Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) posts better-than-expected earnings and says it will fire 27,000 people. (Reuters)

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) loses an important ruling in an intellectual property suit against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). (Reuters)

Shareholders sue Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) because of trouble with its IPO. (Reuters)

Facebook may move to the NYSE (NYSE: NYX). (Reuters)

Some large investors receive warnings from analysts that projections of Facebook’s earnings have come down. (WSJ)

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) increases drilling on the Utica Shale in Ohio. (WSJ)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) will sell part of its LCD business to Sharp. (WSJ)

The head of sales at Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) departs. (WSJ)

Yields on German bonds fall to all-time lows as capital moves to safety. (WSJ)

General Electric (NYSE: GE) says its industrial profit margin will rise in 2013. (WSJ)

Oil falls below $90 for the first time since October. (WSJ)

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) will begin to drill in far north areas of Alaska. (NYT)

Martha Stewart will once again become chairperson of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO). (NYT)

A deal for financial coordination among EU nations will be put off until a June meeting. (FT)

Shale gas helps the U.S. lower emissions. (FT)

Large companies turn over CEOs less than in the downturn, according to Booz & Company. (FT)

BMW will triple its output in China. (Bloomberg)

Detroit turns off street lights to save money. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A.McIntyre

The OECD expresses concerns that Europe could slip into a deep recession. (Reuters)

The EU debt crisis pushes global shares lower. (Reuters)

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) cuts its Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) ratings just before the IPO. (Reuters)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Samsung try to get retailers to discount their TVs less. (WSJ)

AOL’s (NYSE: AOL) Patch local website project continues to draw the ire of investors. (WSJ)

The Congressional Budget Office says that gridlock in DC could cause a recession in 2013. (WSJ)

SAP (NYSE: SAP) will buy Ariba (NASDAQ: ARBA) for $4.3 billion. (WSJ)

South Korea will continue to import oil from Iran despite U.S. and EU sanctions over the Iran weapon’s program. (WSJ)

The International Monetary Fund says the UK needs to create stimulus programs. (WSJ)

Dell’s (NASDAQ: DELL) earnings are hurt as it attempts to move beyond PCs as its major line of sales. (WSJ)

Ford’s (NYSE: F) credit rating is upgraded from “junk” status. (WSJ)

CalSTRS, the second-largest U.S. public pension fund, will vote against Walmart (NYSE: WMT) directors in the wake of a bribery scandal. (FT)

EU banks would be damaged if Greece leaves the eurozone, as they have almost $1.2 trillion in debt from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. (FT)

Mazda and Fiat to build a sports car. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sony and Panasonic may built OLED TVs (Reuters)

Apple will upgrade its iCloud service (WSJ)

Apple will launch new MacBooks, thinner than earlier ones, with Intel chips

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Panasonic may force a partnership to build OLED TVs. (Reuters)

Trouble at Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) may prompt low-ball bids for many of the its assets. (Reuters)

New data from the government will show the extent to which people over 55 cannot find jobs. (Reuters)

Coty withdraws its $10.7 billion offer for Avon (NYSE: AVP). (Reuters)

Facebook raises the target of its IPO to $34 to $38, which could push a valuation as high as $106 billion. (WSJ)

LightSquared files for Chapter 11. (WSJ)

The chairman of Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) steps down over governance violations. (WSJ)

Investors are upset that Chesapeake had to take a $3 billion loan. (WSJ)

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) to offer a low-cost smartphone. (WSJ)

Eurostat says EU industrial production fell in the March. (WSJ)

California governor Jerry Brown shows a series of planned cuts as projections for the state’s deficit rise to $15.7 billion. (WSJ)

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Intellectual Ventures buy 500 patents as the chip maker girds for patent wars. (WSJ)

JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) CEO Ron Johnson may be unable to work the same magic he did at Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stores. (WSJ)

JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon encourages a culture of risk at the bank. (WSJ)

Facebook still faces the question of how well it can do with smartphones. (FT)

Some EU officials would like to see eased terms of Greece’s austerity commitments. (Bloomberg)

A chip supply shortage could hurt smartphone sales. (Bloomberg)

Apple may launch a thin laptop powered by Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) chips. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Read: America’s Hottest Brands

Generally, most brand analysis done by the business press is biased toward dollar valuations and contributions to corporate earnings. Obviously, financial success is one factor that demonstrates how well a brand is regarded by consumers. But brand valuation is a financial view, and not one that relies entirely on consumer perception. Based on analysis performed by brand expert company CoreBrand, 24/7 Wall St. wanted to see brands through the eyes of the consumer. For this reason, Corebrand examined brands from the standpoint of favorability and familiarity.

