*By Michael Teich*
Snap couldn't convince enough new users to join its troubled platform in the first quarter of 2018, and there will be no recovery for the company's stock as long as the current management team remains in control, said Michael Pachter, an analyst from Wedbush Securities.
Shares of the social software company plummeted Wednesday, a day after it delivered quarterly results that seriously disappointed Wall Street. The social media company added just 4 million daily active users from the previous quarter, falling short of the 7 million estimate. The stock responded quickly, and closed down almost 22 percent on Wednesday.
Pachter said competition, an unattractive platform redesign, and Snap's inability to appeal to older users were among the top reasons for its sluggish growth. “Anything Snap comes up with, Facebook will copy and they'll be more effective at it,” he said.
Despite the negative sentiment on Wall Street, Snap still claims 191 million daily active users. Snap's CEO Evan Spiegel acknowledged in an earnings call that the redesign was a drag on revenue and caused "apprehension" among advertising partners, but he emphasized users are still spending over 30 minutes per day on the app.
Pachter, who gives the stock a "neutral" rating and a $10 target for 12 months, said he is resisting giving Snap a "sell" rating because, at some point, "somebody will buy" the company.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Microsoft says users of its Azure cloud portal may be not be able to access Office 365, Minecraft or other services due to issues with its global content delivery network services. The tech company posted a note to its Azure status page that its teams are currently deploying a fix to address the outage.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
A new poll finds that as the United States rapidly builds massive data centers for the development of artificial intelligence, many Americans are concerned about the environmental impact.
Brain.fm merges music and neuroscience to enhance focus, creativity, and mental health—Dr. Kevin Woods reveals how sound is transforming cognitive performance.
