#Wedbush

[head-post]

US enters antitrust trial with Google

Google faces its second major antitrust trial in less than a year, accused of dominating online advertising and stifling competition.

The trial in federal court in northern Virginia follows a separate case in which a judge found last month that Google’s search business was an illegal monopoly. The US government now alleges that the company controls the market for publishing banner adverts on websites, including those owned by many creators and news providers.

Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies.

Government lawyers would argue that Google used its financial power to acquire potential competitors and monopolise the advertising technology market. However, Google dismisses the allegations as “fundamentally misguided” and says they violate “principles of antitrust law that help drive economic growth and innovation.”

The case is also wrong on the facts, which Google looks forward to demonstrating.

Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, Senior Analyst at Emarketer, stated that the market in question was “the lifeblood to a lot of important information sources for the public.”

The trial is expected to last at least six weeks and involve dozens of witnesses, with Judge Leonie Brinkema presiding. If the company is found guilty, a separate trial will decide how Google must comply with the judge’s findings.

Analysts at Wedbush Securities said the economic impact of the lawsuit on Google would be limited, regardless of the outcome. They argue that the business, which the government is asking Google to sell, has generated less than 1 per cent operating profit this year.

Similar investigations into Google’s dominance of advertising technology are ongoing in the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Read more HERE

[mariacallous]

Elon Musk will be pleased that his surprise jaunt to China on Sunday garnered many glowing headlines. The trip was undoubtedly equally a surprise to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who had been scheduled to offer Musk the red carpet on a long-arranged visit.

The billionaire blew off India at the last minute, citing “very heavy Tesla obligations.” Indeed, Tesla has had a tumultuous couple of weeks, with federal regulator slap-downs, halved profits, and price-cut rollouts. Yet, in a very public snub that Modi won’t quickly forget, the company CEO made time for Chinese premier Li Qiang. And well Musk might. Tesla needs China more than China needs Tesla. After the US, China is Tesla’s second biggest market. And ominously, in the first quarter of the year, Tesla’s sales in China slipped by 4 percent in a domestic EV market that has expanded by more than 15 percent. That’s enough of a hit for any CEO to jump in a Gulfstream and fly across the Pacific for an impromptu meeting with a Chinese premier. Globally, Tesla has lost nearly a third of its value since January, and earlier this month, Tesla’s worldwide vehicle deliveries in the first quarter fell for the first time in almost four years. As they are wont to do, Tesla investors continue to complain over repeated delays to the company’s rollout of cars with genuine driverless capabilities.

One of Tesla’s stop-gap technologies—a now heavily-discounted $8,000 add-on—is marketed as Full Self-Driving, or FSD. But, like the similarly confusingly named Autopilot feature, it still requires driver attention, and may yet still prove to be risky. Among the deals said to have been unveiled at Sunday’s meeting with Li Qiang was a partnership granting Tesla access to a mapping license for data collection on China’s public roads by web search company Baidu. This was a “watershed moment,” Wedbush Securities senior analyst Dan Ives said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. However, Tesla has been using Baidu for in-car mapping and navigation in China since 2020. The revised deal, in which Baidu will now also provide Tesla with its lane-level navigation system, clears one more regulatory hurdle for Tesla’s FSD in China. It does not enable Tesla to introduce driverless cars in China or anywhere else, as some media outlets have reported. Press reports have also claimed that Musk has secured permission to transfer data collected by Tesla cars in China out of China. This is improbable, noted JL Warren Capital CEO and head of research Junheng Li, who wrote on X: “[Baidu] owns all data, and shares filtered data with Tesla. Just imagine if [Tesla] has access to real-time road data such as who went to which country’s embassy at what time for how long.” That, she stressed, would be “super national security!” According to Reuters, Musk is still seeking final approval for the FSD software rollout in China, and Tesla still needs permission to transfer data overseas. Li added that a rollout of even a “supervised,” data-lite version of FSD in China is “extremely unlikely.” She pointed to challenges for Tesla to support local operation of the software. Tesla still “has no [direct] access to map data in China as a foreign entity,” she wrote. Instead, Tesla is likely using the deal extension with Baidu as an FSD workaround, with the data collected in China very much staying in China. Despite this, Tesla shares have jumped following news of the expanded Baidu collaboration. Furthermore, Li said there’s “no strategic value” for Beijing to favor FSD when there are several more advanced Chinese alternatives. (We’ve tested them.)

