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Facebook's scandals aren't stopping it from making tons of money
We're all well aware that Facebook had a dreadful 2018, and 2019 isn't looking any better, what with the company being plagued by scandals surrounding data privacy and the spread of toxic content on its site. But despite those controversies, Facebook's business has continued to rack up billions of dollars over the past few months, although its user growth has indeed started to slow down a bit. And now we know how Facebook closed out the year, thanks to its Q4 2018 earnings report. Today, the social network giant reported that it earned $16.9 billion in revenue, up 30 percent year-over-year. Monthly active users reached 2.32 billion, up nine percent over a year ago.
Facebook is still growing at a slow but steady pace
It feels like for the better part of the past two years, every few months we talk about how Facebook hasn't been having an easy time. In 2018 alone, the company's faced several problems, such as the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal and, of course, the recent data breach that exposed private data of 29 million Facebook users. While we won't see the effects of the latter until next quarter, if at all, Facebook has kept raking in cash and users despite everything -- even if its growth has slowed down a bit. For Q3 2018, Facebook reports it has grown to 2.27 billion monthly active users, a 10 percent year-over-year increase, which is complemented by $13.78 billion in revenue.
Twitter's tougher stance on users is hurting its growth
The number of people using Twitter every month fell in the second quarter of 2018, the company confirmed today. Monthly active users slipped to 335 million in the three-month period, down from 336 million. Curiously, the one million drop-off came from the US, rather than any of the company's international markets. For Twitter, that's a serious concern, though not an unexpected one. The company has been under pressure to tackle bots and extremist accounts that are breaking community guidelines. Chief executive Jack Dorsey has promised to do better, and spent a lot of time and resources this quarter "investing in the long-term health of Twitter." Twitter seems to be cleaning up its platform, albeit slowly. It's tough, but necessary work that should earn some goodwill from longtime users and, ultimately, create a healthier long-term business. The short-term drop in active accounts, though, won't be appreciated by many investors. Following the release of its second quarter earnings, Twitter shares plunged more than 15 percent in premarket trading. That's... not good.
Despite scandals, Facebook is still raking in cash and users
It's no secret that 2018 has been quite a rocky year for Facebook, after controversies over the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal and, most recently, its handling of fake news on the platform. But, despite these troubling issues, the company's bottom line hasn't been affected -- it made $12 billion during the last quarter alone. And today, Facebook reported a total revenue of $13.23 billion in Q2 2018, a 42 percent year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, daily and monthly active user numbers are still growing, though they didn't jump by much compared to Q1 2018. Monthly users are now at 2.23 billion, only up 1.54 percent from the last quarter.
Constant controversy hasn't stopped Facebook from making money
When it comes to public perception, Facebook hasn't had the best 2018 so far. Over the past few months, the company's been working hard to clean up its image after dealing with a series of nightmares, including the idea that the site was becoming toxic and, most recently, the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal that led CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before US Congress. But business goes on, and today Facebook released its Q1 2018 earnings report, which shows it made a revenue of $11.97 billion, an insane 49 percent year-over-year increase.
Despite bigger ambitions, Google is still an ad business
As we already know, Google's parent company Alphabet makes the bulk of its money from ads. We also learned in quarters past that revenue from its non-Google projects, which it calls "Other Bets," have been growing at a slow, steady rate. From the company's just-released first quarter earnings report, this trend hasn't changed. Alphabet made about $31.1 billion this period, a 26 percent increase from the same quarter last year. Of this, about $26.6 billion were from ads, while $150 million were from Other Bets. Its income from its "other revenues" segment, which covers things like hardware sales, Play Store earnings and YouTube Red or Google Cloud and Drive subscriptions, also increased from the same quarter last year to about $4.3 billion.
We spend less time on Facebook, but it still makes loads of money
The past few weeks haven't been easy for Facebook. After announcing an overhaul to its News Feed earlier this month, one that places emphasis on people's interactions over content from brands, the company has been taking heat for its new approach. Not only because Facebook is leaving publishers who relied on its platform behind, but it also isn't offering the best solution to fix its fake news problem. A blunt two-question "trusted" news survey simply won't cut it. CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said that, with these changes, he expects users' time on the site to go down, but he believes keeping people happy will be better for Facebook's bottom line in the long run.
Tesla is still struggling to mass-produce the Model 3
Hundreds of thousands of orders for Tesla's Model 3 are pending as the company continues to struggle with producing its mass-market electric vehicle. Tesla dropped its third-quarter earnings report today, which showed it only managed to deliver just 222 units of the car. That's a fraction of the 1,500 it expected to produce in September alone. Tesla's inability to deliver on schedule is problematic and undermines its credibility, since the company reported in the second quarter that it was on track to meet previously announced targets. This could also hurt Tesla in the long run as other automakers start releasing their own EVs into the market.
US Cellular takes hit on LTE devices, profits halved to $35.5 million in Q3 2012
US Cellular's latest figures show that while the network saw its revenues remain constant, net profits fell by nearly half compared to the same period last year. It coined $35.5 million in net profit this quarter, down from the $62.1 million it made in Q3 2011 despite bringing in $1.04 billion in turnover both times. The cause of this reduced profitability is said to be down to higher subsidies on LTE devices, which represented a full 50 percent of the company's smartphone sales in the quarter. While the carrier has reversed the trend of losing customers, it only managed to add a rather measly 9,000 new customers in the three-month period. That could be part of the motivation behind US Cellular selling off a big chunk of its Midwestern operations to the now cash-rich Sprint -- so it can concentrate on areas where business is stronger.
MetroPCS breaks 1 million LTE customers, makes $193 million profit despite losing 312,000 users in Q3
MetroPCS might be the smaller of the two parties in the proposed merger with T-Mobile, but it certainly knows how to coin a profit in difficult times. The carrier recorded a massive $193 million net profit this quarter, $44 million more than it made in Q2, despite losing 312,000 subscribers in the three month period. The reason behind the rosy numbers was a combination of cash-saving exercises and canny investments in securities, pushing total revenue to $1.3 billion. The network now has just under nine million customers, with more than a million of those subscribing to one of the company's LTE packages. It's also managed to reduce churn down to 3.7 percent, a reduction of 0.8 percent since Q3 2011. CEO Roger D. Linquist remarked that the next quarter will see the business "re-energize" subscriber growth at the expense of its bottom line -- probably wise, given that it's lost just over half a million customers in the last six months.
Clearwire sees wholesale revenues dip, LTE delays as it posts a $41.3 million net loss in Q3
Clearwire's figures show that the network it isn't cool to love will be making placating faces at its bank manager for yet another quarter. It pulled in revenues of $313.9 million for the three month period, but with business costs (and depreciation) clocking in at $646.7 million, the company posted an operating loss of $332 million and a net loss of $41.3 million. If that wasn't bad enough, it's also hacked back a target to add TD-LTE to 5,000 sites before mid-2013 to just 2,000. A similar problem has occurred over at newly-minted majority owner Sprint, which has found itself a quarter behind its own LTE timetable thanks to parts shortages -- so let's hope the folks over at Softbank can help both companies improve their estimating skills.
TSMC's 28-nanometer process pays off as it rakes in $1.68 billion profit in Q3
Everything is relative, so when a chip foundry like TSMC (which produces gear for the likes of NVIDIA) has a bad quarter, that means it only made a $1 billion in profit. Today's numbers reveal that the company has managed to rescue its halting fortunes after turning over $4.8 billion and making a tidy $1.68 billion in profit. The cause of this upswing was that orders for its coveted 28-nanometer process doubled in the period -- repaying some of the $8.5 billion spent developing it and keeping profits just a little over that of its close pal, Qualcomm.
AT&T sells 4.7 million iPhones and 1.4 million other smartphones, makes $3.6 billion profit in Q3
AT&T's third quarter figures have shown that the network certainly has a handle on this "selling smartphones" malarkey. In the last three months, it's managed to ship 6.1 million smartphones, of which 4.1 million were iPhones -- which has helped the company to maintain a turnover of $31.5 billion, just $0.1 billion below the previous quarter. Notably, net profits tumbled to $3.6 billion, down from $6.8 billion in Q2, but that's easily explained away with a $3.8 billion share buyback scheme and the company's continued cost of building new LTE infrastructure. It's also managed to squirrel away $6.5 billion in cash under the mattress for a rainy day. Digging into those numbers, it's been able to add a new 678,000 new wireless customers to its business, making a total of 105.9 million users on its network. 44.5 million of those people, or 63.8 percent of 'em, are now smartphone users, and AT&T said it had a "record sales quarter" with Android and Windows Phone handsets. It also coaxed 200,000 new U-verse TV subscribers and 613,000 high-speed internet users to sign up with Ma 'Bell. If you'd like to see Ralph de la Vega give you his personal take on the company's rosy financials, then head on past the break -- but be warned, at no point does he swim through a pool of money screaming "I'm king of the world!"
Foxconn announces $226 million half-year net loss, blames usual suspects
Manufacturing behemoth Foxconn (Hon Hai) has announced a record net loss of $226 million on turnover of $2 billion for the first half of the year. Unsurprisingly, it attributed the loss to the European debt crisis, global economic slowdown and its customers "continuous struggle" for market share. While it made a big push to encourage new customers, capacity far outstripped demand. In order to stem the tide, it's relocating some of its Shenzhen-based facilities to sites in Northern China -- and it's also in talks with carriers to become an ODM, building white-label smartphones in the same way that Huawei and ZTE do. While the loss isn't a rosy picture, the company does have nearly $2 billion stashed in the bank, so it shouldn't be worrying too much.
Lenovo's Q1 shows 'record high' market share, profits up 30 percent to $141 million
After delivering an overachieving laptop, Lenovo has delivered financial results that also exceeded expectations, producing $8 billion in revenue and $141 million net profit. Those figures are up 35 and 30 percent respectively over last year, which the company has chalked up to a higher than ever market share of 15 percent. That growth came in part from a 59 percent sales bump in emerging markets like India and Brazil, on top of a 9 percent spurt in its home market -- lifting the company 24 percent in world-wide PC shipments for the quarter. Lenovo has also become the second largest player in China's smartphone market, after Samsung, now up to a 13 percent market share. CEO Yang Yuanqing also proclaimed that, unlike other Redmond partners, he wasn't stressed about Microsoft's Surface tablet -- and that his company had "much better hardware" than the software giant.
