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Twitter shares soar as profit comes into view
By Rob Lever
Washington (AFP) Oct 26, 2017


Microsoft tops forecasts with 16% profit growth
San Francisco (AFP) Oct 26, 2017 - Microsoft on Thursday delivered stronger-than-expected earnings for the past quarter, lifted by gains in cloud computing and other business services.

For its first fiscal quarter to September 30, the tech giant said profit was up 16 percent from a year ago to $6.6 billion.

Revenue meanwhile rose 12 percent to $24.5 billion for the one-time tech sector leader which has shifted its focus away from consumer software to a range of enterprise services.

Shares in Microsoft jumped 3.2 percent to $81.35 for in after-hours trade following the release.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said: "Our results reflect accelerating innovation and increased usage and engagement across our businesses as customers continue to choose Microsoft to help them transform."

Microsoft's "more personal computing" division which produces the ubiquitous Windows operating system, saw revenues virtually unchanged from a year ago at $9.4 billion.

But it showed sharp growth of 28 percent from its "productivity and business process" unit, which brought in revenues of $8.2 billion.

The "intelligent cloud" unit that delivers artificial intelligence to a wide range of products saw its revenues grow 14 percent to $6.9 billion in the quarter.

LinkedIn, the professional social network acquired by Microsoft last year, contributed revenue of $1.1 billion during the quarter.

Microsoft said its "cloud technologies" operations now accounts for some $20 billion annualized and is a key to the company's future.

"Across major industries -- from finance and energy sector to retail and professional sports -- organizations are betting on Microsoft to help them transform their customers' experiences, employee productivity, operations and products," said executive vice president Judson Althoff.

"In fact, 96 percent of Fortune 500 companies have at least one of our cloud offerings, and 90 percent have at least two."

Twitter shares staged a powerful rally Thursday after the long-struggling social network said it hopes to post its first profit soon, following years of losses.

The sharp rebound sent Twitter shares higher by 18.5 percent to $20.31 -- the highest close in three months -- on the back of investor optimism at its third quarter results, even though the firm posted ongoing losses and a dip in revenue.

Twitter, which has lagged behind rivals in both user and revenue growth, posted a loss of $21 million in the third quarter, a marked improvement from the $103 million deficit it racked up a year ago.

Likewise, while revenues fell four percent over a year to $590 million, the results were not as bad as analysts had feared for the one-to-many messaging platform.

"Our work to increase relevance and make Twitter easier is making an impact," claimed chief executive Jack Dorsey as the results were announced.

While Twitter has built a solid core base of celebrities, politicians and journalists, it has failed to achieve the broader appeal of Facebook and other social platforms, hurting its ability to bring in ad revenues.

But the network has stepped up efforts to boost its user base and engagement, notably with some 30 video partnerships, as part of its turnaround efforts.

In a statement, Twitter said it would "likely" show its first net profit in the fourth quarter if growth reaches the high end of its target.

- 'Enabling more voices' -

Twitter's monthly active user base rose slightly to 330 million, roughly in line with forecasts.

The number of US monthly active users grew four percent to 69 million, and international users increased by the same ratio to 261 million.

Twitter said daily active users rose 14 percent from last year, but declined to offer specific figures.

Dorsey said Twitter was using artificial intelligence and machine learning to make the most relevant content stand out, following the example of Facebook.

"Our biggest efforts are really applying machine learning and deep learning to every single tweet," he said, in order to "make sure that we're delivering what is something that matters to people."

Dorsey said Twitter is still studying the impact of a test to double its 140-character limit for tweets and would make a decision in the coming weeks on the next step.

"I want to make sure that we are maintaining our sense of brevity, make sure that we are maintaining our sense of real time and showing what's happening in the world," he said.

"We want to make sure that we're also enabling more voices to speak and not be frustrated by the constraints."

- Turning point? -

The strong rally came despite Twitter's acknowledgment that it had overstated its user base by as many as two million in prior quarters by counting users of a third-party application.

Rich Greenfield of BTIG Research said the results could be a turning point for Twitter, and credited the company's decision to use an "algorithmic" feed that delivers the most relevant content.

"Twitter is in the middle of a recovery that has never been seen before in digital online media," Greenfield told Beet TV.

He said this is leading to significant user growth, and added that "as eyeballs follow... advertisers ultimately will follow."

But Twitter skeptic Ross Gerber at the investment firm Gerber Kawasaki was unimpressed, saying the improved finances came mainly from cutting costs like stock compensation to employees.

"Another terrible report from #twitter. User growth almost nil," Gerber tweeted.

"Many social platforms adding millions a day. #twitter is done growing. Video not made much difference. Ad platform little progress."

Twitter, which has acknowledged some lift from President Donald Trump's use of the platform, has also been struggling with ways to filter out abuse and promotion of violence, and has been caught up in the controversy over manipulation during last year's election campaign by automated accounts or "bots" directed from Russia.

The first social network to announce a policy of "transparency" for ads designed to influence elections, Twitter announced separately Thursday it was banning ads from Russia-based media groups RT and Sputnik following findings they spread misinformation during the campaign.

Dorsey noted that Twitter has stepped up its efforts to weed out inappropriate content.

"We're more focused than ever on making Twitter a safe place for everyone," he said.

Baidu shares plunge over poor revenue outlook
Beijing (AFP) Oct 27, 2017 - Shares in Chinese internet giant Baidu plunged as much as 15 percent in after hours trading Friday when it said revenues would take a hit in the final quarter because of self-imposed content restrictions during the Communist Party congress.

The projected decline in revenue at Baidu's movie and television streaming unit iQiyi, came from limiting screening of popular TV shows during the runup to the congress that ended this week by giving President Xi Jinping a second term at the helm of the party.

Television stations in China have featured wall-to-wall coverage of the 19th Party Congress. Baidu's Chief Financial Officer Herman Yu said that, "to show our respect, iQiyi adopted a self-restriction to not show hot series during this time."

The search giant's forecast fourth-quarter revenue of up to 23.4 billion yuan fell short of the 24.8 billion projected by analysts cited by Bloomberg News.

Its third-quarter report beat analyst expectations on income and matched them on revenue, according to Bloomberg News.

Net income for the period reached 7.9 billion yuan, on sales of 23.5 billion yuan marking a 29 percent increase from the same period last year. Mobile revenue accounted for 73 percent of total revenue, up from 64 percent in the same period last year.

Baidu's search engine dominates the Chinese market, but in recent years the company has struggled to diversify into other profitable business lines and suffers from increasing competition from Tencent and Alibaba.

It sold off its loss-making food delivery arm this summer while its core online advertising business has taken a hit after a scandal broke out last year over the promotion of search results featuring false medical claims.

The controversy prompted regulators to impose new restrictions on promoted search results, forcing Baidu to better police its advertisers.

That in turn trimmed Baidu's advertiser ranks, and its count of online marketers was down seven percent in the third quarter from the same period last year.

The company is in the midst of a turnaround, refocusing its business on artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

But much of the company's new investment will not have material impact on results in the near future, company officials told investors on Friday.

INTERNET SPACE
Bidding war heats up for $5 billion second Amazon HQ
New York (AFP) Oct 18, 2017
It's the prize of a lifetime - a $5 billion investment creating 50,000 well-paid jobs that everyone wants, but only one US city will get. From East to West, from North to South, metropolises across the United States are locked in a frenzied bidding war desperate to woo Amazon into favoring them as the site of the e-commerce giant's second headquarters. From $7 billion in tax breaks in N ... read more

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