GOP bills would change Pennsylvania pensions

HARRISBURG -- Three months after proposing a multipronged plan to limit state pension costs, Gov. Tom Corbett on Tuesday joined a pair of Republican legislators to announce bills in the House and Senate.

But as attention here begins to focus on the tasks ahead before the June 30 budget deadline -- often a de facto due date for other major legislation -- prospects are unclear that there's enough time to make broad changes to the retirement systems for state and public school employees.

In his February budget address, Mr. Corbett laid out a plan designed to address the unfunded liabilities of the statewide defined-benefit plans -- funding gaps now valued at more than $47 billion -- while limiting future risk to the state. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, the governor described a stark choice: Without overhaul, he said, growing pension costs will crowd out funding for education, public safety and other government functions.

"If we do not do this, that freight train is going to run us over, and we will start facing the issues that Illinois and California are already facing," Mr. Corbett said. "So I urge my friends in the Legislature to vote for change."

The governor stood onstage with Sen. Mike Brubaker, R-Lancaster, and Rep. Chris Ross, R-Chester, who announced their introduction of bills mirroring his plan to change how yet-unearned benefits are calculated for current workers -- reducing a multiplier used to calculate benefits, increasing the years for final average salary, limiting pensionable compensation -- while closing off the State Employees' Retirement System and the Public School Employees' Retirement System by diverting new hires into a defined-contribution plan similar to a 401(k). Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh and the Senate Republican point person on pensions, also lent his support.

Offstage, Rep. Glen Grell, R-Cumberland and a leader of a House Republican task force on pensions, said he had declined to sponsor the legislation, in part because the plan includes immediate deferrals in state payments despite promises by unions to challenge the plan in court.

"If we've already taken those savings and the courts end up striking down the other reforms, then we've underfunded the pension again," Mr. Grell said, adding: "I frankly don't like to pass legislation that guarantees going immediately to court."

In the Senate, the idea of enrolling new employees in a 401(k)-type plan has broad support among Republicans, said Erik Arneson, spokesman for Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi. But he, too, pointed to concern that the changes for current workers would not be allowed.

"Our review of the relevant court decisions leaves us extremely skeptical that that would be constitutional." Mr. Arneson said. "If that were passed, at a minimum it would be tied up in court for potentially years."

The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, has pointed to a pair of 1984 decisions by the state Supreme Court that it says safeguard the benefits of any worker already hired.

The Corbett administration has argued it will prevail in court because its proposal protects all retirement benefits already accrued. In a briefing earlier this year, James Schultz, the governor's chief counsel, said that while state courts recognize a contractual right to benefits already earned, no Pennsylvania ruling has addressed changes that apply only to benefits employees have yet to earn. The administration also points to a provision in the bills allowing a court challenge to proceed directly to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Pension overhaul is one of several major policy proposals Mr. Corbett has put forth this session. In addition to his annual state budget proposal, the governor has called for increases in funding for transportation infrastructure and the disbanding of the state system of wine and liquor sales.

Mr. Ross, the House sponsor, acknowledged the difficulty of gaining support for change in public-employee pensions.

"It is nasty. It is difficult. It is hard," he said. "The fact that people haven't rushed to it is not completely surprising."

But he said time remains to pass a bill before the June 30 budget deadline. "And if we're unsuccessful, we need to come back in the fall and go right back at it," he said. "We need to go until we get this fixed."

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/gop-bills-would-change-pennsylvania-pensions-686698

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Obama Turns To Jobs Plan, Allies Push For Less Emphasis On Deficit-Cutting Compromise

WASHINGTON ? The nation's slowly improving jobs picture hides problems like stagnant wages and fewer working hours that strike directly at President Barack Obama's base of support ? young people, racial minorities and the less affluent.

As the president launches a new focus on jobs, his traditional allies contend Obama has put too much of an emphasis on a deficit-cutting grand bargain with Republicans at the expense of creating jobs.

