellogg Co (K), MasterCard Inc’A’ (MA), Economic data, Unilever ADR (UL)

U.S. stock futures were mixed Thursday morning ahead of the government preliminary report of U.S. second-quarter gross domestic product to be released at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Compare to the first quarter, where GDP grew at an annual rate of 1%, analysts are expecting an annual growth rate in the second quarter of 2.3% according to Briefing.com. Another wave of earnings will also wash Wall Street over this morning, while it’s still digesting Wednesday’s ones. The market will likely take a clearer direction once GDP is out.

[Update: GDP grew at a 1.9% pace in the second quarter came in well short of the 2.3% forecast. Futures are declining on economy and the XOM miss. Wall Street will likely open significantly lower.]

Reporting/reported this morning:

• Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) is expected to report second-quarter earnings before the open. If ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and BP (NYSE: BP) results are any indication, XOM will likely post massive profits thanks to oil’s skyrocketing prices and even break the record it has set for largest profit by a U.S. company. Analyst on average expect Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
• MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) is expected to report earnings of $2.02 per share.
• Kellog (NYSE: K) is expected to post earnings of 81 cents per shares.

• Motorola (NYSE: MOT) shares are climbing 4.8% in premarket trading after it posted a small profit as revenue and phone sales beat estimates. Motorola reported a second-quarter profit of $4 million and broke even on a per share basis. Revenue fell to $8.1 billion.
• Aetna (NYSE: AET) shares are gaining 1% in premarket trading after the health insurer said its second-quarter profit rose 6.4% on membership growth and a hike in premium rates. The company posted 97 cents earnings per share on revenue of $7.83 billion (a rise of 15%). Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 93 cents per share on revenue of about $7.87 billion, on average.
• Altria (NYSE: MO) shares are trading 2.7% higher in premarket action after the it said its second-quarter profit fell 58% as it separated its international cigarette unit. Excluding one-time items, profit rose to 46 cents per share. Revenue has risen 4% to $5.05 billion from $4.86 billion. Thomson Financial says analysts expected a profit of 45 cents per share on revenue of $4.17 billion.
• Unilever (NYSE: UN, UL) shares are down nearly 9% in premarket trading after the consumer product company said profit declined by almost a fifth while sales dipped 1%.
• Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) reported profit growth of 33%.
• Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) reported bigger-than-estimated 2.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) of debt writedowns in the second quarter, saying it remains cautious on the rest of the year.

Reported Wednesday after the close:

• Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) shares are climbing 4.3% in premarket trading as it beat estimates.
• Visa (NYSE: V) shares are also climbing over 3.2% in premarket trading after it topped Street forecast. Visa seems to be counting on international transactions.
• First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) are up nearly 8% in premarket trading after the solar energy company crushed estimated across the board.
• Disney (NYSE: DIS) shares, on the other hand, are down over 2% in premarket trading despite beating estimates. The media conglomerate said it detected slowing growth.

According to the Wall Street Journal General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) will cut 5,000 North American white-collar jobs by November 1 as part the plan announced earlier this month to save $10 billion through 2009.

A day after Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) acquired Omnisio to interact with YouTube, for the Wall Street Journal reported it “is working on plans to start a venture-capital arm, according to several people briefed on the discussions.”

Despite claims of Rogers, sole carrier of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone in Canada it is getting weekly shipments from Apple, sales of the iPhone in Canada are still outpacing supply.

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