q42019earnings
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YouTube ad revenue has almost doubled in the last two years
If you've been following Google and its parent company Alphabet in recent years, you won't be shocked to know that it's making a ton of money. Alphabet just dropped its latest earnings release, and there are some intriguing details beyond the simple fact that the company is making more money than ever (revenue of $46.1 billion for the quarter was up 18 percent year-over-year). For the first time, Alphabet broke out YouTube advertising revenues and that gives us a look at just how important the video site is to the company.
Facebook settles lawsuit over its use facial recognition for $550 million
After years of wrangling in courts, Facebook has settled a lawsuit over its use of facial recognition. Last year it agreed to stop turning on the tech to scan photos by default, which built a template of your facial data, and automatically suggested tags in photos based on it. During an earnings call on Wednesday afternoon to announce that Q4 profits grew to $7.3 billion giving it a profit of over $18 billion for 2019, CFO David Wehner gave a one-line mention to the fact that they have a settlement in principle to pay $550 million to resolve the suit. Plaintiffs sued based on the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, arguing that its service did not receive "explicit consent" from users before collecting their data. Asked about the settlement, a spokesperson responded "We decided to pursue a settlement as it was in the best interest of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter." ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler pointed to the result as an example of what other states should do, saying "this case is a great example of how states can take the lead to protect their residents' privacy rights despite Congress' failure to do the same." According to one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, Jay Edelson, "Biometrics is one of the two primary battlegrounds, along with geolocation, that will define our privacy rights for the next generation. We are proud of the strong team we had in place that had the resolve to fight this critically important case over the last five years. We hope and expect that other companies will follow Facebook's lead and pay significant attention to the importance of our biometric information." The settlement will still need to be approved by a judge.
Tesla moves the Model Y release date up to 'spring 2020'
Tesla was on quite the roll in Q4 last year. The company unveiled its controversially popular electric Cybertruck at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Elon Musk won his "pedo guy" defamation suit, and the first Model 3s produced at Tesla's new Shanghai Gigafactory rolled off the assembly line. The company also delivered 112,000 vehicles in that quarter, and 367,500 vehicles over the full year -- that's a 50 percent increase over 2018.
Xbox is the only weak point for Microsoft's strong quarter
If you've been paying close attention to Microsoft's quarterly earnings, you've probably noticed they've started to sound like a broken record. The company's cloud business typically grows steadily (it's up 27 percent this quarter), and for the past few years it's driven continual revenue growth. According to the company's latest earnings report, it's been a particularly great few months for the company, with continued revenue growth for Office (up 19 percent for consumers, 16 percent for businesses), LinkedIn (up 24 percent) and Windows (up 18 percent). The only blip in an otherwise positive quarter? Xbox, which saw an 11 percent revenue drop from last year. The company's overall gaming revenue fell by $905 million or 21 percent from a year ago.
Apple's latest iPhone lineup was a hit during the holidays
We're not very far into 2020, but Apple is starting the year off with some strong financials. The company's Q1 2020 earnings release just crossed the wire, and the numbers here are significant: Apple reported a total of $91.8 billion in quarterly revenue, setting new all-time quarterly record in the process. As usual, iPhone sales ($55.9 billion) and Apple's services ($12.7 billion) were among the most notable contributors to the company's growth, but it's worth taking a closer look at what worked in Apple's favor going into 2020.