New college graduates face a downbeat labor market. The unemployment rate for workers under age 25 with at least a bachelor's degree has averaged 8.2 percent, compared to 5.4 percent in 2007. The government's April jobs report showed a decline in average weekly hours worked, and much of the growth was in predominantly low-wage sectors such as food services and drinking places and retail trade. And a new study found that nearly 2 million private-sector employees paid with taxpayer dollars earn wages too low to support a family.

"My point is that we've got to shift the national mood toward high wage and investment in America as opposed to cutting every federal program and having this austerity-based deficit-reduction thrust," said Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat and co-chairman of the House Progressive Caucus.

On Thursday, Obama is traveling to Austin, Texas, to draw attention to his administration's effort to boost jobs and wages and promote his efforts to bring jobs back to the U.S. from overseas. Last week he spent three days in Mexico and Costa Rica, in part to highlight trade relations that he said would help increase employment back home.

The economy has created 6.8 million private-sector jobs over the past 38 months, but nearly 12 million remain unemployed. The unemployment rate edged down to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent in March and has fallen 0.4 percentage point since the start of the year, though it remains high.

For the White House, creating jobs is as much a political as it is an economic challenge. Republicans have long resisted any further spending that would prime the economy, arguing instead that Obama's regulatory regime and his new health care law are hindering job growth.

What's more, Obama has tried to take a two-pronged approach to the economy, looking to boost the economic recovery with up-front spending while at the same time proposing deficit-reduction measures that would kick in later as the economy strengthens.

"That's like a textbook economic response to the current economic situation," said Michael Greenstone, who was chief economist at the White House's Council of Economic Advisers during Obama's first two years in office. "And that's not where there is political agreement."

Indeed, Obama's jobs proposals have stalled in Congress and have been met, instead, by immediate budget cuts that by most accounts have begun to create a drag on the economic recovery. After winning a tax increase on the top 1 percent of income earners, Obama has insisted against unified Republican opposition on more tax increases to help close deficits. The resulting stalemate has limited Obama's response.

"With aggressive fiscal stimulus we can bring the unemployment rate down rapidly; Washington has gone entirely in the other direction," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute.

Job growth in this recovery has lagged that of previous economic upturns and has been especially hurt by job losses in government employment and a weak construction sector.

Though unemployment has hit across demographic groups, the hardest hit have been young workers, workers with low levels of education, and racial and ethnic minorities ? the very same Americans who made up much of Obama's winning political coalition.

The average unemployment rate in the first quarter of this year was 7.7 percent. But for African-American workers that rate was 13.6 percent. For Latinos, it was 9.5 percent.

And among those who do have jobs, wages are not rising.

Take Natividad Lucinda Ramirez, a 55-year-old janitorial worker at Washington's Union Station. She makes $8.75 an hour as an employee of a janitorial firm under contract by the federal government to maintain the historic train depot. She holds down a second job, working about 60 hours a week. She has no health care benefits. She is married and cares for six nephews.

"I've never asked for anything from the government," she said. But she joined a number of other workers Wednesday to call on Obama to issue an executive order mandating federal contractors to pay a higher wage.

A study by the public-interest organization Demos, which advocates for workers, concluded that nearly 2 million workers who have jobs paid by taxpayers earn less than $12 an hour, or the equivalent of $24,000 a year for fulltime work. Critics argue that any mandate to increase pay will result in higher costs to taxpayers. But Demos analysts argue that higher wages help save money by reducing employee turnover and save taxpayers by lowering the number of workers who obtain food stamps and other government benefits.

Still, among the bright spots in the economy is the growth of manufacturing jobs. Since February 2010, the manufacturing sector has added a net of about half a million jobs, compared to a loss of 1.7 million manufacturing jobs during the 46-month recovery that began in November 2001.

Alan Krueger, chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, credits the 2009-2010 rescue of the auto industry for much of the turnaround in manufacturing. But Krueger cites current budget cuts, caused by the sequestration of funds that kicked in March 1, as drag for the economy in the short run and the long run.

