Today: Apple reports record holiday quarter earnings. Plus: News from LinkedIn, Comcast, Adobe Systems and Stoke. And: Real estate update.

Apple earnings

Apple — the Cupertino maker of Mac computers and “i” devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod) — this afternoon reported a $6 billion profit for its holiday quarter, up 78 percent from a year earlier. Revenue jumped 71 percent to a record $26.7 billion.

During the fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 25, Apple sold 4.1 million Macs, up 25 percent from a year earlier; 16.2 million iPhones, up 86 percent; and 7.3 million iPad tablet computers, which were introduced in 2010. Sales of iPods dropped 7 percent to 19.45 million.

“We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement accompanying the results. “We are firing on all cylinders and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on.”

Holiday quarter earnings came in at $6.43 a share.

Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company expects $22 billion in revenue in its current quarter and earnings of about $4.90 a share. “We couldn’t be happier with the performance of our business,” he said.

Apple reported results just after the stock markets closed this afternoon. Earlier, the shares finished regular trading at $340.65, down $7.83, or 2.2 percent from last week’s closing price.

It was the first test of U.S. investor sentiment after Jobs disclosed yesterday that he would be taking another medical leave. Jobs took a six-month leave of absence in 2009; he had a liver transplant while he was gone from Apple.

Apple’s holiday quarter results and outlook for the current quarter both exceeded Wall Street expectations. The stock was up in after-hours trading.

More tech headlines

LinkedIn: The Mountain View professional networking site has added Michael Moritz of Silicon Valley venture capital powerhouse Sequoia Capital to its board of directors.

“Mike brings an impressive range of knowledge and expertise which will be invaluable to the company as we work to continue to grow our business around the world,” LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said in a news release. Moritz has served on the boards of such companies as Google, Yahoo and PayPal.

Comcast: Our favorite cable company here in Silicon Valley (well, at least, the only cable company in most of Silicon Valley) won approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Justice Department today for its $13.8 billion deal to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal from General Electric.

According to an Associated Press report, the agencies’ approval requires Comcast to make programming available to rivals, including Internet challengers such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple’s iTunes store.

Stoke: The Santa Clara mobile broadband gateway provider has gained $17 million in a venture capital round led by new investor Focus Ventures, which specializes in late-stage funding. Several existing investors including Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers are also participating in Stoke’s fifth funding round.

Since its founding in 2004, Stoke has raised a total of $92 million in venture funding, according to a news release. Stoke intends to use the latest funding to support new projects to help wireless carriers maximize the use of their 3G networks and to move to faster LTE service.

“Our outlook for growth in 2011 is promising, given our central role in the strong operator investment focus on optimizing current network assets and preparing for, or deploying LTE,” CEO Vikash Varma said, according to the news release.

Adobe Systems: The San Jose maker of expensive graphic design and Internet software has acquired Demdex, a privately held data management platform. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Real estate update

Southern California: Home sales in Los Angeles and five other counties in Southern California were up 20.5 percent in December from the previous month, but down 12.5 percent compared with a year ago, MDA DataQuick reported today.

At $290,000, the median price for all homes sold was up 1 percent from November and 0.3 percent from December 2009.

“We still see the potential for sales to perk up this spring if rates stay low and brighter economic news lifts consumer confidence. Of course, a loosening of credit terms would help an awful lot, too, especially in move-up markets,” DataQuick President John Walsh noted.

Pessimistic homebuilders: The nation’s new-home developers still have a grim outlook for the state of the market. The National Association of Home Builders’ market index remains at 16 in January for the third month in a row. A score of 50 or more indicates a growing market.

“At this point, housing remains on the sidelines of a weak economic recovery as consumers and builders wait for clear and consistent indications that jobs and economic output are reviving,” David Crowe, the group’s chief economist, said in a news release.

Silicon Valley tech stocks

Up: Google, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, eBay, Gilead Sciences.

Unchanged: Intel.

Down: Apple, VMware, Yahoo.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Up 10.55, or 0.4 percent, to 2,765.85.

The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Up 50.55, or 0.4 percent, to 11,837.93.

And the widely watched Standard & Poor’s 500 index: Up 1.78, or 0.1 percent, to 1,295.02.

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Frank Russell at 408-920-5876. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercspike.