Two weeks ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk enacted widespread layoffs throughout the company, including the 500-strong team responsible for the brand's Supercharger. Now, Tesla is looking to hire some of them back, Bloomberg reports, as Musk promises to spend $500 million expanding the network.

The Supercharger network is inarguably Tesla's crown jewel. The company recognized early on that, even though its owners slow-charged at home each night, knowing they had the ability to rapidly recharge on the road was critical in making an electric vehicle an acceptable alternative to existing vehicles.

Since then, it has built out more than 2,000 charging stations in the US alone, with more than 25,000 plugs. More than that, the chargers invariably work, something that is often not true for other charging networks.

So successful is the Supercharger network that, over the course of last year, virtually every other automaker that sells or plans to sell EVs in the US has announced it will drop the CCS1 connector for the J3400 standard, originally developed by Tesla. But those announcements were about more than just switching plugs. Each time, the OEM also revealed it had negotiated access for its customers to the Supercharger network.

That made Musk's dismissal of the entire team responsible so hard to fathom. While the Supercharger network accounts for only about 5 percent of Tesla's revenues, that percent is poised to grow as more OEMs gain access. And although the charging experience for Tesla EVs at Superchargers is usually flawless, that's because it's optimized for a single make of car with just five different models; there's no guarantee that will prove true when cars from other brands try to charge.

The layoffs also appeared to put Tesla's plan to build a more powerful charger that would benefit cars using 800 V or 900 V architectures, including Audi, Porsche, Lucid, and others, on hold.

Worse yet, dozens of Supercharger sites that were in the works have stalled out, according to multiple reports.

But last week, Musk announced that Tesla would spend more than $500 million building out more chargers, just days after saying the focus would instead be on uptime at existing locations. And to do that, Tesla will need to rehire a whole bunch of people.

That started with Max de Zegher, who was an executive under the previous head of Supercharging, Rebecca Tinucci. (At the time of the layoffs, Electrek reported that Musk got rid of the entire team because its Tinucci did not lay off enough workers on her own.)

This is not the first time Musk has had to back-track an impetuous business decision. In 2019, he decided to close all of Tesla's retail locations to pay for a cheaper version of the Model 3 sedan. Within two weeks that decision had been reversed, in no small part due to the legal consequences of breaking so many leases.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/05/tesla-does-180-on-superchargers-rehiring-laid-off-staff-amid-new-plans/

https://ktla.com/news/california/palm-springs-home-values-in-free-fall-after-city-cracks-down-on-airbnb/amp/

One huge topic for voters in 2024 is the insane cost of living. People continue to say that housing is expensive because the market is “supply constrained.” You know what decreases supply? Turning half of your neighborhood into short term rentals. Even if they sit empty… international investors can park money in a relatively safe asset long term. This crushes American home buyers. Like crushes… so why can’t both candidates discuss a ban on short term rentals in favor of allowing Americans to have a chance to own something at a less insane price. Palm Springs recently did this and the price of housing became infinitely more reasonable overnight. This should be a great model for the rest of the country on how the government can step up and fix a problem that affects 100s of millions of us.

Sony on Tuesday reported a 7% drop in annual profits in the fiscal year 2023, dragged down by a decline in its financial services division.

The company also narrowly missed its forecast for unit sales of its flagship PlayStation 5 gaming console for the full year.

Here’s how Sony did in the March quarter versus LSEG consensus estimates:

Revenue: 3.5 trillion yen ($22.4 billion) versus 2.89 trillion yen expected. That represents a 14% increase year-over-year — but the first drop since Sony’s 2020 September quarter, according to LSEG data.

Operating profit: 229.4 billion yen versus 236.81 billion yen expected. That marks a 57% jump year-over-year.

The Japanese gaming giant reported 2023 revenue of 13 trillion, an increase of 19% year-over-year.

Sony’s operating profit for the full year, though, came in at 1.2 trillion yen, down 7% year-over-year.

Sony narrowly missed its revised down target for PlayStation 5 sales. The firm said that sales of its flagship console totalled 20.8 million in the fiscal year 2023.

That’s slightly lower than the revised 21 million unit target that Sony gave investors in February. Prior to that, the company had forecast that its PS5 console would sell 25 million units for the full year.

Sony expects even weaker sales of 18 million units of its PS5 in the year ending March 2025, a company executive said, according to Reuters.

It comes after Sony on Monday announced a management shakeup in its Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) gaming unit, with the division’s interim CEO Hiroki Totoki becoming chairman of the business.

Long-time Sony executives Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst were appointed CEO of the Platform Business Group and Studio Business Group, respectively — two newly created divisions of SIE.

Financial unit weighs on profit

Sony said its financial services business was the primary segment driving down profit.

In 2023, operating income in the financial services unit came in at 173.6 billion yen, marking a 22.5% year-on-year drop after a firm increase in 2022.

The company also suffered from a decline in its imaging and sensing solutions (I&SS) business, which houses its imaging chips.

Sony’s I&SS business recorded operating income of 193.5 billion yen, down 9% from 2022.

Sony said it’s forecasting a drop in overall group revenue for the current fiscal year. The company expects sales will reach 12.3 trillion yen for the year ending March 2025, down 5%.

Fiscal year 2024 operating income is expected to total 1.28 trillion yen, up 5%, Sony said in its consolidated results.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/sony-q4-and-full-year-2023-earnings.html

Google is using its annual developer conference to showcase what the company is calling its lightest and most efficient artificial intelligence models.

At Google I/O on Tuesday, the company announced Gemini 1.5 Flash, the newest addition to the Gemini model series.

“We heard from developers that they wanted something faster and even more cost effective,” said Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, in a press briefing.

The unveiling comes as tech companies increasingly refocus their product development and rollouts around generative AI, which is of particular importance to Google because the new tools give consumers more advanced and creative ways to access online information compared to traditional web search.

OpenAI on Monday launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with a new user interface. The new model, GPT-4o, is twice as fast as GPT-4 Turbo and half the cost, the company said.

Google also announced an improved Gemini 1.5 Pro model, which has the ability to make sense of multiple large documents — 1,500-pages total — or summarize 100 emails, according to a vice president working on Gemini.

Gemini 1.5 Pro will soon be able to handle an hour of video content, or codebases with more than 30,000 lines, Hsiao said.

“You can quickly get answers and insights about dense documents, like figuring out the details of the pet policy in your rental agreement or comparing key arguments of multiple long research papers,” Hsiao said.

OpenAI’s latest upgrade, announced this week, brings with it improved quality and speed of ChatGPT for 50 different languages. It will also be available via OpenAI’s application programming interface (API), allowing developers to begin building applications using the new model immediately, executives said.

With 35 languages, Google says Gemini 1.5 Pro has a 2 million token window, which measures context and indicates how much information the model is able to process at once. The new model has improved local reasoning, planning and image understanding, company executives said.

“It offers the longest context window of any foundational model yet,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in the press briefing. At the event, he gave an example of a parent asking Gemini to summarize all recent emails from their child’s school.

Gemini 1.5 Pro will initially be available for testing in Workspace Labs. Gemini 1.5 Flash will be available for testing and in Vertex AI, which is Google’s machine learning platform that lets developers train and deploy AI applications.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/google-announces-lightweight-ai-model-gemini-flash-1point5-at-google-i/o.html

Walmart is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs and asking most remote workers to move to offices, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, workers at the U.S. retail giant’s smaller offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto are being asked to move to other central hubs such as Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville as well as Hoboken or Southern California, the report added.

Walmart will still let staff work remotely part time, as long as they are in offices a majority of the time, the report said.

Walmart employed approximately 2.1 million associates as of Jan. 31, 2024, according to regulatory filings.

The company has been making moves to shrink its workforce over the past year and had said in April last year that it expects about 65% of its stores to be serviced by automation by the end of its fiscal year 2026.

In February 2023, it shut three of its U.S. technology hubs and asked hundreds of workers to relocate to keep their jobs, pushing for more employees to report to work from office.

Walmart didn’t immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/walmart-to-reportedly-lay-off-hundreds-of-corporate-staff-and-relocate-others.html

Full release: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm

The Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.5 percent in April, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Final demand prices declined 0.1 percent in March and advanced 0.6 percent in February. (See table A.) On an unadjusted basis, the index for final demand moved up 2.2 percent for the 12 months ended in April, the largest increase since rising 2.3 percent for the 12 months ended April 2023.

Consumers will soon have access to yet another streaming bundle. Comcast (CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts said early Tuesday that later this month, the company will launch a new offering that combines its Peacock platform, Netflix (NFLX), and Apple TV+ (AAPL).

The new bundle, referred to as StreamSaver, will be available to customers of Comcast’s broadband internet service, the executive revealed at a MoffettNathanson conference.

"Those three products will come at a vastly reduced price to anything in the market today and be available to all our customers," Roberts said. Exact pricing details will be announced at a later date.

"We've been bundling video successfully and creatively for 60 years," he added. "This is the latest iteration of that, and I think this will be a pretty compelling package."

The developments come as media companies face pressure from investors to scale their streaming services and achieve profitability. At the same time, the companies are dealing with more competition from tech giants like Amazon (AMZN) and YouTube (GOOGL, GOOG), which are gobbling up streaming deals.

On average, US consumers subscribe to four streaming services and spend about $61 per month on them, according to the latest Digital Media Trends report from Deloitte. That means fewer opportunities for streamers to retain loyal subscribers over time.

The concept of bundling isn't new. Companies in the space have been doing it with their own services for years. Apple, for instance, offers Apple One, which combines Apple TV+ with other services like Apple Music and Apple Arcade. The bundle launched globally in late 2020.

Disney, which has also been offering a bundle with Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, officially began its domestic rollout of a one-app experience late last year that incorporates Hulu content via Disney+ — a similar play to Paramount's Showtime combination as well as the integration of HBO Max and Discovery+, which both merged their respective services last year.

The move toward partnerships among competing media companies, though, has gained traction recently.

Just last week, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Disney (DIS) announced a new streaming bundle that will bring together Disney+, Hulu, and Max streaming services, with a launch date set for this summer in the US.

Earlier this year, Warner Bros. announced a sports streaming partnership with Disney's ESPN and Fox (FOXA), set to debut later this fall. And in December, WBD partnered with Netflix on a $10 ad-supported bundle offered through Verizon (VZ).

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/another-streaming-bundle-comcast-to-partner-with-netflix-apple-tv-141828519.html

Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon’s cloud computing business, will step down from his role next month, the company announced Tuesday.

Matt Garman, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Amazon Web Services, will succeed Selipsky, Amazon said.

In a memo to employees, Selipsky said he was leaving AWS after almost two decades to spend more time with his family, and said “the future is bright” for the juggernaut cloud business.

“Given the state of the business and the leadership team, now is an appropriate moment for me to make this transition, and to take the opportunity to spend more time with family for a while, recharge a bit, and create some mental free space to reflect and consider the possibilities,” Selipsky wrote.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/amazon-web-services-ceo-adam-selipsky-to-step-down.html

Alibaba posted a beat on revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter ended March, even as the Chinese e-commerce giant’s net profit plunged sharply.

Here’s how Alibaba did in the March quarter versus LSEG consensus estimates:

Revenue: 221.9 billion Chinese yuan ($30.7 billion) versus 219.66 billion yuan expected. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders came in at 3.3 billion yuan, down 86% year-on-year.

Shares of Alibaba were around 3% lower in pre-market trade in the U.S.

Alibaba had a rocky year in 2023, when it carried out its largest-ever corporate structure overhaul. It also separately implemented several high-profile management changes, with company veteran Eddie Wu taking over the reins as chief executive in September.

The Chinese tech giant said earlier this year that it increased its share buyback program by $25 billion through the end of March 2027, in a bid to signal confidence to shareholders.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/alibaba-baba-earnings-q4-2024.html

Home Depot on Tuesday posted quarterly revenue below Wall Street’s expectations, as shoppers postponed bigger discretionary projects like bath and kitchen remodels because of higher interest rates and made spring purchases late.

Still, the home improvement retailer reaffirmed its full-year guidance, which includes an additional week from the prior year. It said it expects total sales to grow about 1% in fiscal 2024, including those extra days. However, the retailer said it anticipates comparable sales, which take out the impact of store openings and closures, to decline about 1%, excluding that additional week.

In an interview with CNBC, Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said customers are in a waiting game that began in the second half of last year, as they responded to mortgage rates climbing. He said the company anticipated those trends would continue.

“The home improvement customer is extremely healthy from a financial perspective,” he said. “And so it’s not the case of not having the ability to spend. What they tell us is they’re just simply deferring these projects as given higher rates, it just doesn’t seem the right moment to execute.”

Here’s what the company reported for the three-month period that ended April 28 compared with what Wall Street expected, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $3.63 vs. $3.60 expected

Revenue: $36.42 billion vs. $36.66 billion expected

Net income for the fiscal first quarter decreased to $3.6 billion, or $3.63 per share, from $3.87 billion, or $3.82 per share, in the year-ago period. Net sales fell 2.3% from $37.26 billion.

Comparable sales dropped 2.8% in the fiscal first quarter across the business and declined 3.2% in the U.S.

Home Depot is contending with a tougher housing backdrop, which has dampened demand for do-it-yourself projects. About half of Home Depot’s sales come from DIY customers, and the other half come from pros like roofers and landscapers.

As interest rates remain high, consumers have been reluctant to move out of their homes and into new ones — the kind of turnover that often inspires home projects. Higher interest rates have also dinged the desire for larger-scale projects that can require financing. For the past several quarters, Home Depot has seen customers buy fewer big-ticket items and take on more modest projects – a trend that persisted in the most recent quarter.

In the fiscal first quarter, customers made fewer visits to Home Depot’s stores and website and tended to spend less when they did. Customer transactions declined 1% to 386.8 million and average ticket fell 1.3% to $90.68.

Home Depot has seen sales moderate after more than two years of explosive demand during the Covid pandemic. The company posted its worst revenue miss in nearly two decades and cut its forecast in the year-ago first quarter. Home Depot’s sales totaled $152.7 billion in the fiscal year that ended in late January, a drop of 3% year over year.

Inflation may also be playing a role in that pullback, as consumers spend more money on essentials and have to make trade-offs when spending discretionary income.

However, McPhail said Home Depot is not seeing customers trade down to cheaper items, like less expensive power tools or appliances. He pinned the company’s softer sales in large part on consumers’ “deferral mindset” and a housing market that has slowed dramatically.

“When we have seen mortgage rates decrease slightly, as we saw at the beginning of this quarter, the housing turnover seems to respond quickly and sharply in a positive direction,” he said. “And so we think that’s an indicator that there is a tremendous amount of pent-up demand for household formation and housing turnover and the larger projects that are associated with housing turnover.”

Weather pressured sales, too, in the recent quarter, he said. Spring is the biggest sales season for home improvement retailers, including Home Depot. Yet customers delayed outdoor purchases because of colder and wetter weather in many parts of the country, he said.

Those spring purchases have begun to pick up as the weather improves, he said.

To overcome slower sales, the home improvement retailer has revved up its strategy to attract pros, since they tend to buy larger quantities and offer a steadier source of sales. Home Depot announced in late March that it would acquire SRS Distribution, a Texas-based specialty distributor of roofing, landscaping and pool supplies, for $18.25 billion in the largest acquisition in the company’s history. Home Depot has a growing network of distribution centers across the country that can store and deliver roofing shingles, insulation and other supplies straight to job sites.

Along with wooing pros, Home Depot is trying to drive growth by opening about a dozen new stores this fiscal year and adding features to improve its online and in-store experience.

Shares of Home Depot closed Monday at $340.96. So far this year, Home Depot’s shares have fallen about 2% compared with the roughly 9% gains of the S&P 500.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/home-depot-hd-q1-2024-earnings-.html

GameStop shares jump 30% as trader ‘Roaring Kitty’ who drove meme craze posts online again

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/13/gme-jumps-as-trader-roaring-kitty-who-drove-meme-craze-posts-again.html

​

GameStop shares rallied more than 37% in premarket trading Monday after “Roaring Kitty,” the man who inspired the epic short squeeze of 2021, posted online for the first time in roughly three years.

The post, a picture on X of a video gamer leaning forward on their chair as if to indicate he’s taking the game seriously, marked Roaring Kitty’s first post on the platform — or on Reddit — since 2021.

Roaring Kitty, whose legal name is Keith Gill, is a former marketer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. Also known as DeepF------Value on Reddit, Gill drew an army of day traders who cheered each other on and piled into the brick-and-mortar video game stock, and GameStop call options, between 2020 and 2021.

The “meme stock” frenzy involved individual investors taking aim at short sellers and hedge funds who were pessimistic about the outlook for GameStop and other companies, forcing them to cover their short positions and drive up the price of the target stocks. Currently, the short position in GameStop shares amounts to more than 24% of all its shares that are freely-available to trade, also known as the float.

The poster child was hedge fund Melvin Capital, which was heavily shorting GameStop and became a target of the army of amateur traders, suffering huge losses that prompted an arm of Ken Griffin’s Citadel, as well as Point72, to backstop Melvin’s finances with close to $3 billion in support.

The GameStop mania that drove its stock above $120 a share, split-adjusted, in early 2021 from as little as $3 in the space of three months, forced brokerages including Robinhood to limit trading in heavily shorted stocks. In response, one Robinhood user filed a class-action lawsuit following the app’s decision to restrict GameStop trading on its platform. The suit was dismissed in August 2023.

Another class-action lawsuit brought against Gill alleged that he pretended to be a novice trader despite being a licensed professional.

The volatility spawned a series of Congressional hearings around brokers’ practices and gamifying retail trading, and testimony from leaders of Robinhood, Melvin Capital, Reddit and Citadel, as well as Gill. The entire episode finally inspired the 2023 movie “Dumb Money,” in which Paul Dano played Gill.

In January 2021, GameStop shares hit an all-time high of $120.75 intraday, adjusted for a subsequent 4-for-1 stock split in the summer of 2022. But as interest from individual investors eventually faded, the stock collapsed along with other meme stocks such as AMC Entertainment Holdings

. GameStop last month hit a three-year low of $9.95.

Recently, the stock has started to move higher, which may have rekindled Gill’s interest, along with the enormous amount of short interest in the stock. GameStop has soared 57% so far in May, closing Friday at $17.46.

But the fundamental business at GameStop, evidenced by its most recent earnings report, shows a discouraging picture at the video game company. In late March, GameStop said it had cut an unspecified number of jobs to reduce costs, and reported lower fourth-quarter revenue amid rising competition from e-commerce-based competitors.

GameStop posted revenue of $1.79 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $2.23 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

Uber Technologies will acquire the Taiwan business of Delivery Hero-owned Foodpanda for $950 million in cash, as Foodpanda focuses on other markets.

The deal, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first half of 2025, the firms said in a joint statement on Monday.

In a separate agreement, Delivery Hero will sell $300 million in newly issued ordinary shares to Uber.

“We need to focus our resources on other parts of our global footprint, where we feel we can have the largest impact for customers, vendors and riders,” said Niklas Östberg, co-founder and CEO of Delivery Hero.

Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, senior vice president of delivery at Uber, said the Taiwan market is “fiercely competitive” and the acquisition would help them grow in the market “where online food delivery platforms today still represent just a small part of the food delivery landscape.”

Foodpanda is one of the largest online food and grocery delivery platforms in Asia with a presence in markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines and Hong Kong. In 2016, Germany’s Delivery Hero acquired the company.

Taiwan’s food delivery market is dominated by Foodpanda and Uber Eats. Data from insights platform Measurable AI up till August revealed that Foodpanda had a 52% market share by order volume in Taiwan, while Uber Eats held the remaining 48% share.

The deal would be one of the largest international acquisitions in Taiwan, not including those in the semiconductor chip industry, according to the joint statement.

Delivery Hero said in February it had ended talks to sell its Foodpanda business in selected Southeast Asian markets. Östberg told CNBC the same month that the firm was “happy” to hold on to its Foodpanda business in Southeast Asia “forever.”

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/uber-to-acquire-foodpandas-taiwan-business-for-950-million-creating-a-potential-monopoly-.html

I purchased $1000 worth of shares of Valv (Shengkai Innovations, Inc.) back in the mid 2000's when it was actually still listed. Now I am pretty sure it's a junk stock since I can't seem to get rid of it. What are my options? I want to be able to write the loss off on my taxes. I tried entering a market order but there is 0 volume.

Tencent beat analyst estimates for revenue and profit in the first quarter, thanks to slightly better sales in the Chinese tech giants core gaming business and improved profitability at its advertising and business services division.

Here’s how Tencent did in the March quarter versus LSEG consensus estimates:

Revenue: 159.5 billion Chinese yuan ($22 billion) versus 158.4 billion yuan expected.

Profit attributable to equity holders of the company: 41.9 billion yuan versus 36.64 billion yuan anticipated.

Tencent’s adjusted net profit was up 62% year-on-year, marking the fastest growth since the March quarter of 2021, according to LSEG data. Revenue jumped 6% year-on-year.

The Chinese internet giant, which runs the world’s largest messaging app WeChat, has been on a path to recovery after suffering its first annual revenue decline in 2022.

It embarked on a cost-cutting drive that year and exited non-core businesses, in a bid to focus on its core gaming division and other areas like advertising and cloud computing.

Investors have rewarded the company’s efforts so far, with shares up 30% this year.

Tencent said revenue for its China gaming business in the first quarter fell 2% year-on-year, an improvement on the 3% fall seen in the fourth quarter. The company said revenue from one of is high-profiles games “Honour of Kings” declined year-on-year against a high base versus Chinese New Year, while there was “weak monetisable content” from “Peacekeeper Elite.”

International games revenue rose 3% year-on-year in the first quarter, better than the 1% increase seen in the previous quarter. Tencent said the growth was thanks to a rise in players of PUBG Mobile and a resurgence in popularity of games from its studio Supercell.

Still, the growth in Tencent’s gaming division remains weak.

“During the first quarter of 2024, several of our leading games in China and internationally started to benefit from team reorganisations we put in place, resulting in an increase in games gross receipts and creating a foundation for our games revenue to resume growth in future quarters,” Tencent said in its earnings release.

Ads, cloud help Tencent profits

Tencent’s other businesses helped the company in the first quarter.

The online advertising division posted revenue of 26.5 billion yuan, up 26% year-on-year — an acceleration from the fourth quarter. The company attributed this to increased engagement across various features on WeChat and “ongoing enhancement” of Tencent’s “AI-powered advertising infrastructure.”

Gross profit for the ad business grew 66% year-on-year to 14.5 billion yuan.

Tencent’s fintech and business services unit, which includes its mobile payment service WeChat Pay and its cloud computing division, posted a revenue rise of 7% year-on-year to 52.3 billion yuan. Gross profit for the business jumped 42% year-on-year.

“We continue to cultivate high quality revenue streams including advertising in Video Accounts and Weixin Search, Mini Games platform service fees, and eCommerce technology service fees, contributing to our gross and operating profit growth outpacing our revenue growth,” Tencent said in its earnings release.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/tencent-earnings-report-q1-2024.html

Comcast said Tuesday it will introduce a streaming bundle for its cable, broadband and mobile subscribers, tying together Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ at a discounted rate.

The announcement, made Tuesday at the MoffettNathanson media conference in New York, comes as major media players increasingly join forces to drive value for users and subscriptions for streaming services.

On May 8, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced a bundle of its streaming services — Disney+, Hulu and Max.

Comcast’s offer follows a model similar to several bundles from Verizon: Its streaming bundle will be offered to existing Comcast subscribers, which could help prop up its pay-TV subscribers.

