Business News Roundup, Oct. 23

Thursday’s report indicated that the Mountain View company is making significant strides in the mobile market, with its earnings surging 45 percent to nearly $4 billion ($5.73 per share).

Alphabet, which replaced Google as a publicly traded stock this month, won extra credit by announcing plans to spend nearly $5.1 billion buying its own shares over an unspecified period.

The gains also reflected the financial discipline that has been imposed by Google’s recently hired chief financial officer, Ruth Porat:

Amazon reported a surprise third-quarter profit, driven by a boost in revenue from its Prime Day promotion and continued strong growth in cloud-computing offerings.

Results beat expectations, and shares jumped 10 percent in after-hours trading.

Amazon’s strategy has long been to invest the money it makes back into its businesses, particularly by expanding offerings in its $99-a-year Prime loyalty program and its cloud-computing business, called Amazon Web Services.

Revenue jumped 23 percent during the quarter, helped by strong sales of electronics and general merchandise, a good sign for the Seattle retailer ahead of November and December, when retailers make a substantial percentage of their annual sales.

Microsoft may still be suffering from lagging sales of personal computers, but the tech giant has taken some cues from rivals like Apple and Google — and it’s now seeing substantial growth in more promising lines of business ranging from Internet apps and advertising to online games and cloud computing.

Licensing payments from PC-makers were down 6 percent, a fifth straight quarter of declines, after the July introduction of the Windows 10 operating system failed to spark an immediate revival in sales.

[...] Microsoft’s decision last summer to pare back its struggling Nokia division meant the company made less money from selling mobile phones.

[...] Microsoft reported strong performance in cloud computing, online advertising and subscriptions to online services — areas that CEO Satya Nadella considers key to the company’s future.

McDonald’s sales edged up at established U.S. locations during the third quarter, snapping a streak of about two years of quarterly declines.

The guardian of the U.S. banking system said in a court filing Wednesday that it doesn’t intend to accept a penny connected to the sale of pot because the drug remains illegal under federal law.

Federal health officials are warning that two hepatitis C drugs from AbbVie can cause life-threatening liver injury in patients with advanced forms of the disease.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it will require AbbVie to add warnings to Viekira Pak and Technivie about their risks for patients who already have advanced liver damage from hepatitis C.

The warning could reshape the growing field of high-priced drugs to treat the virus, which also includes blockbuster medications Sovaldi and Harvoni from Foster City’s Gilead Sciences.

Mazda is recalling 4.9 million older vehicles, including 1.36 million in the U.S., because ignition switches could overheat and catch fire.

Mazda says it put too much grease on electrical contact points in the switches when the cars were manufactured.

Oakland streaming music company Pandora has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a lawsuit brought by major record labels over its use of recordings released before 1972.

The labels, including divisions of Sony, Warner and Universal, had argued that songs such as Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” are not covered by federal copyright law, but they have been protected in common law by states.

The Obama administration is joining with private companies to train law enforcement officials about virtual currency bitcoin and how to fight crime arising from its use.

The partnership, called the Blockchain Alliance, has two main goals, according to those involved in the project: educate investigators on how the technology works and enhance the reputation of a digital currency that’s been associated with high-profile crime even as it has slowly gained mainstream acceptance.