Facebook Analyst: Tech Firms Will Have to Invest "Billions" in Security
While some Facebook execs were in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, testifying about Russia-backed ads, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced blow-out earnings. The company reported ad revenue of over $10 billion and 2.07 billion monthly active users. Daniel Ives, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Technology Research at GBH Insights, discusses the social media platform's 2018 guidance.
Zuckerberg said 2018 will be a year of "investment." Ives believes this should be used to further expand its ad growth, AR, mobile platforms, video, consumer engagement, and Instagram/Messenger monetization into 2018 and beyond. However, Ives said the platform will need to invest billions in security, which concerns investors. Zuckerberg warns that the company's future profitability will be impacted because of it.
Plus, we can't forget Apple. The tech giant reports earnings after the bell Thursday. Ives says early demand for the iPhone X will continue throughout the year. He says the Street really wants to see guidance for 75-80 million units in the month of December. He believes this will be Apple's biggest super cycle.
Oracle soars as it cashes in on the AI boom, Plus: Starbucks shares continue to fall under its new CEO, and does anybody actually want a new iPhone Air?
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