One of the most notable results of the analysis is the high ranking of brands not normally present on most highly valued brands list. When they are evaluated through the consumers’ eyes, however, brands that belong to companies that are struggling financially can still be high on a consumer-perception weighted list. These brands, naturally, are used by a large number of people. More than that, the consumer interaction with the product and services associated with the brand is positive.

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and Avon (NYSE: AVP) would not appear high on most brand valuations lists. The two have struggled too much as companies and in the stock market to be high on any business-weighted brand list. They are, however, at the top of the list of brands with high favorability and familiarity. The Avon lady and Dell laptops still carry weight with consumers.

Financial success does not exclude consumer success; they usually go together. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Ford (NYSE: F) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) do extremely well according to CoreBrand’s ranking. Each of these corporations has posted large profits over the past few years. Their shareholders have also done well. The products and services from the companies have boosted sales fairly consistently.

24/7 Wall St. examined the “hottest” brands list from independent brand valuation firm CoreBrand. CoreBrand looked at the largest brands where both favorability and familiarity increased, measured by overall reputation, perception of management and investment potential. 24/7 Wall St. then ranked the six brands with the greatest increases in favorability from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter of 2011.

These are America’s hottest brands.

A review of the biggest losers demonstrates how little consumers care about prior successes. Although these companies were the industry darlings once, today consumers may not even remember their names.

Companies such as Nintendo, Research In Motion, Sony and Nokia dominated their markets for a number of years and, in many cases, had few to no serious competitors. These companies often rose to the top because of major breakthrough products, such as the Nintendo Wii, RIM’s BlackBerry and Sony’s Walkman.

But the companies on this list have not managed to adequately follow up these successes with new products and now are losing ground to competitors. Sharp has lost money due to competition from companies like Samsung that have stronger brands and can undercut its prices on TV. Nokia, which continues to do well in the low-end cell phone market, is losing money because it has been unable to make a significant break into the growing smartphone market.

24/7 Wall St. has identified eight of the most popular tech brands that are losing money. To demonstrate these companies’ waning popularity, 24/7 reviewed financial data from their financial statements, as well as data from a number of major research firms.

These are the eight great tech brands losing money.

1. RIM

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) was, for a time, a leader in the smartphone market. Its BlackBerry phones helped pioneer the industry. The company’s popularity has since waned and it has begun to lose money. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, RIM had a net loss of $125 million, the result of goodwill charges and “an inventory provision taken primarily on certain BlackBerry7 products.” Revenue was down 24% compared to the year prior. According to Comscore, RIM’s share of the U.S. market for smartphone subscribers dropped from 16% last December to 12.3% in March. Meanwhile, the share of smartphones using Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android rose from 47.3% to 51% over the same period. The company’s BlackBerry 10 handsets, which are being released later this year, may be RIM’s last chance for relevance.

2. Sharp

Sharp reported a record annual loss of $4.67 billion this past April. The company also announced that it expects to continue to lose money in the current fiscal year. Sharp’s losses are primarily due to falling prices and declining sales of its LCD televisions. The Japanese company has been struggling to compete with South Korean manufacturers. In addition, the company spent $1.5 billion in restructuring costs. In March, Sharp sold a 46% stake in its largest plant to Taiwanese rival Hon Hai to soften losses at its television business.

3. EA

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) reported a net loss of $205 million for the fiscal third quarter ending December 31, 2011, despite generating $1.06 billion in net revenue over the same period. Two of the company’s major titles — FIFA 12 and Battlefield 3 — have each sold more than 10 million copies, a particularly large quantity for games. Madden 12 has sold nearly 5 million. Many experts believe that the company’s launch of The Sims Social — meant as a competitor to Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) products — has not done well. This was viewed as a gamble on EA’s part, as the company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to break into the social games space. It is not the first time for EA to be in the red. The company had a net loss of $322 million in the same quarter the year before.

