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Twitter closes in on its first-ever profitable quarter
Twitter has updated the world on its financial position for the third quarter of this year, and the outlook is better than it has been for a while. The company has seen monthly active user figures increase, arresting the slide that it had to report across the summer. In addition, net losses have been trimmed down to just $21 million, and if Twitter can improve on its targets in the next three months, it may even turn a profit.
AT&T looks to DirecTV Now as customers ditch satellite
If you were wondering why AT&T is in such a hurry to reshape its TV business, the third quarter earnings report may provide some clarity. In the three months it covers, which are usually strong growth months with the arrival of subscribers seeking out NFL Sunday Ticket, things went in the opposite direction.
Netflix could spend $8 billion on content next year
Once again, Netflix's quarterly earnings report (PDF) shows it's added even more customers (5 million in the US alone), and now boasts more than 115 million subscribers worldwide. The company is now five years into its "original content strategy" that first drew attention with House of Cards, which turned into a string of series including hits like Stranger Things and Orange is the New Black. Of course, with more competition turning up (Amazon, Hulu, CBS All Access and, eventually, Disney), things are getting more expensive, as the company says it will spend "$7-8 billion on content" next year -- even if it's off the hook for 30 Rock. That's potentially a billion dollars more than what Ted Sarandos predicted in August, and up to two billion more than it spent this year. Those differences also explain why prices are going up on some of its plans, as it continues a push to become more profitable. The company is predicting it will add slightly fewer new customers next quarter than it did last year, although it's unclear if that's due to the price changes or simply running out of people who want Netflix but don't have it yet. The company will broadcast the video from its quarterly earnings call on YouTube at 6 PM ET, if there are any interesting anecdotes, we'll update this post. Update: Execs did mention, among other things, that they intend to work with airlines to make streaming on a plane easier -- helpful if you didn't download the latest season of something before taking off on a long trip.
Samsung vice chairman quits amid leadership 'crisis'
Based on the earnings guidance Samsung has released for the third quarter of 2017, the Korean conglomerate is set to make a new record. It puts its operating profit for July to September at around $12.8 billion, almost thrice last year's $4.6 billion. Despite the possibility of having the best annual earnings ever, not everything's A-OK for the chaebol. Samsung Vice Chairman Oh-Hyun Kwon has decided to step down and leave his positions as vice chairman, board chairman and member, as well as CEO of Samsung display. He said the company is "confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out" and needs "a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges..."
Tesla is getting 1,800 Model 3 reservations per day
After narrowly meeting its promise to launch the Model 3 in July, Tesla has released its latest earnings report (PDF). Other than slightly higher than expected revenue, the company says that since the delivery event, it has averaged 1,800 Model 3 pre-orders per day. Of course, if you're getting in line now you could be in for quite a wait. The company expects to build about 1,500 Model 3s during the third quarter, but is maintaining its prediction that it will expand production to reach 5,000 of the cars per week by the end of this year.
Sony's turnaround strategy is working
When Sony nominated Kaz Hirai to lead the corporation, he laid out an ambitious strategy that he titled One Sony. Hirai identified three key markets where he wanted Sony to be a leader: digital imaging, gaming and mobile, with the trio pushed accordingly. Five years later, and Hirai's managed to hit two out of three targets, with Sony's most recent financial reports vindicating his plan.
LG's G6 wasn't the hit phone the company craves
After almost breaking even last quarter, LG's mobile division is back to its subpar self. In the last three months, the manufacturer's handsets lost it $117.27 million. The company is pinning the blame on "weaker than expected" premium smartphone sales -- all but admitting that the LG G6 is not shifting units.
Over a million Americans quit Twitter in just three months
Controversial presidential announcements and celebrity revenge porn are all in a day's work for the social network everyone loves to hate. Now, Twitter has announced its most recent financial results and things aren't looking good for the microblog beloved by the leader of the free world.
After amassing 2 billion users, Facebook isn't slowing down
Even as Facebook continues to fight fake news and tweak its hate speech algorithms, it still remains the world's most popular social network with over 2 billion monthly users as of June. In its most recent earnings report, the company has recorded yet another profitable quarter with $9.32 billion in revenue, a 47 percent jump from this time last year. User growth also continues to be pretty strong, with a 17 percent growth from this time last year. An average of 1.32 billion people use Facebook on a daily basis.
Surface, LinkedIn, and cloud revenue are bright spots for Microsoft
Good news for Microsoft: Its Surface revenues have rebounded from last quarter's slump, when sales fell 26 percent over the previous year. For the fourth quarter, Microsoft reports that Surface sales only fell 2 percent year-over-year. Sure, decreases aren't generally good, but in this case it's a sign that sales have actually picked back up. It's not a huge surprise why: Microsoft revealed the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro in June. Even though they arrived during the tail-end of the quarter, they likely added a bit to the company's ledger. Overall, Microsoft reported revenues of $23.3 billion for the fourth quarter, a 13 percent increase over last year, and it also doubled its profits, reaching $6.5 billion.
Netflix blows past the 100 million subscriber mark
A year after subscriber growth slowed due to price hikes, Netflix says (PDF) it added more US customers in the last quarter than it has since 2011. The company is now up to 103.95 million subscribers worldwide, up 5.2 million from last count. The company also unveiled a new strategy (PDF) for explaining its spending on content, that's presumably more appropriate for its abundance of award-nominated shows. In the letter to investors, execs also discussed recent series cancellations, saying "As much as we dislike ending a series early, it consoles us that it frees up investment for another new show, or two."
Samsung expects its record-breaking profits in 2017 will continue
After stumbling in 2016 Samsung appears to be back on track in 2017, as it just announced projected earnings for the second quarter that would show its highest operating profit ever. The company won't provide a detailed breakdown for a few more weeks, but it's estimating an operating profit of 14 trillion Korean won ($12.11 billion US). Analysts cited by Bloomberg and Reuters believe the figures got a boost from the well-received Galaxy S8, as well as the RAM, processors and display components Samsung makes.
Snap has struggled to gain users since going public
Three months ago, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. filed for its initial public offering, a milestone move for the now six-year-old ephemeral messaging app. In that report, it revealed some key information about its business: 158 million people use its product everyday and it had over $500 million in losses on $400 million in revenue in 2016. Well, it's now time for the company's first ever earnings report as a public company and, uh, it doesn't look too pretty.
Tesla says it's still on track to build the Model 3 in July
As customers holding pre-orders wait for the Model 3 to arrive, Tesla says everything is proceeding according to plan. In today's Q1 earning report (PDF), the company announced it's still on track to start production in July, and will be able to build up to 5,000 of the cars per week this year, with plans to scale production up to 10,000 per week next year. To service all those EVs (plus the ones already on the road, some of which will soon start to outlive their manufacturer warranties), it's massively expanding that department.
LG's smartphones are no longer hurting the company
It's a testament to how topsy-turvy the mobile world is that a company can make its seventh successive quarterly loss and still feel good. That's because LG's mobile division, which managed to burn almost 500 billion Korean won in the last three months of 2016, has managed to stem the flow of blood from its neck. In fact, in the first quarter of 2017, the division managed to lose just 200 million Korean won, or $176,206.
Samsung's chip business kept things looking up to start 2017
Samsung's Q1 2017 earnings are in, showing the company's highest quarterly profit since Q3 2013. That's despite the Galaxy Note 7 recall, and a markdown in the price of its Galaxy Note 7, apparently because the company's chip business (making memory, processors and camera sensors for phones) is booming. As a company, it brought home the $8.75 billion in operating profit expected, and looks forward to better results next quarter, since it will include sales of the new Galaxy S8 phones.
Twitter is gaining more users, losing less money
Twitter has updated us on the state of its business and, if you squint, you can almost see that things are picking up for the service. The company revealed that while revenues fell by $164 million, it managed to trim its quarterly losses down to just $62 million. By comparison, Twitter burned $167 million in the last three months of 2016 and $80 million in the same quarter last year.
Netflix users have streamed half a billion hours of Adam Sandler
That should explain why Netflix keeps throwing money at him.
Netflix expects to sign up its 100 millionth subscriber this weekend
Netflix's earnings report is out (PDF), and the nearly-worldwide video streaming company has seen its subscriber count creep up to 98.75 million (two years ago, it was at 59 million). To close the letter to investors, execs said they expect to cross the 100 million customer barrier this weekend, as they reorganized their data to deemphasize subscriber count in favor of revenue growth and operating margins. The company also reported that Dave Chappelle: Collection 1 is its most-viewed comedy special ever.
Tesla: Model 3 production is on track to start in July
Tesla's final earnings report for 2016 is most notable for what it tells us to expect in the upcoming year. In a letter to shareholders (PDF), Elon Musk & Co. report that Model 3 production is on track to start in July, ramping up to full-scale production in September. As our friends at Autoblog note, that means the earliest pre-ordering customers could see their cars by the end of this year.
