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☆ Elon Musk Offers Worst Job in Tech
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Laura Forman | Dan Gallagher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Wanted: Chief executive officer of a flailing tech company who will have no control over that company’s product or distribution. No free lunch. Must be willing to suffer public ridicule and disdain from the company’s owner. It is not exactly the ad that is going to light up LinkedIn. But it is basically what Elon Musk is searching for in his quest for a new “Chief Twit.” Late Tuesday, Mr. Musk said that he will resign as CEO of the social network he bought barely two months ago “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” He added that he still plans to run Twitter’s software and servers teams.

☆ Meta Just Issued a Status Update. Wall Street Should Read Into It.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A leading social network is going retro. Instagram Notes, which launched in many countries worldwide this past Tuesday, is “essentially a status update,” said Instagram head Adam Mosseri . Think of it as a 2022 take on a feature Facebook unveiled way back in 2006, then mimicking AOL’s AIM “away message.” Also “new” on Instagram: Candid Stories, a feature being tested as a way for users to share “what’s happening right now” using both the front and the back of the camera at the same time. That is essentially a copycat of Gen Z phenomenon BeReal, but integrated into Instagram Stories.

☆ How the Grinch Might Steal Pinterest
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Pinterest is in the midst of major transformation under a new chief executive officer. The Grinch’s small heart might grow this holiday season—but don’t bank on it beating for Pinterest . Whoville’s Christmas didn’t come from a store in the end, but a lot of social-media money still does. Sitting on inventory amid a tough economic backdrop, retailers this year broadened Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales into a monthlong discount bonanza. Mobile advertising, in particular, seems to have paid off, leading to record digital sales for Thanksgiving Day with mobile shopping driving the majority of sales for the first time through the remainder of Cyber week, according to Adobe Analytics.

☆ Twitter Is Too Musk to Fail
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk is showing that he is willing to dedicate resources to Twitter to save his reputation as a brilliant and unconventional businessman. At least Elon Musk is having fun. Twitter’s new owner asked his nearly 119 million Twitter followers last week how one can make a small fortune on social media. His reply: “Start out with a large one.”It is probably too soon for that #RIPTwitter hashtag, though. But if Mr. Musk’s first few weeks running Twitter have been a train wreck, few people seem able to look away.

☆ Maybe Winning Is Quitting in Tech Right Now
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Despite recent layoffs, Meta Platforms’ Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t paused plans to spend billions of dollars toward his vision of building the metaverse. Silicon Valley embraces failure. Maybe it should applaud quitting, too. Tech leaders have had a lot to say about their companies’ poor performance lately, but few are throwing in the towel on grandiose plans that have hobbled them. Even as they downsize, many seem to be forging ahead on their next-generation journeys or remaining silent while their successors take those journeys to greater extremes.

☆ Don’t Skip DoorDash’s Side Dishes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

After a sour year during which DoorDash lost nearly three-quarters of its market value, shares of the delivery platform are up a sweet 28% over the past month. That might not just be because investors are suddenly hungry for on-demand takeout again. With restaurant delivery slowing, DoorDash is getting credit for the groceries and convenience items it delivers on the side—services that are sinking some more pure-play competitors. The grocery deliverer Instacart has cut its own valuation by two-thirds since early last year, down to around $13 billion from $39 billion, according to the Information, a news publication. Last month The Wall Street Journal reported that Instacart likely shelved its plans for an initial public offering until next year, suggesting that the current market might value the company much lower even after its most recent internal cut.

☆ After Tech Wreck, Barry Diller Could Deliver Buffett-Beating Returns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ In a Tech Wreck, Barry Diller Could Deliver Buffett-Beating Returns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Elon Musk Picks a Bad Time to Test Twitter’s Necessity
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Dan Gallagher | Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk could succeed in making Twitter Inc. both bigger and smaller. His new rivals certainly wouldn’t mind the latter. The voluble billionaire’s first two weeks running the social platform he spent $44 billion to buy have been predictably messy. Half the workforce has been canned, several top-level executives have either quit or been fired, new subscription plans and verification changes have seen hasty and problem-riddled rollouts, and policies around key topics like content moderation have seemingly been made by tweet and discarded the same way.

☆ Layoffs Aren’t a Good Look for Big Tech’s Growth Story
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Laura Forman | Justin Lahart | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The long list of Big Tech companies laying people off surely says something about the current state of the economy, but it might tell us more about the sector’s prospects: Investors probably need to look elsewhere for growth. Business software company Salesforce also started dismissing some employees this week. Marking one of his first moves since taking the company over, Elon Musk axed about half of Twitter’s workforce last week, while ride-hailing company Lyft , payments company Stripe and iBuyer Opendoor Technologies also just announced major reductions. Those followed a dizzying list of earlier announcements from Netflix, Shopify, Tesla, Snap, Compass, Peloton, Twilio and more. Meanwhile, Amazon.com has said it would freeze corporate hiring for months, and Alphabet ’s Google has asked some employees to apply for new jobs to remain at the company.

☆ Lyft Keeps Pumping the Wrong Gas
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

As the great ride-share recovery seems just about tapped out, Lyft insists it is just getting started. On Monday, the ride-hailer reported the slowest revenue growth in more than a year, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization fell slightly on an annual basis in the third quarter. After rising 12% on a sequential basis in the second quarter, active riders increased just 2%, even while still remaining nearly a million riders short of prepandemic levels. Lyft shares fell more than 13% in after-hours trading following the report.

☆ Match Group Has Still Got Some Game
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In online dating, most people lead with the flashy picture and disappoint in the flesh. New Match Group Chief Executive Officer Bernard Kim did the opposite. Shares of the dating giant rose more than 16% in after-hours trading Tuesday after it posted third quarter numbers that were so boring they were actually kind of sexy. Match’s revenue grew 1% year on year, while its adjusted operating income came in essentially flat on that basis. But when you beat what looks like sandbagged guidance by as much as 10%, as Match did on the bottom line, investors tend to perk right up.

☆ Uber Earns Its Five-Star Rating From Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Uber’s fourth-quarter outlook was better than feared, with the company giving earnings guidance well above consensus forecasts. Wall Street is a tough customer these days, but Uber just scored a big tip. While much of the tech sector has sunk thus far this earnings season due to macroeconomic pressures, currency exchange and—in Meta Platforms ’ case—heavy investments even in the face of a contracting economy, Uber is bucking the trend. Despite reporting that trips per monthly active platform consumer were still below prepandemic levels, higher prices and lower costs helped drive third-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization above Wall Street’s forecasts.

☆ Subscriptions Could Be Key to Social-Media Companies’ Futures
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Consumers are spending a record number of hours on social media, but the platforms have had difficulties profiting off of your time lately. Long booming online ads businesses, historically the predominant way social-media companies made money, have cratered this year thanks to a weakening economy and Apple ’s ad tracking changes that have made it more difficult for platforms to demonstrate return on advertisers’ investments. Snapchat parent Snap Inc.’s growth fell off a similar cliff, down over 60 percentage points over the same period. Shares of major social-media companies, including Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Snapchat and Pinterest , are down an average of 60% this year as investors have broadly lost faith in their first act. Suddenly, subscriptions have gone from a theoretical call option on a secondary revenue stream to a must have.

☆ Meta’s Reverse Darkens Mark Zuckerberg’s Dream
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Mark Zuckerberg wants to sell the world on his “amazing” $1,500 virtual-reality headset. Meta Platforms said Wednesday that its revenue fell 4% year on year in the third quarter—its second consecutive quarter of annual declines—while net income fell 52%. For the fourth quarter, the company formerly known as Facebook is forecasting revenue to fall ever further annually with the midpoint of its outlook implying a drop of about 7%. Meanwhile, although Meta claims to be making changes across the board to operate more efficiently, its expense projection for the full year remains little changed. Beyond that, the company said it expects operating losses for its Reality Labs division, which houses its metaverse ambitions, to grow significantly next year.

☆ Grindr Public Listing Can’t Keep It Casual
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Investors will soon be able to hook up with the world’s most-popular gay-dating platform. A merger with the special-purpose acquisition company Tiga Acquisition, announced in May, values Grindr at $2.1 billion and is expected to close by the end of the year. Grindr’s popularity relative to its total market size is impressive. A study commissioned by Grindr estimates the size of the LGBTQ+ population as of 2021 was just about 7% of the global tally. Meanwhile, Grindr had amassed 601,000 paying users as of last year, according to its registration filing, about 40% of the number of paying users of Bumble , the No.

☆ Snap Crackled, Now It Stopped
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For a company focused on filters, Snap sure is getting some raw treatment in the stock market this year. And, like social media users today, things are only getting more real. Snap shares fell 25% after hours on Thursday following a third-quarter report that showed revenue rising just 6% year-over-year—below both Wall Street’s expectations and the 8% growth Snap said it was experiencing as of late August. Facing a weakening macroeconomic environment, platform policy changes and increased competition, Snap declined to provide guidance Thursday, but did warn that revenue growth “is highly likely” to decelerate further in the fourth quarter.

☆ Cruise Stocks Don’t Lead to Buried Treasure
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Cruise-line stocks have been taking on water since Covid-19 hit, but lately investors have really abandoned ship. Shares of Carnival, Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings are down an average of 23% over the past month, with Carnival shares falling nearly 36% over that period. The cruise industry has been one of the hardest hit throughout the pandemic. Yet now, regulators are allowing more ships in the water, capacity is up, and mask and vaccine restrictions are lifting. So why are investors bailing?

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