"Every week the sequester stays in effect, the more adverse the effect on the economy," he said. "It's a headwind we don't need right now."

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/obama-jobs-plan_n_3240593.html

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Commerzbank loses $123M in Q1 due to restructuring

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Germany's Commerzbank said Tuesday it lost 94 million euros ($123 million) in the first quarter after taking heavy charges for future job reductions as the bank tries to turn its business around.

The net loss compared with a profit of 355 million euros in the same quarter a year ago.

Germany's No. 2 lender behind Deutsche Bank took charges worth 493 million euros for restructuring that will include 4,000 to 6,000 job cuts by 2016. The bank had around 54,000 employees at the end of the quarter. It announced the cuts in January and warned in April that it would take a large restructuring charge.

Commerzbank has been on a long road to recovery since it was bailed out in 2009 by the German government, which still owns a 25 percent stake. The job cuts stem from a program launched in November to invest in the lender's core business while also reducing personnel costs.

The bank made only 6 million euros in profit last year due to large writedowns, a performance CEO Martin Blessing said was not satisfactory. The bank is raising 2.5 billion euros by issuing new shares through a capital increase approved at the April 19 shareholders' meeting.

The bank said that currently low interest rates also hurt earnings as interest income fell to 1.36 billion euros from 1.69 billion euros. It saw more income from trading securities and made an operating profit excluding the restructuring charges of 469 million euros, although that was down 19 percent from the figure for the year-ago quarter.

Profit for the rest of this year would be "shaped by ongoing pressure on revenues," the bank said in a statement. Blessing said in a statement that while the bank's customers and markets were feeling less uncertain in general, "it is too soon to speak of an underlying trend reversal."

Overall, the bank's income before loan losses fell 4.6 percent to 2.46 billion euros.

The bank said it was making "excellent progress" in disposing of investments that it no longer considers part of its core business such as commercial real estate and shipping loans. Non-core assets were reduced by 7.3 billion euros during the quarter to 143 billion euros.

Commerzbank shares traded up 1.3 percent at 10.95 euros in midday trading in Europe.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/commerzbank-loses-123m-q1-due-restructuring-054524139.html

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Acer Aspire R7: The Craziest Thing to Happen to Laptops in Years

This is either brilliant or absolutely insane. Acer's new R7 ultrabook is the weirdest change to laptop design in years.

The R7 switches the touchpad and keyboard placement on laptop's body, with the keyboard in front of the touchpad. This is to make using touch with Windows 8 easier, with the hinge actually working like an easel, sort of like the Sony Duo 11 or an old iMac, so it can come closer to you, covering up the touchpad at times, and make itself more touchable.

The guts are standard Ultrabook. It's got a "Full HD" screen (1080p) and since it's out in May, will be shipping with third generation Intel Core chips, but will presumably get a bump to 4th gen Haswell once those are out.

Acer's design has been right near the top of the industry for a little bit now. The S7, the 13-inch but especially the 11-inch, was beautiful. It had a few usability issues, but it was hugely encouraging as far as good design coming to Windows goes. We'll get a chance to use the R7 a bit after Acer's press conference wraps up, so we'll let you know if this is a good design shift or just batshit insane, but just the creativity alone is refreshing.

Acer also announced the P3, which is an ultrabook/tablet convertible, and an update to its Iconia tablet line with a 7.9-inch IPS screen.

The R7 will be out on May 14th in the US at Best Buy.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/acer-aspire-r7-the-craziest-thing-to-happen-to-laptops-489047202

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NRA official: 'Culture war' more than gun rights

NRA attendee Janet Bero waits to have her German Luger appraised during the NRA's Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase during the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and Exhibits at the George R. Brown Convention Center Thursday, May 2, 2013, in Houston. NRA's Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase is a television show that runs on the Sportsman Channel. The 2013 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits runs from Friday, May 3, through Sunday, May 5. More than 70,000 are expected to attend the event with more than 500 exhibitors represented. The convention will feature training and education demos, the Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase, book signings, speakers including Glenn Beck, Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin as well as NRA Youth Day on Sunday. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson)

NRA attendee Janet Bero waits to have her German Luger appraised during the NRA's Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase during the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and Exhibits at the George R. Brown Convention Center Thursday, May 2, 2013, in Houston. NRA's Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase is a television show that runs on the Sportsman Channel. The 2013 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits runs from Friday, May 3, through Sunday, May 5. More than 70,000 are expected to attend the event with more than 500 exhibitors represented. The convention will feature training and education demos, the Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase, book signings, speakers including Glenn Beck, Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin as well as NRA Youth Day on Sunday. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson)

NRA attendee, John Joseph of Sebastian, Fla., waits in line outside the George R. Brown Convention Center before the opening of the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and Exhibits at the George R. Brown Convention Center Thursday, May 2, 2013, in Houston. The 2013 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits runs from Friday, May 3, through Sunday, May 5. More than 70,000 are expected to attend the event with more than 500 exhibitors represented. The convention will features training and education demos, the Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase, book signings, speakers including Glenn Beck, Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin as well as NRA Youth Day on Sunday. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson)

Exhibitors began setting up in preparation The National Rifle Association Annual Meetings on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in Houston. The 2013 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits is scheduled to being Friday. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson)

Johnny Bass sets up the Henry Repeating Arms Company booth as exhibitors prepares for National Rifle Association Meetings and Exhibits at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in Houston. The 2013 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits is scheduled to being Friday. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson)

NRA attendees make their way into the George R. Brown Convention Center before the opening of the National Rifle Association's 142 Annual Meetings and Exhibits at the George R. Brown Convention Center Thursday, May 2, 2013, in Houston. The 2013 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits runs from Friday, May 3, through Sunday, May 5. More than 70,000 are expected to attend the event with more than 500 exhibitors represented. The convention will features training and education demos, the Antiques Guns and Gold Showcase, book signings, speakers including Glenn Beck, Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin as well as NRA Youth Day on Sunday. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Johnny Hanson)

HOUSTON (AP) ? The National Rifle Association kicked off its annual convention Friday with a warning to its members they are engaged in a "culture war" that stretches beyond gun rights, further ramping up emotions surrounding the gun control debate.

NRA First Vice President James Porter, a Birmingham, Ala., attorney who will assume the organization's presidency Monday, issued a full-throated challenge to President Barack Obama in the wake of a major victory regarding gun control and called on members to dig in for a long fight that will stretch into the 2014 elections.

More than 70,000 NRA members are expected to attend the three-day convention amid the backdrop of the national debate over gun control and the defeat of a U.S. Senate bill that would have expanded background checks for gun sales. It was introduced after December's mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. A small gathering of gun control supporters were outside of the convention in Houston.

Porter's remarks came in a short speech to about 300 people at a grass-roots organizing meeting and set the tone for a "Stand and Fight"-themed convention that is part gun trade show, political rally and strategy meeting.

"This is not a battle about gun rights," Porter said, calling it "a culture war."

"(You) here in this room are the fighters for freedom. We are the protectors," said Porter, whose father was NRA president from 1959-1960.

Rob Heagy, a former parole officer from San Francisco, agreed with Porter's description of a culture war.

"It is a cultural fight on those 10 guarantees," he said, referring to the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution. "Mr. Obama said he wasn't going after our guns. As soon as the Connecticut thing happened, he came after our guns."

That theme carried throughout the day and reached a crescendo in a 3 ?-hour political rally punctuated by fiery speeches from state and national conservative leaders.

"You stood up when freedom was under assault and you stood in the gap, you made a difference," former U.S. senator and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told the cheering crowd of more than 3,500 at the rally.

"This is a critical time in American history. Something big is happening in America," Santorum said. "Stand for America. Fight for America."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry criticized gun control supporters as opportunists who prey on the raw emotions of tragic events.

