Gilead Sciences (GILD) share got clobbered today, trading down 10% at midday, after the company lowered its 2010 sales forecast to a range of $7.4-$7.5B from $7.6-$7.8B citing recently enacted healthcare legislation. Net income for the quarter ended March 31 jumped from $854.9M or $0.92/sh. compared with $589.1M or $0.63/sh. in the Year ago period. Gilead’s first-quarter sales increased 24% to $1.79B primarily due to strong sales of its antiviral drugs to treat HIV-related conditions. CFO Robin Washington said the decrease reflects the impact of recently passed U.S. healthcare legislation which would have an sales impact of $200M and an earnings impact of $0.15 sh. in 2010 primarily in the HIV business. Sales of its HIV drug Atripla increased 36% to $692 M for Q1 compared to analysts’ estimate of $726M. Royalties from Roche sales of Tamiflu were $246.3M from increased sales related to the influenza pandemic. The healthcare reform impact would be  related to pricing of antiretroviral sales in the use from Medicaid and Medicare Part D. However, no 2011 guidance was given due to the fact that the bill was passed only on March 23. There are also pricing pressures in Europe.

Bloomberg has scooped everybody this morning with the news that Google is talking to travel-technology power ITA Software about a potential acquisition in the $1B range (article available to Bloomberg subscribers only). This would not only provide a nice juicy exit to ITA, a venture-backed company in Cambridge, Mass., that's been steadily growing since the late 90s, but it would also represent a potentially violent shakeup of the travel industry data business. With a purchase of ITA, Google would making a grand entrance into the complicated business of travel data and technology, which ITA supplies to leading travel information and agencies such as Orbitz.  If you're curious about ITA, here's a profile. I've spoken to a handful of people this morning, none of whom want to go on the record about this, but the consensus seems to be: "Hmm, interesting, I wonder what Google's up to?" Here's what I've concluded: Google's bid is just a direct play to up the ante on its search and advertising business in general, especially in the travel search vertical. It would certainly be viewed as a competitive move against Microsoft's Bing, which is a customer of ITA's and has been lately been beefing up its travel offerings.

It gets to the point where you wonder of maybe Apple will make enough money that they can help us bail out the U.S. government. Apple announced earnings last night, and it was a barn-burner of a quarter, with the company thrashing earnings per share (EPS) estimates by almost $1.00. Shares look like they will open about 6% higher, blowing through the $250 mark. The company announced earnings per share EPS of $3.33, beating consensus estimates of $2.45.  Revenue was $13.5 billion vs. $12.04 billion consensus estimates, and a 49% increase over the prior March quarter’s results. Most notably, the company is showing strong growth in its core Mac computer growth, which may demonstrate that as it launches newer products such as the iPhone and the iPad, that's adding strength to the overall franchise. Mac sales were up 33% from the prior year. "This very strong performance was due primarily to the more than doubling of iPhone sales and the strong momentum of our Mac products," said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer on the conference call. Some other quick facts from the call:

• Oppenheimer pointed out that they company printed a much smaller sequential revenue decline from the December to March quarters than they normally experience after the falloff from the holiday season, which demonstrates how strong the quarter was.
• Operating margin was $4 billion representing 29.5% of revenue. Net income of $3.1 billion was up 90% over the year-ago quarter.
• Apple sold 2.94 million Macs, a record for the March quarter. This represents 33% year-over-year growth.
• Sold 10.9 million iPods, about equal to the 11 million sold in the year-ago quarter. "iPod Touch continued to be very strong with units growing 63% year-over-year."
• Sales of $1.1 billion for the iTunes store.  In February the store crossed the 10 billion mark for songs purchased and downloaded.
• 8.75 million iPhones sold during the quarter, an all-time high exceeding the previous record set in the December quarter.
• The company now holds cash plus short-term and long-term marketable securities totaling $41.7 billion at the end of the March quarter compared to $39.8 billion at the end of the December quarter, an increase of $1.9 billion. Cash flow from operations was over $2.3 billion.
• Forecast for revenue on the June quarter: between $13-13.4 billion compared to $9.7 billion in the June quarter last year. Company said it expects the gross margin to come down to 36%  from 41.7% in the March quarter reflecting increased stock-based compensation expense.