MetroPCS 2012 Q2 sees profits skyrocket to $149 million despite losing nearly 200,000 subscribers
MetroPCS has announced that it pulled in $1.3 billion in the second quarter of the year, only slightly more than it managed in the first. It made a profit of $149 million, well up from the $21 million it pulled in between January and March, despite shedding around 200,000 subscribers in the process. The company's deliberately concentrated on raising cash at the expense of new subscriptions in preparation for its 4G LTE for All project, due to begin in the third quarter. It revealed that it now has 700,000 LTE subscribers, up from the 580,000 present in March and that it plans to have a full 10MHz of spectrum allocated for the super-fast mobile standard in "most major metropolitan areas" by the end of the year. As for devices that'll take advantage of the 4G goodness, MetroPCS says that we can expect to see either six or seven new LTE handsets by year's end, each which will be priced between $99 and $149.
iPhone sales still strong for Verizon
It's the week before Apple's 3Q2012 earnings call, and already we're getting signs that point to yet another banner quarter for our favorite company. The latest comes from Verizon, which reported today that it had sold 2.7 million iPhones during the quarter ending June 30, 2012 compared to 2.5 million 4G Android phones. As noted on GigaOM, this appears to contradict William Blair analyst Anil Doradla's claim that the Motorola Droid Razr was outselling the iPhone 4S at Verizon. The only way the claim could be right is if most Verizon customers were purchasing the iPhone 4 instead of the 4S, or if most of Verizon's Android fans purchased the Razr Maxx. The iPhone sales show a 17 percent increase year over year for Verizon. Sales are down from the first quarter of 2012, when Verizon sold 3.2 million iPhones, but the iPhone 4S was still fairly new at that time. There's also a chance that speculation about a new iPhone this fall is starting to affect sales of the device. Verizon also noted that 18 percent of Verizon's smartphone customers are now on its 4G LTE network. At this point, the iPhone is still not a 4G LTE device, unlike the third-generation iPad.
Barnes & Noble's Q4 and FY 2012: revenue up, losses up, hopes Microsoft hurries up
Barnes & Noble has released its financial results for both the final quarter and full financial year of 2012. It's a picture of a company that's holding steady in the face of continued onslaught from its rivals, albeit with some hope on the horizon. In preparation for its as-yet-unnamed venture with Microsoft, the company has begun the process of spinning off its Nook and College businesses -- while sales from stores and BN.com now come under the umbrella term of "retail." On that front, it sold $1.1 billion worth of books in the quarter and $4.85 billion for the year -- down from $4.92 billion in 2011. Nook-wise, the company had turnover of $933 million, with device sales increasing 1 percent for the quarter and 45 percent of the year -- but had to eat a loss on taking back unsold Simple Touch readers. Content sales on its various devices increased 65 percent in the quarter and 119 percent in the year -- clearly showing where the market is headed.
DirecTV adds 81,000 subscribers during Q1 in the US, increases revenue by 12 percent
Unlike with Comcast, Wall Street experts weren't surprised by DirecTV's latest Q1 results -- in fact, they were quite disappointed. The satellite provider only managed to add 81,000 subscribers in the US of A during the quarter, which is more than a 50 percent decrease compared to last year's Q1 (184,000). Meanwhile, DirecTV did see a 12 percent increase in revenue, pushing the total to about $7.05 billion. That last bit thanks in large part to landing over 590,000 new customers in Latin America, though that didn't keep its current share price from dropping about 2.7 percent to $46.60. Nonetheless, DirecTV CEO, Mike White, says his company "delivered another strong quarter [..] highlighted by double-digit revenue, EPS and cash flow growth." Us? Well, we're wondering why those "roadside ditch" commercials aren't luring more Stateside folks away from cable...
Lenovo releases Q3 earnings report, shipments rise, profits soar
Lenovo turned in another stellar earnings report yesterday, following up on a huge Q2 with an encouraging Q3. For the fiscal quarter ended December 31st, the PC maker saw its net profits reach $153 million, marking a 54 percent increase over last year's $99.7 million. Revenue also rose 44 percent last quarter to a record $8.4 billion, thanks in large part to a surge in PC sales. In mature markets, Lenovo saw revenues increase by a whopping 81 percent to $3.6 billion, while emerging market sales reached $1.3 billion, marking a 13 percent rise over the previous year and accounting for about 15 percent of the company's global revenue. The manufacturer saw particularly strong growth in China, where it now enjoys a market share of 35.3 percent, its highest ever. Lenovo attributed much of this to strong smartphone and tablet sales in China, while confirming plans to release a Smart TV within the country, as well (according to CEO Yang Yuanqing, it should hit the market in April). Laptops, however, remain the company's bread and butter, comprising 53 percent of its total revenue last quarter, with sales reaching $4.5 billion -- 30 percent higher than last year. For more numbers, check out the full press release, after the break.
