Brand: MacNews

Salomon Smith Barney has upgraded its rating on Apple from “Neutral” to “Buy” following the company’s earnings yesterday. The firm also raised its price target from US$22 to $27.

Macromedia today reported a third-quarter net loss of US$42.9 million as revenues declined nearly 30 percent from the year-ago quarter to $73.3 million. “The economy continues to affect our short-term results, but not our optimism about the future,” Macromedia Chairman and Chief Executive Rob Burgess said in a statement. Macromedia expects revisions to some of its core products, including Flash and Dreamweaver, will allow the company to return to profitability within two quarters.

AOL plans to charge existing users under the “Bring Your Own Access Plan” US$14.95 per month, an increase from the previous rate of $9.95 per month, beginning in March. c|net reports that the rate increase was implemented for new users in October 2001, but existing users were allowed to continue paying the lower rate. The plan, which allows users with an outside ISP to access the AOL service, is used by approximately 1 million of AOL’s 33 million subscribers.

Roxio today posted Toast Titanium5.1.1, an update to its CD/DVD authoring software for Mac OS 8/9 and Mac OS X that adds support for DVD+RW recorder mechanisms andcorrects a bug where the Toast serial number was not saved permanently incertain cases. Toast 5 Titanium sells for US$89.95.

Apple’s first-quarter conference call took place this afternoon. Highlights follow: