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Tag: Internet

  • Elon Musk says Twitter has had ‘massive’ revenue drop as advertisers pause spending

    Elon Musk says Twitter has had ‘massive’ revenue drop as advertisers pause spending

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    Twitter has suffered a “massive drop in revenue” because of advertisers pausing spending on the social media platform, Elon Musk, the new owner of the company, said Friday without providing numbers.

    In a tweet, the Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX CEO cast blame on “activist groups pressuring advertisers.” He said Twitter hasn’t changed its content moderation strategy, and added the company has done “everything we could to appease the activists.”

    Musk didn’t specify how much revenue the company has lost from the pullback, or how he was able to attribute that loss to pressure from activist groups.

    Musk reiterated his views Friday in an interview at the Baron Investment Conference.

    “We’ve made no change in our operations at all,” Musk said at the event. “And we’ve done our absolute best to appease them and nothing is working. So this is a major concern. And I think this is frankly an attack on the First Amendment.”

    Twitter has fired or laid off approximately 50% of its employees since he took over on Oct. 28.

    In recent days, a number of companies said they would temporarily pause their advertising spending on Twitter to see how things would change there under Musk’s ownership. Tesla competitors General Motors and Audi, and food titan General Mills are among the companies that have paused Twitter spending.

    United Airlines suspended its advertising on Twitter earlier this week, a spokesperson for the carrier said on Friday. The airline is still posting on the platform. It appeared to be the first U.S. passenger airline to say it suspended advertising on Twitter. Airlines separately provide customer service on Twitter, which United is also not suspending, the spokesperson said, declining to provide further detail on the decision.

    Ad giant IPG advised clients to temporarily pause their Twitter media plans, though it’s unclear how many clients are taking IPG agencies’ advice.

    Twitter informed employees Thursday evening that it would begin laying off staff members, according to communications obtained by CNBC. Twitter’s content moderation team is expected to be among those job cuts, Reuters reported, citing tweets by employees.

    Musk in a tweet Friday, addressed the layoffs, saying: “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.”

    CNBC has not confirmed this with former Twitter employees.

    CNBC has also learned that deep cuts were made to Twitter’s global marketing team which handles, among other things, reporting and metrics around ad performance, sales performance and spam.

    Earlier this week Musk, who now calls himself “Chief Twit,” met with a group of leaders of civil society organizations to address concerns about hate speech and election-related misinformation on the platform.

    Since Musk took the helm, online trolls and bigots raided Twitter, and hate speech has surged on the platform. Musk also tweeted out, then deleted, an unfounded and anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theory about a home invasion and assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

    Some of the organizations represented in the hourlong Zoom call on Tuesday have now co-signed an open letter to top Twitter advertisers urging them to suspend their ad spending if Musk fails to enforce the company’s safety standards and community guidelines.

    Despite Musk’s claims of a recent revenue slump, Twitter’s ad spending had been on the decline before his takeover of the company was complete, and before civil society organizations began pressuring brands, according to ad analytics platform MediaRadar.

    Advertisers on Twitter increased between April and May, around the time that Musk’s plan to take Twitter private was announced, before it began to decline, according to data from MediaRadar. But the average number of advertisers on the platform fell from 3,900 in May to 2,300 in August. It had 2,900 advertisers in September.

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  • Coinbase prepares for likely worse 2023, Q3 revenue drops more than 50%

    Coinbase prepares for likely worse 2023, Q3 revenue drops more than 50%

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    Coinbase Global Inc. late Thursday reported a wider quarterly loss and a 54% drop in revenue, saying the headwinds for its business will continue and likely intensify next year.

    Coinbase
    COIN,
    -8.09%
    said it lost $545 million, or $2.43 a share, in the quarter, swinging from earnings of $406 million, or $1.62 a share, in the year-ago period.

    Revenue dropped to $576 million from $1.24 billion a year ago.

    Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected the crypto exchange to report a loss of $2.38 a share on revenue of $641 million.

    Shares traded lower immediately after the report, but at last check were rising more than 8% in the extended session.

    The quarter was “mixed” for Coinbase, the company said in a letter to shareholders. “Transaction revenue was significantly impacted by stronger macroeconomic and crypto market headwinds, as well as trading volume moving offshore.”

    On the plus side, Coinbase saw “strong growth in our subscription and services revenue,” it said.

    Those headwinds, however, continued to impact transaction revenue, which was down 44% quarter on quarter, Coinbase said in the letter.

    Trading volume dropped to $159 billion in the quarter from $217 billion in the second quarter.

    “For 2022, we remain cautiously optimistic that we will operate within the $500 million adjusted EBITDA loss guardrail that we previously communicated,” the company said. That assumes that the crypto market does not deteriorate further, it said.

    For next year, however, Coinbase is “preparing with a conservative bias and assuming that the current macroeconomic headwinds will persist and possibly intensify,” the company said.

    Coinbase earlier this week said its chief product officer was stepping down as the company reorganizes its business.

    In August, the company reported a $1.1 billion loss.

    Coinbase shares have lost more than 77% this year, compared with losses of around 21% for the S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    -1.06%    .

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  • Roku stock plunges as downbeat earnings forecast assumes ad budgets could ‘degrade’

    Roku stock plunges as downbeat earnings forecast assumes ad budgets could ‘degrade’

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    Roku Inc. shares plummeted 19% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the streaming company topped expectations with its latest results but gave a weaker-than-anticipated outlook for the holiday quarter as economic conditions could further “degrade advertising budgets.”

    For the fourth quarter, Roku executives anticipate $800 million in revenue and a loss of $135 million on the basis of adjusted Ebitda. The FactSet consensus called for $899 million in revenue as well as a $48 million adjusted Ebitda loss.

    “As we enter the holiday season, we expect the macro environment to further pressure consumer discretionary spend and degrade advertising budgets, especially in the TV scatter market,” the company said in its shareholder letter. “We expect these conditions to be temporary, but it is difficult to predict when they will stabilize or rebound.”

    Chief Financial Officer Steve Louden shared on a call with reporters following the release that the company’s forecast “reflects the fact that we see a lot of challenges in the macro environment.”

    He explained that Roku tends to be more exposed to the scatter ad market — which represents ads bought during the quarter — than the typical TV network. Scatter spending is easy for marketers to turn on, but also easier for them to turn off, he noted.

    The forecast overshadowed the results from Roku’s third quarter, which were broadly better than expected.

    The company posted a net loss of $122.2 million, or 88 cents a share, whereas it logged net income of $68.9 million, or 48 a share, in the year-earlier period. Analysts tracked by FactSet were expecting a $1.29 loss on a per-share basis.

    Roku also reported a loss of $34 million on the basis of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The company had posted positive adjusted Ebitda of $130 million in the year-before quarter. The FactSet consensus was for a $74 million loss on the non-GAAP metric.

    Revenue rose to $761 million from $680 million, while analysts were anticipating $696 million.

    The company generated $670 million in platform revenue and $91 million in player revenue. Analysts were expecting platform revenue of $613 million and player revenue of $87 million.

    Roku had 65.4 million active accounts in the latest quarter, up from 63.1 million in the second quarter. Average revenue per user was $44.25 on a trailing-12-month basis, compared with $44.10 in the second quarter and $40.10 in the prior year’s third quarter.

    Analysts were anticipating 64 million active accounts and $43.40 in average revenue per user.

    Louden noted on the media call that the account numbers “outperformed expectations.” The company has seen “strong sales of smart TVs both in the U.S. and internationally,” with Louden adding that “it’s hard to tell how much is driven by a shift back to home or back to streaming, which is a very good value proposition if money is tight.”

    Viewers spent 21.9 billion hours streaming content through Roku’s platform in the period. The FactSet consensus was for 20.9 billion hours streamed.

    As companies like Netflix Inc.
    NFLX,
    -4.80%
    and Walt Disney Co.
    DIS,
    -3.94%
    explore ad-supported streaming more deeply, Louden sees opportunity for Roku to be of further value.

    “That changes their focus a bit from only thinking about subscribers to thinking about engagement” and he sees Roku’s team members as “experts in understanding how consumers look at that.”

    The company also noted in its shareholder letter that CFO Louden intends to leave Roku at some point in 2023 after helping to recruit and train his successor.

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  • Musk emerging as Twitter’s chief moderator before US midterms

    Musk emerging as Twitter’s chief moderator before US midterms

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    Days after taking over Twitter and a week before the US midterm elections, billionaire Elon Musk has positioned himself as moderator-in-chief of one of the most important social media platforms in American politics.

    Musk has said he will not make major decisions about content or restoring banned accounts before setting up a “content moderation council” with diverse viewpoints. But his own behaviour as a prolific tweeter has signalled otherwise.

    He has engaged directly with figures on the political right who are appealing for looser restrictions, including a Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state who credited Musk with enabling him to begin tweeting again after his account was briefly suspended Monday.

    Musk even changed his profile to “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator” – with a photo of himself when he was a toddler holding a telephone. But it is almost impossible for those outside of Twitter to know what strings he is pulling or whose accounts have been suspended: The company has stopped responding to media questions, except for the few that Musk answers by tweet.

    Musk’s promised interventions started last week on his first full day as Twitter’s owner. A conservative political podcaster shared examples of the platform allegedly favouring liberals and secretively downgrading conservative voices – a common criticism that Twitter’s previous leaders dismissed as inaccurate. “I will be digging in more today,” Musk responded.

    It continued when the daughter of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, whose provocative critiques of “politically correct” culture and feminism are popular with some right-wing activists, appealed for Musk to restore her father’s account after a tweet about transgender actor Elliot Page that apparently ran afoul of Twitter’s rules on hateful conduct.

    “Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail,” Musk pledged. He had months earlier said in reference to Peterson that Twitter was “going way too far in squashing dissenting opinions”.

    One of Musk’s first big moves was an open letter to advertisers – Twitter’s chief revenue source – promising that he would not let Twitter descend into a “free-for-all hellscape” as he follows through with his plans to promote free speech on the platform. And he has suggested asking users to pay $8 for a coveted verified blue check mark as a way to diversify revenue.

    The check mark has been criticised as a symbol of elitism on the platform. But its primary purpose has been to verify that accounts in the public eye – such as politicians, brands and journalists – are who they say they are. It has been a tool to prevent impersonation and help stem the flow of misinformation.

    But some still have their worries about Musk opening the platform to a flood of online toxicity that’s bad for their brands. General Motors has said it will suspend advertising on Twitter as it monitors the platform under Musk, and others are facing pressure to review their own plans. On Tuesday, more than three dozen advocacy organisations sent an open letter to Twitter’s top 20 advertisers, calling on them to commit to halting advertising on the platform if Twitter under Musk undermines “brand safety” and guts content moderation.

    ‘King of the platform’

    Musk has changed his profile to ‘Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator’ and changed his picture to one of himself as a toddler, holding a phone [Twitter]

    Over the weekend, the billionaire posted – then deleted – an article that contained baseless rumours about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. And much of his commentary in recent days has been a response to appeals from conservative voices.

    In a text exchange with The Associated Press, Mark Finchem, the Republican running to become Arizona’s secretary of state, said his access to the platform was restored quickly after reaching out to Musk via his personal Twitter handle. Asked why his account was suspended, Finchem said, “Perhaps you should reach out to Elon Musk. We were banned for an unknown reason, we reached out to him and 45 minutes later we were reinstated.”

    Finchem, who has questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election and was at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, has drawn national attention for his statements about election security and his ability to change election rules if he wins the state’s top election post next week.

    Musk tweeted Monday evening that he was “Looking into it” in response to a complaint about Finchem’s apparent suspension. The complaint came from lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was a legal adviser to former President Donald Trump’s campaign. About 40 minutes later, Finchem posted a “test” tweet on his account, which was followed by a lengthier post thanking Musk for restoring his ability to use the site.

    “Thank you @elonmusk for stopping the commie who suspended me from Twitter a week before the election,” Finchem wrote in the Tweet. “Twitter is much better with you at the helm.”

    Jared Holt, a senior research manager at The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said big social media companies have typically operated on the whims of their owners. But “that problem is especially glaring when somebody like Elon Musk takes the reins and kind of establishes himself as king of the platform, rather than an owner trying to run a coherent business,” Holt said.

    Content moderation council

    At the same time, Musk has sent mixed signals about his intentions. Despite overt examples of appealing to conservative calls and complaints about Twitter’s policies, there is also plenty of evidence that the platform’s policies on combating misinformation are still in effect.

    Separately, Musk has defended Twitter’s continuing head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, after some conservative users called for his firing over past comments expressing liberal views. Roth remained on the job this week after other top executives were fired or resigned. And apart from Musk, he appeared to be the chief public voice of Twitter’s content moderation, explaining that the company spent the weekend working to remove a “surge in hateful conduct” following Musk’s takeover.

    “We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel,” Musk tweeted in response to a complaint from another conservative commentator. “My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.”

    Some longtime Twitter observers have expressed scepticism about the effectiveness of Musk’s planned content moderation council. In part, that is because Twitter already has a trust and safety advisory council to address moderation questions.

    “Truly, I can’t imagine how it would differ,” said Danielle Citron, a University of Virginia law professor who sits on the council and has been working with Twitter since 2009 to tackle online harms, such as threats and stalking. “Our council has the full spectrum of views on free speech.”

    Citron said she was still waiting to hear if the council will be having its next meeting, scheduled for the day after the midterms.

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  • Amazon closes below $1 trillion valuation for the first time since 2020

    Amazon closes below $1 trillion valuation for the first time since 2020

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    The swift recent decline in Amazon.com Inc.’s stock has brought the company’s closing market value below $1 trillion for the first time in more than two years.

    Amazon shares
    AMZN,
    -0.82%
    fell 5.5% in Tuesday action, finishing with a market value of $987 billion. This marked the first time since April 6, 2020 that Amazon closed out of trillion-dollar territory, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

    Amazon’s valuation fell below the trillion-dollar milestone Tuesday.


    Dow Jones Market Data

    Amazon shares have tumbled 19.74% over the most recent five-session stretch. That five-day decline was the worst five-day loss for Amazon since its 22.03% plunge during the period that ended Nov. 20, 2008.

    The e-commerce giant has come under recent pressure after the company’s latest earnings report highlighted a slowdown in AWS cloud-computing revenue growth. Additionally, Amazon disappointed with the forecast it offered for the holiday quarter.

    “Combined with wobbles on revenue momentum for both AWS and retail, and suddenly the Amazon hiding place doesn’t look good,” Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik wrote following Amazon’s earnings report last Thursday. “The good news here is that the story isn’t broken, it’s just pushed out into 2023, while Q4 may get worse before it gets better.”

    When looking at companies worth more than $200 billion, Amazon is currently closest to seeing its stock hit its pandemic-era low, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Amazon shares closed Thursday at $96.79, 15.5% above their pandemic low of $83.83. Only shares of Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    -2.30%
    have actually plunged below their pandemic low, among this grouping of the largest U.S. companies.

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  • Amazon sell-off pushes market cap below $1 trillion for first time since April 2020

    Amazon sell-off pushes market cap below $1 trillion for first time since April 2020

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    Andy Jassy, chief executive officer of Amazon.Com Inc., speaks during the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021.

    David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Amazon has exited the trillion-dollar club.

    Shares of the e-retailer plunged 5.9% on Tuesday, falling for a fifth straight day and closing at their lowest since April 2020. The sell-off has erased almost all of the stock’s pandemic surge.

    Investors continued to punish the company for last week’s disappointing fourth-quarter forecast. Amazon said revenue during the holiday quarter would grow 2% to 8% over the year-ago period, far below analysts’ estimates. The cloud division, Amazon Web Services, also reported weaker-than-expected sales.

    It’s the first time Amazon’s market cap has been below $1 trillion since April 2020. The stock has plunged 42% in 2022 and is on pace for its worst year since 2008, when it dropped 45%. The only other year that was worse was during the dot-com crash of 2000, when the company lost 80% of its value.

    Like the rest of Big Tech, Amazon has struggled this year due to a slumping economy, soaring inflation and rising interest rates. On top of that, Amazon has been forced to scale back after expanding dramatically during the pandemic, now that consumers have returned to stores.

    Amazon has been the second-worst performer in the Big Tech group this year, behind Facebook parent Meta, which has plummeted 72%. Meta told investors last week that revenue in the fourth quarter would likely decline for a third straight period.

    — CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.

    WATCH: Amazon did not deliver on earnings

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  • Uber earnings: What to expect

    Uber earnings: What to expect

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    Uber Technologies Inc. is scheduled to release third-quarter earnings Tuesday morning before trading begins in the U.S.

    Analysts expect Uber
    UBER,
    -3.27%
    to report a revenue increase of nearly 70% from a year ago, while the company’s losses are expected to narrow. Growth is largely expected to come from the company’s ride-hailing business, while its food-delivery business is expected to see slower growth after a pandemic-influenced boom.

    What to expect

    Earnings: According to FactSet, analysts on average expect Uber to post a loss of 18 cents a share, a strong improvement from the $1.28-a-share loss that the company reported in the same quarter a year ago — though that loss was influenced by a drop in shares of DiDi Global Inc.
    DIDIY,
    -3.03%    ,
    and executives said adjusted losses in the third quarter last year were 17 cents a share. Estimize, which gathers estimates from analysts, hedge-fund managers, executives and others, expects the company to post a loss of 24 cents a share.

    Revenue: Analysts on average expect revenue of $8.11 billion, according to FactSet, up from $4.85 billion a year ago. Estimize is expecting $8.37 billion.

    Stock movement: In two of the past three quarters, Uber stock has fallen after the company reported earnings; it has risen after seven of the 14 reports the company has made since going public. Shares are down about 36% so far this year through Friday’s session, while the S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    -0.75%
    has fallen about 19% year to date.

    What analysts are saying

    Analysts see a continued upside in both Uber’s ride-hailing and delivery businesses, but slower growth in delivery.

    Aaron Kessler, an analyst for Raymond James who has an outperform rating on Uber’s stock, wrote in a note to clients that he estimates mobility bookings of $13.8 billion, up 40% year over year and 3.5% quarter over quarter.

    Jason Heffstein, an analyst for Oppenheimer, also has an outperform rating on Uber shares. He wrote in a note that Oppenheimer has received numerous requests about the company’s long-term prospects, so he updated his total-addressable market analysis, which includes the following: “U.S. Mobility [is less than] 3% of [the] annual cost of car ownership, representing a compelling value proposition in a weakening macro environment.”

    As for delivery, Kessler estimates bookings of $13.85 billion, which would be up 8% year over year and flat from the previous quarter. Heffstein estimates bookings to be up 9% year over year.

    “We believe Uber’s superior network liquidity and leading logistics technology are well positioned to capture additional market share in ride-sharing … and online food delivery,” Heffstein wrote.

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  • As subscription prices rise, here’s what’s worth streaming in November 2022: ‘The Crown,’ ‘Willow,’ ‘Mythic Quest’ and more

    As subscription prices rise, here’s what’s worth streaming in November 2022: ‘The Crown,’ ‘Willow,’ ‘Mythic Quest’ and more

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    So here’s some bad news and some, well, slightly less bad news.

    First, the bad-bad: Streaming prices are increasing almost across the board (Hulu and Apple TV+ rose in October, Disney+ will rise in December, while Netflix and Prime Video rose earlier this year), putting even more of a crunch on budget-conscious consumers.

    But now the less bad: If you can put up with commercials, there are cheaper, ad-supported versions coming your way (Netflix on Nov. 3, Disney+ in December).

    Of course, the other money-saving solution is to double down on a churn-and-return strategy and cut down on recurring subscriptions even more.

    Each month, this column offers tips on how to maximize your streaming and your budget, rating the major services as a “play,” “pause” or “stop” — similar to investment analysts’ traditional ratings of buy, hold and sell. We also pick the best content to help you make your monthly decisions.

    Consumers can take full advantage of cord-cutting by churning and returning — adding and dropping streaming services each month. All it takes is good planning. Keep in mind that a billing cycle starts when you sign up, not necessarily at the beginning of the month, and keep an eye out for lower-priced tiers, limited-time discounts, free trials and cost-saving bundles. There are a lot of offers out there, but the deals don’t last forever.

    Here’s a look at what’s coming to the various streaming services in November 2022, and what’s really worth the monthly subscription fee.

    Netflix ($6.99 a month for basic with ads starting Nov. 3, $9.99 basic without ads, $15.49 standard without ads, $19.99 premium without ads)

    Netflix has another really good month coming up.

     “The Crown” (Nov. 9), returns for its fifth season, set this time in the 1990s as scandals involving Charles and Diana plaster London’s tabloids and the role of Britain’s monarchy in modern society is thrown into question. Imelda Staunton takes over the role of Queen Elizabeth, with Dominic West as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip. Controversy has already erupted over the new season, which will include Diana’s tragic death, as some have spoken out about the show’s increasingly blurry line between truth and fiction. Pryce recently told Vanity Fair, ““The vast majority of people know it’s a drama,” not a documentary. And it’s a pretty good drama.

    Netflix
    NFLX,
    -0.41%
    hasn’t had much success developing original sitcoms, but is hoping to finally break through with “Blockbuster” (Nov. 3), a workplace comedy set at the last Blockbuster video store in America, starring network sitcom veterans Randall Park (“Fresh Off the Boat”) and Melissa Fumero (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”). There’s also “Wednesday” (Nov. 23), a horror-comedy series from Tim Burton starring Jenna Ortega as the terrifyingly snarky teen Wednesday Addams, with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman playing her creepy and kooky parents, Morticia and Gomez; and the third and final season of the dark comedy “Dead to Me” (Nov. 17), starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, which returns after a two-and-a-half-year layoff.

    On the drama side, there’s “1899” (Nov. 17), a mystery-horror series set aboard a transatlantic steamer ship at the turn of the last century, from the makers of the mind-bending German sci-fi series “Dark” — and if it’s even half as trippy and addictive, it’ll be terrific; Part 1 of the fourth season of the supernatural drama “Manifest” (Nov. 4), which Netflix rescued from NBC’s cancellation; and Season 6 of the soapy Spanish high-school drama “Elite” (Nov 18).

    More: Here’s everything new coming to Netflix in November 2022, and what’s leaving

    There’s also the timely documentary “FIFA Uncovered” (Nov. 9), digging into the scandal-plagued organization behind the World Cup; “Pepsi, Where’s My Jet” (Nov. 17), a documentary about a man who sued Pepsi in the 1980s to get a free Harrier fighter jet; the fifth installment of “The Great British Baking Show: Holidays” (Nov. 18); and the new standup comedy special from the outgoing “Daily Show” host, “Trevor Noah: I Wish You Would” (Nov. 22).

    On the movie front, there’s “Enola Holmes 2” (Nov. 4), a sequel to the hit 2020 movie about Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister, played by Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”), as young detective Enola sets out to investigate her first case; “Slumberland” (Nov. 18), a comedy adventure about a young girl exploring the dreamworld, starring Mallow Barkley and Jason Mamoa; and Lindsay Lohan is back with a Christmas rom-com, “Falling for Christmas” (Nov. 10).

    Who’s Netflix for? Fans of buzz-worthy original shows and movies.

    Play, pause or stop? Play. When it’s at the top of its game, as it is again this month, Netflix is a must-have, at whatever price tier.

    Disney+ ($7.99 a month)

    The TV world has been abuzz about prequels for the past few months, but it’s all about sequels in November for Disney+.

    The biggest of the bunch is “Willow” (Nov. 30), a follow-up series to the cult-favorite 1988 fantasy movie of the same name. The magical adventure is set 20 years after the events of the film, and Warwick Davis returns as farmer-turned-sorcerer Willow Ufgood, who leads an unlikely group of heroes on a quest to save their world. It should be fun for the whole family.

    Disney
    DIS,
    +1.45%
    also has “Disenchanted” (Nov. 18), a sequel to the 2007 hit movie “Enchanted.” The musical fantasy is set 10 years after the happily-ever-after ending, with Giselle (Amy Adams) questioning her happiness and inadvertently setting her two worlds askew. Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden and Maya Rudolph co-star. And then there’s “The Santa Clauses” (Nov. 16), as Tim Allen reprises his role of Santa Claus, who’s now facing retirement and looking for a replacement, in a new miniseries spinoff of the family-movie trilogy.

    Also of note: “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” (Nov. 25), as Star-Lord and the gang kidnap Kevin Bacon; the live performance “Elton John: Live from Dodger Stadium” (Nov. 20), the pop icon’s final show in North America; and weekly episodes of “Dancing With the Stars” (season finale Nov. 21), the “Star Wars” prequel “Andor” (season finale Nov. 23) and “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” (season finale Nov. 30).

    And heads up: Prices for the ad-free tier will jump to $10.99 a month in December, after Disney+ launches its ad-supported tier for $7.99 a month.

    Who’s Disney+ for? Families with kids, hardcore “Star Wars” and Marvel fans. For people not in those groups, Disney’s library can be lacking.

    Play, pause or stop? Play. There’s something for everyone in the household — even grumps who aren’t “Star Wars” fans can get into “Andor,” which absolutely works as a dark, gripping, spy thriller. Meanwhile, fans are realizing it just might be the best “Star Wars” series or movie ever made.

    HBO Max ($9.99 a month with ads, or $14.99 without ads)

    HBO Max is bringing back  “The Sex Lives of College Girls” (Nov. 17) for its second season. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble (who also teamed on Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever”), the ensemble comedy about four college roommates picks up right after Thanksgiving break, with the girls organizing a “sex-positive” male strip show. It’s sharp, funny, and less cringey than its title suggests.

    Then there’s “A Christmas Story Christmas” (Nov. 17), a nostalgic sequel to the 1983 classic, starring Peter Billingsley as a grown-up Ralphie who returns to his hometown to try to give his kids a perfect Christmas. It’s risky reviving such a beloved movie, and this could either be wonderful or terrible, there’s really no middle ground.

    HBO Max also has a slew of documentaries, including “Love, Lizzo” (Nov. 24), about the pop superstar’s inspiring life story; “Shaq” (Nov. 23), a four-part docuseries chronicling the rise to superstardom of NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal; “Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty” (Nov. 3), a true-crime series about a South Carolina lawyer’s scandalous fall; and “Say Hey, Willie Mays!” (Nov. 8), a film exploring the life, career and social impact of the greatest baseball player who ever played the game.

    See more: Here’s everything new coming to HBO Max in November 2022, and what’s leaving

    And every week brings new episodes of Season 2 of the very dark vacation comedy “The White Lotus,” Season 3 of “Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler” and Season 2 of the cult documentary “The Vow.”

    Who’s HBO Max for? HBO fans and movie lovers.

    Play, pause or stop? Pause and think it over. “The White Lotus” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls” are both worth watching, but beyond that it’s kinda “meh” this month. And Max is too pricey for “meh.”

    Amazon Prime Video ($14.99 a month)

    Amazon
    AMZN,
    -6.80%
    is bringing the star power in November, starting with the Western drama series “The English” (Nov. 11), starring Emily Blunt as an aristocratic Englishwoman who teams with a Pawnee scout (Chaske Spencer) on a mission to cross the violent 1890s American frontier. It looks stylish and bloody — and promising.

    Meanwhile, James Corden and Sally Hawkins star in “Mammals” (Nov. 11), a dark comedy series about modern marriage; pop star-turned-actor Harry Styles stars in “My Policeman” (Nov. 4), a drama about forbidden romance that’s getting very “meh” reviews in its theatrical release; and Kristen Bell, Ben Platt and Allison Janney star in “The People We Hate at the Wedding” (Nov. 18), a raunchy comedy set at a dysfunctional family wedding.

    More: Here’s what’s coming to Amazon’s Prime Video in November 2022

    There’s also NFL Thursday Night Football every week, and new episodes of the intriguing sci-fi drama “The Peripheral,” which is giving very “Westworld”-but-slightly-less-confusing vibes.

    Who’s Amazon Prime Video for? Movie lovers, TV-series fans who value quality over quantity.

    Play, pause or stop? Pause. There’s good stuff here, but nothing that feels must-see.

    Paramount+ ($4.99 a month with ads but not live CBS, $9.99 without ads)

    Taylor Sheridan (“Yellowstone,” “1883,” “Mayor of Kingstown”) has another new series: “Tulsa King” (Nov. 13), starring Sylvester Stallone as a former New York mafia capo who gets freed from prison after 25 years and settles in Tulsa, Okla., to build a criminal empire of his own. Showrunner Terence Winter (“The Sopranos,” “Boardwalk Empire”) knows a thing or two about mob shows, and this one could be good.

    Paramount+ also has the spinoff series “Criminal Minds: Evolution” (Nov. 24), about an elite team of FBI profilers unraveling a network of serial killers; the family movie “Fantasy Football” (Nov. 25), about a girl who can magically control how her NFL-player dad performs on the field; and the series finale of “The Good Fight” (Nov. 10), which its creators promise will be “cataclysmic.”

    There’s also the Thanksgiving Day Parade (Nov. 24) and a ton of live sports, including college football on Saturdays, NFL football on Sundays (and Thanksgiving Day), and group-stage matches for UEFA’s Champions and Europe leagues.

    Who’s Paramount+ for? Gen X cord-cutters who miss live sports and familiar Paramount Global 
    PARA,
    +3.37%
     broadcast and cable shows.

    Play, pause or stop? Pause. Besides its solid live-sports lineup, it’s a good time to catch up and binge “The Good Fight,” and “Tulsa King” could be worth a watch too.

    Hulu ($7.99 a month with ads, or $14.99 with no ads)

    Hulu has a couple of interesting offerings in November, but nothing that screams must-see. Yet, at least.

    FX’s “Fleishman Is in Trouble” (Nov. 17) stars Jesse Eisenberg as a newly divorced dad whose promiscuous dive into app-based dating is disrupted when his ex-wife disappears and leaves him with their kids. Claire Danes, Lizzy Caplan and Adam Brody co-star in the eight-episode drama, which is based on Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s best-selling novel.

