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.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