“Chinese EVs are simply evolving at a far faster pace than Tesla,” agrees Shanghai-based automotive journalist and WIRED contributor Mark Andrews, who tested the driver assistance tech available on the roads in China. The US-listed trio of Xpeng, Nio, and Li Auto offer better-than-Tesla “driving assistance features” that rely heavily on lidar sensors, a technology that Musk previously dismissed, but which Tesla is now said to be testing. Although dated in shape and lacking in the latest tech, a Tesla car is nevertheless more expensive in China than most of its rivals. Tesla recently slashed prices in China to arrest falling sales. Musk’s flying visit to China smacked of “desperation,” says Mark Rainford, owner of the Inside China Auto channel. “[Tesla] sales are down in China—the competition has weathered the price cuts so far and [the Tesla competitors have] a seemingly endless conveyor belt of talented and beautiful products.” Rainford further warns that the “golden period for Tesla in China” is “at great risk of collapsing.” Tesla opened its first gigafactory in Shanghai five years ago, and it is now the firm’s largest—but the automaker has been playing tech catchup in China for some time. In addition to Xpeng, Nio, and Li, there are other Chinese car companies competing with Tesla on autonomous driving, as Musk will see if he visits the Beijing Motor Show, which runs through this week.

Beijing is now arguably the world’s preeminent automotive expo, but Tesla is not exhibiting—a sign that it has little new to offer famously tech-hungry Chinese autobuyers. Pointedly, the Cybertruck is not road-legal in China, although that hasn’t stopped Tesla from displaying the rust-prone electric pickup in some of its Chinese showrooms. Likewise, Tesla has just announced plans for a European Cybertruck tour. But, just like in China, the EV pickup cannot be sold in the EU, either—and according to Tesla's lead on vehicle engineering, it likely never will be.

Speaking on tighter pedestrian safety regulations in the EU compared to the US, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, Lars Moravy, told Top Gear that “European regulations call for a 3.2-mm external radius on external projections. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to make a 3.2-mm radius on a 1.4-mm sheet of stainless steel.”

The “Cybertruck Odyssey” tour—as Tesla’s European X account calls it—may titillate Tesla fans, but it could prove to be about as useful as shooting a Roadster into space.

[meret118]

Last year was, by all accounts, a bloodbath for the tech industry, with more than 260,000 jobs vanishing — the worst 12 months for Silicon Valley since the dot-com crash of the early 2000s.

Executives justified the mass layoffs by citing a pandemic hiring binge, high inflation and weak consumer demand.

Now in 2024, tech company workforces have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, inflation is half of what it was this time last year and consumer confidence is rebounding.

Yet, in the first four weeks of this year, nearly 100 tech companies, including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, TikTok and Salesforce have collectively let go of about 25,000 employees, according to layoffs.fyi, which tracks the technology sector.

. . .

"The layoffs seem to be helping their stock prices, so these companies see no reason to stop."

"Google and the rest of Big Tech are betting big on AI while cutting back on non-strategic areas. Layoffs will continue to happen for Big Tech in some areas while the hiring frenzy in AI will be unprecedented as this arms race continues across the tech world," Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC.

. . .

Other companies too are looking to cut jobs to focus on their AI-driven businesses.Vroom would axe about 800 jobs, according to the U.S.-based online used-car marketplace's regulatory filing last week, as it plans to focus on automotive financing and AI services and close its e-commerce and used-vehicle dealership businesses.Earlier this month, media reports said Duolingo would cut 10% of its contractors as the language-learning app moves toward using AI to create content.

[beardedmrbean]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk plans to lay off most of Twitter’s workforce if and when he becomes owner of the social media company, according to a report Thursday by The Washington Post.

Musk has told prospective investors in his Twitter purchase that he plans to cut nearly 75% of Twitter’s employee base of 7,500 workers, leaving the company with a skeleton crew, according to the report. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberations.

San Francisco-based Twitter and a representative for Musk attorney Alex Spiro did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

While job cuts have been expected regardless of the sale, the magnitude of Musk's planned cuts are far more extreme than anything Twitter had planned. Musk himself has alluded to the need to cull some of the company's staff in the past, but he hadn't given a specific number — at least not publicly.

"A 75% headcount cut would indicate, at least out of the gates, stronger free cash flow and profitability, which would be attractive to investors looking to get in on the deal," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. “That said, you can’t cut your way to growth."

Ives added that such a drastic reduction in Twitter's workforce would likely set the company back years.

Already, experts, nonprofits and even Twitter's own staff have warned that pulling back investments on content moderation and data security could hurt Twitter and its users. With as drastic a reduction as Musk may be planning, the platform could quickly become overrun with harmful content and spam — the latter of which the Tesla CEO himself has said he'll address if he becomes owner of the company.

After his initial $44 billion bid in April to buy Twitter, Musk backed out of the deal, contending Twitter misrepresented the number of fake “spam bot” accounts on its platform. Twitter sued, and a Delaware judge has given both sides until Oct. 28 to work out details. Otherwise, there will be a trial in November.

[incarnateirony]

Every time I hear someone go "but my author fave can do this because Technicality And Guild Difference."

Just. Did you guys even listen.

"Add to that, no promotion of movies or television shows and famous faces on the picket lines and social media speaking directly to their customers. For the tech companies and the mega corporations, that should be their nightmare scenario: WGA and SAG-AFTRA side by side. Our bargaining agenda may not be identical, but our cause is the same. Our army of labor, defending labor has increased 17-fold in the past two weeks alone."

Did they fucking stutter. is this unclear. or will fandom realize Well Technically Specifically My Fave's OG Limit Lines Makes This Ok If Turned Sideways is not. fuckin. it.

Also, since this was July 26, please remember this in context to some recent posts here:

"

So what can we expect from the companies as all of this plays itself out? They will try to convince Wall Street that taking a strike, prolonging it unnecessarily, losing their content stream in the process—that all of that is just smart business and no reason for investor concern. We will be talking to Wall Street too, and reminding them that for all these companies, all of 'em including Netflix, the bill, the price for making nothing, will eventually come due. And Wall Street is listening already. Here's Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush on Yahoo Finance the other day: “I think the studios are completely wrong on this one. Content is their lifeblood. They're feeling really foolish about this."

Wall Street isn't the only one listening. We've been talking to union pension funds too about the risks the companies are taking. We talked to CalPERS, the largest public pension plan in the country, talked about the loss of programming and the cost to the industry, and we heard strong support from its board for our struggle and the promise that the companies will be hearing from them, from CalPERS, and demanding answers on behalf of its 2 million members."

I wonder what fandom thinks the endgoal of this part of leverage is:

"Two unions on strike willing to exercise their power, despite the pain, to ensure their members get the contract they deserve. For us, that means addressing the relentless mistreatment of screenwriters, which has only been exacerbated by the move to streaming; the continued denial of full MBA protection to comedy variety and other appendix A writers when they work in streaming; and the self-destructive unsustainable dismantling of the process by which episodic television is made and episodic television writers are paid.

It means addressing the existential threat of AI and the insufficiency of streaming residual formulas, including the need for transparency and a success-based component. All of these will need to be addressed for there to be a deal because in this strike it is our power and not their pattern that matters, not their strategy. Their strategy has failed them. Now they're in the midst of a streaming war with each other, an admittedly difficult transition. And as they face the future, their interests and business models could not be more different from Disney to Sony to Netflix to Amazon.

We root for their success, all of them. They root for each other's failure. We are the creative ammunition through which they will succeed. They are each other's apex predators. And yet, in a singular shared dedication to denying labor, they have shackled themselves together in what increasingly seems like a mutual suicide pact, as the 2023-24 broadcast season and the 2024-25 movie schedule and its streaming shows disappear, melt away week by week."

Can't wait for fandom to figure out they've been fighting against the obvious to the point of embarrassing.

[raspberrykraken]

We need to extend the spirit of the 4th amendment into the digital age with data privacy legislation that protects us against these jackals of all nationalities, including American. But that’s not going to happen because billionaires want the profits but none of the responsibility.

[ausetkmt]

The U.S. Department of Labor has published a new proposal on how workers should be classified saying that thousands of people have been incorrectly labeled as contractors rather than employees, potentially curtailing access to benefits and protections they rightfully deserve.

Misclassifying workers as independent contractors denies those workers protections under federal labor standards, promotes wage theft, allows certain employers to gain an unfair advantage over businesses, and hurts the economy, the department said Tuesday.

The reaction in markets for major gig companies was immediate. Shares of Lyft and Uber tumbled about 13%. in early trading.

The misclassification of workers has negatively impacted delivery workers, custodians, truck drivers, waiters, construction workers and more, according to the department.

"While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors, particularly among our nation's most vulnerable workers," said Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh in a prepared statement. "Misclassification deprives workers of their federal labor protections, including their right to be paid their full, legally earned wages."

The Labor department's proposed rule would help employers and workers determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

"This is a long-awaited determination that will empower essential workers to assert their basic wage and hour, health and safety, and compensation rights," said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. "All workers are entitled to these rights, but employers easily avoid them by making arbitrary decisions on independent contractor rules."

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the proposal would constitute a major change for workers and employers from previous years.

"A classification to employees would essentially throw the business model upside down and cause some major structural changes if this holds," Ives wrote.

Last year the Biden administration repealed a Trump-era rule that would have made it easier to classify workers as independent contractors. The repeal meant the Labor Department was able to continue using existing rules under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act to determine whether a worker should be classified as an independent contractor

[leprivatebanker]

Tech stocks to move higher on rate cutting cycle, AI boost says Wedbush

[mariacallous]

Just after 2 am Pacific time on Monday morning, several OpenAI staffers—including its chief technology officer, Mira Murati—posted in unison on X: “OpenAI is nothing without its people.” Sam Altman, who was dramatically removed as the company’s chief executive on Friday, reposted many of them. By then, Altman already had a new job. Satya Nadella—CEO of Microsoft, a major investor and partner of OpenAI—announced late on Sunday night that Altman and his cofounder Greg Brockman would be joining the tech giant to head a new “advanced AI research team.” Nadella’s statement seemed to suggest that others from the startup would be joining Microsoft.

By hiring Altman and Brockman amid the chaos at the top of OpenAI, Microsoft has managed to acquire one of the most successful management teams in artificial intelligence without having to buy the company—whose pre-chaos valuation was $86 billion.

“Satya now looks like one of the most epic kingmakers,” says Nathan Benaich, founder and general partner at Air Street Capital and author of the State of AI report.

At least three other senior researchers—Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Mądry, and Szymon Sidor—have reportedly left OpenAI.

“The head and the arms and one of the legs [of OpenAI] have gone to Microsoft,” says tech analyst Azeem Azhar, author of the newsletter Exponential View. “This is an enormous opportunity for Microsoft because it gets to take Sam Altman and Greg Brockman and probably a large part of the leadership team, and many of the very best engineers and researchers.”

At Microsoft, Altman and Brockman will have access to huge amounts of capital and compute power, Azhar says, as well as the tech giant’s support to develop other parts of the AI tech stack, including chips and consumer electronics. Altman was reportedly trying to raise billions of dollars from investors for a new chip project in the weeks running up to his firing. Altman and OpenAI had also been linked to a hardware venture with former Apple head of design Jony Ive that was reportedly hoping to build the “iPhone of AI,” backed by Softbank’s Masayoshi Son.