    There’s also “Welcome to Chippendales” (Nov. 22), a true-crime series starring Kumail Nanjiani as the immigrant founder of the 1980s male-stripper franchise, which chronicles his business empire’s rise and fall amid a blizzard of sex, drugs and violence.

    Meanwhile, Adam McKay (“The Big Short”) and Billy Corben (“Cocaine Cowboys”) have the documentary  “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty” (Nov. 1), about the private life of Christian televangelist and former Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. and his very public downfall.

    See: Here’s everything new on Hulu in November 2022 — and what’s leaving

    There are also the final two episodes of “Atlanta” (series finale Nov. 10), whose fourth season has returned to brilliance after an underwhelming Season 3 over the summer, and new episodes every week of ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.”

    Who’s Hulu for? TV lovers. There’s a deep library for those who want older TV series and next-day streaming of many current network and cable shows.

    Play, pause or stop? Stop. While you won’t regret paying for Hulu if you already do, there’s not a lot to lure new subscribers this month.

    Apple TV+ ($6.99 a month)

    Apple TV+ is too inconsistent to be worth the $2-a-month price hike that was just announced, so it’s best to strategically plan when to stream — wait until a good series or two are completed, for example, and binge them all in a month, then cancel. Repeat as needed.

    And it actually is a decent month for Apple. Its second-best comedy, “Mythic Quest” Nov. 11), returns for its third season, with Ian (Rob McElhenny) and Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) gearing up for war against their old videogame company. With a perfect blend of humor and heart, it’s one of the best workplace comedies on TV.

    Meanwhile, Season 2 of “The Mosquito Coast” (Nov. 4) finds the fugitive Fox family finally hiding out in Central America, after a tedious premise-pilot of a first season that wasted good actors (Justin Theroux and Melissa George) and beautiful cinematography with nonsensical plot twists, while the action series “Echo 3” (Nov. 23) stars Luke Evans and Michiel Huisman as former soldiers trying to rescue a kidnapped scientist in the jungles of South America.

    Apple
    AAPL,
    +7.56%
    also has a pair of high-profile original movies: “Causeway” (Nov. 3), starring Jennifer Lawrence as a former soldier struggling to adjust to civilian life in New Orleans, co-starring Brian Tyree Henry, and “Spirited” (Nov. 18), a musical twist on “A Christmas Carol” told from the ghosts’ point of view, starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell.

    Who’s Apple TV+ for? It offers a little something for everyone, but not necessarily enough for anyone — although it’s getting there.

    Play, pause or stop? Stop. There’s just not enough to justify a month-to-month subscription. December is a better bet, with “Mythic Quest” and a new season of “Slow Horses” running concurrently.

    Peacock (free basic level, Premium for $4.99 a month with ads, or $9.99 a month with no ads)

    The World Cup from Qatar (Nov. 20-Dec. 18) will be broadcast on Fox and FS1, so cord-cutters are out of luck, unless you subscribe to a live-streaming service like Hulu Live or YouTube TV. However, Peacock will stream every match in Spanish, which could be a decent Plan B for soccer fans.

    And that “it’ll-do-but-it’s-not-exactly-what-I’m-looking-for” description is the running theme for Peacock. November will bring a handful of originals that are unlikely to move the needle, subscriber-wise: There’s the musical-comedy spinoff series “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin” (Nov. 23), starring Adam Devine; “The Calling” (Nov. 10), a crime drama about a religious cop, from David E. Kelley and Barry Levinson; the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (Nov. 24); and the streaming debut of Jordan Poole’s sci-fi/horror hit “Nope” (Nov. 18).

    Sports-wise, Peacock has the National Dog Show (hey, it’s a competition!) on Nov. 24, NFL Sunday Night Football every weekend, a full slate of English Premier League matches through Nov. 13, and a ton of golf and winter sports.

    Who’s Peacock for? If you have a Comcast 
    CMCSA,
    -0.06%
     or Cox cable subscription, you likely have free access to the Premium tier (with ads) — though reportedly not for much longer. The free tier is almost worthless, but the recent addition of next-day streaming of NBC and Bravo shows (like “Saturday Night Live” and “Real Housewives”) bolsters the case for paying for a subscription. Still, Peacock is still not really necessary unless you need it for sports.

    Play, pause or stop? Stop. There’s not a lot that’s particularly enticing right now, even on the sports side.

    Discovery+ ($4.99 a month with ads, or $6.99 with no ads)

    More of the same in November for Discovery+, which is a feature, not a bug. Highlights include the vegan cook-and-chat show “Mary McCartney Serves It Up” (Nov. 1); “Tut’s Lost City Revealed” (Nov. 3), about a 3,000-year-old Egyptian city recently discovered by archaeologists; “Vardy vs Rooney: The Wagatha Trial” (Nov. 19), the inside story of the tabloid-fodder “Wagatha” scandal between the wives of English soccer stars; and Season 2 of the excellent CNN food series “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” (Nov. 30). Full disclosure: There are also a handful of sappy holiday movies guest-starring some HGTV and Food Network stars, but they look terrible and I expect better from you, a discerning reader/viewer.

    Who’s Discovery+ for? Cord-cutters who miss their unscripted TV or who are really, really into “90 Day Fiancé.”

    Play, pause or stop?  Stop. Discovery+ is still fantastic for background TV, but it’s not worth the cost. Still, it should add value when the reconfigured Warner Bros. Discovery 
    WBD,
    +3.68%
      combines it with HBO Max next summer.

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  • Twitter is now owned by Elon Musk — here’s a brief history from the app’s founding in 2006 to the present

    Twitter is now owned by Elon Musk — here’s a brief history from the app’s founding in 2006 to the present

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    In this photo illustration, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s archived Twitter account is shown on a phone screen with the Twitter logo in the background.

    Sheldon Cooper | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    A decade ago, Twitter’s future was looking bright. The company was benefiting from a flood of funding into the social-networking space, eventually leading to an IPO in 2013 that raised $1.8 billion.

    Now the company is back in private hands. And they happen to be the hands of Elon Musk, the richest person in the world and one of the app’s most high-profile provocateurs.

    It’s a massive moment. Twitter has become a key place for people to debate, joke and pontificate in their own circles of politics, sports, tech and finance. It’s also served as a platform that gives voice to the voiceless, helping protesters organize and express themselves in repressed regimes around the world.

    In recent years, however, Twitter and social media rivals like Facebook have been at the center of controversy over the distribution of fake news and misinformation, sometimes leading to bullying and violence.

    Investors had grown concerned about Twitter as a business. The company was generally unprofitable, struggled to keep pace with Google and Facebook, and often killed popular products with no real explanation.

    What follows is a brief history of Twitter, which — despite its many flaws — is one of the most iconic companies to come out of Silicon Valley in the past 20 years.

    2006

    In March, Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams created Twitter, which was originally a side project stemming from the podcasting tool Odeo. That month, Dorsey would send the first Tweet that read, “just setting up my twttr.”

    2007

    In July, Twitter received a $100,000 Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures. The app’s popularity started to explode after being heavily promoted by the tech community during the annual South by Southwest conference.

    2008

    Dorsey stepped down as CEO in October, and was replaced by Williams. According to the book “Hatching Twitter” by journalist Nick Bilton, Twitter’s board fired Dorsey over concerns about the executive’s management style and public boastings.

    2009

    Twitter’s popularity continued to soar, leading to a high-profile appearance from Williams on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show alongside celebrity Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher would also write about Williams and Stone as part of Time Magazine’s Time 100 issue. Twitter was now a mainstream phenomenon.

    2010

    Twitter reached space, with NASA Astronaut Timothy Creamer sending the first tweet live from outer orbit. Behind the scenes, however, management woes continued with Williams stepping down as CEO, replaced by operating chief Dick Costolo.

    2011

    Twitter became an essential social media tool used during the Arab Spring, the wave of antigovernmental protests throughout Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Protesters used the site to post reports and to organize. As the Pew Research Center noted, Twitter’s role in “disseminating breaking news” was not “not limited to the Arab uprisings – the death of Whitney Houston, for example, was announced on Twitter 55 minutes prior to the AP confirming the story.”

    2012

    Twitter’s reach expanded to 200 million active users. Barack Obama used the “platform to first declare victory publicly in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, with a Tweet that was viewed approximately 25 million times on our platform and widely distributed offline in print and broadcast media,” according to corporate filings.

    2013

    Twitter went public in November. The combined wealth of Williams, Dorsey, and Costolo hit roughly $4 billion.

    “I think we’ve got a tremendous set of thoughts and strategies to increase the slope of the growth curve,” Costolo told CNBC at the time. “I would consider some of them tactics, some of them broader strategies, in service of doing what I referred to as bridge the gap between the massive awareness of Twitter and deep engagement of the platform.”

    2014

    Slowing user growth led to several stock drops and analyst downgrades. Twitter also deemed 2014 the year of the “selfie.”

    2015

    Compared to rivals like Google, Facebook, and even LinkedIn, Twitter was starting to look like the runt of the Internet litter. Twitter was still unprofitable as its ad business struggled mightily against its larger competitors. Dorsey would also return as CEO of the company, while still maintaining the top job at his other company, Square (now Block).

    2016

    Rumors began circulating that Twitter was looking to be acquired, with Salesforce as a potential suitor. Meanwhile, Twitter and Facebook were criticized for their role in letting prominent users like Donald Trump, who would win the U.S. presidential election that year, spread misleading information without consequence.

    “Having the president-elect on our service using it as a direct line of communication allows everyone to see what is on his mind in the moment,” Dorsey said at the time. “We’re definitely entering a new world where everything is on the surface and we can all see that in real time and we can have conversations about it.”

    2017

    For a moment, Twitter appeared to be on the upswing. Its stock was finally trending upward as the company’s finances were improving. Meanwhile, Trump as president continued to use Twitter as his megaphone. According to Twitter’s own data, “Trump was the most-tweeted-about global leader in the world and in the United States” that year, CNBC reported.

