Facebook Reports Earnings After Announcing an Adjusted News Feed Strategy and Microsoft Moves Ahead with Strong Cloud Strategy
Facebook and Microsoft released earnings after the Closing Bell today. The two tech companies beat expectations for both revenue and earnings per share.
Microsoft saw growth across the board, including in their cloud sector. Intelligent Cloud revenue rose 15% to $7.8 billion.
For Facebook, the social media still had strong earnings despite changing their news feed algorithm. Despite wins on both revenue and EPS, shares fell after the bell.
Keenan Beasley is the co-founder of BLKBOX, a marketing and intelligence agency that works closely with Facebook. Beasley joins Cheddar to give his take on Facebook earnings. Beasley is impressed by the increase of active users and believes ad revenue will just continue to grow. Beasley expects Facebook to produce less ads, but each advertisement will be more valuable, more expensive to buy, and therefore create higher profits for Facebook.
What you Need to Know on Thursday, March 17. Updates from Ukraine, President Biden refers to Putin as a ‘war criminal’ for the first time, Walmart has ambitious hiring targets for Q1, and Netflix takes steps to crack down on password sharing.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Cheddar's Michelle Castillo from South By Southwest to boost President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure legislation and talk about the big transportation issues of the day, including electric vehicle charging infrastructure and the future of public transit. "It means we have a huge wind at our back delivering on the kinds of transportation solutions that are going to define the 2020's 2030s, 2040s even," he said. "And that's what makes it exciting to come to South by Southwest and talk with some of the people who are following these technologies and ideas the most closely and talk about where we're headed." Buttigieg also touched on the "Don't Say Gay" legislation in Florida, noting that such legislative pushes were likely coming from politicians deflecting from lacking answers to pressing economic concerns, in his opinion.
Social audio app Clubhouse reached $1 billion valuation milestone this January, and Fadia Kader, head of strategic media partnerships at Clubhouse, joined Cheddar News to talk about what its been doing to keep the drive going. "We are the category first leaders. We are 100 percent focused on social audio. It's not just a feature that we've just like bottled up and put on there. We are a medium that is 100 percent focused on community and social audio," she said.
Last year, CD sales grew for the first time since 2004, according to a new Recording Industry Association of America report. CDs were a leading format in the music industry in the 1990s when Spice Girls and TLC had us groovin'. If it feels like you've been hearing more golden oldies lately, you aren't alone. Classic music is having a serious moment, and it isn't likely to change any time soon. Baker Machado takes a closer look at what's driving this shift in the industry.
