Excluding charges related to stock options and other items, Palm (PALM) said net losses were $13.6 million, or 10 cents a share, for the recent period. Revenue slipped to $68 million from $366.9 million in the same period last year. Excluding revenue deferred from sales of the company’s new Pre handset, Palm said adjusted revenue would have been $360.7 million. Analysts had expected the company to turn in a loss of 24 cents a share on sales of $291 million.

Palm shipped a total of 823,000 smart phone units during the quarter, up 134 percent over the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009, but down 30 percent year over year. Smart phone sell-through for the quarter was 810,000 units, up 76 percent from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 and down 21 percent year over year.

Speaking to analysts Thursday afternoon, Palm execs claimed that “the vast majority of new sales” for the quarter were generated by the Pre. But they declined to separate Pre sales from those of other handsets.

Skeptics will no doubt look at this and conclude that Palm didn’t meet expectations for Pre shipments of about 520,000. That, or the company is still selling a hell of a lot of Centros.

“We’re making significant progress with Palm’s transformation, and our culture of innovation is stronger than ever,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer. “We’re launching more great Palm webOS products with more carriers, and turning our sights toward growth.”

A few more Jon Rubinstein remarks from the earnings call:

On additional form factors:

I’m a big believer in families of products, and we’ll continue to evolve the line in the future and have a family of products for webOS.

On Carrier Customization:

We don’t really talk about our carrier agreements.

On Pre sales:

Sell-in and sell-through…the vast majority of new sales…relate to the Pre.

On the Pixi cannibalizing Pre sales:

The Pixi is a more cost-effective offering, so yes we expect some people might come into the store looking to buy a Pre and end up with a Pixi. But others might come in looking for a Pixi and end up with a Pre. As I said, we’re big believers in families of products. We’re happy to have two webOS products on the market.

On carrier diversification:

Sprint did a phenomenal launch with the Pre. They invested heavily in advertising….We’re looking forward to launching the Pixi with them as well. We don’t talk about our roadmap, but we’ll have more carriers and more products in the future.

On Motorola’s new Motoblur service:

We don’t really know much about it. To build really great consumer products, you have to own the OS and services. And the fact that we have webOS as our asset is really important.

“The compensation committee recognizes that Mr. Ellison has a significant equity interest in Oracle, but believes he should still receive annual compensation because Mr. Ellison plays an active and vital role in our operations, strategy and growth,” Oracle said in the filing. “Nevertheless, during fiscal 2010, Mr. Ellison agreed to decrease his annual salary to $1.”

A wise gesture from Ellison, who took a bit of flak at Oracle’s annual meeting last October after he made $543.8 million by exercising 36 million stock options. But still, a gesture only. Ellison is the fourth wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes. He is also Oracle’s largest shareholder, with 23.4 percent of stock outstanding, as of July 21. That stake is valued at more than $25 billion today.

So as long as Oracle (ORCL) continues to outperform the market, Larry will be just fine.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sirius XM said it will raise Karmazin’s base salary to $1.5 million from $1.25 million beginning on Jan. 1, 2010, and grant him an option to purchase 120 million shares at an exercise price of 43 cents a share. His reward for steering the company clear of bankruptcy after driving it right up to its very edge, I suppose.

Sirius (SIRI) investors who’ve seen their stock plunge to 46 cents from $2 a share can be forgiven for questioning the wisdom of such a move and wondering if perhaps there wasn’t a better use for a quarter of a million dollars at a time when the company is buried in debt. But there’s nothing much to be done about it now. Suffice it to say, the odds of Karmazin being forced out at this point are likely pretty slim.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Fee Increase Coming for Sirius XM Subscribers [Internal Doc]
• Sirius Founder: You’re 10 Years Too Late, Karmazin
• Call Me Mel “Save-My-Own-Keister” Karmazin
• Sirius-EchoStar-Liberty: Ménage-à-Blah
• Sirius: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Ergen
• A Bankruptcy Filing, Mel? Surely You Can’t Be Sirius…
• Sirius Rolls Out New 24 Hour Investor Keening Channel
• Sirius Debt Problems? Call EchoStar! No Upfront Fees!
• Sirius XM: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
• Your Report Card Is Your Stock Price? Guess Sirius Is Making Straight $.13’s…
• Trade You 77 shares of SIRI for 1 Month of “Sirius Everything”

The company neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, though CEO Sal Iannuzzi’s comment on the matter was fairly apologetic, as well it should be–after all, Monster had to restate its results for 1997 through 2005 to the tune of about $339.5 million (pre-tax). “This is an important step in closing an unfortunate chapter in the company’s history and putting the issue firmly behind us,” Iannuzzi said in a statement. “Our current executive team has spent the last two years refocusing Monster on its customers and shareholders, retooling the day-to-day management, and overhauling governance in an effort to adhere to the highest standards.”

Quite the altruist, that Karmazin.

But let’s be honest here. Given that the options, of which 24,000,000 were vested and 6,000,000 unvested, had an exercise price of $4.72 per share and that Sirius’s stock is trading at about 35 cents, they really weren’t worth anything. So a nice addition to the company’s incentive plan, but an ironic one in that Karmazin had little incentive to keep the Sirius (SIRI) options he’s forfeiting.

