BellSouth Corporation (BLS: chart) said before the bell Monday that its quarterly income decreased nearly 15%, due to weak revenue and costs related to Cingular Wireless' planned purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. The Atlanta, Georgia-based telecommunications company announced a net profit of $799 million, or 44 cents a share, for its fiscal 2004 third quarter, down from a net profit of $936 million, or 51 cents a share, for the prior-year period. Excluding items, earnings amounted to $893 million, or 49 cents a share, in the quarter ended September 30, compared with $926 million, or 50 cents a share, in 2003. On that basis, analysts had predicted a profit of 51 cents a share, on average. BellSouth, which teamed up with SBC Communications Inc. to form mobile phone operator Cingular Wireless, said quarterly revenue came to $5.10 billion against $5.14 billion, last year. Including Cingular, the company reported revenue of $6.75 billion in the quarter, up 0.4% from a year ago. For the first nine months of 2004, profit was $3.39 billion, or $1.85 a share, compared with a profit of $3.12 billion, or $1.68 a share, for the same period in 2003.

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP: chart) announced Monday higher quarterly earnings, aided by solid revenue across all business segments. The Roseland, New Jersey-based world's No.1 payroll and tax filing processor turned in net income of $208.2 million, or 35 cents per share, for its first quarter, a 7% growth from net income of $194.9 million, or 32 cents per share, last year. The earnings were 2 cents a share ahead of the average analysts’ estimate. Revenue in the quarter improved 8% to $1.85 billion, boosted by a 6% increase in employer services revenue. Brokerage services revenue was also up 6% from last year to $331 million.

Kellogg Company (K: chart) posted Monday a net profit of $247 million, or 59 cents per share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2004, in contrast to a net profit of $231.3 million, or 56 cents per share, for the year-ago comparable period. Analysts had expected the world’s top cereal maker to earn 55 cents per share, on average. Battle Creek, Michigan-based Kellogg recorded net sales of $2.45 billion in the quarter, up 7.2% year-over-year. The company attributed the results to strong sales of new products and a weak U.S. dollar.

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB: chart) of Irving, Texas, reported Monday that its fiscal third-quarter earnings climbed 5% to $441.3 million, or 89 cents per share, from $419.7 million, or 83 cents per share, generated in the third quarter of 2003. The maker of Kleenex and Huggies said higher tissue prices helped offset increased raw material costs. Results fell a penny a share shy of the consensus analysts’ forecast. Sales in the quarter rose 6.2% to $3.87 billion.

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (DGX: chart) on Monday turned in improved quarterly profits, boosted by higher revenues. The Teterboro, New Jersey-based provider of diagnostics medical testing announced third-quarter net income of $130 million, or $1.26 per share, compared to year-earlier net income of $120 million, or $1.12 per share. The company estimated that the recent hurricanes in Florida cut its earnings per share by 3 cents. Total revenue in the quarter advanced 5.6% to $1.3 billion.

Google Inc. (GOOG: chart) of Mountain View, California, said Thursday that its fiscal 2004 third-quarter net income more than doubled to $52.0 million, or 19 cents per share, from net income of $20.4 million, or 8 cents per share, for the 2003 comparable period. The operator of the top Internet search engine cited strength in online advertising as major boost for the results. This was Google’s first quarterly earnings report as a public company. Excluding unusual items, profit came to 70 cents per share for the quarter ended September 30, powering past the mean analysts’ estimate of 56 cents per share. Quarterly revenue swelled to $805.9 million from $393.9 million, last year. Google-owned sites generated $411.7 million, or 51%, of total revenue, which is up 99% from the third quarter a year earlier. Revenue generated on the company’s partner sites, through AdSense programs, totaled $384.3 million, or 48% of total revenue.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN: chart) reported after market close Thursday that its quarterly profits more than tripled from last year, bolstered by surging sales. However, the results of the Internet retail giant fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. The company announced net income of $54.1 million, or 13 cents per share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2004, compared with net income of $15.6 million, or 4 cents per share, for the same period a year ago. Pro forma net earnings amounted to $73 million, or 17 cents a share, for the quarter ended September 30, in contrast to $48 million, or 11 cents a share, in the 2003 equivalent. The average analysts’ estimate was for a profit before items of 18 cents per share. Seattle, Washington-based Amazon recorded net sales of $1.46 billion in the third quarter, a 29% jump from prior-year sales of $1.13 billion. Sales from the company’s North America segment improved 15% from last year to $816 million, while sales from the international segment soared 52% to $646 million.

For fiscal year 2005, Amazon forecast net sales in the range of $7.40 billion to $8.15 billion. Analysts expect 2005 sales of $8.25 billion, on average.

Microsoft Corporation (MSFT: chart) posted after the bell Thursday higher quarterly earnings, aided by strong revenues. The world’s top software company turned in a net profit of $2.90 billion, or 27 cents per share, for its fiscal 2005 first quarter, up 12% from a year-earlier net profit of $2.61 billion, or 24 cents per share. Excluding stock-based compensation, Microsoft posted first-quarter earnings of 32 cents per share, beating by 2 cents per share Wall Street’s consensus forecast. For the quarter ended September 30, revenue also edged up 12% to $9.19 billion from $8.22 billion, for the 2004 corresponding period. The Redmond, Washington-based company said its server business delivered revenue of $2.23 billion in the quarter, a 19% rise year-over-year. The Windows desktop software division increased revenue by 6.5% to $2.99 billion and the Office division recorded revenue of $2.56 billion, up 13.6% compared with year-ago quarter.

Looking ahead, Microsoft projected second-quarter earnings of 28 cents per share, including items, on revenue of $10.3 billion to $10.5 billion.

PeopleSoft, Inc. (PSFT: chart) announced Thursday that it swung to a quarterly profit from a year-ago loss, driven by higher sales. The Pleasanton, California-based developer of enterprise software posted third-quarter earnings of $23.6 million, or 6 cents per share, reversing a loss of $7.3 million, or 2 cents per share, for the 2003 equivalent. Excluding items, earnings totaled $61.8 million, or 17 cents per share. Analysts were looking for a profit of 14 cents per share in the quarter. Revenue advanced 12% to $698.8 million.