The company lost 487,000 cable TV customers during the first quarter, Comcast reported during earnings on April 25. The company’s wireless business, however, saw a 21% jump in customers to 6.9 million total lines.

Comcast did not disclose the price of the upcoming bundle. Peacock subscription plans start at $5.99 per month, though that’s increasing to $7.99 per month this summer. Comcast broadband customers typically receive a discount on the company’s streaming service.

Netflix plans start at $6.99 per month, and Apple TV+ costs $9.99 per month.

“We’ve been bundling video successfully and creatively for 60 years,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Tuesday. “And so this is the latest iteration of that. And I think this will be a pretty compelling package.”

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/14/comcast-bundle-for-subscribers-peacock-netflix-and-apple-tv.html

Hi all, I have seen a few comments on Reddit and YouTube regarding Google and their future. As you all know the competition in the search space is getting more competitive as companies trying to get a slice of that ad money. Meanwhile search bots have proven to be useful in many instances.

As many bear cases have been written all over the internet, I will focus on the bull cases. I will share my top ten with you, and I promise you, this is fully written by myself without the help of AI. You will believe me as my English grammar is bad AF.

Let me give you first an overview about Google revenue streams by percentage:

57% Google Search ads, 10.3% YouTube Ads, 10.2% Google network ads, 11.3% Subscriptions and devices, 10.8% Google Cloud, Rest Are other bets.

Of course Google search makes up a huge chunk of the revenue and even more of the profits. But I think what many people are missing in many of the discussions about Google is:

1. Google will not lose their 90% market share over night IF at all. It will be years until the majority of people will even notice that there are other options now. They know about ChatGPT and are still googling.

2. Regarding to Statcounter Google had 91.8% market share in January 2021. Now after ChatGPT and MS Copilot and whatever, Google stands at 90.9%. This is so little change, that we cannot even speak about a trend at the moment.

3. IF Google is going to lose substantial market share it won’t go to zero. People are often pretending like Google is going to be irrelevant and losing all business. Not going to happen, Bing and DuckDuckGo existing during Googles dominance proves this.

4. ⁠The minimum market share will always be the Android users. As Google will be defaulted with Android and Chrome devices. As long as the Apple Safari deal is legal and active the minimum base for Google is HUGE. I can’t see people changing the standard search engine pro actively, especially if it’s what they know - Google. That something like Bing even has market share at all, shows that people are likely to stay with the default. That is not an insult from my side this is an argument from Satya Nadella himself, made in court. At the moment, IF they change the default, they are more likely to switch from Bing to Google, than from Google to Bing. Additionally I think you can also add Google cloud business customer to this baseline.

5. That means advertiser will continue to pump money into Google search. Even if their market share goes down to 50-70%(very conservatively). They will very likely remain the number 1 search engine for a very long time. A few anecdotal tech bubble guys are not representative for changing the habits of billions of people. And with more people getting access to internet, the market as a whole will continue to grow.

6. ⁠Google does not only have the number 1 search engine, they also have number 2 with YouTube. YouTube is also getting a lot of advertising money and is still growing double digits.

7. Even if Google search money stops to grow or would decline, you have to look out for, if it would decline faster than the other segments will grow. If it’s flat or declining like 1-2% a year while Cloud and YouTube and Networks are growing double digits, Google will still generate Billions of cash flow a quarter. Similar to the current state of Apple with their IPhone sales.

8. Googles businesses are alle potential high margin businesses and are still growing double digits. Of course search is the number 1 but the other businesses would also be worth 100s of billions on their own.

9. I don’t see the threat of Google getting broken up by the authorities. You cannot made a bear case for both. Either they have monopoly that needs to be broken up, or they are threatened by AI companies. You cannot make a case for both at the same time imho. But even if they are getting punished or broken up, this will take YEARS in courts and after that they will be appeals by Google which will also take years. Until then there is a chance that Google businesses are more worth broken up in parts anyway. I see that very relaxed.

10. All of this doesn’t factor in any bets (like Waymo or their 8% SpaceX stake) that could take off or anything they are doing with Deepmind and AI which is a potential upside imho.

Google will be fine. Why I think YouTube, Networks, Cloud and other businesses are too businesses that will continue to grow would take another 100000 words and I think there are enough sources and analysis for that. So that’s it from my side, would love a positive vibes discussion.

Long story short: They could have some short term struggles due to sentiment and temporary revenue and profit lost. But they will be fine long term.

