Twitter shares tank 20% after earnings miss on the top and bottom lines - CNBC

Twitter shares tanked as much as 20% Thursday after the company reported advertising and revenue "headwinds" and missed Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines for its third-quarter.  

Here's what the company reported, compared with what Wall Street analysts were expecting, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates:

• Earnings per share: 17 cents, vs. 20 cents expected
• Revenue: $823.7 million, vs $874.0 million expected
• Monetizable daily active users: 145 million

The company cited "a number of headwinds" in its revenue shortfall, including product issues and lower-than-expected advertising volumes in July and August.

"In Q3 we discovered, and took steps to remediate, bugs that primarily affected our legacy Mobile Application Promotion (MAP) product, impacting our ability to target ads and share data with measurement and ad partners," the company said in its shareholder letter. "We also discovered that certain personalization and data settings were not operating as expected. We believe that, in aggregate, these issues reduced year-over-year revenue growth by 3 or more points in Q3." 

Twitter guided toward lighter fourth-quarter revenues than Wall Street was looking for. The company expects to bring in revenue between $940 million and $1.01 billion — just shy of the $1.06 billion that analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had forecast.

Last quarter, Twitter did away with reporting monthly active users and shifted to a new growth metric — monetizable daily active users — to measure the daily active users who are shown ads on the platform.

The 145 million mDAUs that Twitter reported for the third quarter is a 4% increase from the second quarter of 2019, when the company reported 139 million mDAUs, and a 17% increase year over year. 

The "monetizable" distinction is why, Twitter says, its mDAUs fall short of the total DAUs of social media rivals like Snap and Facebook, which boast 203 million and 1.59 billion daily active users, respectively.

"Despite its challenges, this quarter validates our strategy of investing to drive long-term growth. More work remains to deliver improved revenue products. We'll continue to prioritize our ad products along with health and our investments to drive ongoing growth in mDAU," said Ned Segal, Twitter's CFO.

Twitter's quarterly expenses grew 17% during the third period, to $780 million, in part due to hiring and investment in sales, marketing, research and development. The company ended the quarter with 4,600 employees, 300 employees more than at the end of the second quarter.  

The company expects to keep spending. For the fiscal year of 2019, Twitter is predicting capital expenditures to come in between $550 million and $600 million, representing a large hike from total 2018 expenditures of $487 million. 

Advertising revenue for the quarter came in at $702 million, 8% higher than the same quarter during 2018. Total ad engagements increased 23% year over year, and cost per engagement dropped 12%.

Prior to the report, Twitter shares were up 35% so far in 2019, with a market cap just above $30 billion. Thursday's pre-market stock move would shave $6 billion off the company's market cap, if the losses hold into regular trading. 

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

WATCH: The rise of deepfakes and what Facebook, Twitter and Google are doing to detect them

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the quarter during which Twitter reported 139 million monetizable daily active users. That report came during the second quarter of 2019. 

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/24/twitter-twtr-earnings-q3-2019.html

2019-10-24 10:34:49Z
52780418122769

Tesla plans to increase vehicle power, range, and charging through new software update - Electrek

Tesla has announced plans to increase vehicle power and range through a new software update coming in the next few weeks.

When Tesla launched the $35,000 Model 3 earlier this year, the automaker surprised many by announcing that it will increase the range of all existing Long-Range Model 3 vehicle delivered to date.

CEO Elon Musk said at the time:

“There’s also some things we’ve been able to do for existing customers that are pretty cool. Tesla is as much a software company as a hardware company and we’ve been able to via firmware improve the range of the long-range rear wheel drive car from 310 miles to 325 miles. This will affect all customers including those that were all long range cars shipped to date and new cars. So both existing and new customers will get a 15 mile range increase from 310 to 325.”

Tesla ended up pushing the update in March – although it didn’t affect all the Model 3 Long Range vehicles the same way.

During a conference call with analysts after Tesla’s Q3 2019 earnings, Musk said that they have more improvements coming through software updates:

“I forgot to mention, we’re also expecting there’s going to be an over-the-air improvement that will improve the power of the Model S, X, and 3. That’s, by the way coming in a few weeks. It should be in the order of 5% power improvement due to improved firmware.”

Tesla VP of technology, Drew Baglino, said that they have found ways to optimize the motor control and it should result in about “5% improvement for all Model 3 customers and 3% for Model S and Model X” customers.

Musk also said that the upcoming update will also bring improvements to the range, single-pedal driving, Supercharging speed, comfort and feel.

They didn’t specify which variants of each model will get the improvements beyond the fact Supercharging speed is going to improve for Model 3 Standard Range and Standard Range Plus.

As for the motor optimizations, if they are going to affect both Model S/X and Model 3, it’s likely for the more recent ‘Raven’ Model S and X, which have a similar motor as Model 3.

Electrek’s Take

The idea of a car receiving performance improvements through software updates is impressive, but we weren’t particularly impressed by the range increase for Model 3 Long Range RWD.

We previously reported on how Tesla played with EPA ratings to advertise all Model 3 versions with 310-mile range even though the Long Range version was able to get more.

So they probably could have always advertised the car with more range.

However, this is a lot more impressive.

It sounds like Tesla has found ways to safely push their electric motors higher and even make them more efficient.

I am looking forward to seeing exactly how it’s going to affect the vehicles.

---

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://electrek.co/2019/10/24/tesla-increase-vehicle-power-range-software-update/

2019-10-24 09:44:00Z
52780416991787

Germany's Factory Recession Sends Industry Employment Plunging - Bloomberg

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

1. Germany's Factory Recession Sends Industry Employment Plunging  Bloomberg
2. German economy continues to struggle with manufacturing troubles spreading to services  MarketWatch
3. Euro-Area Economy Remains Close to Stagnation in October  Investing.com
4. French business activity firmer than expected in October: PMI  Reuters
5. EUR/USD eases from tops on softer German Flash Manufacturing/Services PMI  FXStreet
6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-24/germany-s-economic-downturn-worsens-as-job-engine-falters

2019-10-24 07:30:00Z
52780417981641

If You Didn't Buy A Tesla, You Just Made A Mistake - CleanTechnica

October 24th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan 

---

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said something similar to the headline above on the quarterly Tesla conference call a few hours ago.

It perhaps made me smile and laugh more than anything else on the conference call. The reason is simple, and it’s also why I’m keeping this article short.

There are many ways to rationalize a decision, and there are different reasons to buy one vehicle over another. You might prioritize power, safety, infotainment, autonomous driving, cargo space, or tech. Also, you may just like how a vehicle looks. On several of these matters, a Tesla vehicle objectively wins against the competition in its class. But a win on paper is not always worth a lot. What matters is the real-world experience. The thing that Tesla owners try to express in written words, while talking to others, or simply while thinking about why they love Tesla so much, is how wonderful it is to drive or use a Tesla. These are not empty reasons on paper — they are experienced essentially every day you have the car.

However, no talking or writing can pass that understanding on to someone. The vehicle has to be experienced. The vast majority of people have not driven a Tesla, and many don’t even know what “a Tesla” is. When we owners are out on the road (as we tend to be), we consistently see “competing cars” on the road that just came off a dealer lot — and we just shake our head, in large part feeling sorry for the people who bought them without realizing they could have gotten a far superior vehicle, and in part wondering why they did so. It happens to me several times a day. I can’t get over it (ask my wife). I talk to other Tesla owners and they have the same feeling and reaction. It’s just that hard to observe that other people make such unfortunate mistakes when buying new vehicles.

The way Elon talked about this on the call was hilarious because it was so genuine, so clearly what I and others think practically every day. And he expressed well how difficult it is to put these observations into words. You just cannot convey the feeling of “man, you made such a huge mistake” to someone who doesn’t get it, to someone who hasn’t gotten behind the wheel of a Tesla. Of course, for anyone who gets it, that statement is so obvious that it’s just refreshing (and perhaps funny) to hear someone else say it. We could see this play out with Joe Rogan. When Elon was on his podcast, Joe had never driven a Tesla. Elon encouraged him in the words he could bring to mind that Joe should really test drive a car. Joe responded in a sort of “sure, sure, I’ll do it … but I really like gas cars” way. Clearly, he didn’t get it and Elon’s comments didn’t do a whole lot to convince him. Nevertheless, he test drove a Tesla … and he was blown away by it. He bought a top-of-the-line Model S and apparently raves about it on his show frequently now. (I don’t listen to the show, but this is what I’ve been told.) Now, for sure, Joe has the same feeling Elon, other Tesla owners, and I have while driving around the city and seeing “competitors” that some unfortunate souls bought out of a lack of awareness or lack of experience.

Another reason why the comment was funny is that it’s just not what you expect to hear on a corporate conference call. It’s basically a mundane thing that I’d guess the majority of Tesla owners are thinking on a regular basis but is definitely not coming out of a yellow Corporate Communications for Idiots handbook.

On the call, the context was someone was asking about the evolution of the Tesla Model S and Model X and how Elon was thinking about them going forward (1:51 into our video). In the part of his response that made me laugh and inspired this article, Elon was specifically referring to the Model S. He said, “The Model S literally won Motor Trend‘s Best Car Ever, in history. If you’re out there and you stand by and you don’t buy a Model S, I think you just made a mistake.” Despite singling out the Model S there, the point applies to any Tesla. The feeling is basically the same, and it’s more about the other vehicle you see than the one you’re driving. I see a friend got a new Mercedes-Benz SUV and I can’t get the thought out of my mind, “If only she knew. … If only she had a week with the Model X beforehand — there’s no way she could have bought the Mercedes. If only she knew what she’s missing.” It’s such a huge mistake, yet she doesn’t even know it. I see someone at a red light who bought a new BMW 3 Series or Ford Mustang: “Ugh, what a disastrous mistake. They could be driving such a better car and enjoying it so much more.” But there’s nothing we can do, so we get the feeling Elon got and have to blurt it out. We expect non-Tesla owners won’t get it. We know Tesla owners will.

This is not a slam on anyone reading this who bought a non-Tesla. It’s just how it is. It’s just the feeling most Tesla owners have on a regular basis. It’s a feeling of unfortunate wonder. The good news is, with every 100,000 new Teslas on the road, more people get to see, experience, and learn about the cars. Word of mouth is a thing, especially with Teslas. But that’s a story for a coming day. It’s 2:40 am here, so I should get to bed.

If you’d like to buy a Tesla Model 3, Model S, or Model X and want 1,000 miles of free Supercharging, feel free to use my referral code: https://ts.la/zachary63404 — or use someone else’s if you have a friend or family member with a Tesla. I won’t cry. You can also use the code to get a discount on Tesla solar if that interests you. 
 
Follow CleanTechnica on Google News.
It will make you happy & help you live in peace for the rest of your life.

Tags: Elon Musk, Tesla, Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model 3 long-term review, Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus Long-Term Review, Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the CEO of Important Media. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA] — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in this company and feels like it is a good cleantech company to invest in. But he offers no investment advice and does not recommend investing in Tesla or any other company.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/24/if-you-didnt-buy-a-tesla-you-just-made-a-mistake/

2019-10-24 06:45:53Z
52780416991787

Roku spent $150 million so it can sell more ads - Engadget

Sponsored Links

Roku is no longer just a company making TV streaming boxes and dongles. It's become a powerful advertising company, too. By some estimates, it streams more ad-supported hours than any other over-the-top (OTT) platform. Today, it announced plans to double down. It has acquired the Boston-based ad-tech firm Dataxu for $150 million in cash and stocks.

The deal will allow Roku to provide marketers with software to plan, buy and manage their ad spend across TV and OTT providers.

While OTT accounts for 29 percent of TV viewing, it has only captured three percent of TV ad budgets. And advertisers spend an estimated $70 billion on traditional TV ads. This acquisition could help Roku, which has more than 30.5 million active accounts, get a bigger slice of the pie. That could be critical considering that Roku actually lost money in 2018.

Roku has faced criticism for allowing its Roku TVs to eavesdrop on your shows and for selling user data to advertisers. Unfortunately, that's fairly common, but with settings like "Limit Ad Tracking" it can be controlled a bit.

Roku expects to close the Dataxu deal in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Via: Deadline

Source: Roku

In this article: acquired, acquisition, ad-tech, ads, advertising, business, dataxu, entertainment, firm, gear, roku, software

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Comments

87 Shares

Share

Tweet

Share

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/23/roku-buys-ad-tech-firm-dataxu/

2019-10-24 06:07:03Z
52780416485162

Nike, ServiceNow and SAP CEOs play a game of musical chairs - MarketWatch

When the music stopped Tuesday afternoon, the CEOs of three large public companies were sitting in new seats.

