NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Twitter ruffled feathers on Thursday by warning that its user growth will slow, and costs will rise. But the $52 billion social media firm still has a chance to do more with what it already has, and better monetize a loyal audience.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Facebook, Alphabet’s Google and Amazon.com are lions on the prowl. Instead of wildebeest, they’re eyeing the fattened-up savings of the U.S. consumer. The tech titans stand to rake in ad revenue as companies compete to woo Americans poised to go on shopping sprees. The result could be a boost in Silicon Valley’s market share, as well as its revenue.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - In early 2000 Reed Hastings and his partner traveled to Blockbuster’s headquarters in Dallas. The Netflix founder tried to pitch the video rental behemoth on a deal to buy his fledging DVD-by-mail startup for $50 million. Blockbuster declined. Two decades later Netflix, now a streaming-video giant worth $243 billion, is broadcasting a documentary about the fall of its one-time desired suitor. The schadenfreude is cinematic. Yet while Netflix played a role in killing Blockbuster, its demise has many culprits.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - For such a disruptive company, Twitter changes surprisingly slowly. From a user’s perspective, the $60 billion social network looks much like it did when co-founder Jack Dorsey took the dramatic step of doubling tweets to 280 characters over three years ago. Now Dorsey wants to expand Twitter’s revenue by stepping up innovation, but his track record of reinvention is not great.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Concise insights on global finance in the Covid-19 era.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Jeff Bezos has some solid timing. The founder and chief executive of Amazon.com is handing over the CEO role to Andy Jassy, head of the cloud division AWS, after a fortuitously good year at the $1.7 trillion retail giant. The new boss will face a different, more challenging normal that includes regulatory scrutiny.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Apple's replacement for its iPhone cash cow is arguably its services business. The $2.4 trillion technology firm hauled in nearly $16 billion in revenue last quarter from charging customers for cloud storage and taking cuts from payments in its App Store.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Facebook has a pressing challenge: to deflect political fury. To that end, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has laid out the reasons why the social network is on the right side of history, in what amounts to a four-pronged defense. It’s not watertight, but it may just hold up.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bob Chapek is coming up on his one-year anniversary in February as chief executive of Walt Disney. He has made good work of shifting the Magic Kingdom’s focus on streaming video and capturing some Netflix fairy dust. In the coming year Chapek could make his mark in another way: An ESPN spinoff would keep Disney ahead of the game.
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Breakingviews) - Alphabet’s Google and Facebook are facing a mountain of lawsuits claiming the duo are abusing their market power. They may beat back the charges, but too much distraction could make them miss the next big thing.
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters) -Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets toward the Jerusalem area and southern Israel on Monday, carrying out a threat to punish Israel for violent confrontations with Palestinians in Jerusalem.