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☆ Morgan Stanley says Disney can surge 35% as a strong consumer drives park revenue
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Shares for Disney could see big gains going forward, according to Morgan Stanley. He also noted that his bull case scenario is now in play after the stock's hot start to 2023. "After a 25% appreciation in shares YTD, we focus on the bull case from here: In our view, the recent appreciation in shares reflects two recent shifts in sentiment. Morgan Stanley has a bull case price target of $150 per share on Disney, which implies upside of 36.1% from Friday's close. Disney shares were down nearly 1% during the premarket Monday.

☆ 'Call of Duty' steers Activision sales in tough quarter for game makers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Videogame publisher Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter adjusted sales on Monday, thanks to the success of the latest game in its "Call of Duty" franchise. The company expects its full-year adjusted sales to grow at least in high-single digits, bolstered by the launch of games including "Diablo IV." Adjusted sales in the quarter ended Dec. 31 came in at $3.57 billion, compared with analysts' average estimate of $3.16 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Activision's $69-billion takeover by Microsoft is being challenged by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and being investigated by EU authorities. Fourth quarter net income fell to $403 million, or 51 cents per share, from $564 million, or 72 cents per share, a year earlier.

☆ Exclusive: Credit Suisse markets CSFB as 'super boutique', sees revenue rebound
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Paritosh Bansal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Veteran dealmaker Michael Klein has stepped down from the Credit Suisse board to become CEO. Third-party capital would help fund the unit's lending as a standalone entity, Credit Suisse said, without providing additional details. At the same time, Credit Suisse would pull back from certain businesses, such as providing revolving credit lines to companies and non-essential trading. Bloomberg News reported last month that Credit Suisse was nearing a deal to buy the boutique for a few hundred million dollars. Longer term under its plan for CSFB, Credit Suisse projects net revenues could rise to as much as $3.5 billion.

☆ HSBC embarks on Saudi Arabia hiring spree amid deals boom
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - HSBC (HSBA.L) is hiring dealmakers as "fast as it can" in Saudi Arabia to capitalise on a wave of financing activity in the country, the global head of its investment bank told Reuters. The lender aims to increase headcount in its global banking and markets business in Saudi Arabia by 10-15% this year, Greg Guyett, the division's chief executive, told Reuters. HSBC declined to comment on how many such bankers it already employs in Saudi Arabia. HSBC's investment banking business made $65 million in profit in Saudi Arabia in 2021, according to company filings, the smallest such contribution among named countries aside from loss-making France. Saudi Arabia also sold $5 billion in bonds last October, its first international debt sale in almost a year.

☆ Peloton CEO doesn't care that its equipment is losing money, sees path forward in the app
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy told investors Wednesday he doesn't care that the company is losing money on its Bike, Tread and Row equipment. So from my part, I don't particularly care about the hardware margin," McCarthy said during the company's earnings call. In Peloton's fiscal second quarter 2023, ended Dec. 31, the exercise equipment company lost $42.8 million on its connected fitness products, bringing the division's gross margin to negative 11.2%. While subscription revenue was effectively flat quarter over quarter, it exceeded sales from Peloton's connected fitness products for the third quarter in a row. The cost of the app, which doesn't require any Peloton equipment, is $12.99 per month compared with the $44 monthly cost for the company's all-access membership that can be used on its connected fitness equipment.

