Beth Krietsch

SAN FRANCISCO: Bite Communications has hired Andrea Cunningham as president of Bite North America.

Apple far exceeded analyst expectations with earnings of $46.3 billion in the first quarter of its 2012 fiscal year. The $13.1 billion profit in the quarter was the company's best ever.

SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco International Airport has hired Burson-Marsteller as AOR. The three-year contract has a total value of $1.8 million.

BELMONT, CA: Vyatta, a software-based networking and security provider, has hired Airfoil Public Relations as AOR.

ST. LOUIS: Women often use social media to distribute information that helps others make informed purchase decisions, according to a study from Fleishman-Hillard and Hearst Magazines.

BOSTON: CoalTek, a Massachusetts-based clean energy company, has hired Greenough as AOR.

NEW YORK: PMK-BNC has hired Omar Gonzales as VP of national publicity.

Netflix CMO Leslie Kilgore has stepped down after a tumultuous year for the entertainment service.

IRVINE, CA: StreamQuik, a new media product-development company, has launched StreamCell, a portable video-production platform.

SAN FRANCISCO: Websites including Reddit, Wikipedia, and Boing Boing darkened their websites on Wednesday to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US Senate.