"You can almost set your watch for how long it takes for people who hate guns, who hate gun owners, to start a new campaign," after a mass shooting, Perry said.

Obama, who has pushed for gun control measures, was a prime target for criticism the entire day. NRA Executive Director Chris Cox bragged about the organization's political victory.

"It was great to see the president throw a temper tantrum in the Rose Garden," Cox said.

Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, called the culture war reference a sign the NRA is worried about polls that show most Americans support some expansion of background checks.

"They want to make it a culture war," Horwitz said. "They have to make it into something bigger. On the issue of background checks, they can't possibly win."

Gun control advocates were determined to have a presence outside the convention hall. Across the street Friday, the No More Names vigil read the names of gun violence victims since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Gun control advocates also planned a petition drive to support expanded background checks and a Saturday demonstration outside the convention hall.

Erica Lafferty, whose mother, Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, was killed by the gunman, was outside the building and said she hoped to talk to as many NRA members as she could.

"I am not against people owning guns. I am asking for safe and responsible gun ownership and gun laws. I don't understand where the problem is with background checks," Lafferty said.

While national polls have shown that a majority of Americans are in favor of expanding background checks, many convention attendees said Friday they were not in favor of such efforts.

"We already have something like those laws now. We don't need new laws on top of the old laws. They need to enforce the laws that we have," said Charles Henderson, 59, a farmer from Amarillo, Texas.

Inside the hall, visitors strolled past acres of displays of rifles, pistols, swords and hunting gear. Under Texas law, attendees could carry concealed weapons with a permit.

Debbie and Daniel Ferris of Gun Barrel City, Texas, attended the grass-roots organizing workshop and agreed with Porter's assessment of a culture war.

"It's about fighting tyranny," said Debbie Ferris, who has been an NRA member for five years. Her 35-year-old husband is a lifetime member.

"We don't like to be pushed around," Daniel Ferris said. "We are free Americans."

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee and ex-Alaska governor, spoke to personal freedoms at the political rally as well, saying NRA members should "keep the faith" and "stand up and fight for our freedoms."

But gun control supporters promise to keep pressing the issue and have made significant strides at the state level.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, has said he will re-introduce the bill to require criminal and mental health background checks for gun buyers at shows and online.

Colorado lawmakers recently passed new restrictions on firearms, including required background checks for private and online gun sales and a ban on ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. Connecticut added more than 100 firearms to the state's assault weapons ban and now requires background checks for private gun sales.

Maryland and New York have passed sweeping new guns laws, and in Washington state, supporters of universal background checks recently announced a statewide campaign to collect 300,000 signatures to take the issue straight to voters.

"There are 90 percent of Americans that support this," Lafferty said. "We are not going away. It's a huge issue."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-03-NRA%20Convention/id-7f712d4f6b2f4410a9bf914280db4a86

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Siemens CFO says no industry recovery in sight yet

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/siemens-cfo-says-no-industry-recovery-sight-yet-094909141.html

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Mobile ads help grow Facebook's 1Q revenue 38 pct.

Michael Goodwin, Senior Partner for HTC, displays an HTC First cell phone wit the new Facebook interface at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. The company says it is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Michael Goodwin, Senior Partner for HTC, displays an HTC First cell phone wit the new Facebook interface at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. The company says it is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A year ago, Facebook was just testing the waters of mobile advertising, causing plenty of headaches for investors ahead of its massive initial public offering.

It has since eased those worries.

On Wednesday the world's biggest social networking company said nearly a third of its advertising revenue came from mobile in the first three months of the year, helping to push total revenue up 38 percent to surpass Wall Street's expectations.

"They are making the transition to mobile faster than anyone anticipated," said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. "It seems like they are delivering."

Facebook Inc. said Wednesday that its net income was $219 million, or 9 cents per share, in the January-March period. That's up from $205 million, or 9 cents per share, in the same period a year ago, when it was still private.

