and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms set a stock market record Friday, adding $200 billion in market value in a single trading day on the heels of a knockout earnings report. The 20% rise in the tech giant’s stock price, to an all-time high of $474.99, followed the company’s stellar fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday afternoon. Revenue for the period ending December 31 shot up 25% year-over-year to $40.1 billion, driven by growth in ad impressions across the company’s social media portfolio, ...

 Apple beat on the top and bottom line today but investors nudged the shares lower as sales fell and in China and the company didn’t deliver the blowout the Street seemed to want. Revenue of $119.6 billion, up 2%, beat expectation was up for the first time after four quarters of declining sales, and above expectations —  Apple had told investors to expect revenue to be about flat with a year ago. Earnings per share of $2.18 were higher than $2.11 anticipated and up from $1.88 the year before. “Today Apple ...

Amazon delivered better-than-expected results in the fourth quarter of 2023, with revenue up 14% year-over-year in a strong holiday season. Revenue of $170 billion in the quarter ending December 31 exceeded Wall Street analysts’ consensus forecast for $166 billion. Earnings of a dollar per share represented the strongest profit figures in more than two years, soaring above the year-ago quarter’s 3 cents a share and easily beating estimates of 80 cents. The quarter included the bulk of Prime Video‘s exclus ...

The lines at Disney World may be long, but the Mouse House isn’t standing around to let Ron DeSantis savor his win yesterday in the company’s First Amendment lawsuit against the failed presidential candidate. Less than 24 hours after a federal judge agreed with the Florida Governor and deep-sixed Disney’s nearly year long legal action, the Bob Iger-run entertainment giant and Sunshine State mega-employer gave official notice they plan to challenge Wednesday’s dismissal. “Notice is given that Plaintiff Wa ...

Nelson Peltz wants Disney shareholders to elect him and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo to the company’s board, and today he unveiled the two current directors he’d like unseated to make room. Trian, Peltz’s investment firm, asked shareholds to withhold votes for Maria Elena Lagomasino and Michael Froman and vote for himself and Rasulo instead as he ramps up his campaign against Disney for what he calls poor management that’s resulted in a lagging stock price. The board showdown will come at Disney’s an ...

Google parent Alphabet reported decent numbers for the fourth quarter of 2023, including a 15.5% hike in YouTube  advertising to $9.2 billion (from $7.8 billion), solid but disappointing the market a bit with shares down 4%. Most numbers met but didn’t exceed forecasts at a time of very high expectations for tech stocks. Google Search & other advertising was $48 billion from $42.6 billion. Google Network saw ad revenue of $8.3 billion vs $8.5 billion. So total Google advertising including YouTube of $65.5 ...

Netflix founder and executive chair Reed Hastings has gifted 2 million shares, worth over $1.1 billion at the stock’s current price, to the Mountain View, California-based Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Deadline has confirmed. The move was noted in a recent SEC filing without the beneficiary named. The donation was a big chunk of Hastings’ Netflix stock — about 40%. He still owns 2,991,541 shares, the filing said. The stock has been having a great run and closed today at $575.08.   Hastings had a ne ...

Disney has proposed investing at least $1.9 billion into the Disneyland Resort over the next few decades, and will provide Anaheim millions more for housing and parks in a development agreement presented to the City Council. The proposal is called DisneylandForward and still needs to go through several more meetings with Anaheim officials before its conclusion. No details on what Disney will do have been revealed as of yet. But the broad strokes mean the company would have flexibility to choose where it b ...

Microsoft is laying off about 1,900 people in its gaming division following the closing of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In a memo sent to employees today, the company said the move was to address “areas of overlap.” Blizzard President Mike Ybarra is also leaving. In a post on X, Ybarra called it “an incredibly hard day.” His post said: “I want to thank everyone who is impacted today for their meaningful contributions to their teams, to Blizzard, and to players’ lives. It’s an incredibly hard day ...

Netflix added a far-better-than-expected 13 million subscribers to reach 260.3 million globally as of the end of 2023. The company missed earnings per share forecasts and barely edged Wall Street expectations for total revenue as it faced tricky comparisons with the year-ago quarter and continued impact from a recent price increase. Wall Street analysts had predicted the company would add between 8 million and 9 million subscribers in the period. Their consensus called for revenue of $8.71 billion and EPS ...