5 Winners and Losers of the Week in Business

Companies can make brilliant moves, but there are also times when things don't work out quite as planned. From an electric car maker exploring self-driving cars to a cable giant finally nixing an unpopular service, here's a rundown of this week's smartest moves and biggest blunders in the business world.

Tesla Motors (TSLA) -- Winner
The one success story in electric cars continues to get better. Tesla Motors posted its first quarterly profit on Wednesday, blowing through Wall Street's revenue expectations along the way. Tesla's receiving orders for new Model S sedans at a faster clip than it can make them, and that's a good problem to have.

Earlier in the week Tesla made headlines when CEO Elon Musk revealed that he has talked to Google (GOOG) about the technology that powers Google Maps self-driving vehicles. Don't get too excited though. We're still several years away from cars that can go on autopilot becoming available at the retail level. However, it's not a surprise to see that the one company that's truly cashing in on the call for emission-free cars is also the one at the forefront of tomorrow's driving experience.

Comcast (CMCSK) -- Loser
The country's largest cable television provider is apparently not the Skype type.

Tech watcher DSLReports.com is reporting that Comcast will stop marketing a premium Skype service that it tried to sell for $10 a month to folks already paying big money for XFINITY triple play bundled services.

Comcast knows that Skype video calls are free to other Skype users, right? High-def webcams are pretty cheap nowadays. At a time when Comcast is shedding video customers, the last thing it needed was to come off as greedy by trying to squeeze another $10 a month out of its customers. It's not a surprise to see Comcast backing away from the service after just a year of availability.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) -- Winner
Skeptics were worried about the company behind the Keurig single-cup brewing system after two key K-Cup patents expired late last year. What would stop many of its partners from bypassing Green Mountain and putting out K-Cups on their own?

Well, Green Mountain got some beefy validation this week when it struck a deal with Starbucks (SBUX) that expands the existing arrangement between the two companies. Starbucks will triple the number of products it makes available for Green Mountain's K-Cup and Vue portion packs through at least the next five years. Cool beans!

Carnival (CCL) -- Loser
After three months of repairs in Alabama, the notorious Carnival Triumph set sail to Bahamas for some additional repairs. This should've been a good week as Carnival cast out the demons of that ill-fated February sailing where passengers were drifting at sea for five days on a disabled cruise ship.

However, now we get another horrific mishap on a Carnival ship. An Australian couple reportedly fell overboard on the Carnival Spirit on Wednesday night as the ship was making its way to Sydney.

Disney (DIS) -- Winner
As big as Disney is these days, the media juggernaut still managed to grow revenue and earnings in the double digits. The family entertainment giant posted strong quarterly results, sending the shares to a new all-time high this week.

Earlier in the week Disney had announced that it would be turning to Electronic Arts (EA) to develop new Star Wars games, a move that was widely expected after Disney scaled back its own interactive operations.

There's nothing goofy about Disney these days.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Walt Disney and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. The Motley Fool recommends Google, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Starbucks, Tesla Motors , and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google, Starbucks, Tesla Motors , and Walt Disney. Try any of our newsletter services free for 30 days.

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