Revenue grew to $1.46 billion from $1.06 billion, above analysts' expectations of $1.44 billion.

Excluding special items, mainly related to stock compensation expenses, Facebook earned 12 cents per share, matching the average of analyst expectations, according to FactSet.

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook said that its mobile advertising revenue was 30 percent of its total ad revenue in the first quarter, amounting to $375 million. That's up from 23 percent, or $306 million, in the fourth quarter. In the third quarter ? the first time it disclosed such figures ? the company generated 14 percent, or $153 million, of its advertising revenue from mobile.

Investors had been worried about Facebook's ability to grow mobile revenue since before its initial public offering in May 2012. That's because although the number of people who access Facebook on smartphones and tablet computers has been growing quickly, Facebook didn't begin showing ads to those users until last year.

David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, said most advertisers did not specify that their ads be shown only on desktop computers or only on mobile devices, "rather they put their ads into our system and allow us to show the ads on whatever device where the ads will perform best."

Bhatia thinks Facebook will fare even better on mobile devices once Zuckerberg firms up its plan to make money from the growing audience checking into Instagram, a photo-sharing service that the company bought last year for $521 million. The analyst believes Instagram will play a bigger role in Facebook's business next year.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said the results are likely to quiet skeptics who doubted Facebook's ability to mine its growing mobile traffic for revenue. He was particularly impressed by the 23 percent increase in Facebook's mobile ad revenue, even though the company's overall ad revenue for the period dipped 6 percent from the final three months of last year.

"Their mobile business is probably bigger than any mobile business on the planet other than the (wireless telecommunications) carriers and Google," Pachter said.

Facebook started showing mobile advertisements in early 2012. In the third quarter of last year, the company generated 14 percent, or $153 million of its advertising revenue from mobile. In the fourth quarter mobile ads represented to 23 percent, or $306 million.

Research firm eMarketer says Facebook's share of the U.S. online advertising market is growing. This year, the company is expected to take a 6.5 percent share of U.S. online ad spending, up from 5.9 percent in 2012. Still, that figure is far behind Google Inc.'s 41.6 percent.

On the mobile front, eMarketer expects Facebook to take a 13.2 percent share of U.S. ad revenue, up from 9.5 percent in 2012, the first year it made any money from mobile ads. Though Facebook is No. 2, it is far behind Google in U.S. mobile advertising. EMarketer expects the online search leader to take a 54.7 percent share of U.S. mobile advertising revenue this year.

The company also grew its user base during the quarter. This has also been an area of some concern to investors amid chatter of "Facebook fatigue," especially among younger users, surfacing in recent months. But Facebook said its monthly user base grew to 1.11 billion accounts as of the end of March, up 5 percent from 1.06 million at the end of December.

The number of users who access Facebook every day, on average, grew 8 percent to 665 million in March, from 618 million in December.

Gartner Inc. analyst Brian Blau said the ongoing growth of daily users suggests that the service is a tough habit to break.

"The network remains in full force," Blau said. "You have to give them a lot of credit."

That doesn't mean there won't be concerns about some Facebook users, especially teenagers, migrating to other mobile applications and digital outlets to hang out with friends and share slices of their lives, said Forrester Research analyst Nate Elliott.

"There is always going to be something new in social," Elliott said. "The question is how much of it is a threat to Facebook? All Facebook can do is keep those users coming back and make money off those users. And Facebook seems to be doing both of those things reasonably well."

Instagram now has 100 million monthly users, up from 22 million when Facebook agreed to buy the company in April 2012.

Facebook's stock rose 12 cents to $27.55 in after-hours trading. The stock closed down 34 cents on Wednesday. It is up 3 percent since the beginning of the year compared with an 11 percent increase for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Facebook went public on May 18, 2012, at $38 per share, a price it hasn't hit since.

__

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-05-01-US-TEC-Earns-Facebook/id-41e79fb4b5f04f6e8928a5c1121b33ca

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