Tag: Senior Level Management

Chevron’s Q2 adjusted profit beats estimates on record Permian production; new CFO announced

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Chevron Corp. released a second-quarter performance update that was better than expected on Sunday, ahead of the oil major’s earnings announcement this week.

Adjusted profit of $3.08 a share beat the consensus of $2.97 a share as tracked by FactSet. That is down about 47% from the second quarter last year and down from profit of $3.55 a share in the first quarter of 2023.

The company also announced its chief financial officer, Pierre Breber, is retiring after 35 years at the company. Eimear Bonner, the chief technology officer, will succeed him starting in March 2024.

Chief Executive Mike Wirth thanked Breber for his contributions and welcomed Bonner, a 24-year Chevron veteran, saying she can “build on Chevron’s strong foundation and drive further value for shareholders.”

Chevron
CVX,
+1.46%
said it had record quarterly production in the Permian Basin, 11% higher than last year’s second quarter. It produced 772,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, and added that it is on-track for its full-year guidance. The Permian is a shale basin covering parts of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Quarterly shareholder distributions of $7.2 billion also set a record, Chevron said, including $4.4 billion in share buybacks and $2.8 billion in dividends.

Chevron expects to close the acquisition of shale driller PDC Energy in August.

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July 23, 2023
Il Makiage parent Oddity Tech’s stock rockets out of the gate in trading debut

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“We want to build something huge.”

That’s Lindsay Drucker Mann, chief financial officer of Oddity Tech, the Israeli digital consumer technology platform for the beauty and wellness market that started trading on Nasdaq on Wednesday.

The stock
ODD,
+38.23%
soared 38% out of the gate after the company’s initial public offering priced above its proposed range. The deal was also upsized in another sign of strong demand.

“We’ve unlocked online one of the most attractive and lucrative TAMs on the planet,” said the CFO, referring to the sector’s total addressable market. The beauty industry is worth an estimated $600 billion and is still dominated by bricks-and-mortar retailers.

“The encumbents are amazing megacap businesses that have built so much value over time,” said Drucker Mann. “But we believe the consumer has moved on and that we’re building the future of the category.”

The company, which was founded by Israeli sister-brother team Oran Holtzman, who is chief executive, and Shiran Holtzman-Erel, who is chief product officer, is confident its high-tech approach to the beauty business gives it a strong advantage.

For more, see: Il Makiage parent Oddity Tech is going public: 5 things to know about the Israeli digital beauty company

Oddity harnesses data science, machine learning and computer vision and artificial intelligence to allow its customers identify the correct products, formulations and shades, and it owns patented software that allows them to do it using their smartphones.

The company acquired Voyage 81 in 2021, a company that has developed software that can provide hyperspectral information.

Simply put, the eye can only see three colors — red, green and blue — but there are many more colors on smaller wavelength bands that remain invisible. Technology developed by NASA can extract that information but the hardware is expensive at a cost of $20,000 or more.

The Voyage81 software can extract the same information and bring it to all devices, allowing consumers to see more colors.

“We can analyze skin and hair features, detect facial blood flows and more. We’re building a whole new suite of tools to harness that power,” said Drucker Mann.

The results are impressive. The company’s first brand, Il Makiage, which was launched in 2018, was the fastest-growing global beauty direct-to-consumer platform from 2020 through 2022, says the prospectus, citing trade magazine Women’s Wear Daily.

Il Makiage was also the fastest-growing digital, direct-to-consumer beauty brand in the U.S. through 2021, says the IPO prospectus, citing data from Digital Commerce 360, which is its most recent available.

The second brand, SpoiledChild, launched in 2022 with the goal of disrupting the wellness category online, and is scaling even faster, said Drucker Mann.

The company now has more than 40 million users on the platform that have generated more than 1 billion data points on their beauty preferences. As of end-March, Oddity had more 4 million active customers, or customers that had made at least one purchase in the last year.

“Our business is unique in that it’s a company that’s growing and as young as we are and in tech, we’re profitable from very early on,” said Drucker Mann. “We have generated significant Ebitda margins and cash flow and so we have more than $100 million of cash on our balance sheet from earnings, and not from a capital raise.”

The company plans to use the proceeds from today’s deal to develop new products and expand into new markets. Some of those products will come out of Oddity Labs, which it set up in April to bring AI-based molecule discovery to beauty and wellness.

Brands three and four are in the works, although Drucker Mann is unable to offer details just yet.