Nike Inc. NKE, -0.64%  announced Tuesday afternoon that Chief Executive Mark Parker would step down by the end of the year, and be replaced by ServiceNow Inc. NOW, -5.21%  CEO John Donahoe. Just minutes later, ServiceNow said that its new CEO will be Bill McDermott, who stepped down from the CEO role at SAP SE SAP, -0.69%  less than two weeks ago.

The move at Nike continues a series of changes at the top of leading activewear companies. Earlier Tuesday, Under Armour Inc. UA, +6.88%  announced that its chief executive and founder, Kevin Plank, will transition to executive chairman. Adidas SE ADS, -2.43%  announced Monday that high-profile executive Eric Liedtke, widely viewed as a future chief executive candidate at that company, would depart by the end of the year.

The top sportswear companies have been embroiled in controversies involving college athletics, which landed one former Adidas executive a prison term earlier this year. Well-known track coach Alberto Salazar was recently hit with a four-year ban by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for testosterone experiments on athletes that were reportedly bankrolled and supported by Nike, though Parker told CNBC that the scandal was not related to his planned departure.

Donohoe’s departure for Nike appeared to shock ServiceNow investors, who sent shares of the cloud-software company down more than 10% in after-hours trading. Donahoe, who previously served as CEO of eBay Inc. EBAY, -0.82%  and chairman of Paypal Holdings Inc. PYPL, -4.02%  , had led ServiceNow since April 2017, and shares had increased more than 160% since he took the helm.

“ServiceNow is a special company and leading the team has been an honor,” Donahoe said in a statement as he headed out the door to lead a high-profile Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.15%  component.

McDermott’s exit from SAP earlier this month was a surprise to many observers. SAP said at the time that he had decided not to renew his contract, leading the company to activate a succession plan that included naming Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein as co-CEOs.

“ServiceNow’s board is thrilled to have Bill McDermott join the company,” said Jeff Miller, lead independent director of the ServiceNow board of directors. “His global experience and proven track record will provide for a smooth transition and continued strong leadership.”

While ServiceNow shares took a big hit in late trading Tuesday, Nike shares were up about 0.4% in after-hours action and SAP’s U.S.-traded shares were unaffected.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nike-servicenow-and-sap-ceos-play-a-game-of-musical-chairs-2019-10-22

2019-10-23 11:21:00Z
52780416794850

Caterpillar reports earnings that badly miss the Street, cuts forecast again - CNBC

Shares of Caterpillar plunged in early trading on Wednesday after the company slashed its full-year outlook and posted disappointing third-quarter earnings.

The company blamed the dismal results on a reduction in inventories from dealers. Executives said in a press release this weakness could persist due to "global economic uncertainty." 

The heavy machinery manufacturer earned $2.66 per share in the third quarter, versus the consensus estimate of $2.88 per share, according to Refinitiv. Revenue came in at $12.758 billion, while Wall Street expected revenue of $13.572 billion. 

The company also lowered its full-year earnings per share forecast to a range of $10.59 and $11.09 from $12.06 and $13.06 a share. Analysts expected an outlook of $11.70 per share. The company said it now expects fourth-quarter demand to be flat.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company said dealers decreased inventories by about $400 million in the third quarter, compared to increasing inventories by $800 million in the same period last year. 

Shares of Caterpillar fell as much as 6.5% in premarket trading on Wednesday but are currently trading flat. 

"Our volumes declined as dealers reduced their inventories, and end-user demand, while positive, was lower than our expectations," said Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby. 

Caterpillar's sales in Asia-Pacific declined in the third quarter mainly because of the lower demand in China, the company said.

"Realistically this is what you wanted to see, you wanted to see them take fast action," said Rob Wertheimer, founding partner at Melius Research. "The worst thing you could have....is if you get too far behind the curve on stocking up and then you have to cut later."

"The trade war lead people to bring in inventory, buy a bit little extra, who knows whats going on lets make sure we stock up ahead of tariffs, and that's coming back out of the economy right now," said Wetheimer. 

Shares of the trade bellwether are underperforming the broader market this year as as global trade tensions continue to weigh. The stock is up 5% since January, compared to the S&P 500, which is up nearly 20%. 

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/23/caterpillar-earnings-2point66-a-share-vs-2point88-eps-expected.html

2019-10-23 10:04:23Z
52780417252596