Facebook has already begun digging into the TV space with Facebook Watch, so what might the social media company’s next move in video be?
Jesse Redniss, Chief Innovation Officer of Turner’s TBS and TNT networks, predicts the company might buy Roku.
“Facebook has been trying to be getting into the video space for quite sometime now,” he told Cheddar in a recent interview. “When you look at Facebook’s track record of growth, the acquisition of Insta, WhatsApp, Oculus. In some ways, in order for them to really scale into a marketplace, it’ll make a lot of sense for them to buy one of the leaders in a marketplace they want to get into.”
Roku shares fell steeply Friday after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock, saying the streaming company is overvalued. Still, the company is trading well above its IPO price, and posted a 48 percent increase in active accounts in the third quarter, as well as a 58 percent increase in streaming hours.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/a-bold-prediction-on-why-facebook-would-acquire-roku).
U.S. stocks fell sharply Friday, putting the S&P on track for its worst monthly drop in 10 years. Tech stocks were among the biggest losers, with Amazon losing nearly 8 percent and Snap closing at another record low.
A regulatory crackdown on behemoths like Alphabet and Facebook is more likely than ever, according to Brian McCullough, author of "How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone."
Mozilla is looking to capitalize on consumers' increased awareness of data privacy with new anti-tracking features built into the latest version of its Firefox browser. The new tools are part of Mozilla's commitment to giving "agency" back to the user, COO Denelle Dixon said Thursday in an interview on Cheddar.
The fast-paced push to bring autonomous vehicles to market is at sharp odds with an imperative to make the tech safe and trustworthy. Both new tech companies and legacy automakers are under pressure from investors to show off their advances in autonomous vehicle deployment ー or risk being cast aside as has-beens, unable to keep pace.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
Twitter shares are surging Thursday after the company smashed its third-quarter earnings report, posting a nearly 30 percent increase in year-over-year revenue and a nine percent increase in the all-important daily active user metric. The release did not disclose the actual number of DAUs.
Tesla shares surged in after-market trading on Wednesday after the company surprised investors with strong adjusted quarterly earnings of $2.90 a share, far exceeding expectations. "As a Tesla bull, this is the quarter we've all been waiting for," Galileo Russell, founder of HyperChange TV, told Cheddar. "This is proving that Tesla can make money, they're on their way to being the most profitable automaker in the entire world. This is justifying the company's valuation; this is all good news."
Snap has hired a new chief business officer and chief strategy officer. The news comes a day before the company's earnings release and as Cheddar's Alex Heath reports an internal survey suggests 40 percent of Snap employees don't plan to stay around very long.
After Trivago's latest earnings report on Wednesday, it can once again claim profitability, a milestone the CEO hopes will restore faith in the travel-booking platform.
"I think for us it was super important to get back to profitability, to really show what this company can achieve and to gain confidence and to show the markets, 'Hey, Trivago can be a profitable company,'" Rolf Schroemgens told Cheddar Wednesday.
Tesla shares are surging as investors prepare for the company to release quarterly earnings Wednesday after the markets close. President Trump criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (again) in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. And Kerry Bishé and Corey Stoll join Cheddar to talk about their roles on Amazon's new series 'The Romanoffs.'