☆ LVMH shares lose recent lustre as China takes margin toll
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PARIS, Jan 27 (Reuters) - LVMH (LVMH.PA) shares, which hit a record high earlier this month, fell on Friday as some analysts aired disappointment at the company's margins, taking some of the shine off a fourth-quarter sales rise. However, some analysts focused on its flat margins. "The slight wrinkle is on the margin, where the group delivered a flat operating margin year-on-year (versus consensus of +90 bps) – largely a reflection of maintaining/raising H2 marketing spend despite disrupted revenue growth," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a note. The division's profit from recurring operations came to 660 million euros for the year, a fall of 3%. Reporting by Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Silvia Aloisi, Benoit Van Overstraeten and Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ UK car production is at its weakest since 1956. And the industry is losing the EV race
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN —UK car manufacturing hit a 66-year low in 2022, as the closure of two plants, a global shortage of semiconductors and the effect of Covid lockdowns in China on auto supply chains crippled output. “The relationship between the UK and the EU, especially as you electrify, is still fundamental to the success of UK car manufacturing,” he said. UK factories made a record 234,066 electric vehicles in 2022, almost a third of all UK car production. Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India’s Tata Motors (TTM), are also positive about the prospects for electric vehicle manufacturing in the United Kingdom. “Our continued investment in our UK facilities … will herald an exciting new era of electric car production in the UK,” the company said.

Uber Freight has laid off 150 employees, or about 3% of the segment's total headcount. The layoffs impact the division's Digital Brokerage team, Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron said in a Monday message viewed by CNBC. Uber launched its freight unit in 2017 with a belief that trucking companies and laden goods could be matched using the same concept that underpinned the company's ride-hailing technology. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he isn't planning companywide layoffs. In Nov. 2022, delivery service DoorDash laid off 1,250 workers, or 6% of its headcount, weeks after ride-sharing platform Lyft cut 13% of its headcount.

☆ Bloomberg to pay $5 mln to settle SEC charges related to fixed-income valuations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Bloomberg failed to disclose to customers of its BVAL service that its daily price valuations for fixed-income securities could be based on a single data input from at least 2016 to October 2022, the SEC said in a statement. Bloomberg did not admit or deny the SEC's charges and a spokesperson for the company declined to comment. While it found no evidence Bloomberg listed any erroneous prices, the agency said there were instances when its valuations were not derived in accordance with its stated methodologies. For a "very small fraction of total reported valuations", Bloomberg determined prices of certain fixed income securities based on "uncorroborated single broker quotes", the SEC's order said. The SEC "will hold service providers, such as Bloomberg, accountable for misrepresentations that impact investors," said Osman Nawaz, chief of the SEC enforcement division's complex financial products unit.

☆ Volkswagen keeping IPO option open for charging, energy business - division chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Jan Schwartz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HAMBURG, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) energy and charging division is keeping all options open for the long-term structure of the business, including a possible listing, the division's chief Elke Temme said in an interview with Reuters. "It won't take five more years," Temme predicted, adding that Volkswagen's electric vehicles on the MEB platform were equipped for the feature. "Cars will become part of the energy system," Temme said on Monday. "The energy industry and the car market are becoming more woven together." Reporting by Jan Schwartz, Writing by Victoria Waldersee, Editing by Rachel More, Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Amazon's drone delivery unit hit with layoffs just as 10-year-old project finally launches
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Two employees said Carbon, who replaced Prime Air co-founder Gur Kimchi, was hired to turn Prime Air into a real business with a sensible budget. Sources with knowledge of Prime Air said cuts in the drone delivery business were expected considering the division's many struggles. Monica Williams, a College Station resident, poses with a Prime Air drone at a community event in July. College Station residents also expressed concern about the prospect of drones harming the deer, foxes and birds that are native to the area. "As we continue to expand, we will update you when drone delivery is available for your household."

☆ Apple is looking for a top sales executive to spearhead a giant advertising push in sports and streaming. Here are 16 execs who could score the job.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Netflix also conducted a search before hiring two Snap executives, Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor, to lead its new ads business. XandrLesser, a longtime digital ad executive, has extensive experience working on issues around the future of digital marketing. McDonald has a ton of other digital ad sales and publishing experience. She helped launch Modi Media, ad buying giant GroupM's addressable TV business, before joining TV adtech startup Cadent. UnivisionValentino runs Disney's digital ad business as EVP, client and brand solutions.