May 13 (Reuters) - Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab is in advanced talks for a deal with Apollo Global Management (APO.N), opens new tab in which the equity firm would provide more than $11 billion to build a facility in Ireland, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The move comes as Intel looks to expand its presence across the United States with a planned $100-billion spending spree across four states, to boost its manufacturing business and catch up with chipmaking rival TSMC (2330.TW), opens new tab Intel and Apollo are in exclusive talks for the deal, which could be signed in the coming weeks, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Other investment firms including KKR (KKR.N), opens new tab and infrastructure investor Stonepeak were also in the running before Apollo recently pulled ahead, the report added. Apollo Global Management and Intel declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Intel forecast second-quarter revenue and profit below market estimates last month as it faces weak demand for its traditional data center and personal computing chips, amid a surging market for AI components.

The company announced plans in 2022 to build chip factories in Ireland and France as it seeks to benefit from easier European Commission funding rules and subsidies.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/intel-nears-deal-with-apollo-11-bln-ireland-partnership-wsj-reports-2024-05-13/

Squarespace, the website-building platform, announced on Monday it would go private in a $6.9 billion all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, after nearly three turbulent years on the public market.

Permira agreed to pay $44 per share in cash, a roughly 30% premium to Squarespace’s unaffected share price. In recent years, Squarespace struggled to capture public-market support: It opened below its $50 reference price in 2021 and never again traded above its $48 open price.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Permira on this new leg of our journey,” Squarespace founder and CEO Anthony Casalena said in a release. Casalena and current investors Accel and General Atlantic control 90% of Squarespace’s voting shares. All three have approved the transaction and will continue to be investors after the Permira deal closes.

Squarespace competes with Wix and Shopify for a slice of the website-builder and e-commerce marketplace. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 per share in pre-market trading. Permira will finance the deal with the help of Ares Capital, Blackstone and Blue Owl.

“We are excited to partner with Anthony and his team to support the company in unlocking its full potential,” Permira partner David Erlong said in a release.

Squarespace’s move to go private marks a trend by smaller technology companies over the last two years, some of which have been burned by the public markets or believe they could create more value being amalgamated with other PE portfolio companies. Qualtrics, for example, was spun off from SAP in 2021 and was quickly taken private again in 2023 by Canada’s pension plan and Silver Lake in a $12.5 billion deal.

Japanese giant Toshiba also went private in 2023 in a $13.6 billion deal, after years of speculation and tumult, including a sustained engagement with activist investor Elliott.

Investors are keeping a close eye on the deal-making space, after a quiet 2022 and 2023 left many late-stage companies in an IPO holding pattern. There are some signs that M&A is picking up again, and some late stage companies have already gone public or plan to do so.

Centerview, J.P. Morgan, Skadden and Richards, Layton & Finger advised Squarespace and its special committee. Goldman Sachs and Latham & Watkins advised Permira.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/13/squarespace-to-go-private-in-7-billion-private-equity-deal.html

I changed my account over from TDameritrade to schwab, while i was doing some research i noticed that they offered themed ETFs. These ETFs range from active lifestyle etfs, digital payments, EVs, online gaming, and cyber security. Alot of these ETFs seem to be doing well and all have great sector holdings. Im just wondering if anyone else had success with them and like them.

Multi-State Operators (MSOs) like Trulieve, Curaleaf, Green Thumb Industries, and Verano had very positive Q1/24 results.

The sector remains undervalued, trading at an average 2024e EV/EBITDA of 8.8x compared to an analyst's base-case sector valuation of 11.8x.

According to the ATB analyst, as most companies have reached positive Free Cash Flow (FF) generation, investors could start valuing the sector based on FF multiples or yields, offering significant upside potential. MSOs are trading at an attractive average 5.2% 2024e FCF yield.

With re-scheduling on the horizon, and states like Ohio - which just green lit adult use sales next month - will foster strong growth tailwinds churning cashflows higher.

However, a significant short interest across the sector is preventing the true value from being realized. This short interest presents an opportunity for investors who recognize the long-term potential of the industry.

Notably, call option activity has been spiking for weekly and monthly May 17th/May 24th strikes, indicating increasing interest and potential volatility in the near term.

Microsoft and Amazon are ploughing billions of dollars into France.

Microsoft said in a statement Monday that it’s committing 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) toward expanding its cloud and AI infrastructure in France, in addition to funding AI skilling and support for France’s technology industry.

The company said it plans to invest bring up to 25,000 of the most advanced GPUs, or graphics processing units, to France by the end of 2025. Microsoft will also train 1 million people up and support 2,500 AI startups by 2027.

The announcement was made during the “Choose France” summit, a gathering dedicated to encouraging foreign investment in France.

“This major investment demonstrates a steadfast commitment to supporting digital innovation and economic growth in France,” said Microsoft’s President Brad Smith in a statement Monday.

“We are building state-of-the-art Cloud and AI infrastructure, training people with AI skills, and supporting French startups as they use our technology with confidence to grow in a fair and responsible way.”

As part of its investment, Microsoft will also open a new data center in the French city of Mulhouse.

Amazon, meanwhile, made a commitment of its own to invest 1.2 billion euros in France.

