Facebook reports earnings after the bell on Wednesday and all eyes are on its changes to the News Feed. Jeff Tomasulo, CEO at Vespula Capital and Jason Moser, Analyst at The Motley Fool join The Long and The Short to discuss.
The billion dollar question is whether or not the new News Feed will impact ad dollars. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that because of changes to the News Feed he expects the time people spend on Facebook and some measurements of engagement to go down. Tomasulo says the stock is up 34% in the last 12 months, yet you have CEO who's looking to change the company's main revenue stream. It worries investors and they are going to be looking for guidance this upcoming earnings report.
Plus, what is the fate of WhatsApp and Messenger? Facebook spent a lot of money on the acquisition of WhatsApp and investors are wondering where the product stands. Moser says Facebook is trying to pivot away from the spotlight of "fake news" and more toward the reason people use its platforms: to connect.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
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.