4. Sony

Sony (NYSE: SNE) was a world leader in a variety of electronic products only a few years ago. As recently as November 2011, the company cut its sales forecast for TVs, cameras and DVD players. The company’s financial situation has only worsened since then. In April 2012, Sony decreased its earnings outlook for the fourth time in less than a year, warning of a potential $6.4 billion net loss in the last fiscal year. The Wall Street Journal said the loss would be “the biggest-ever in the electronics conglomerate’s 65-year history.” Sony has been dealing with ongoing losses in its television segment. In its consumer electronics arm, the company has been struggling to deal with competition from companies like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung. Sony also has lost its standing in the game console market, which it once owned with the PS2, and in the portable music device market, which it owned with the Walkman.

5. Nintendo

Nintendo was the number one video game console manufacturer in the world thanks to its Wii. In order to better compete, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Sony slashed prices on their Xbox 360 and PS3 products. Nintendo, as a result, was forced to drop the prices of both its Wii and portable player DS. In April 2012, the company posted a total loss of $461.2 million for the 2011 fiscal year. All three companies also face the growing competition posed by smartphone-based gaming.

6. Nokia

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has long been the world’s largest handset manufacturer, but it lost that position to Samsung in the first quarter of the year. Its past success was due, in large part, to the company’s low-end cell phone models, which are particularly popular in developing countries. When it came to smartphones, however, Nokia has not kept up. The market continues to be dominated by Samsung and Apple. Nokia’s inability to break into the more profitable smartphone arena has been apparent in the company’s profit and loss statements. In April 2012, the company announced a quarterly net loss of $1.2 billion, blaming “greater than expected competitive challenges.” In an attempt to turn itself around, Nokia has set a joint venture with Microsoft to distribute Windows mobile on its smartphones in exchange for financial and marketing support.

7. Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) has invested increasing amounts in its Nook e-book reader. But intense competition from other tablet and e-reader companies, including Apple and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), has kept the company in the red. For the 39 weeks that ended January 28, 2012, Barnes & Noble lost more than $11 million. The company blamed the increasing losses on continued investments “in its rapidly growing Nook business, including advertising costs and personnel.” To help it with the Nook development costs, Barnes & Noble has also formed an alliance with Microsoft. The software company has made an investment in the book company’s e-book and e-reader businesses in exchange for the creation of Nook models that run the Windows OS.

8. Acer

Acer’s business plan used to rely on the netbook, the cheap, portable and underpowered laptop. In the past two years, however, netbook sales have been disrupted by the surging tablet market, as well as the growing popularity of smartphones. Dropping the price did little to encourage demand. The company reported a massive annual loss of $212 million in 2011. Now the company is focusing on the Utlrabook, Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) laptop and effectively the next generation of netbook. It appears the company has not learned its lesson. According to The Verge, Acer Global President Jianren Weng predicts that PC Ultrabooks will drop to $499 in 2013 to compete with Apple’s iPad. Unfortunately, that is several hundred dollars less than the company needs to make money.

Charles B. Stockdale

JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) books a $2 billion trading loss, and the figure could rise by another $1 billion. (Reuters)

China’s industrial production and retail activity slow to multiyear lows. (Reuters)

Germany tells Greece it must rely on its reforms and not more bailout alterations. (Reuters)

Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO says he never supplied its board with a resume. (Reuters)

Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) shares fall to a multidecade low after it posts a huge annual loss. (Reuters)

AT&T (NYSE: T) and Leap Wireless (NASDAQ: LEAP) are said to have discussed a buyout. (Reuters)

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) has huge liabilities from $1.4 billion off-balance-sheet commitment. (WSJ)

China wants the Big Four auditors to turn over their local activities to native firms. (WSJ)

Credit Agricole’s earnings are hurt by positions in Greece. (WSJ)

T-Mobile says it had severe customer losses last quarter. (WSJ)

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) says demand from corporate customers remains good. (WSJ)

Top CEOs lobby Congress on concerns about the nation’s increased debt. (WSJ)

Bank of France data shows France will have zero GDP growth in the first half. (WSJ)

An FDA advisory committee backs a new obesity drug from Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA). (WSJ)

Mortgage rates continue to fall to all-time lows. (WSJ)

Corn prices fall as the U.S. increases estimates for crop sizes. (WSJ)

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Facebook join forces to create a new version of Bing to better compete with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). (NYT)

Policy markets discover that the U.S. manufacturing industry needs subsidies to survive. (NYT)

Moody’s issues warnings about capital reserves to many global banks. (FT)

U.S. banks may be hurt by a series of credit agency downgrades that could happen in the next month. (FT)

An FTC review could delay Facebook’s deal to buy Instagram. (FT)

Spain may be given more time to handle its debt if it submits to reviews and audits of its financials. (FT)

UK consumer confidence falls, according to the National Building Society. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sony (NYSE: SNE) said it would finally turn around is prospects and make money in the next year. Bumbling CEO Sir Howard Stringer is gone. Sony’s core problems are not. It is still in the TV screen business, which has become one of commodity products with no price leverage. Its takeover of the part of Sony Ericsson it does not already own puts its handset business into competition with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). It has a tiny PC business. And its game console operations compete with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Nintendo. Otherwise, its prospects are excellent.