“There are so many pain points that consumers have told us about so we’re developing products to address those,” she said.

The executive’s background as a Goldman Sachs banker made her passionate about companies and consumer products, understanding how a company works and what makes a business succeed.

“Getting global capital markets behind us when the business has never been stronger is making us excited as we look at 2024 and beyond,” she said.

The Renaissance IPO ETF
IPO,
+0.29%
has gained 45% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.32%
has gained 19%.

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July 19, 2023
Consumers are shopping in more stores than ever before to save money

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Consumers are still showing signs of being highly sensitive to inflationary pressures and are shopping around to maximize their budgets, according to PepsiCo Inc. Chief Executive Ramon Laguarta.

“ ‘We’re seeing consumers shopping in more stores than before. They’re looking for better deals. They’re starting to look for optimization. They are going to channels that have better perceived value.’”

— Ramon Laguarta, CEO, PepsiCo Inc.

Laguarta told analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday that consumers are buying more in dollar stores or buying more in bulk or at wholesale clubs.

“So every segment of the consumer is making adjustments,” he said, according to a FactSet transcript.

Still, PepsiCo
PEP,
+1.89%
saw better elasticities in the three-month period, he said, referring to consumers’ sensitivity and response to higher prices.

Like many consumer companies, the snacks and beverages giant has been raising prices to combat its own higher costs in the current inflationary period. But, “we’ve been able to raise prices and consumers stay within our brands,’ he said.

See: U.S. inflation slows again, CPI shows, as Fed weighs another rate hike

One supportive factor is low unemployment, said Laguarta. Unemployment is currently low in developed and developing markets and is trending at a record low in Mexico and certain Asian markets, he said.

“So we’re seeing overall very good consumer behavior, especially when it refers to our categories, and that’s why we raised guidance on our top line and because of the first factor we raised guidance on the bottom line as well,” he said.

See also: ‘Greedflation’ is replacing inflation as companies raise prices for bigger profits, report finds

PepsiCo earlier posted better-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter and raised its fiscal 2023 guidance.

Some of PepsiCo’s more popular brands, including Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, and Ruffles, generated double-digit net revenue growth, along with smaller, emerging brands aimed at consumers seeking healthier choices, such as PopCorners, SunChips, Bare, and Off The Eaten Path, said the company.

The stock was up about 1% Thursday and has gained 2.4% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.65%
has gained 16%.

For more, see: PepsiCo’s stock gains after beating estimates in latest quarter and raising guidance again

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July 13, 2023
Yahoo CEO says the company plans a return to the public markets

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Yahoo, an early trailblazer of the Internet boom, is “very profitable,” and ready to return to public markets via an initial public offering.

That’s according to Chief Executive Jim Lanzone, who made the comment in an interview with the Financial Times published Tuesday. Yahoo soared to prominence in the 1990s, rising in the public consciousness alongside its share price — under the ticker symbol “YHOO” — during the dot-com boom.

Apollo Funds purchased the Yahoo business from Verizon Communications Inc.
VZ,
+0.24%
in 2021.

IPO Report: Like choosy shoppers at a retail store, IPO investors are demanding discounts and displaying price sensitivity

The web services provider, which competes with the likes of Google parent Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL,
+0.17%
and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
-0.33%,
said earlier this year that more than 20% of its workforce would be laid off. At the time, Lanzone reportedly said that the cuts would be made in an unprofitable area of its business but that they would be “tremendously beneficial” to the company overall.

“Whether it’s finance, or sports or news, that’s still what we do, and why we’re No. 1, or No. 2, in all these important categories all these years later,” Lanzone reportedly told the FT. “While the company has had struggles [at] different points in time, we’re still huge in traffic, and we have our best days ahead of us productwise.”

He said Yahoo would be aggressively looking at the chance to build businesses in related sectors via M&A — it recently bought Wagr, a sports-betting app. While Yahoo is still “too small” to take on Google and Microsoft’s
MSFT,
-0.75%
search engine Bing, Lanzone said he’s optimistic, and also sees AI offering up new opportunities for the company.

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July 4, 2023
Can the coming AI boom help Micron outrun negative China effects?

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Micron Technology Inc. could be approaching a big new semiconductor cycle as it predicts a huge boost from artificial intelligence, but there could be a roadblock in the path.

Micron
MU,
+0.42%
reported a third-quarter loss and a 57% drop in revenue Wednesday, after the chip industry’s oversupply hit the memory-chip maker hard. On the bright side, Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said he believed the memory industry “had passed its trough” and that the company’s margins should improve as the supply-demand balance is gradually restored.

Another big issue for the stock right now, though, is China’s decision to recommend that “operators of critical information infrastructure in China should stop purchasing Micron products.” Mehrotra told analysts on the company’s conference call that the decision will impact about 50% of its products sold in China.

“We currently estimate that approximately half of that China-headquartered customer revenue, which equates to a low double-digit percentage of Micron’s worldwide revenue, is at risk of being impacted,” Mehrotra said on the call. “This significant headwind is impacting our outlook and slowing our recovery.”

More from Therese: AI has given a big boost to stock of this lesser-known Silicon Valley computer maker

He said Micron will work with its long-term customers who are not impacted by China’s decision, and hopefully will increase its share with those customers.

On the plus side, Micron expects to see a substantial boost to its memory business as a result of companies gearing up to run generative AI on their own servers or clouds. “Generative AI [is] becoming a big opportunity and we look at it for 2024 as a big year for AI and for memory and storage, and Micron will be well-positioned,” in the data center with its products, Mehrotra said. He added that it is “very, very early innings for AI,” which is really pervasive. “It’s everywhere.”

Full earnings coverage: Micron CEO calls bottom in memory-chip market, but weak PC, smartphone forecasts cut into expected AI gains

He said it will be in both cloud and enterprise server applications, and due to confidentiality of data, enterprises will be building their own large language models, adding that the DRAM (dynamic random access memory) content required for AI in servers is driving higher demand for memory and storage in servers. In super cluster configurations, for example, the DRAM content can be as much as 100 times higher.

Investors appeared to maintain some caution about when the AI impact will kick in, even as some analysts have forecast that AI demand will lead to a general supercycle for many hardware companies. Micron’s shares see-sawed in after-hours trading Wednesday, ending the extended session up about 3%.

See also: Will generative AI complete the cloud transition? One prominent executive thinks so.

In a note ahead of the company’s earnings, Raymond James analyst Srini Pajjuri said that the impact from China “should be short-lived given the commodity nature of Micron’s products.”

Right now, it’s too early to say how long China may be a drag for Micron, but if Mehrotra is right, investors should take heart that the company is going to be another beneficiary of the coming AI boom.

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June 28, 2023
Micron CEO calls bottom in memory-chip market, but weak PC, smartphone forecasts cut into expected AI gains

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Micron Technology Inc. shares rose in the extended session Wednesday after the memory-chip maker’s chief executive called the bottom on the sector, and quarterly results came in better than expected.

Micron
MU,
+0.42%
shares had jumped more than 5% after hours following the release of results, but by the end of the company’s conference call with analysts, the stock was up less than 2%. Shares finished Wednesday’s session with a 0.4% gain to close at $67.07, while the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.04%
declined less than 0.1%.

The Boise, Idaho-based company forecast an adjusted loss of $1.26 to $1.12 a share on revenue of $3.7 billion to $4.1 billion for the fourth quarter, while analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated a loss of $1.07 a share on revenue of $3.88 billion for the fourth quarter, and a loss of $4.65 a share on revenue of $15.32 billion for the year.

Read: Snowflake stock rallies as ‘blizzard’ of AI product announcements make Wall Street happy

In the near term, Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra told analysts on the call that while sales forecasts received a considerable boost from larger-than-expected AI sales, forecasts for PC, smartphone and standard server sales are looking worse than feared, and will eat into those gains. All told, however, the CEO told analysts that supply reductions are beginning to stabilize the market.

Micron Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy said the company took about $400 million in inventory write-downs in the third quarter, contributing to negative gross margins of 16%, an improvement of 15 percentage points sequentially. When Micron reported its worst loss ever a quarter ago, the company had taken a $1.4 billion inventory charge. When Micron started flashing signs of negative margins earlier in the year, many analysts saw that as signs of a bottom on the horizon.

Read: Is Micron selling memory chips for less than they cost to make? That may mean the bottom is near.

Micron makes two types of memory chips: DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, the type of memory commonly used in PCs and servers; and NAND, the flash memory chips used in smaller devices like smartphones and USB drives. After prices for memory soared early in the COVID-19 pandemic, companies overbought large stores of chips to avoid shortages, creating a glut.