“I’m sure [Microsoft] will give Sam the leeway to go up and down the stack,” Azhar says. “Microsoft itself is developing its own chips for AI. Well, Altman’s group can probably help with that now, and they will be developing consumer electronics like surface computers and so on. Sam can start to head into that direction now through this group.”

Microsoft shares slipped on Friday as news of the problems at OpenAI spread. OpenAI’s technology has been integrated into a number of Microsoft products, including its Bing search engine, and the two companies’ fortunes had been seen as deeply intertwined. The news that Altman will be moving to the company is likely to restore confidence, analysts say.

“[Microsoft] hired this key asset and now he will oversee OpenAI from Redmond along with Nadella which is music to the ears of investors,” Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst covering the technology sector at Wedbush Securities, said in an email. “If Microsoft lost Altman he could have gone to Amazon, Google, Apple, or a host of other tech companies craving to get the face of AI globally in their doors. Instead he is safely in Microsoft’s HQ now leading the company’s key AI efforts.”

In an increasingly competitive AI industry, this is more than just steadying the ship after a chaotic few days for Microsoft. “Microsoft would never have thought they would get this level of talent, right? And especially at the senior level,” says Imran Ghory, general partner at VC Blossom Capital.

What it means for OpenAI isn’t clear, but the weekend’s events have also punctured a pervasive myth that the company’s lead in the industry is bulletproof. “The weekend’s chaos has shown us that no one is immune from the laws of corporate physics. Considering Sam’s centrality, it’s the most baffling decision from an AI lab I’ve witnessed,” he says. “People who are investing in OpenAI took the view that it was invincible. History teaches you that no one is invincible."

[avidtrader]

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[hacialikara]

iPhone 16 hangi ülkede üretilecek? Fiyatı etkiler mi?

Apple, iPhone 16 Pro ve Pro Max modellerinin üretimi konusunda büyük değişiklikler yapmayı planlıyor. Daha önce, Apple’ın Hindistan’da üretim yapmayı genişleteceği ve Pro serisi iPhone’ları ilk kez burada monte edeceği bildirildi. Ancak, Wedbush Securities analisti Dan Ives, bu durumun gerçekleşmeyebileceğini belirtiyor. Detaylar haberimizde… iPhone 16 Pro ve Pro Max üretimi: Çin’de mi kalacak,…

[ericvanderburg]

Other cybersecurity plays will benefit from CrowdStrike's 'black eye moment', says Wedbush's Dan Ives

http://i.securitythinkingcap.com/T9zSqy

[allaboutmarketing4you]

Why Nike is Facing Its Worst Performance in Years

Nike once dominated the sneaker market, but is currently facing a rare decline in sales. As competitors have gained ground, will Nike be able to regain its status as the top dog in sportswear?

Video Source: Morning Brew

THE RATINGS GAME

" Nike’s stock sees biggest drop ever as some analysts question company’s leadership after downbeat forecast

‘Management credibility is severely challenged and potential for C-level regime change adds further uncertainty,’ Stifel analysts say

As shares of Nike Inc. ended Friday with their biggest drop ever following the sneaker maker’s pessimistic outlook a day earlier, Wall Street analysts were retrenching — with some even questioning the company’s management.

Nike shares NKE -0.32% finished the regular trading session 20% lower after the stock was hit with multiple downgrades from firms like Stifel, Morgan Stanley and UBS. The selloff marked Nike’s biggest one-day percentage decline on record.

Jim Duffy, an analyst at Stifel, said in a research note Thursday that Nike was asking investors to place their faith in newer, unproven sneaker and clothing styles amid wobbly demand — straining confidence in the company’s leadership in the process.

“Management credibility is severely challenged and potential for C-level regime change adds further uncertainty,” he wrote.

Nike plans to roll out an array of new products, and is trying to do so more quickly, to counteract reluctance from inflation-battered consumers. But over at UBS, analyst Jay Sole had his own reservations about the company, and cut his per-share profit estimates for its next three fiscal years.

“Our key conclusion is there will be no quick rebound for Nike’s earnings,” Sole said in a research note on Friday. “We believe Nike is embarking on what will be a multiyear reset of its business in order to return to healthy top-line growth rates.”

He added: “Our base case top-line forecast depends on Nike successfully developing new innovative products, but there is no guarantee this will happen.”

Speaking on a conference call to discuss Nike’s fourth-quarter results Thursday, Chief Executive John Donahoe said the company saw strong gains in performance products, although this was more than offset by declines in Nike’s lifestyle segment. Those declines, he added, had “a pronounced impact” on Nike’s digital results.

“These factors when combined with increased macro uncertainty and worsening foreign exchange have caused us to reduce our guidance for [fiscal-year] 2025,” Donahoe said.

“NKE’s 4Q24 print was very choppy, and the challenges facing the company are clearly more impactful than we (or management) expected,” wrote Wedbush analyst Tom Nikic in a note released Friday. “After the company missed Q4 sales and meaningfully cut FY25 guidance, shares are likely to open meaningfully lower on Friday.”

“We doubt many investors will view this as a ‘buy the pullback’ event, and we think NKE shares are headed for a stay in the proverbial penalty box until new product innovations actually start to manifest themselves and management regains investor trust,” Nikic said. “We remain at Outperform due to our expectation that NKE will eventually ‘figure it out,’ but our conviction in our thesis has certainly taken a hit.” Wedbush lowered its Nike price target to $97 from $115.

Analysts say that that Nike is entering a period of transition.

“FY25 will be a transitional year with significantly softer performance than we anticipated and what NKE planned 3 months ago,” wrote Raymond James analyst Rick B. Patel in a note released Friday. In particular, Patel cited weakness in lifestyle products, worsening global macro headwinds and a foreign-exchange hit.

“One could argue Nike kitchen-sinked FY25, but we don’t have confidence on upside to revenue (most critical factor) given increasingly tough macro,” Patel added, pointing to widespread reports of consumer softness from the likes of Levi Strauss & Co.

LEVI -0.68% , Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. WBA and General Mills Inc. GIS The analyst also cited unfavorable channel mix and China volatility. Raymond James downgraded Nike to market-perform from outperform.

KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Ashley Owens also expects fiscal-year 2025 to be a transition year for Nike as the company navigates the pullback of top franchises for life-cycle management, balances its wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels, kickstarts product-newness and innovation initiatives, and invests in brand marketing.

“We think the above dynamics coupled with a challenging macro will continue to pressure results for the next couple of quarters,” she said.

However, Owens noted Nike’s new “Speed Lane” priority to accelerate product creation and its goal of doubling the business contribution from new products by the end of fiscal 2025.

“Additionally, NKE noted headcount actions are complete, and looks to other areas for savings, planning to reallocate $1B to invest in consumer-facing activities in FY25 to help support top line,” the analyst added. “Though channel-mix shift and franchise [management] will challenge the next few quarters, we think balancing product offerings, channels, and price points could help NKE be more competitive [long term].”

KeyBanc Capital Markets maintained its sector-weight rating for Nike.

During the fourth-quarter conference call, Nike CEO Donahoe said that the company is harnessing Speed Lane and its Bowerman Footwear Lab to accelerate design, as well as digital tools to speed up development. The athletic-wear giant is also working with manufacturing partners to speed up product testing and production, he added, and has already accelerated half a dozen models through the new capability.

Of 40 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 22 have an overweight or buy rating, 15 have a hold rating and three have a sell rating on Nike.

Nike shares are down 30.6% in 2024 so far, compared with the S&P 500 index’s SPX 0.16% gain of 14.5%."

Article Source: marketwatch.com | By James Rogers and Bill Peters Last Updated: June 29, 2024

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