    2018

    Dorsey and Facebook’s then-operating chief Sheryl Sandberg testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about alleged interference by Russia-linked actors in the 2016 election. Trump and fellow Republicans became increasingly vocal about alleged political bias by Twitter and other social media sites.

    “In fact, from a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform,” Dorsey said at the time.

    2019

    Analysts found correlations between President Trump’s voracious use of Twitter and various markets, including gold, underscoring the cultural power of Twitter. Trump met with Dorsey — a Twitter spokesperson said “Jack had a constructive meeting with the President of the United States today at the president’s invitation.”

    “They discussed Twitter’s commitment to protecting the health of the public conversation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis,” the spokesperson said.

    2020

    As Covid-19 spread across the globe, the spread of misinformation dominated the online conversation. And Twitter continued to struggle to grow its business. The service was also hacked that year, and miscreants gained access to over a dozen high-profile accounts, including those controlled by Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, and Musk

    2021

    Twitter permanently banned Trump over inflammatory comments the president made during the U.S. Capitol riots in January that the company said could lead to “further incitement of violence.” Trump would allege that Twitter workers “coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me.” Later, Dorsey suddenly stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Parag Agrawal, the company’s chief technology officer.

    2022

    Musk took over Twitter after a protracted legal spat that would have culminated this week in a trial in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. The Tesla CEO agreed in April to pay $44 billion for Twitter, but then attempted to renege on the deal. He changed course and opted to proceed, walking into the company’s San Francisco office on Wednesday with what appeared to be a porcelain bathroom sink in his hands.

    “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” he tweeted, with a video of his entrance.

    Musk immediately began making changes, firing Agrawal, finance head Ned Segal, and head of legal policy Vijaya Gadde.

    WATCH: Billionaire Elon Musk steps into Twitter HQ, sink in hand

    Billionaire Elon Musk steps into Twitter HQ, sink in hand

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  • New IT rules aimed to make Internet ‘safe’ for Indians, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar

    New IT rules aimed to make Internet ‘safe’ for Indians, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar

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    Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that the amendments to the IT rules made on Friday are aimed at making Internet ‘safe’ for Indians.

    India as a nation continues to favour a self-regulatory body for social media content disputes despite a lack of consensus among Big Tech companies to form a joint appeals panel, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Information Technology, during a press briefing on Saturday.

    The government’s move is seen as the latest attempt to regulate Big Tech firms through policy changes which have often irked companies that complain about excessive compliance burden.

    “India under PM Narendra Modi is a trustee of rights of its citizens & Digital Nagriks,” Chandrasekhar had stated earlier. According to Chandrasekhar, “These Rules mark new partnership between the Government & Intermediaries in making & keeping our Internet Safe & Trusted for all Indians.”

    Chandrasekhar also said that the formation of a government panel “is a signal to them (social media companies) that they need to up their game.”

    On Friday, the central government stated that it would set up an appeals panel as concerned users have no source to help in a difficult situation if they objected to moderation decisions of social media companies such as Meta, Twitter or Google.

    This update comes after New Delhi’s statement in June that it could scrap the proposal if the companies themselves banded together to form a self-regulatory body. However, they failed to reach a consensus — Google was opposed to external reviews, while Meta and Twitter favoured self-regulation fearing government overreach.

    Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Information Technology, in an interview, said that the centre could still consider industry self-regulation as government-led reviews “is not something that we want to spend a lot of time doing”.

    Chandrasekhar also added that such a body “cannot be a cozy club of industry people” and should have consumer and government representation. He also said that the current system of in-house grievance redressal at tech companies was “broken”.

    In past, Twitter has faced a backlash after it blocked accounts of influential Indians, including politicians, citing violation of its policies.

    Moreover, the microblogging platform had also locked horns with the centre last year as it declined to fully comply with orders to take down accounts, which as per the government were spreading misinformation.

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  • As Musk takes over Twitter, users test limits

    As Musk takes over Twitter, users test limits

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    Confusion, concern, conspiracies, celebration.

    In the hours after Elon Musk took control of Twitter, reactions on the platform ranged from triumph to despair.

    While no immediate policy changes had been announced by Friday afternoon, that didn’t stop users from cheering – or criticising – what they expected to be a quick embrace of Musk’s pledges to cut back on moderation in what he has said is an effort to promote free speech.

    Conservative personalities on the site began recirculating long-debunked conspiracy theories, including about COVID-19 and the 2020 election, in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to “test” whether Twitter’s policies on misinformation were still being enforced.

    Popular right-wing pundits tweeted buzzwords such as “ivermectin” and “Trump won” to see whether they would be penalised for content they suggested would previously have been flagged. Ivermectin, a cheap drug that kills parasites in humans and animals, has been promoted by some Republican politicians and conservative talk show hosts as an effective way to treat COVID-19. But health experts have warned there is scant evidence to support the belief that it works.

    “Ok, @elonmusk, is this thing on..?” Steve Cortes, a former commentator for the conservative TV network Newsmax and adviser to former President Donald Trump wrote in a tweet, where he included a microphone emoji. “THERE ARE TWO SEXES TRUMP WON IVERMECTIN ROCKS.”

    In a letter aimed to soothe the fears of advertisers, Musk promised Thursday that Twitter won’t be a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences”.

    But the jury is still out on what will become of the social media platform and what it will tolerate. Observers are eyeing who stays, who goes and who might potentially come back from the list of people the platform has banned over the years. They range from former US President Donald Trump to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke – none of whom have returned to the platform so far.

    The Associated Press checked at least a dozen other Twitter accounts that were suspended by the platform – including those used by right-wing activist James O’Keefe and MyPillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell – and each turned up an “account suspended” message as of Friday afternoon.

    At least one still found a way to get his message out.

    “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country,” Trump said Friday morning in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, leaving no indication of whether he would return to the platform even though Musk has said he would allow it.

    “I LOVE TRUTH!,” he said, adding Twitter will be “better” if it works to get rid of bots and fake accounts “that have hurt it so badly”.

    In a Tweet posted on Friday afternoon, Musk said Twitter will be forming a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” and that “no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes”.

    Opening a Pandora’s box

    Earlier in the day, Reuters news agency reported that Kanye West, the rapper legally known as Ye, was back on Twitter after being locked out of his account earlier this month over his anti-Semitic posts on the platform.

    Musk clarified that Ye’s account was restored before he completed the takeover and that Twitter “did not consult with or inform me”.

    The rapper and fashion designer had also been suspended from Instagram but his account there was recently reinstated.

    Meanwhile, dozens of extremist Twitter profiles – some newly created – circulated racial slurs and Nazi imagery while expressing gratitude to Musk for his new leadership. One such post shared a breaking news update about Musk taking over the company, tweeting a racial slur and the message, “thank you Elon”. Another anonymous account tweeted, “Elon now controls Twitter, unleash the racial slurs”, along with several derogatory comments.

    “His acquisition of Twitter has opened Pandora’s box,” the advocacy group Ultraviolet said in a prepared statement on Friday, while also urging Musk, Twitter executives and the company’s board of directors to continue to enforce the ban on Trump “as well as violent right-wing extremists and white supremacists”.

    Some users reacted to the news by threatening to quit and others made fun of them for doing so. The terms “Elon”, and “deleting”, appeared in Twitter’s top trends Friday as users discussed the fallout.

    Speculation also permeated the platform. Some worried their number of Twitter followers was plunging, theorising that Twitter may be cleaning up bots. Other users posted unverified reports that their “like” counts were dwindling.

    “Elon Musk bought a platform, he didn’t buy people,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a social media expert and professor at Syracuse University. “And we still have a choice in how we get our news, our information and how we communicate.”

    Grygiel said there will be a flight to quality if Twitter descends into further chaos under Musk, but maybe this will not be a bad thing as the platform has increasingly come to serve corporate and state media interests.

    And as always, users were quick to crack jokes – aiming to cut through the disorder in more comical ways.

    “In honor of Elon now owning this site, I’d like to start utter chaos,” CNN commentator Bakari Sellers wrote in a Tweet on Friday morning. “Which is better Popeyes or Bojangles and why?”

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  • Elon Musk on the hook to pay more than $200 million to 3 fired Twitter execs

    Elon Musk on the hook to pay more than $200 million to 3 fired Twitter execs

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    This story was updated with a more current tally of shares from Twitter’s most recent proxy statement. 

    When Twitter Inc.’s top executives walked out of its San Francisco headquarters Thursday, they may as well have been carrying bags of Elon Musk’s cash.

    Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal policy, received a “golden parachute” clause in Twitter’s
    TWTR,
    +0.66%
    merger with Musk’s X Holdings. Musk reportedly fired all three Thursday evening upon officially taking control of the social network in a $44 billion acquisition, and will be obligated to give more than $204 million of it to those three, according to Twitter’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Read more: Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase, fires CEO and other top execs: reports

    Agrawal, Segal and Gadde own roughly 1.2 million shares of Twitter, more than half of that a $34.8 million stake owned by Gadde. The trio’s roughly $65 million stake would be purchased by Musk like any other shareholder’s stock.

    Additionally, a clause in the merger agreement provided accelerated vesting of promised future stock compensation — and that’s where the biggest chunk of money comes in. The “Golden Parachute Compensation” clause in Twitter’s SEC filing — which was the deal approved by Twitter shareholders — shows the trio would automatically vest stock worth $119.6 million as severance if terminated, with the largest payout there going to Agrawal at $56 million.

    They’re also entitled to a year’s salary and health benefits. In 2021, Agrawal had a base pay of $623,000, while Segal and Gadde’s base pay was $600,000 each.

    In total, Gadde is set to walk away from Twitter with the biggest haul: Nearly $74 million. Agrawal and Segal aren’t far behind her, though, at roughly $65 million and $66 million, respectively.

    Twitter shares have rallied 26% over the past month and closed Thursday at $53.70, close to the $54.20 share price Musk, who’s also CEO of Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    +0.20%
    and the world’s wealthiest individual, agreed to pay in April.

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  • Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase, fires CEO and other top execs: reports

    Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase, fires CEO and other top execs: reports

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    Twitter Inc. is now owned by Elon Musk, with multiple media outlets reporting Thursday night that the long-anticipated sale had officially closed.

    The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and others reported, based on unnamed sources, that the top executives of Twitter
    TWTR,
    +0.66%
    were fired and escorted from the building, including Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust and safety.

    Musk himself is expected to assume the role of interim CEO, though in the longer term may appoint someone else, Bloomberg reported early Friday, citing unnamed sources. Twitter did not respond to a request by the publication for comment.

    Also read: Elon Musk on the hook to pay more than $200 million to 3 fired Twitter execs

    The acquisition ends months of legal wrangling after Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    +0.20%
    and SpaceX and a frequent Twitter user, offered to buy Twitter in April. After reaching an agreement with Twitter’s board to buy the social media company for $44 billion, Musk tried to back out of the deal and Twitter sued him. He faced a Friday deadline to complete the deal or face trial.

    In a tweet late Thursday night, Musk said only: “the bird is freed.”

    Opinion: Twitter stood up to Elon Musk and won, but will it feel like a win once he owns it?

    Thursday morning, Musk signaled a deal was imminent when he tweeted a statement aimed at assuring advertisers, some of whom might be concerned about his plans for content moderation. Musk has said one of his motivations for buying the platform is related to complaints about censorship, mostly from people who have been banned because they have violated Twitter’s terms of service.

    “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” Musk said in his statement to advertisers Thursday.

    Twitter did not immediately return a request for comment late Thursday.

    The Bloomberg report added that Musk also plans to end lifetime bans for users, meaning former President Donald Trump could return to Twitter, though it’s unclear how soon that could happen, the source said.

    Twitter shares have rallied 26% over the past month, closing Thursday at $53.70, close to the $54.20 share price Musk agreed to pay in April.

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  • Amazon stock sinks after holiday forecast and cloud growth, profit disappoint; $150 billion in market cap at risk

    Amazon stock sinks after holiday forecast and cloud growth, profit disappoint; $150 billion in market cap at risk

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    Amazon.com Inc. predicted Thursday that holiday sales and profit would come in well lower than analysts expected as cloud growth slowed and Amazon Web Services profit missed expectations by nearly $1 billion, sending shares south in after-hours trading.

    Amazon
    AMZN,
    -4.06%
    executives guided for fourth-quarter operating profit of break-even to $4 billion and holiday sales of $140 billion to $148 billion, while analysts on average were expecting operating income of $5.05 billion on revenue of $155.09 billion, according to FactSet. AWS sales of $20.54 billion grew 27.5% from the year before, the lowest growth rate for the pioneering cloud-computing product in records dating back to the beginning of 2014, and lower than analysts’ average estimate of $21.2 billion; AWS operating income of $5.4 billion handily missed analysts’ average estimate of $6.37 billion, according to FactSet.

    “As the third quarter progressed, we saw moderating sales growth across many of our businesses, as well as increased foreign-currency headwinds … and we expect these impacts to persist throughout the fourth quarter,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a conference call Thursday afternoon. “As we have done in similar times in our history we are also taking action to tighten our belt, including pausing hiring in certain businesses and winding down products and services where we believe our resources are better spent elsewhere.”

    Shares dove as much as 20% in after-hours trading immediately following the release of the results, after closing with a 4.1% decline at $110.96, but ended the extended trading period down 13%. After-hours prices could chop roughly $150 billion from Amazon’s market capitalization and send it lower than $1 trillion for the first time since April 2020 if they were to persist through Friday’s regular trading session, according to FactSet.

    Amazon reported its first quarterly profit of the year for the third quarter, and easily beat analysts’ expectations for the back-to-school period that included the company’s first Prime Day of the year, but earnings still declined from last year. Executives reported third-quarter profit of $2.87 billion, or 28 cents a share, down from 31 cents a share in the year-ago quarter after adjusting for Amazon’s 20-to-1 stock split.

    Revenue grew to $127.1 billion from $110.8 billion, in the middle of executives’ forecast for $125 billion to $130 billion but slightly missing analysts’ expectations; executives said revenue would have been $5 billion higher without the effects of the strengthening dollar. Analysts on average expected earnings of 22 cents a share on sales of $127.39 billion, according to FactSet.

    “There is obviously a lot happening in the macroeconomic environment, and we’ll balance our investments to be more streamlined without compromising our key long-term, strategic bets,” Chief Executive Andy Jassy said in a statement. “What won’t change is our maniacal focus on the customer experience, and we feel confident that we’re ready to deliver a great experience for customers this holiday shopping season.”

    Amazon had reported quarterly losses through the first half of the year, largely because of a rapid post-IPO decline in one of its investments, Rivian Automotive Inc.
    RIVN,
    +0.17%    .
    But the Seattle-based company has also been looking to cut costs after spending wildly during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep up with spiking demand for its online store and Amazon Web Services cloud-computing products.

    Amazon’s stock has suffered as it faces comparisons to the headier days of last year, and will do so again in the holiday season, when it faces a comparison with a nearly $12 billion profit from its Rivian investment, which has declined more than 50% from its IPO price and stands at roughly one-fifth its peak post-IPO price.

    There were thoughts that Amazon would be cautious with its holiday forecast, as its attempts to cut costs run into the need to keep its giant logistics operation running smoothly. The company is looking to hire 150,000 workers to get through the holiday season, and recently announced increased pay for fulfillment workers.

    “On 4Q consensus estimates, we believe AMZN will likely err on the side of being more conservative, given the uncertain consumer spend environment,” MKM Partners Managing Director Rohit Kulkarni wrote in a note. “We believe recently announced wage hike, higher near-term content costs amortization (NFL & Lord Of Rings), and potentially greater merchandise discounting might weigh on 4Q Op Margins.”

    Amazon’s e-commerce operations were boosted in the third quarter by the company’s annual Prime Day event in July, and the company tried to replicate the event in October, but analysts saw the second Prime Day as less successful and potentially a sign of weakness.

    “We see Amazon’s decision to hold two Prime Day sales in one calendar year as a red flag for weak e-commerce sales; consistent with retailers, in general, holding more sales when their sales are under pressure,” D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte wrote in a preview of Amazon’s report.

    In the third quarter — with back-to-school sales and the first Prime Day event — quarterly retail sales in North America hit $78.84 billion, while overseas revenue totaled $27.72 billion. Analysts on average were expecting $77.24 billion and $29 billion respectively, according to FactSet. Sales in both locations were unprofitable from an operating perspective for the fourth consecutive quarter, losing a total of $2.88 billion.

    Amazon’s profit largely comes from the fat margins of its AWS cloud-computing offering, but there have been concerns about growth leveling off for cloud after rival Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    -1.98%
    reported a deceleration earlier this week and guided for a further decline in growth in the fourth quarter. AWS did provide enough profit in the third quarter to overcome the losses in e-commerce, but the result was the lowest quarterly operating income for Amazon overall since the first quarter of 2018, according to FactSet records.

    Opinion: The cloud boom is coming back to Earth, and that could be scary for tech stocks

    “The ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties have seen an uptick in AWS customers focused on controlling costs and we are proactively working to help customers cost-optimize just as we have done throughout our history, especially in periods of economic uncertainty,” Olsavsky said in Thursday’s conference call, before adding that revenue growth dipped to the mid-20s late in the period from an overall rate of 27.5% for the quarter.

    “So carry that forecast to the fourth quarter, we are not sure how it’s going to play out, but that’s generally our assumption,” he said, suggesting that Amazon expects the AWS revenue-growth rate to decline again in the fourth quarter.

    Amazon’s other higher-margin business is advertising, which has grown strongly in recent years as companies seeking to sell products on Amazon pay the company to list their products higher when consumers search for them on the e-commerce platform. Amazon reported third-quarter advertising revenue of $9.55 billion, up from $7.61 billion a year ago and topping the average analysts estimate of $9.48 billion.

    The results seemed to spread fears to other e-commerce companies and cloud-focused companies. Wayfair Inc.
    W,
    +0.37%    ,
    eBay Inc.
    EBAY,
    +0.71%
    and Etsy Inc.
    ETSY,
    -0.48%
    shares all fell roughly 5% or more in after-hours trading, as did cloud-software providers Snowflake Inc.
    SNOW,
    -0.20%    ,
    MongoDB Inc.
    MDB,
    -0.35%
    and Datadog Inc.
    DDOG,
    +0.81%
    Microsoft’s stock declined about 1.5%.

    Amazon stock has fallen 33.5% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    -0.61%
    has dropped 19.6%.

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  • Overwatch 2 Players Are Getting Hit With Server Errors Following Latest Update

    Overwatch 2 Players Are Getting Hit With Server Errors Following Latest Update

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    Sigma reaches out toward a login error screen.

    I’m sorry, player, I’m afraid I can’t let you play this game.
    Image: Blizzard / Kotaku

    Right now there’s a Halloween event running for Overwatch 2, but a fair amount of players are facing a different kind of terror: A previously known server error with the code “LC-208” appears to be disproportiantely hitting players after the most recent update.

    While server and connection errors often happen for online games, “Overwatch 2 Console Error LC-208” is currently plaguing a large number of players on console, preventing them from connecting to servers and playing the game. Blizzard has its own steps for working around this issue, as it’s been around since the launch of the game, though not in such numbers. Until Blizzard issues a broader statement or additional fix, players have been discovering quirky, unexplainable ways to fix it, involving signing in on PC first or loading into the game’s firing range and quitting before hitting matchmaking, though these aren’t necessarily bullet-proof prescriptions.

    Kotaku has reached out to Blizzard for comment but didn’t hear back prior to publication.

    Since yesterday’s Halloween update, search results on Twitter, Reddit, and even Overwatch 2’s own forums have started turning up countless reports of players not being able to enter the game. The problem, given the error code’s info, seems to hit console players only. Anecdotally it seems to be hitting PS4 and PS5 players the most, though many Xbox players are reportedly facing the error as well.

    A main thread for the LC-208 issue in Blizzard’s official forums, with nearly 300 replies and over 2,500 views, starts with “LC-208’d after the Halloween event update. Never had an issue with this before. Can’t get into the game.” “I tried everything to fix the Login Error LC-208” Twitter user Phish (no, not the band) says. “I have signed out of my battle net account, restarted my [router], restarted my game, used a different wireless connection, tried using ethernet, and redownloaded the game and I am still getting LC-208.”

    G/O Media may get a commission

    They’re not alone, as countless tweets and Reddit threads read similarly. Some have found non-optimal workarounds. Twitter user hatsune niiku reports bypassing the LC-208 error on console by entering the game’s firing range on PC, closing the game, and then logging in on console. “Worked for me just now,” they say.

    Sadly, not everyone has a gaming PC at the ready to try this out, nor is it an actual fix for the problem. Blizzard recommends the following steps for solving LC-208 error. Hopefully it will work out for you:

    If your console account is linked with your Battle.net account, you need to have a BattleTag. If you have a BattleTag but your accounts are not linked, follow the connection steps linked below to resolve the error.

    Note: If your Battle.net account is connected to your console account, disconnecting it and reconnecting can resolve the error.

    1. Check your network configuration to find any issues with your firewall, router, or port settings.

    2. Reset your network devices to make sure your router hasn’t become flooded with data.

    3. If you’re using a wireless connection, optimize your internet connection to rule out a connection issue.

    4. Run your console’s built-in connection test (Playstation 4) (Xbox One) (Nintendo Switch).

    5. Use your console’s internet browser to run a Looking Glass test. This will help determine if the problem is between your console and our servers.

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  • Facebook earnings cut in half, Meta stock sinks toward lowest prices in more than 6 years

    Facebook earnings cut in half, Meta stock sinks toward lowest prices in more than 6 years

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    Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. on Wednesday became the latest tech titan tattooed by a precipitous drop in digital advertising, reporting less than half the profit it had in the same quarter a year ago and sending its stock plummeting toward the lowest prices in more than six years.

    Meta 
    META,
    -5.59%
     posted third-quarter earnings of $4.39 billion, or $1.64 a share, down from $9.2 billion, or $3.22 a share last year. Total sales, most of which come from ads, were $27.17 billion, down from $29 billion a year ago. Both results missed the average forecast for profit of $1.90 a share and sales of $27.44 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

    Meta executives issued a fourth-quarter revenue forecast of $30 billion to $32.5 billion, while analysts were forecasting $32.3 billion.

    Daily active users, which edged up 3% to 1.98 billion, were in line with analysts’ projections of 1.98 billion for the quarter.

    “While we face near-term challenges on revenue, the fundamentals are there for a return to stronger revenue growth,” Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement announcing the results. “We’re approaching 2023 with a focus on prioritization and efficiency that will help us navigate the current environment and emerge an even stronger company.”

    In prepared comments, Meta’s departing chief financial officer David Wehner said it is “making significant changes across the board to operate more efficiently. We are holding some teams flat in terms of headcount, shrinking others and investing headcount growth only in our highest priorities. As a result, we expect headcount at the end of 2023 will be approximately in-line with third-quarter 2022 levels.”

    Shares in Meta plunged nearly 20% in after-hours trading, which would put it at levels the stock has not seen since 2016 if the decline were to last into Thursday’s regular trading session. Meta’s stock has been among the worst in tech this year, crashing and burning 61% so far, while the broader S&P 500 index 
    SPX,
    -0.74%
    has declined 19% in 2022.

    After closing with a 5.6% decline at $129.82, Meta shares cratered to less than $115 in after-hours trading; shares have not traded at that level in a regular session since the end of 2016, and have not closed that low since July 2016.

    “Meta is on shaky legs when it comes to the current state of its business,” Insider Intelligence analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in a note late Wednesday. “Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to focus his company on the future promise of the metaverse took his attention away from the unfortunate realities of today: Meta is under incredible pressure from weakening worldwide economic conditions, challenges with Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency policy, and competition from other companies, including TikTok, for users and revenue.”

    In a conference call outlining the results, Wehner pointed out softness in advertising among buyers in online commerce, gaming and financial services.

    Meta’s mess of a quarter came a day after Alphabet Inc.’s
    GOOGL,
    -9.14%

    GOOG,
    -9.63%
    Google reported disappointing ad sales — it missed FactSet analyst estimates by $2 billion — and warned of a deepening pullback in online ad spending. Last week, Snap Inc.
    SNAP,
    -0.21%
    posted slackening ad revenue that sent its shares tumbling more than 25%.

    Read more: Google ad sales take a hit and widely miss estimates, Alphabet stock drops 6%

    Meta announced the results two days after a hellacious Monday, when a major shareholder chastised its metaverse strategy and called for a 20% reduction in payroll costs, as well as a Bank of America note that downgraded the stock.

    Read more: Scathing Meta shareholder’s letter calls for layoffs, less spending on metaverse

    While acknowledging that some people object to Meta’s multibillion-dollar investment in the metaverse, Zuckerberg believes the investment will ultimately prove to be vitally important to Meta’s — and tech’s — future, he said in the conference call.

    Meta executives have blamed inflation, a decline in ad sales, the war in Ukraine, supply-chain issues, increased competition from services such as TikTok, and — most significantly — wrenching changes Apple Inc.  
    AAPL,
    -1.96%
    made to its mobile operating system that make it more difficult for apps to track consumers in ads.

    “We continue to see strategic diversification away from Meta by many advertisers, largely due to stubbornly high CPMs relative to other social platforms and persistent challenges in performance measurement,” Josh Brisco, group vice president of acquisition media at search-engine marketing company Tinuiti, told MarketWatch.

    One factor is a 13% decline in traffic to the Facebook web page in September, year-over-year, according to new report from Similarweb
    SMWB,
    -0.47%    .
    “It’s been down all year, which makes you wonder if they’re going in too many directions — social media, the metaverse, Reels — and whether they are no longer the flavor of the month with competition from TikTok,” David Carr, senior insights manager at Similarweb, told MarketWatch.

    “First and foremost, the discussion needs to pivot to how to build an engaged community of users,” Alex Howland, president and founder of Virbela, which builds virtual worlds, told MarketWatch. “And for that, the metaverse must improve or compliment real-world experiences in some way so that people find value and keep coming back.”

    “Brands have to be focused on what is paying the bills now,” Mike Herrick, senior vice president of technology at Airship, an app-experience platform, told MarketWatch. “Metaverse is going to happen, but not during the life of this recession.”

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  • Microsoft stock slammed by cloud-growth fears, taking Amazon down with it

    Microsoft stock slammed by cloud-growth fears, taking Amazon down with it

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    Microsoft Corp. shares fell more than 6% in after-hours trading Tuesday as the company’s cloud-computing growth hit a sudden deceleration and executives guided for holiday-season revenue to come in more than $2 billion lower than expectations.

    The Azure cloud-computing business has grown into the largest and most important business for Microsoft
    MSFT,
    +1.38%    ,
    and there have been concerns about cloud growth as the U.S. faces a potential recession for the first time since the technology became ubiquitous. Microsoft executives said that Azure grew by 35% in their fiscal first quarter, a marked slowdown from Azure’s 40% growth rate in the previous quarter, as well as the 50% growth shown in the same quarter last year; analysts on average were expecting 36.5% growth, according to FactSet.

    Opinion: The cloud boom is coming back to Earth, and that could be scary for tech stocks

    In the current quarter, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood suggested a similar sequential decline is in store for Azure, saying percentage growth should decline by five points on a constant-currency basis. Hood also suggested that more cost cuts could be coming to Microsoft, after the company confirmed layoffs of fewer than 1,000 employees earlier this month.

    “While we continue to help our customers do more with less, we will do the same internally,” she said. “And you should expect to see our operating-expense growth moderate materially through the year while we focus on growing productivity of the significant head-count investments we’ve made over the last year.”

    Microsoft shares slid to declines of more than 6% in after-hours trading following Hood’s forecast, which was provided in a conference call. Shares closed with a 1.4% increase at $250.66.

    Concerns about cloud growth immediately spread to Azure’s biggest competitor, Amazon Web Services, as Amazon.com Inc. stock
    AMZN,
    +0.65%
    fell more than 4% in after-hours trading.

    Microsoft reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of $17.56 billion, or $2.35 a share, down from $2.71 a share in the same quarter a year ago, when the tech giant disclosed a 44 cent-per-share tax benefit. Revenue increased to $50.1 billion from $45.32 billion a year ago. Analysts on average were expecting earnings of $2.31 a share on sales of $49.66 billion, according to FactSet.

    For the fiscal second quarter, Hood guided for revenue of $52.35 billion to $53.35 billion, while analysts on average were expecting sales of $56.16 billion, according to FactSet. Hood said that “Intelligent Cloud” revenue should land from $21.25 billion to $21.55 billion, while analysts on average were projecting $21.82 billion heading into the print; Microsoft’s other revenue-segment forecasts were even further off analysts’ average expectations.

    Microsoft has also suffered from the strengthening dollar, as well as a sharp downturn in personal-computer sales, which spiked during the pandemic but are now showing record regression.

    For more: The pandemic PC boom is over, but its legacy will live on

    Microsoft reported PC revenue of $13.3 billion for the quarter, roughly flat from $13.31 billion a year before and beating the average analyst estimate of $13.12 billion, according to FactSet. While PCs have long been what consumers largely know Microsoft for, their importance to the company’s financials has declined in recent years as cloud computing has grown in importance.

    “Historically, Windows was a very large driver of Microsoft revenue and, given its strong margins, a disproportionate driver of earnings,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a preview of the report, while maintaining an “overweight” rating. “Over time other businesses, especially Microsoft’s commercial Cloud, have grown fast while the Windows business has grown quite slower, decreasing the relative impact of Windows.”

    The “Intelligent Cloud” segment reported first-quarter revenue of $20.3 billion, up from $16.96 billion a year ago but slightly lower than the average analyst estimate tracked by FactSet of $20.46 billion. Azure’s 35% growth was the slowest Microsoft has reported in records dating back through the prior two fiscal years; Microsoft only reports percentage growth for its Azure cloud-computing product, even as main rivals Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    +0.65%
    and Alphabet Inc.
    GOOGL,
    +1.91%
    GOOG,
    +1.90%
    report revenue and profit margin for their cloud-computing products.

    Microsoft’s other revenue segment, “Productivity and Business Processes,” reported revenue of $16.5 billion, up from $15.04 billion a year ago and higher than the average analyst estimate of $16.13 billion, according to FactSet. That segment includes Microsoft’s core cloud-software properties such as its Office suite of products — which is being officially renamed Microsoft 365 — as well as LinkedIn and some other properties.

    Microsoft stock has declined 25.5% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    +1.63%
    has dropped 20.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    +1.07%
    — which counts Microsoft as one of its 30 components — has declined 13.3%.

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  • Microsoft stock slips as Azure growth slows and cloud sales miss projections

    Microsoft stock slips as Azure growth slows and cloud sales miss projections

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    Microsoft Corp. shares slipped in after-hours trading Tuesday despite an earnings beat, as the company’s cloud-computing revenue came in lower than expected and its core cloud product, Azure, grew at a slower rate than projections.

    Microsoft’s
    MSFT,
    +1.38%
    cloud-computing business has grown into the largest and most important business for the company, especially for investors who like Azure’s high margins and strong growth. There have been concerns about cloud growth as the U.S. faces its first possible recession since the technology became ubiquitous, and Azure’s growth in Tuesday’s report was the slowest Microsoft has reported in the past two years, while Microsoft’s cloud division was the only segment to come in lower than estimates.

    The “Intelligent Cloud” segment reported first-quarter revenue of $20.3 billion, up from $16.96 billion a year ago but slightly lower than the average analyst estimate tracked by FactSet of $20.46 billion. Microsoft said that Azure grew by 35%, while analysts on average were expecting 36.5% growth, according to FactSet.

    Opinion: The cloud boom is coming back to Earth, and that could be scary for tech stocks

    That is a marked slowdown from Azure’s 40% growth rate in the previous quarter, as well as the 50% growth shown in the same quarter last year. Microsoft only reports percentage growth for its core cloud-computing product, even as main rivals Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    +0.65%
    and Alphabet Inc.
    GOOGL,
    +1.91%
    GOOG,
    +1.90%
    report revenue and profit margin for their cloud-computing products.

    Overall, Microsoft
    MSFT,
    +1.38%
    reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of $17.56 billion, or $2.35 a share, down from $2.71 a share in the same quarter a year ago, when Microsoft disclosed a 44 cent-per-share tax benefit. Revenue increased to $50.1 billion from $45.32 billion a year ago. Analysts on average were expecting earnings of $2.31 a share on sales of $49.66 billion, according to FactSet.

    Microsoft shares fell between 1% and 2% in after-hours trading following the release of the results, after closing with a 1.4% increase at $250.66. Microsoft stock tends to react most strongly in after-hours trading following earnings reports after executives share their forecast for the current quarter in their conference call, which is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

    Microsoft has started to show some effects of a weakening macroeconomic climate, confirming layoffs of fewer than 1,000 employees earlier this month. Microsoft has suffered from the strengthening dollar, as well as a sharp downturn in personal-computer sales, which spiked during the pandemic but are now showing record regression.

    For more: The pandemic PC boom is over, but its legacy will live on

    Microsoft reported PC revenue of $13.3 billion for the quarter, roughly flat from $13.31 billion a year before and beating the average analyst estimate of $13.12 billion, according to FactSet. While PCs have long been what consumers largely know Microsoft for, their importance to the company’s financials has declined in recent years as cloud computing has grown in importance.

    “Historically, Windows was a very large driver of Microsoft revenue and, given its strong margins, a disproportionate driver of earnings,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a preview of the report, while maintaining an “overweight” rating. “Over time other businesses, especially Microsoft’s commercial Cloud, have grown fast while the Windows business has grown quite slower, decreasing the relative impact of Windows.”

    Microsoft’s other revenue segment, “Productivity and Business Processes,” reported revenue of $16.5 billion, up from $15.04 billion a year ago and higher than the average analyst estimate of $16.13 billion, according to FactSet. That segment includes Microsoft’s core cloud-software properties such as its Office suite of products — which is being officially renamed Microsoft 365 — as well as LinkedIn and some other properties.

    Microsoft’s second-quarter guidance will be crucial to investors hoping that the tech giant can withstand any economic jolts headed its way and show stronger growth in cloud. Analysts on average were expecting overall second-quarter revenue of $56.16 billion and “Intelligent Cloud” sales of $21.82 billion heading into the print, according to FactSet, while some wrote that they would like to hear more from Microsoft executives about the picture for the full year.

    “Our hope is that management provides a bit more color on full-year fiscal 2023 beyond just the double-digit revenue growth and operating margins being roughly flat commentary from last quarter,” MoffetNathanson analysts, who have a “market perform” rating and $282 price target on the stock, wrote in their preview. “We would expect headcount-related revenue streams like Office to see increasing headwinds in coming quarters, but volume businesses like Azure, which is tied to data, being more resilient.”

    Microsoft stock has declined 25.5% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    +1.63%
    has dropped 20.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    +1.07%
    — which counts Microsoft as one of its 30 components — has declined 13.3%.

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  • Google ad sales take a hit and widely miss estimates, Alphabet stock drops 6%

    Google ad sales take a hit and widely miss estimates, Alphabet stock drops 6%

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    Alphabet Inc. is feeling the sting of a downturn in digital-ad spending. Google’s parent company reported just 6% sales growth year-over-year Tuesday and missed widely on its advertising revenue, pushing shares down in extended trading.

    Alphabet 
    GOOGL,
    +1.91%
     
    GOOG,
    +1.90%
     reported net income of $13.9 billion, or $1.06 a share, in its fiscal third quarter, compared with net income of $1.40 a share in the same quarter a year ago. Total revenue improved a middling 6% to $69.1 billion from $61.88 billion a year ago, the slowest year-over-year growth since sales declined in June 2020, while revenue after removing traffic-acquisition costs was $57.3 billion, compared with $53.6 billion in the year-ago period.

    Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated net income of $1.26 a share on ex-TAC revenue of $58.2 billion and overall revenue of $71 billion. Alphabet shares slipped more than 6% in after-hours trading immediately following the release of the results, after closing with a 2% increase at $104.48.

    The results, which missed in several key product categories, further rattled investors, already spooked by poor quarterly results last week from Snap Inc. 
    SNAP,
    +15.52%    .
    Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. 
    META,
    +6.01%
    is scheduled to report its third-quarter results Wednesday.

    Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai acknowledged the shortfall in ad revenue during a conference call with analysts. He vowed to take several measures, including a sharpened focus on products that improve search through artificial intelligence and to scale back hiring and other operating expenses.

    “There is no question we are operating in an uncertain environment,” Alphabet Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said on the call, noting reductions in ad spending by financial services that deepened during the third quarter.

    Google’s total advertising sales improved to $54.5 billion from $53.13 billion a year ago, but badly missed analysts’ average expectations for $56.58 billion. Search was $39.5 billion, compared with $37.93 billion last year. YouTube ad sales slipped to $7.07 billion from $7.21 billion a year ago.

    “When Google stumbles, it’s a bad omen for digital advertising at large,” Insider Intelligence analyst Evelyn Mitchell said. “Not only did Google miss analyst expectations for topline revenue, YouTube ad revenues shrank for the first time since Google started reporting YouTube earnings separately in Q4 2019, due in large part to persistent competition in streaming and short video.”

    Google’s Cloud revenue did climb to $6.9 billion from $4.99 billion; Google Cloud is believed to be third in cloud sales behind rivals Amazon.com Inc. 
    AMZN,
    +0.65%
    and Microsoft Corp. 
    MSFT,
    +1.38%    .

    As is its customary practice, Alphabet did not disclose fourth-quarter guidance. But Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat cautioned during the analyst call that the company faces “tough comps” in the current fourth quarter. Last year, Alphabet raked in $75.3 billion in Q4 revenue.

    Google’s stock has skidded 28% so far this year. The broader S&P 500 index 
    SPX,
    +1.63%
    is down 19% in 2022.

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  • Binance is ‘narrowing down’ identity of hacker behind $570 million crypto attack, CEO says

    Binance is ‘narrowing down’ identity of hacker behind $570 million crypto attack, CEO says

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    Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is getting closer to figuring out the identity of a hacker that orchestrated a $570 million hack on its BNB blockchain, CEO Changpeng Zhao told CNBC Monday.

    After getting some tips from law enforcement on who the hacker might be, Binance is now “narrowing down” the person or persons behind the attack, Zhao said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

    The attack in question saw a so-called cross-chain bridge targeted, allowing an as-yet unknown hacker or hackers to withdraw 2 million of Binance’s BNB tokens worth around $570 million at the time.

    More than $1 billion has been lost to breaches on cross-chain bridges so far this year, tools that facilitate the swift transfer of tokens from one blockchain platform to another, according to Chainalysis data.

    Popular in the world of “DeFi,” or decentralized finance, bridges have become a hot target for criminals due to faults in their underlying code.

    “We’re still actually chasing … helping [authorities] to chase the bad players, working with law enforcement around the globe,” Zhao said. “Working with law enforcement is one of the ways that we can try to make the space safe.”

    Cracks are appearing in DeFi, crypto's 'Wild West'

    “Actually, in this particular instant, law enforcement gave us some tips of who they think it might be. So we’re actually narrowing down.”

    Binance intervened to limit the damage of the attack, pausing activity on its BNB Chain blockchain network after coordinating with network validators — individuals and entities that sign off on transaction approvals — to enact an upgrade.

    Zhao, who is commonly referred to as “CZ” online, said this meant BNB Chain was able to prevent most of the targeted funds from being taken by the hacker.

    “The blockchain was able to freeze about 80% to 90% of it, so the actual loss of it was much smaller,” he said.

    The “vast majority of the funds remain under control,” Binance’s BNB Chain said in a statement at the time of the hack. About $100 million was unrecoverable, BNB Chain added.

    The BNB Chain, originally known as Binance Chain, was first developed by Binance in 2019. Like other blockchains, it features a native token, called BNB, that can be traded or used in games and other applications.

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