Angela Merkel continues to dig in her heels as Greece insist it may reject the austerity measure which have allowed it to get loan support from its eurozone neighbors and the IMF. A portion of the money meant to prop up it prospects is being held back by the EU while the size of the crisis is measured. Merkel said that the “growth of credit” in the regions would undermine plans to solve the financial problems of some nations. Put another way, these countries will have to live with austerity or face the prospects that there will be no aid to help them move deficits down and begin to control national debt

The luxury car market around the world continues to explode as the relatively small portion of the globe’s population which is rich consumer at extraordinary levels. VW reports that its goal to sell 1.5 million Audis will happen sooner than expect because of buyers in the US and China. Audi is the manufacturer’s luxury brand. BMW and Mercedes are also near record sales globally. In the US, GM’s (NYSE: GM) Cadillac has sold briskly. Clawing for part of a market they once held Toyota’s (NYSE: TM)’s Lexus brand, Nissan’s Infiniti, and Honda’s (NYSE: HMC) Acura have begun to invest in new models which mimic features of more successful rivals.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) warns about the economy as it releases earnings. (Reuters)

Regulators may make mortgage lenders charge a flat fee to help home buyers. (WSJ)

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) will give less marketing support to Lipitor as it moves to a generic form. (WSJ)

The Post Office backs away from a plan to close 3,700 rural offices. (WSJ)

Fannie Mae posts its best results since its bailout and made $2.7 billion. (WSJ)

The European Union delays a bailout payment to Greece as political turmoil there rises. (WSJ)

Spain may get a break on budget deficits from EU partners, who will give it more leeway to recover. (WSJ)

Weak imports raise China’s April trade deficit. (WSJ)

Chrysler will try to improve its battered quality reputation. (WSJ)

Liberty Media (NASDAQ: LMCA) increases its share of Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) as it tries to gain control. (WSJ)

New Facebook government documents show it is weak in mobile ads. (WSJ)

Corporate borrowing makes the debt crisis in Spain worse. (NYT)

Third Point insists that Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) name an interim CEO. (NYT)

News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) doubles its share buyback to $10 billion. (FT)

MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) may tie up with T-Mobile. (FT)

Sony predicts a profit this year. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Read The American Companies With the Most Customers

The customer bases of many of these companies are in the tens of millions. Each company operates in an industry that provides a product or a service to an extremely wide spectrum of American consumers. The leader in each sector reached its position through innovation, longevity or some combination of the two.

Each of the industries on this list serves a very large base of customers. For example, there are thousands of retailers, serving pretty much the entire population, but only Costco is the leader in membership with over 65 million members. Founded in 1983, Costco (NASDAQ: COST) is a relatively new company. It became a success largely because it charges customers a membership fee for access to its stores and in exchange offers extremely low prices that are never marked up more than 15% above the price Costco pays.

Some industries are huge, but only have a small number of competitors. While there are only a handful of national wireless carriers, there are over 330 million wireless subscriptions in the U.S. — more than the population itself. But there are only four competitors of any size — AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless, Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile. Each company has to battle for a share of a market that is no longer growing. The weapons the companies use to gain market share are products, customer service and price. AT&T is the leader. Its share of the market is based to some extent on history. It is a descendant from the original AT&T phone monopoly. But without strong products and intelligent pricing there is no assurance it can stay ahead of number two competitor Verizon Wireless.

24/7 Wall St. examined 10 of America’s largest consumer industries and the customer counts for the biggest two or three companies in each sector. We then reviewed the history of each industry in an attempt to find how the top company in each reached its leadership position. To rank the companies, 24/7 Wall St. took each leader and compared it in size to the leaders in the other industries chosen. We used company and industry data to confirm customer counts. Each company in this ranking is the largest company in its industry, based on customer count.

These are the American Companies with the Most Customers.