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Filed under: Earnings reports, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Hansen Natural (HANS), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), General Mills (GIS), Polo Ralph Lauren'A' (RL)

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Filed under: Earnings reports, Viacom (VIA), Activision Inc (ATVI)

Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) reported third-quarter earnings numbers on Thursday (for more earnings news, see here). Revenues increased a scant 5% to $848 million. The bottom line saw a net loss of 6 cents per share. According to Earnings.com, analysts were expecting a loss of 18 cents per share. So, expectations were soundly beat.

At first glance Edgar Bronfmans Jr.'s Warner Music Group (WMG) has handily beaten Wall Street's low expectations for its Q3: Even allowing for the effect of the weak dollar, revenues trumped conensus, and the net EPS loss seems to have handily beaten expecations. This will feel particularly satisfying to the Warner guys after Goldman's Ingrid Chung downgraded the company earlier in the week.

The music business continues to decline, but Sony's Howard Stringer is determined to make a go of it anyway, and he's willing to pay a premium. He's just purchased partner Bertelsmann's 50% stake in the Sony BMG joint venture. In an oddly structured deal, Sony will end up spending about $1.2 billion on the deal, but will end valuing Bertelsmann's half at $900 million.

The details, via a Sony release:

Beleaguered Warner Music Group (WMG) has had a nice little run since April -- after dropping below $5, shares had rallied above $8.50 last week. That's too high, Goldman's Ingrid Chung declared today, putting a "sell" on Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s baby.