Earnings Calls are a teleconference in which a public company discusses the financial results of a reporting period. The name comes from the bottom line numbers in the income statement - earnings per share. The U.S. based National Investor Relations Institute says that 92% of companies represented by their members conduct earnings calls and that virtually all of these are webcast.[1] Transcripts of calls may be made available either by the company or a third party.

The calls are usually preceded or accompanied by a press release containing a summary of the financial results, and possibly also by a more detailed filing under securities law. Earnings calls usually happen, or at least begin, while the stock market on which the company's shares are traded is closed to trading, so that all investors will have had a chance to hear management's presentation before trading in the stock resumes.

Generally, the call will begin with a company official reading a safe harbor statement to limit the company's liability should the future prove different from that stated in the discussion. Then one or more company officials, often including the Chief executive officer and Chief financial officer will discuss the operational results and financial statements for the period just ended and their outlook for the future. The teleconference will then be opened for questions by investors, financial analysts, and other call participants. Management will answer many of these questions, although if the data is not available to them they may decline or defer response. Depending on the size and complexity of the company, the difference between actual and expected results, and other factors, the length of the call will vary.

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (/ˈdʒɒbz/; February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, designer and inventor. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar.

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak engineered one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, one year later, the Macintosh. During this period he also led efforts that would begin the desktop publishing revolution, notably through the introduction of the LaserWriter and the associated PageMaker software.

William R. McDermott is a co-CEO of SAP AG, a position to which he was appointed in February 2010.

Bill McDermott received his MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. He also successfully completed the Executive Development Program at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business. He received his undergraduate degree in Business Management from Dowling College.

After running his own business through high school and college, McDermott began his professional career at Xerox, where he worked for 17 years and rose through the ranks to become the company's youngest corporate officer and division President. His division won the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality award from the President of the United States.

He then served as President of Gartner Inc. and Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations at Siebel Systems.

He was recruited to SAP in 2002 as the CEO of SAP America and quickly rose, adding to his responsibility South America, Asia Pacific and then Global Field Operations, overseeing all revenues for the company. In 2008 he was appointed to the SAP Executive Board. In February 2010, he became co-CEO of SAP AG.