*By Michael Teich*
As we round out 2018, we’re reviewing the year's biggest letdowns for investors. To commemorate all the epic fails, we ranked the biggest flops ー the companies that enjoyed a booming 2017, but fizzled in 2018.
**5. Activision:**
Shares lost more than a quarter of their value in 2018 after surging 75 percent last year ー but most of the damage to the video game maker’s shares have come in the past three months. The stock tanked in early November when the company forecast fourth-quarter profit and revenue below estimates. Not only did the financial guidance disturb investors, but user base numbers raised additional concerns. Activision ($ATVI) said it had 345 million monthly active users in the quarter, down from 352 million at the end of the previous quarter.
**4. Nvidia:**
The company lost about 30 percent of its value this year after surging 81 percent in 2017. The sharp decline began in October and accelerated last month after the company missed on revenue and guidance in its quarterly earnings report. Nvidia’s ($NVDA) cryptocurrency mining products and its video game segment both slumped this year ー the company's gaming business segment brought in $1.76 billion in revenue for the quarter, below the $1.89 billion estimated by Factset.
**3. Alibaba:**
The Chinese e-commerce giant soared 96 percent in 2017, but has fallen over 20 percent this year. Macroeconomic issues in China as well as a regulatory crackdown by that company’s government have presented a burden for the tech giant. Analysts tempered their outlook for the company due to a softening on consumer spending and trade-war worries. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s ($BABA) founder and chairman, also announced this year he plans to vacate his post, adding another element of uncertainty to the company’s future.
**2. Take-Two:**
The gaming company saw its stock skyrocket 123 percent in 2017. This year, shares are down about 7 percent. The maker of popular games like "NBA 2K" and "Grand Theft Auto" might be down for the year, but has relatively held its own, given the broader market decline. Take-Two ($TTWO) upped its guidance for the fiscal year, thanks to optimism generated by its new "Red Dead Redemption 2" game.
**1. Roku:**
The TV streaming platform was up a whopping 270 percent in 2017, but the stock is down over 40 percent as of this month. The stock traded above $70 a share at the start of October, but has been in free fall since then. Roku ($ROKU) suffered a steep drop after missing expectations on its platform revenue ー it got off to a hot start after its IPO in September of 2017, jumping more than 50 percent in its trading debut.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