“As we have said before, AI servers have six to eight times the DRAM content of a regular server and three times the NAND content,” Mehrotra told analysts on the call. “In fact, some customers are deploying AI compute capability with substantially higher memory content.”

For the third quarter, Micron reported third-quarter loss of $1.9 billion, or $1.73 a share, versus net income of $2.63 billion, or $2.34 a share, in the year-ago period.

The adjusted loss, which excluded stock-based compensation expenses and other items, was $1.43 a share, versus net income of $2.59 a share in the year-ago period.

Revenue dropped to $3.75 billion from $8.64 billion in the year-ago quarter, as a two-year shortage of chips, triggered by the COVID pandemic, flipped quickly, but unevenly, into a glut around this time last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast a loss of $1.61 a share on revenue of $3.65 billion.

“We believe that the memory industry has passed its trough in revenue, and we expect margins to improve as industry supply-demand balance is gradually restored,” Mehrotra had said in an earlier statement.

Read: Nvidia stock falls after CFO says no material impact from prospective wider ban on AI chip sales to China

The CEO also called a recent order by the Chinese government to stop using Micron chips because of alleged serious, but unspecified, risks “a significant headwind that is impacting our outlook and slowing our recovery.”

On the call with analysts, Mehrotra said he expects to see a “record total addressable market in calendar 2025 along with a return to more normalized levels of profitability.”

Leading up to earnings, analysts had said that Micron is “at the bottom of this deep downturn,” but “China complicates the recovery plan.” For the year, Micron shares are up 34%, compared with the S&P 500’s 14% gain.

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June 28, 2023
OpenAI, Google, Apple chiefs to discuss innovation with Biden and Modi at White House

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The heads of prominent U.S. and Indian companies will meet at the White House on Friday with President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss investment in areas including artificial intelligence.

Those attending include Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, as well as Apple
AAPL,
+0.04%
CEO Tim Cook and Google
GOOG,
-0.49%

GOOGL,
-0.41%
CEO Sundar Pichai. Indian company executives include Mukesh Ambani, chair of Reliance Industries, and Anand Mahindra, chair of Mahindra Group.

“The president and Prime Minister Modi of the Republic of India will meet with senior officials and CEOs of American and Indian companies gathered to discuss innovation, investment, and manufacturing in a variety of technology sectors, including AI, semiconductors, and space,” the White House said.

Friday’s meeting is part of Modi’s high-profile visit to Washington, which included a state dinner at the White House and the announcement of a number of business deals.

Now read: Jet engine, drone deals unveiled as Biden meets India’s Modi

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June 23, 2023
FedEx stock sinks on profit forecast, as Wall Street looks for progress on cost cuts; CFO to retire

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Shares of FedEx Corp. fell after hours on Tuesday after the package deliverer offered up a full-year profit forecast that fell short of expectations, as Wall Street zeroes in on the company’s efforts to cut billions in costs over its next two fiscal years following a drop-off in consumer demand.

Not long after the company released those results, FedEx also said
FDX,
-0.78%
that Chief Financial Officer Michael Lenz would retire on July 31. Management said it had begun an external search to fill the position. Lenz, who became CFO in March 2020, will serve as a senior adviser until Dec. 31 to help with the changeover.

The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $1.54 billion, or $6.05 a share, compared with $558 million, or $2.13 a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue fell to $21.9 billion, compared with $24.4 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Adjusted for goodwill, efforts to slim the business and a legal issue within FedEx’s
FDX,
-0.78%
ground delivery operations, FedEx earned $4.94 a share, compared with $6.87 a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected adjusted earnings per share of $4.85, on revenue of $22.55 billion.

“The quarter’s results were negatively affected by continued demand weakness and cost inflation, partially offset by cost-reduction actions and U.S. domestic package yield improvement,” management said in a statement.

For the fiscal year ahead, which ends next May, FedEx forecast “flat to low-single-digit-percent” growth in sales, with earnings per share of $16.50 to $18.50. The company said it expects permanent reductions from its cost-cutting program — which it calls “DRIVE” — of $1.8 billion.

For the full year, analysts expect FedEx to earn $18.33 a share, on $90.91 billion in sales. FedEx ended its most recent fiscal year with $90.2 billion in sales.

Shares fell 4% after hours.

FedEx since last year has tried to slash billions in costs amid slowing demand for package deliveries, after inflation forced customers to rethink their spending priorities. It has nudged shipping prices higher, cut flights, cut executive jobs and closed offices. In April, FedEx announced plans to consolidate its air and ground operations into a single organization.

In the process, the delivery service’s stock price has rebounded significantly since getting slammed in September, when it warned of a slowdown in shipping demand. That rebound has put the stock in roughly in the same spot it was a year ago.

The company also reported earnings amid other tensions within the nation’s shipping and transportation infrastructure, after online-shopping demand during the pandemic led to higher shipping prices and thus a surge in profits.

While West Coast dockworkers and their employers reached a tentative deal on a contract last week, Teamsters union members at FedEx’s main rival, United Parcel Service Inc.
UPS,
-0.73%,
voted to authorize a strike if UPS doesn’t offer them a contract they don’t like. The friction has led to worries that businesses and customers would have to pay more to have products delivered.

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June 20, 2023
Disney Finance Chief Christine McCarthy to Step Down

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Disney Finance Chief Christine McCarthy to Step Down

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June 15, 2023
Cava Group CFO is confident restaurant chain will be profitable — but she won’t say when

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Cava Group, the Mediterranean-focused fast-casual restaurant chain that’s making its trading debut on Thursday, is confident it has access to enough funding to expand its business and make a profit, according to Chief Financial Officer Tricia Tolivar.

But Tolivar declined to provide a timeline to profitability in an interview with MarketWatch.

The…

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June 15, 2023
Illumina CEO Francis deSouza Resigns Amid Regulatory Hurdles, Proxy Fight

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Illumina CEO Francis deSouza Resigns Amid Regulatory Hurdles, Proxy Fight

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June 11, 2023

Diageo PLC Names Debra Crew Chief Executive Officer

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By Joe Hoppe

Diageo said Friday that interim Chief Executive Officer Debra Crew has been appointed CEO, effective as of Thursday.

The London-based maker of Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, Guinness stout and Smirnoff vodka had named Crew interim CEO on Monday, ahead of her planned joining date as CEO in July 1.

On Wednesday, Diageo said that longtime chief executive, Ivan Menezes, died after a short illness. He was 63.

Crew first joined the liquor giant as a nonexecutive director in 2019 before stepping down from the board the following year to lead the company’s business in North America, its largest market. She was promoted to chief operating officer in October 2022.

Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

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June 8, 2023

GameStop Shares Fall as It Terminates CEO and Ryan Cohen Becomes Executive Chairman

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GameStop Shares Fall as It Terminates CEO and Ryan Cohen Becomes Executive Chairman

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June 7, 2023
GameStop fires CEO, elects Ryan Cohen as executive chairman; stock plunges

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GameStop Corp. fired Chief Executive Matthew Furlong on Wednesday and said that its board had elected activist investor Ryan Cohen as its executive chairman, effective immediately.

Shares of the videogame retailer and meme stock sank 19% after hours following the brief press release detailing the move. That release did not offer a reason for Furlong’s firing and was made shortly ahead of the chain’s quarterly results.

GameStop
GME,
+5.75%,
in its earnings release, said it would not be holding a conference call to discuss those results. But in a filing detailing those financials, the company said Cohen’s leadership would be good for shareholders.

“We believe the combination of these efforts to stabilize and optimize our core business and achieve sustained profitability while also focusing on capital allocation under Mr. Cohen’s leadership will further unlock long-term value creation for our stockholders,” GameStop said.

Cohen, the co-founder and former CEO of online pet-supplies retailer Chewy Inc.
CHWY,
-4.10%,
became GameStop’s board chairman in 2021, after joining the board that year and building up a stake in the company earlier. His influence at the company, as the Wall Street Journal reported in 2021, led to feuding with management and an explosion in popularity among the meme traders who helped launch GameStop’s stock higher. He also amassed and then sold off a stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, the home-goods retailer that is in the process of closing up shop.

GameStop announced the move on Wednesday as it struggles to put up a consistent profit and tries to cut costs. Under Cohen’s control, the company has redoubled its focus on physical stores — as more of the gaming industry becomes more online and mobile — after initially making a bigger push toward e-commerce.

GameStop, in a separate filing on Wednesday, said Cohen’s responsibilities would include “capital allocation, evaluating potential investments and acquisitions, and overseeing the managers of the company’s holdings.”

In that filing, GameStop said that Furlong was fired without cause. According to his offer letter in 2021, Furlong is due any unvested stock that would have vested in the next six months. According to the terms outlined in that letter, Furlong would have been eligible to receive nearly $2.5 million in stock in August. He’ll also receive $100,000 in base salary. The filing also said Furlong had resigned as a company director.

The company also said it appointed Mark Robinson as its general manager and principal executive officer. Robinson has worked as vice president and general counsel at the company since January 2022, and held other roles at GameStop since 2015, the filing said.

GameStop also said it appointed Alain Attal as the lead independent director of the board and dissolved the Strategic Planning and Capital Allocation Committee.

For its first quarter, GameStop reported a net loss of $50.5 million, or 17 cents a share — far narrower than the $157.9 million, or 52 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Net sales were $1.24 billion, down from $1.38 billion in the prior-year quarter. GameStop ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $1.06 billion.

Popular videogames, such as “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” and “Hogwarts Legacy,” seem likely to help GameStop’s sales up ahead. And the company has cut costs in an effort to improve profitability.

The company reported a profit in the prior quarter, helped by holiday-season demand. Still, the two analysts polled by FactSet don’t expect another profitable quarter until this year’s holiday quarter.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, in a note last week, noted that broader challenges for the retailer include “a shift towards digital, mobile and subscription software (and away from the traditional packaged business).”

GameStop shares are down 29% over the past 12 months. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index
SPX,
-0.38%
is up 2.7% over that period.

Jeremy Owens contributed to this story.

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June 7, 2023
Apple’s new Vision Pro headset will cost $3,499, arrive in 2024

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Apple Inc. officially showed off its mixed-reality headset Monday, with the new Vision Pro device supporting 3-D content and featuring a price tag of $3,499.

The Vision Pro, Apple’s
AAPL,
-0.76%
first major new product category in eight years, will be available early next year and feature the ability for users to control the device with their hands, eyes and voice, a distinguishing feature of the headset in the current market. Chief Executive Tim Cook previewed the widely anticipated device during the keynote address of Apple’s WWDC developer event Monday.

See also: Here are all the new software features coming to Apple’s iPhone this year

Apple had been rumored for years to be developing a mixed-reality headset, which merges immersive augmented reality with real-life surroundings. Cook has long been excited about AR technology, and Monday’s event gave a sense for how he sees the theme playing into the business going forward as he announced WWDC’s “one more thing.”

“It’s the first Apple product you look through and not at,” he said, adding that Vision Pro represents “spatial computing” and brings “a new dimension to powerful personal technology.”

Users will be “no longer limited by a display,” Cook claimed.

See also: Apple CEO Tim Cook explains why consumers would want a mixed-reality headset

One key feature of the Vision Pro is the ability to see apps overlaid across real-world surroundings. Users will be able to determine how immersed they want to be by tweaking settings on a digital crown.

The device will also allow users to rely only on their eyes, hands and voice to control content. Users can flick to scroll through options and tap their fingers together to select something with gestures that Apple says are subtle. Apple showed off how users will be able to arrange apps like FaceTime and Safari and then turn to the side to switch from one app to another. Their eyes will still be visible to people engaging with them in the real world.

The company highlighted panoramic photos and noted that users will be able to capture “spatial” 3-D videos and photos using the headset. Apple teased that people would be able to make the surroundings of a plane disappear if they opted to watch 3-D video while flying.

Robert Iger, Walt Disney Co.’s
DIS,
+0.25%
CEO, appeared onstage to call the launch a “momentous event” that could help make Disney’s vision “a reality” through the advent of deeply immersive and personal stories. The Disney+ app will be available “on day one” through Vision Pro.

Apple explained that users can either plug the Vision Pro in or use an external battery that will provide roughly two hours of use. The display has “more panels than a 4K TV for each eye.” The Vision Pro relies on Apple’s custom processing, including a new R1 chip that the company says helps reduce latency issues, which have plagued other devices.

Users will be able to set up digital personas as part of the new visionOS operating system for the device.

With the Vision Pro, Apple is wading into a market for augmented- and virtual-reality devices that has been underwhelming thus far as products from Meta Platforms Inc.
META,
-0.45%
and others have failed to pick up meaningful traction with consumers. VR devices dominate the market, according to third-party data from IDC, but overall shipments plunged more than 50% in the latest quarter amid economic pressures and a general cooling of interest.

Read: Apple debuts new 15-inch MacBook Air for $1,299, adds new Mac Pro and Studio PCs

While Apple is sitting on a number of multibillion-dollar businesses now, the company’s current big moneymakers weren’t seen as slam dunks when they launched. Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani noted that critics dinged the early iPhone for a lack of third-party apps and keyboard and pointed to fading interest in watch-wearing more generally at the time the Apple Watch debuted.

Whether Apple can succeed again in making a once-questioned product category mainstream remains to be seen with the Vision Pro. The company could sell over 10 million units in the first five years, according to Daryanani, but that would make the device Apple’s slowest to ramp in the 21st century.

See more: Apple could be cooking up 3 more $10 billion-plus businesses, one analyst says

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June 5, 2023
Nestle Names New CFO
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```
By Mauro Orru
```
Nestle appointed Anna Manz from the London Stock Exchange Group to succeed Francois-Xavier Roger as chief financial officer after he decided to step down in pursuit of new professional challenges.

The Swiss packaged-foods giant said Tuesday that Manz would take over as soon as she is released from her present duties as chief financial officer and board member at the London Stock Exchange Group. Roger will remain in place until then, Nestle said.
“Anna has spent her career growing businesses and improving operational efficiencies,” said Chief Executive Mark Schneider. “Her deep knowledge of the consumer goods industry, combined with her extensive experience across many corporate functions, make her uniquely positioned to help lead Nestle into its next phase of value creation.”

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94
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May 29, 2023
Kite surfing, ice baths and 8-mile morning runs: How some CEOs stay in shape

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What is it about CEOs and their intense — and often oddball — workout routines?

These days, some top corporate honchos take their exercise rituals to extremes. Consider Damola Adamolekun, chief executive officer of restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s, who recently told Fortune magazine that he wakes up each day at 4:30 a.m. and runs seven to eight miles. He explained that the routine stimulates his nervous system and sets the tone for the day ahead. “You’ll feel better the whole day; you’ll be smarter, you’ll be sharper, you’ll be more energetic,” he said.

Adamolekun is in good company when it comes to training hard. Here are how five other executives work up a sweat and aim to stay healthy.

Jack Dorsey, head of Block and co-founder of Twitter, walks an hour and 15 minutes every day.

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Jack Dorsey

The Twitter co-founder, who now heads the tech conglomerate Block
SQ,
+3.36%,
does it all: two-hour meditations, fasting — he has said he eats only once a day during the week and has almost no food on the weekends — and alternating saunas and ice baths. But he’s no gym rat: Dorsey gets his primary exercise by walking an hour and 15 minutes every day. “I might look a little bit more like I’m jogging than I’m walking. It’s refreshing … It’s just this one of those take-back moments where you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m alive!’” he once observed.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg takes his dog for frequent runs — good exercise for both him and his pooch.

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Mark Zuckerberg

The Meta Platforms
META,
+1.09%
chief isn’t one to get up at the crack of dawn, according to GQ, but he still runs three mornings a week. “I also try to take my dog running whenever I can, which has the added bonus of being hilarious because that’s basically like seeing a mop run,” he told GQ. As for diet, he once was said to experiment with an eating plan that involved only devouring animals he had killed himself — including chickens, goats and pigs. But he also apparently skips meals — or at least he said as much in a 2021 Facebook post. “Do you ever get so excited about what you’re working on that you forget to eat meals?” he asked.

Richard Branson takes off on another kite-surfing adventure.

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Richard Branson

Kite surfing, anyone? The founder of the Virgin Group swears by it as one of his favorite ways to stay fit, according to Men’s Health. He once even kite surfed across the English Channel. His other activities include tennis and biking. He’ll work with a trainer if he’s on the road, but otherwise he likes to exercise outdoors on his private island in the British Virgin Islands. “I just want to be sure that when I’m 150, my body still looks as good as it is today,” said Branson, who is now 72.

Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp works out by cross-country skiing — and says the key is to take it as slowly as possible to build your “cardio base.”

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Alex Karp

The head of software company Palantir Technologies takes advantage of the fact that he lives near the White Mountains of New Hampshire to have a regular cross-country skiing routine. Key to his approach, he told Axios, is taking it slow on the snow. “To run like a deer, you have to spend 90% of your time running like a snail,” he explained, adding that his unhurried pace “builds a cardio base.” He also includes tai chi and stretching to his routine. But he isn’t too fussy about his diet. “If I’m traveling and someone has a really nice Danish, I enjoy every minute of eating it,” he said.

Martha Stewart is one of the cover models for Sport Illustrated’s new swimsuit issue.

Sports Illustrated

Martha Stewart

