Author: Nick Saint

TerraPower, a startup backed by Bill Gates, is in talks with Toshiba to build a small-scale nuclear reactor, The Wall Street Journal reports.

TerraPower has technology to create underground plants that it claims will make nuclear power cheaper and smaller. The Obama administration has offered $8 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear power as part of its wider alternative energy push, making this an attractive time to launch such experimental projects.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal >

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• Bill Gates Loses Forbes’ ‘World’s Richest’ Title To Carlos Slim
• New Invention Using Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods Could Unlock U.S. Oil Reserves Three Times Larger Than Saudi Arabia’s
• We Need 230 New Nuclear Plants To Power Our Gadgets

The Goldman Sachs Internet and Technology Conference in San Fransisco kicks off this morning with keynote addresses from Intel’s CFO Stacy Smith and Microsoft’s President of Server & Tools Segment Bob Muglia.

Just about every major tech company is represented in the lineup, as well as a few upstarts you might not expect, such as Yelp.

All presentations will be available via webcast (audio only) here.

Here are some highlights of the schedule (all times PST):

Tuesday, February 23

• 8:15 am: Intel — Stacy J. Smith
• 9:00 am: Microsoft — Bob Muglia
• 10:20 am: Adobe — Shantanu Narayen
• 10:20 am: EA — Eric Brown
• 11:00 am: THQ — Brian Farrell
• 12:20 pm: Yahoo — Hillary Schneider
• 1:10 pm: Apple — Tim Cook
• 5:20 pm: Google — Nikesh Arora

Wednesday, February 24

• 8:15 am: Dell — Brian Gladden, Peter Altabef
• 9:00 am: IAC — Barry Diller
• 12:20 pm: eBay — John Donahoe
• 1:10 pm: HP — Cathie Lesjak

Thursday, February 25

• 9:40 am: Palm — Doug Jeffries
• 11:00 am: Netflix — Barry McCarthy
• 12:30 pm: Cisco — Frank Calderoni

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See Also:

• Google To Talk Android, Chrome And The Enterprise At Developers Conference
• Tim Armstrong Pitches AOL At The UBS Conference
• Web 3.0 Conference Ticket Giveaway: Ready, Set, Comment

Activision-Blizzard (ATVI) announced earnings numbers that were significantly better than expected, but guidance is low.

The company earned $0.49 per share on $2.5 billion in revenue on a non-GAAP basis, solidly above estimates of $0.44 per share on $2.23 billion in revenue.

The company received a huge boost in the holiday season from the blockbuster “Call of Duty: Moder Warfare 2,” which took in over half a billion dollars in its first five days of sales.

Forecasts for this quarter fell short of expectations however. Activision is projecting earnings of $0.02 on $525 million in revenue, versus an expected $0.08 on $740 million.

The company also announced that it would issue a $0.15 annual dividend, and is initiating a stock buyback of up to $1 billion.

Sales appear to be weaker than expected across the industry; EA also slashed its forecast for this quarter when it released earnings earlier this week.

The stock is up over 4.6% in the early minutes of after market trading.

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• ‘Call Of Duty’ Is Still Killing It
• EA Takes Aim At $1 Billion Per Year World Of Warcraft
• Electronic Arts (Barely) Beats The Street

Rumors of a Time Warner (TWX) takeover bid for game developer Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) rippled through the industry a few weeks ago, according to an industry source we spoke with.

Nothing came of it, and the scuttlebutt now is that the rumors (which had Time-Warner offering a $14.50 per share) were floated by Carl Icahn (who owns 11% of Take-Two) and other large investors who are looking to sell the struggling developer.

Take-Two has had a hard time remaining profitable, despite some lucrative games, most notably Grand Theft Auto. It was the target of a takeover bid from EA (ERTS) in 2008 at a now dreamlike $26+ per share.  In hindsight, Take-Two’s decision to reject this bid was catastrophic.

Take-Two remains an attractive target, but its problem, our source says, is that there is “no natural buyer”.

EA is unlikely to try again, and Activision (ATVI) has publicly stated that it isn’t interested in buying a company that hasn’t demonstrated consistent profitability. A larger company looking to break into the industry, such as Time Warner, or perhaps News Corp (NWS), could be the answer.

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See Also:

• Carl Icahn Shaking Things Up At Take-Two
• Will The Xbox 720, PS4, And Wii 2 Come Out In 2010?
• EA Finally Drops Take-Two Bid (For Now)

GameStop (GME) stock is down 16% to just over $20 this morning after the company announced that it had slashed its fourth-quarter earnings forecast, MarketWatch reports.

GameStop now projects earnings of between $1.25 and $1.29 per share, far short of both its own forecast and the analysts’ consensus of around $1.57.

The company blamed the economy, the weather, and “unexpected shortages of key products”.

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• GameStop Plummets As Wal-Mart Goes Nuclear Cutting Game Prices
• GameStop Slashes Guidance After Blowing Quarter
• Best Buy Goes After GameStop On Their Home Turf