Tuesday kicked off the earnings season forNike Zoom Lebron V major European telecommunications companies with a 42% rise in first-quarter net profit, mainly due to cost cutting and despite lower sales. It also reiterated its targets forNike Zoom Lebron VI 2010 and 2011. "In the first quarter we continued to Nike Zoom Mvp X Nashfeel topline pressure as a result of the economic conditions in the business markets and regulation. However, despite this headwind, our Dutch Telco business maintained its record of good performance with all segments contributing to solid operating profit growth, due to continued focus on customer value and costs', said Chief Executive Ad Scheepbouwer in a statement. The Netherlands' largest telecommunications firm posted a net profit ofPaul Pierce EUR449 million for the quarter ended March 31, up from EUR317 million a year earlier, beating analysts' expectations of EUR390 million. KPN's bottom line also benefited from a lower effective tax rate in Germany, it said. Earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortization, or Ebitda, came in at EUR1.32 billion, up from EUR1.23 billion a year earlier. Still, revenue declined 3.5% to EUR3.28 billion, from Penny HardawayEUR3.4 billion, slightly missing expectations of EUR3.32 billion. KPN's sales remain under pressure in its Dutch home market with Tony Parkera 3.6% decline year on year, but cost cutting measures helped to improve Ebitda by 3.9% compared to the prior year quarter. In Germany, where KPN operates the country's third largest mobile network Jordan 1operator E-Plus, service revenue and Ebitda is slightly down but the Ebitda margin slightly up. KPN performed better in Belgium with service revenue up 9.7% and Ebitda up 8.1% year on year, though the Ebitda margin is lower in Belgium at 33.2% compared with 41.8% in Germany. Light revenues but better than expected Ebitda is a "familiar story forJordan 2 KPN", London-based Liberum Capital said in a first reaction, but added that "results may be overshadowed by the ongoing German spectrum auction." KPN is bidding to secure valuable spectrum needed toJordan 3 build next generation networks that will allow users to watch high-definition video and get much faster downloads on mobile devices. In the auction KPN is competing withJordan 4 Deutsche Telekom AG (DT), Vodafone PLC (VOD) and Telefonica SA's (TEF) O2. KPN confirmed it expects 2010 sales to be in line withJordan 5 the EUR13.5 billion in 2009, and Ebitda of more than EUR5.5 billion up from EUR5.2 billion in 2009. KPN also reiterated it wants to raise Ebitda and free cash flow in 2011 and pay a dividend of at least EUR0.85 per share. Washington Mutual, whose September 2008 collapse marked the largest bank failure in Jordan 6U.S. history, gambled its business on ratcheting up loan issuance by its subprime unit. Between 2000 and 2007, WaMu and its subprime subsidiary made $77 billion in loans to customers with poor or no credit histories. In the stampede for profits, sloppiness ensued. "One Sales Associate admitted that during that crunch time some ofJordan 7 the Associates would 'manufacture' asset statements from previous loan doc[ument]s," because the pressure was "tremendous," and they had been told to get the loans funded, "whatever it took," said an April 2008 internal WaMu audit cited by Levin at an April 13 hearing. While Wall Street's reputation has taken a beating recently,Jordan 8 government regulators have fared little better. Valukas told the House Financial Services Committee that both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were chronically passive. In October 2007, for example, whenJordan 9 SEC officials learned that Lehman was exceeding a "risk appetite limit" it had pledged would not be breached "under any circumstances," they did nothing. "The SEC simply acquiesced," Valukas said.