The 81-year-old lifestyle entrepreneur and founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has been in the spotlight for her recent cover appearance on Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. So what does she do to stay in shape for beach season? Stewart swears by Pilates, according to various media reports. And she rides horses. She has also said she doesn’t smoke, eats very well and every morning drinks a glass of “green juice” made with pears, cucumbers, celery stalks, parsley, fresh ginger and two oranges (complete with peels), a recipe she calls “so spectacular.”

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May 22, 2023
GE CFO Leaving Because Soon There Will Be No GE
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https://www.barrons.com/articles/ge-cfo-leaving-b68a692
Updated May 19, 2023 3:15 pm ET / Original May 19, 2023 1:20 pm ET

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General Electric

is getting a new finance chief. Given what’s coming at the company, it makes sense.
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May 19, 2023
Elon Musk says he’s hired new CEO for Twitter; is it NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino?

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Twitter Chief Executive Elon Musk says he’s found a new CEO to run Twitter and its parent company, X Corp., and “she” starts soon.

“Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” Musk tweeted Thursday afternoon. “My role will transition to being exec chair & [chief technology officer], overseeing product, software & sysops.”

Musk did not offer any clues as to the identity of Twitter’s incoming CEO, but late Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s head of advertising, was in talks to become the CEO.

Yaccarino has worked at Comcast’s
CMCSA,
+1.28%
NBCU for more than a decade, and has been an industry advocate in finding better ways to measure advertising’s effectiveness, according to the Journal.

Yaccarino oversees global, national and local ad sales, partnerships, marketing, ad tech, data, measurement and strategic initiatives, according to her bio, which says she and her team have generated more than $100 billion in ad sales.

“She knows metrics in advertising, and has played in different media,” Timothy Hubbard, assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, said in an interview. “I don’t know much about her, but she can balance Musk somewhat with her flexibility in advertising.”

She and Musk appeared in a keynote conversation at a conference in Miami last month, according to Dateline, before NBCU and Twitter inked a major ad pact for the 2024 Olympics.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the move is good for the stock of Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+2.10%,
where Musk is also CEO.

“Musk stepping down as Twitter CEO sooner than thought is clearly good news overall for Tesla investors,” Ives said on Twitter. “Less time focused on Twitter platform and more time around Tesla SpaceX…balancing act too difficult and needed to make this move sooner rather than later.”

In a note, Ives added: “With the tweet this afternoon, Musk’s reign as CEO of Twitter has finally come to an end and thus will be a positive for Tesla’s stock starting to finally remove this lingering albatross from the story,” and maintained Tesla’s outperform rating.

Tesla shares advanced 1.6% in after-hours trading.

After Musk acquired the social media giant for $44 billion, he posted a Twitter poll in December that asked if he should step down as CEO. A majority (57%) said yes, and he responded saying: “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”

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May 11, 2023
Elon Musk says he’s hired new CEO for Twitter; is it NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino?

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Twitter Chief Executive Elon Musk says he’s found a new CEO to run Twitter and its parent company, X Corp., and “she” starts soon.

“Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” Musk tweeted Thursday afternoon. “My role will transition to being exec chair & [chief technology officer], overseeing product, software & sysops.”

Musk did not offer any clues as to the identity of Twitter’s incoming CEO, but late Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s head of advertising, was in talks to become the CEO.

Yaccarino has worked at Comcast’s
CMCSA,
+1.28%
NBCU for more than a decade, and has been an industry advocate in finding better ways to measure advertising’s effectiveness, according to the Journal.

“She knows metrics in advertising, and has played in different media,” Timothy Hubbard, assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, said in an interview. “I don’t know much about her, but she can balance Musk somewhat with her flexibility in advertising.”

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the move is good for the stock of Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+2.10%,
where Musk is also CEO.

“Musk stepping down as Twitter CEO sooner than thought is clearly good news overall for Tesla investors,” Ives said on Twitter. “Less time focused on Twitter platform and more time around Tesla SpaceX…balancing act too difficult and needed to make this move sooner rather than later.”

In a note, Ives added: “With the tweet this afternoon, Musk’s reign as CEO of Twitter has finally come to an end and thus will be a positive for Tesla’s stock starting to finally remove this lingering albatross from the story,” and maintained Tesla’s outperform rating.

In December, Musk posted a Twitter poll asking if he should step down as CEO. A majority said yes, and he responded saying: “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”

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May 11, 2023