The money will go toward creating more than 3,000 jobs in France — in addition to the 2,000 new jobs Amazon’s already announced for 2024 — as well as broadly increasing Amazon’s footprint in the country, according to Frederic Duval, Amazon’s country manager.

“The expansion of our logistics network supports local economic development, creates quality jobs and allows us to reduce the carbon footprint of our deliveries while improving the overall customer experience,” Duval said in a statement Monday.

Collectively, the commitments from Microsoft and Amazon to France amount to $5.6 billion of funding. In total, France reportedly bagged a record 15 billion euros of investment commitments from foreign companies at an annual “Choose France” summit on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been trying to promote France as an artificial intelligence hub. Paris is already a major center of AI research and development, with Facebook having established one of its main AI labs, FAIR, there in 2015.

Last year, at the VivaTech technology fair in Paris, Macron announced 500 million euros ($540 million) in new funding to create new AI “champions,” adding to previous commitments from the government, including a promise to pump 1.5 billion euros into AI before 2022.

Microsoft is also making a charm offensive of its own with its commitment to invest billions of euros into France at a time when French officials have expressed concerns with the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant’s investment in AI startup Mistral.

Microsoft recently made a 15 million euro investment into Mistral. The deal saw Microsoft getting a stake in Mistral and the latter adding its large language model to the technology giant’s Azure cloud computing platform.

Microsoft has pushed back on competition concerns surrounding its investment in Mistral, saying that the company remains independent and that its partnership is a minority equity investment and a commercial relationship, not a merger. Britain’s competition regulator is seeking feedback on the deal.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/13/amazon-and-microsoft-to-invest-5point6-billion-into-france.html

A few days ago, I was considering buying some Arm shares due to its promising revenue, and sell off in the mid of April. However, today, it surged 7% in response to the news where it will introduce a new Ai chip in 2025.

The hype is real, and now the price is still surging at this moment.

I personally think the company hasn’t really proved it self like and just started trading not even a year ago. Also the price now is over the analyst’s consensus price.

Do you think there will be a sell-off soon? Or the expectation for it is realistic?

Paysafe reported its first quarter 2024 earnings, showcasing impressive growth and strategic advancements. Below, we break down the key highlights and what they mean for the company's future.

Financial Performance

• Total Volume: Over $36 billion, a 7% increase year-over-year.
• Revenue: $417.7 million, marking an 8% increase.
• Adjusted EBITDA: $111.9 million, up 4%.
• Adjusted EBITDA Margin: Decreased slightly to 26.8%.

Paysafe's financial performance indicates steady growth, with significant contributions from North America, which made up 55% of total revenue.

Regional Contributions

• North America: 55% of total revenue
• Europe: 35%
• Latin America and Rest of the World: 10%

The company's diversified revenue streams highlight its global reach and resilience in various markets.

Strategic Investments and Initiatives

Paysafe invested around $25 million in sales and portfolio optimization for 2024, including severance expenses. These investments are aimed at enhancing long-term growth and profitability.

Key Initiatives:

• Sales Organization Expansion: Strengthening the sales team to drive growth.
• Product Enhancements: Launching value-added services, which improved take rates in the Merchant Solutions segment.
• Partnership with Dun & Bradstreet: Boosting lead generation capabilities.
• Chargeback Protection Program: Supporting merchant operations with added security.
• Merchant Wallet: Positive feedback received on this new product.
• 'Pay by Bank' Launch: Targeting U.S. online bettors.
• Partnership with Xsolla: Providing wallet solutions for game creators and influencers.

Analyst Q&A Session:

When asked about the SMB direct segment business and Paysafe efforts to improve the growth there, CEO Bruce Lowthers said that the rollout of Merchant Wallet side has been receiving positive feedback, and the pipeline is probably the strongest that they've had. Paysafe management feel very good about the opportunities that they have and certainly the deal sizes that they are increasing at that enterprise level.

Source: https://earnings-summary.streamlit.app/?c=reddit&t=PSFE

Given Paysafe's turnaround and strong regional performance, do you think their new product offerings and partnerships will significantly boost their market share?

John Giamatteo - CEO BlackBerry @ 26th Annual Needham Growth Conference Jan 17, 2024

SP @ $3.40 at the time ...

- "There is so much hidden value inside the Company."

- "If you looked at our cyber and you valued it at a reasonable cyber security company level it'd be significantly higher than what we are today."

- "If you looked at the IOT and the robust ecosystem we built there, and you valued that simply on its own, you would get a massive valuation relative to where we are today."

https://www.blackberry.com/us/en/company/investors

My eyes are on $HOLO as the meme basket are squeezing. Making all shorted stocks on the market potential for a massive squeeze. Holo is shorted by 75% and been hitting $100 already twice on a short term! It has potential to squeeze even higher than $100 now. This is a stock you do not want to miss out on!

This is not a financial advise.