"We have the ambition to become a profitable company in 2023," Laege said, adding the group had also secured long-term regasification capacity at the planned Hanseatic Energy Hub terminal in Stade, Germany. Laege said that Sefe, formerly called Gazprom Germania, was successful in sourcing LNG mainly from the United States, both short-term deals and for longer periods. The company, whose name is short for Securing Energy for Europe, had already unloaded a first cargo at Dunkirk, he said. However, next winter and beyond could be tight again if cold periods and a fast recovery of Asian LNG demand coincide. Reporting by Vera Eckert, Christoph Steitz, Tom Kaeckenhoff, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Analysis: Bond traders get their swagger back in rate-obsessed markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Lananh Nguyen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

REUTERS/Andrew KellyNEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Bond traders are stars again on Wall Street. Fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) traders bolstered bank profits last year despite dreary deal markets. Bond specialists in the $22 trillion Treasuries market are in high demand as the Federal Reserve and other central banks have aggressively raised interest rates over the past two years. After the financial crisis, central bankers in the United States and advanced economies steadied markets by holding interest rates near zero. On Tradeweb Markets Inc's (TW.O) electronic bond trading platforms, average daily volumes rose almost 10% in 2022.

☆ Google's moonshot factory is coming down to Earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The project, known internally by its codename, "Valkyrie," was the typical science-fiction-sounding idea that Google's self-described "moonshot factory" was designed to dream up. But amid a lack of successful launches and a tech industry facing economic headwinds, insiders say the lab is now hitting the hard-reset button and rethinking its purpose within Alphabet, Google's parent company. X swapped standard corporate titles like "Communications Lead" and "Manager" for grander and more-nebulous names like "Factory Whisperer" and "Firestarter." Its internet-balloon unit, Google Loon, meant to bring people in rural areas online, was shuttered in January 2021. "I think the infusion of VC people is a good thing," one former senior X employee said.

☆ 10 money managers who quietly control the vast fortunes of Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, the Waltons, and other big-name billionaires
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +24 min

Many über-rich people don't outsource their wealth — they hire their own chief investment officers. He left SAC in 2005 for Dune Capital Management, but stayed in touch with Steve during his five-year term at the investment firm. Andrew oversees CPV's portfolio, which primarily comprises direct private investments such as Collectors Universe, a collectibles-authentication company, and the New York Mets. In 2011, Wildcat Capital Management was launched with Potter as president and chief investment officer. Since November 2021, Carland has also served as the interim chief investment officer for Builders Vision's asset arm.

☆ Activision's Boston studio workers announce unionization
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 27 (Reuters) - A majority of workers at videogame publisher Activision Blizzard Inc's (ATVI.O) recently acquired studio Proletariat said on Tuesday that they are forming a union with the Communications Workers of America. The move would make the Boston-based studio, the third Activision Blizzard studio to seek unionization. The 57 workers in the Proletariat unit – that include animators, designers, engineers, producers and quality assurance workers – said they have filed for a union representation election with the National Labor Relations Board. Earlier in July, Activision said that it had Proletariat to expand the development pipeline of its online role-playing game "World of Warcraft". Workers who test games at Activision's unit Blizzard Albany have voted to form a union months after the company began negotiating with employees at its Wisconsin unit, the first in the company to unionize.

☆ Credit Agricole strikes bancassurance deal with Italy's Banco BPM
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The deal allows the provision of non-life insurance products and related services through BBPM's networks for a 20-year period. It also stipulates that the French bank's Credit Agricole Assurances (CAA) division will buy from Banco BPM 65% of the share capital of both Vera Assicurazioni and Banco BPM Assicurazioni. "We are very pleased that our long-standing strategic partnership with Banco BPM will soon be strengthened," Credit Agricole CEO Philippe Brassac said in a statement. Credit Agricole has a 9.18% stake in Banco BPM, Italy's third-largest bank behind Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) and UniCredit (CRDI.MI). Three weeks ago, Banco BPM picked Credit Agricole over a rival bid from French insurer AXA (AXAF.PA) to start exclusive talks over a non-life insurance partnership.

But some government officials, including at the U.S. Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, remain opposed to a security deal, according to the sources. TikTok has also proposed to form a "proxy" board that would run the USDS division independent of ByteDance, the sources said. This division is headed on an interim basis by Andrew Bonillo, a former U.S Secret Service agent, and until a security deal with the U.S. is reached it reports to TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew. TikTok has been also seeking to hire independent auditors and monitors who would be paid by the company but report to CFIUS, according to the sources. However, it is unclear whether Biden's administration will eventually sign off on a security deal with TikTok.

☆ TikTok steps up efforts to clinch U.S. security deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

☆ EU regulators quiz rivals on Microsoft tactics after Activision
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Activision games "Call of Duty" are pictured in a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 18, 2022. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File PhotoBRUSSELS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have asked game developers and distributors if they think Microsoft (MSFT.O) will block their access to Activision Blizzard's (ATVI.O) games once it has bought the company, an EU document seen by Reuters shows. "Please specify which partial exclusivity strategy or strategies you believe Microsoft would have the ability to deploy with respect to Activision Blizzard's console games after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard," the questionnaire asked. The EU antitrust watchdog asked if such strategies would include degrading the quality or interoperability of Activision's games available on competing consoles or providing upgrades to Activision's games only on Xbox. Regulators asked what advantages and disadvantages game developers and publishers and console game distributors would face if a game is distributed exclusively on one console.

☆ Peru's president to replace prime minister in Cabinet shakeup
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Marco Aquino | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Summary Prime Minister Angulo out after only 1 weekCabinet reshuffling follows 2 ministers quittingMinisters quit after protestors killedLIMA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, who is leading a transitional government following the ouster of her predecessor, will replace the prime minister as part of a reshuffling of her Cabinet, she said on Sunday. Boluarte was vice president until earlier this month when her predecessor, former President Pedro Castillo, was removed from office and then detained after illegally trying to dissolve Congress. She did not hint at a possible replacement for Pedro Angulo, who had been prime minister for just a week. Boluarte also added that the new Cabinet, which will work with the opposition-led Congress, will be "a little more political." Former President Castillo frequently butted heads with Congress, which held two unsuccessful impeachment trials against him.

☆ UK to hold inquiry into allegations special forces killed Afghan civilians
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Britain's defence ministry announced on Thursday an inquiry into allegations that its special forces carried out dozens of extrajudicial killings during night raids in Afghanistan. The announcement follows a report by BBC television's Panorama programme in July that alleged soldiers from the elite Special Air Service (SAS) had killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances. The inquiry, which will be led by senior judge Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, would also look at the adequacy of the response to the allegations, the MoD said. "The UK's armed forces rightly hold themselves to the highest possible operational standards," Murrison said. "Operations must be conducted within the clear boundaries of the law and credible allegations against our forces must always be investigated thoroughly."

☆ U.S. special counsel subpoenas officials in Georgia, Nevada -W.Post
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith has issued a subpoena to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and authorities in Clark County, Nevada, according to The Washington Post, bringing the number of U.S. states to have officials summoned to six. The Post, citing a copy of the summons, said those subpoenaed were asked to appear before a grand jury. Smith previously summoned state or local officials in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin seeking their communications with Republican former President Donald Trump, his campaign, aides and allies. Nevada's Clark County acknowledged receiving the subpoena for its elections division's custodian of records, the Post said. The subpoena for Raffensperger is dated Dec. 9, and the one for Clark County, Nevada, Nov. 22 the Post reported.

☆ Forget the F-150 Lightning and Hummer EV. Ford and GM's real battle is for electric delivery vans.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But perhaps their real battle will happen with electric delivery vans. "But the electrification of the commercial vehicle market," he said, "I think is underappreciated." Now, government support through incentives has bolstered EV momentum, and as a result, companies looking for electric fleets will only ask for more. How electric delivery van-makers plan to nail this downFord and GM's inherent advantages over rivals include name recognition, robust supply bases, and ample resources. "We've seen over the decades how strong brand loyalty is in the commercial vehicle segment," said AutoPacific analyst Robby DeGraff.

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