In a regulatory filing today, the company said it has asked shareholders to approve a plan to offer employees the opportunity to swap underwater stock options for restricted stock. “Like many companies, we have experienced a significant decline in our stock price over the last year in light of the current global financial and economic crisis,” eBay explained in its argument for implementing the plan. “Because of the continued challenging economic environment and the uncertain impact of our efforts to change our business, we believe these underwater stock options are no longer effective as incentives to motivate and retain our employees.”

And this may well be the case. That said, you’d think that the widespread and fast-mounting job losses in the tech sector would be enough to keep most folks still collecting paychecks coming in to work. Nice gesture, though.

Former Motorola CFO Paul Liska thought he’d been let go because the company was postponing the spinoff of its cellphone unit. Imagine his surprise when he read in Crain’s Chicago Business that he’d actually been fired for cause.

In a recent SEC filing, Motorola (MOT) said Liska was “involuntarily terminated for cause” and therefore must repay his $400,000 signing bonus and forfeit the stock options he received when he signed on with the company.

An odd disclosure, given the way in which Motorola’s leadership handled Liska’s departure. Asked about the circumstances surrounding his exit on a Feb. 9 earnings call, Motorola co-CEO Greg Brown had this to say:

“[Paul] did a lot of good work here and helped us get a lot of the heavy lifting done around this separation and preparation for separation which–as we talked about–remains the commitment to our strategy going forward and he was also very helpful in getting after along with the businesses and the other leaders in the organization, cost reduction initiatives. That said, I think the business environment’s changed, and given the environmental changes, we thought the change was appropriate at this time as well in that position.”

If that was the case, why was he fired for cause, which Motorola defines as–among other things–”willful and continued failure to substantially perform duties” and “gross misconduct”?

We may soon find out. Liska has reportedly filed suit against Motorola for wrongful termination.

[Image credit: Someecards]

Shares in the company slid still deeper into the mud today as the market reflected on the uneventful conclusion of the company’s merger talks with Microsoft (MSFT) and its decision to–well, let’s face it–become a reseller of Google (GOOG) ads. In early trading, Yahoo’s stock, which plummeted 10% in late trading yesterday, fell another 6% to around $22. And it’s likely to fall further still, with financial analysts taking swings at it like kids at a piñata.

“This deal diminishes Yahoo’s relevance among advertisers and strengthens the hand of a key competitor,” analyst Mark May of Needham & Company told clients in a research note today.

And over at Cantor Fitzgerald, analyst Derek Brown agreed. “We remain concerned about the long-term implications of this deal for Yahoo,” he said. “While the company should reap a near-term financial windfall with Google by its side, it seems to be sacrificing its vision of becoming a ‘must buy’ for online advertisers. After all, doesn’t this deal make Google, not Yahoo!, the ‘must buy’ for online advertisers?”

Jeffrey Lindsay of Bernstein Research says the deal is a litigation nightmare waiting to happen. “We think at a minimum that the current deal will result in further lawsuits, which Yahoo will ultimately have to settle, further impacting the economics of the deal,” he said.

And analyst Laura Martin of Soleil Securities Group says it’s just a nightmare, plain and simple. “Execution issues become more challenging as talent continues to stream out the door,” Martin said in a research note. “With the collapse of the Microsoft deal, Yahoo employees lost (in addition to shareholders), and we expect Yahoo’s employee turnover to accelerate as its share price falls and their stock options are way underwater. Shareholder litigation may distract the board and senior management and will cost Yahoo shareholders more money.”

And Shar VanBoskirk, an analyst with Forrester Research (FORR), well, she reacted as I imagine many observers did–with a slow shake of the head. “It’s a great deal for Google,” she told BusinessWeek . “I have no idea what Yahoo’s thinking.”

If it was thinking at all … Said Mark May, an analyst at Needham & Co., “This just reaffirms the view that Yahoo, and particularly Jerry Yang and David Filo, blew it. It’s hard to see how this management team is going to be able to extract or create value anywhere near 33 bucks a share anytime soon.”

I am a media-relations nightmare. I never prep, and I generally say what I think–and sometimes I say things before I think. I don’t know how many times people in the company have heard me say something to a reporter and later told me, ‘Jesus Christ, that’s going to be in the paper!’”

–Henry Nicholas, July 2004

According to Forbes, former Broadcom Corp. chief and founder Henry Nicholas ranks 677th on the list of the world’s wealthiest individuals. But according to a federal indictment unsealed today (full document below), he’d rank quite a bit higher on a list of the world’s most debauched. Scattered among charges related to improperly backdating stock options while he led the computer and cellphone chip-maker are some heavy drug violations. According to the indictment, it seems that while Nicholas was fraudulently backdating stock options that resulted in more than $2 billion of restated expenses, he was also conspiring to distribute controlled substances.

Those he didn’t use himself, that is. From the indictment:

In or around 2001, Nicholas distributed and used controlled substances during a flight on a private plane between Orange County and Las Vegas, causing marijuana smoke and fumes to enter the cockpit and requiring the pilot flying the plane to put on an oxygen mask.”

Nicholas also apparently had a habit of spiking the drinks of associates and customers with drugs. Generally ecstasy. Hell of a way to close a sales meeting, eh?

As noted here before, it’s hard to believe that an entrepreneur and philanthropist like Nicholas would conduct himself like a roadie on Zeppelin’s debauched 1973 tour. But then no one probably thought he was serious about building that subterranean sex lair, either. Anyway, here’s the drug indictment. Click on the box in the far right-hand corner to enlarge: