GOOG - Alphabet Inc.
| Previous Close | 1,246.15 |
| Open | 1,247.85 |
| Bid | 1,236.00 x 800 |
| Ask | 1,248.59 x 900 |
| Day's Range | 1,241.38 - 1,250.60 |
| 52 Week Range | 970.11 - 1,289.27 |
| Volume | 1,047,851 |
| Avg. Volume | 1,371,150 |
| Market Cap | 861.202B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 0.94 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 25.09 |
| EPS (TTM) | 49.53 |
| Earnings Date | N/A |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | N/A (N/A) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | N/A |
| 1y Target Est | 1,442.90 |
- Barrons.com
Microsoft Reports Earnings Today, and Expectations Are High
One analyst just crowned the company “King of Cloud,” but others are starting to question the stock’s valuation.
- MarketWatch
Google touts quantum computing milestone
Google said it has achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing research, saying an experimental quantum processor has completed a calculation in just a few minutes that would take a traditional supercomputer thousands of years.
- Barrons.com
Comcast Reports Earnings Tomorrow. Here’s What to Expect.
Investors will be focused on the growth of Comcast’s Xfinity broadband internet business, which has formed a key part of many bullish analysts’ theses on the company.
- MarketWatch
Google says it's made a breakthrough in quantum computing
Alphabet's Google said it's made a breakthrough in quantum computing, known as quantum supremacy. In a blog post, Google said it's developed a new 54-qubit processor that performed a target computation in 200 seconds, which would take the world's fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to produce a similar output. Naturepublished a paper on Google's achievement.
- Barrons.com
Microsoft Reports Earnings Late Wednesday. Here’s How to Profit No Matter What Happens.
The tech giant is up some 34% this year, making its imminent release of fiscal-first-quarter earnings a critical data point.
- Bloomberg
Adam Neumann’s Era of Excess and Eccentricity Is Over at WeWork
(Bloomberg) -- It was just weeks ago that Adam Neumann was running one of the world’s most valuable startups. As chief executive officer of WeWork, he was on the verge of an initial public offering of a venture once valued at $47 billion.Today, in a remarkable fall from grace, the office-sharing company that he co-founded in 2010, the one he promised would elevate the world’s consciousness, is no longer his.SoftBank Group Corp., the company’s largest investor, unveiled Wednesday in Tokyo a multibillion-dollar rescue package that nets it 80% of WeWork, part of a desperately needed lifeline. It brings an end to an era marked by lavish spending and self-dealing that deepened the company’s losses and eroded investors’ faith in Neumann’s ability to lead. Even with the capital infusion and new ownership, it also leaves WeWork beset by woes that include sagging morale, landlord unrest and tens of billions of dollars in rent payments.“Obviously the biggest challenge is just steadying the ship,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China, an advisory firm. “Can the company remain solvent? It’s a race against time to trim costs, sell assets, change culture.”The rescue package is personally humbling for the 40-year-old Neumann, a natural showman with a penchant for speaking in grandiose terms about changing the world while doling out shots of tequila in the workplace. But it’s also poised to make him a very rich man.Read more: WeWork Taps ‘Adult in Room,’ Ex-Amazon Exec to Replace NeumannIn an unusual deal that is almost certain to spark the ire of WeWork staffers being dismissed by the thousands, Neumann will walk away with as much as $1.2 billion as well as a $500 million credit line from SoftBank, after it pushed him out as chief executive officer last month. He’ll remain as a board observer and can assign two board seats.The deal gives WeWork a second chance at least in the short-term. SoftBank will soon provide WeWork with $1.5 billion, accelerating a financing agreement that was originally scheduled for April. SoftBank is also organizing a $5 billion debt package, which will include contributions from SoftBank itself, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and other lenders.Emblematic of high-flying, growth-at-all-costs unicorns, WeWork’s never made a penny in profits, losing $900 million in the first half of this year. Burning through cash since its inception, it faced a crunch that could have left the company short of funds as soon as next month. Much of that binge stems from Neumann, a fierce and unpredictable negotiator unafraid of spending his way to growth: In the past nine years, WeWork has opened 425 office locations in 36 countries, become Manhattan’s biggest tenant, and upended the stodgy world of commercial real estate.Serious questions remain about its business model of renting and renovating office space that it leases to individuals and companies. That strategy has made it the biggest private office tenant in cities like New York and London. But it’s also left it in a precarious position. It has some $47 billion of future rent payments due and some $1 billion in renovation costs.Landlords and tenants have become cautious when dealing with the firm. Google has walked away from a potential Toronto lease and landlords are reaching out to WeWork rivals to see if they will take over WeWork leases or buildings if it becomes necessary.SoftBank also must grapple with reducing costs including a workforce of more than 12,000 people that had grown bloated under Neumann. WeWork already plans to lay off 2,000 people and sell some non-core businesses.Even as it reduces the workforce, SoftBank will also need to deal with growing dissatisfaction among employees, some of whom have worked for years in anticipation of an initial public offering that never materialized. At least five C-level executives have headed for the exits in recent weeks, and some staffers, unsure of their fate, stopped reporting for duty altogether, people familiar with the situation said last week.As part of the package, SoftBank executive, Marcelo Claure, will take over as chairman of WeWork’s board. WeWork appointed Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham as co-CEOs last month after investors pushed back against the IPO.Even before the bailout, the Japanese conglomerate had committed more than $10 billion to the company. As its estimated valuation cratered, WeWork last month ousted Neumann as CEO and, eventually, pulled its IPO in the face of investors who balked at its losses and corporate governance.The debacle has been an embarrassment for SoftBank. It valued WeWork at $47 billion as recently as the start of the year. Already, SoftBank has invested more than WeWork is estimated to be worth without its latest capital infusion-- about $8 billion.Under the deal, Neumann is allowed to sell a little under $1 billion of stock to the Japanese conglomerate, said people familiar with the matter. Neumann currently owns 22% of WeWork. It couldn’t immediately be learned what his stake will fall to after any sale to SoftBank. He will also get a roughly $185 million consulting fee.SoftBank and JPMorgan declined to comment. WeWork couldn’t immediately be reached.SoftBank’s stock purchase from Neumann is part of a broader offer to buy as much as $3 billion from existing shareholders. The $500 million credit line for Neumann will be secured by some of his stock. And a $500 million loan to Neumann extended by JPMorgan, UBS and Credit Suisse will be repaid, one of the people said.When Neumann stepped down from the CEO role, it triggered terms of the loan that would have put him in technical default, according to a person familiar with the matter.JPMorgan had been pitching a $5 billion debt package for WeWork. Last week, the company had been leaning toward the bank’s plan over SoftBank’s, because it wouldn’t dilute existing shareholders or force the startup to cede control.But disagreements over the company’s valuation -- JPMorgan’s plan had pegged WeWork about $5 billion -- pushed the company toward SoftBank, which was willing to increase its equity stake and provide a payout to Neumann, according to a person familiar with the situation.For his part, SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son is showing signs of contrition for the role he played in inflating WeWork’s valuation. On a call Monday, Son apologized to investors in the first Vision Fund, which injected capital into WeWork at a valuation of north of $21 billion in 2017, according to a person briefed on the matter.(Updates with deal details from the third paragraph)\--With assistance from Candy Cheng.To contact the reporters on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net;Michelle F. Davis in New York at mdavis194@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Larry ReibsteinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Facebook Commits $1 Billion to Ease Bay Area Housing Crisis
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. is following other tech titans like Microsoft Corp. and Google, pledging to use its deep pockets to ease the affordable housing shortage in West Coast cities.The social media giant said Tuesday that it would commit $1 billion over the next decade to address the crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area, building as many as 20,000 new homes that are accessible to teachers, nurses, first responders and other essential workers. A quarter of the funds are earmarked for a partnership with California to construct housing on state-owned land in areas where there aren’t enough residences.“State government cannot solve housing affordability alone, we need others to join Facebook in stepping up,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in the statement. “Progress requires partnership with the private sector and philanthropy to change the status quo and address the cost crisis our state is facing.”Newsom, who campaigned last year with the promise of building 3.5 million homes in the state to ease the shortage, has been under pressure to deliver. This month, he signed legislation that’s intended to curb rent growth. But he’s made clear that the state won’t be able to solve its problem without building many more new homes. Recent data suggests that permits for new construction have fallen this year, calling into question whether the state will be able to make progress.While researchers have said there are other barriers to construction in California, the success of Facebook and other technology companies has contributed to soaring housing costs in the San Francisco Bay Area and greater Seattle, where Microsoft is based. The firms employ tens of thousands of high earners who have bought or rented homes, leaving fewer options for poor and middle-income residents. San Mateo County, which includes Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, added more than 13 jobs for every new unit of housing between 2010 and 2015, according to an analysis by Up for Growth, a group that advocates for more construction.That imbalance has contributed to a backlash against tech firms at the same time they’re facing tough questions about their market power, their role in spreading disinformation and their approach to user privacy. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is set to appear for a public hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday in Washington. That committee, run by Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, oversees housing and urban development issues.“A company like Facebook wants to build all the good will that it can, and this is certainly one way to do it,” said Margaret O’Mara, a University of Washington history professor and author of “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.” “I’m glad that big tech companies are stepping up to address the problem, but it’s going to require much more than this.”The pledge was announced Tuesday, in part because it took time to work out details of the partnership with the state, said Menka Sethi, the company’s director of location strategy. Other pieces of the commitment -- such as a $25 million investment in teacher housing in Silicon Valley -- were previously disclosed or build on prior efforts.Facebook said that $150 million, for instance, would go toward an affordable housing fund set up by the Partnership for the Bay’s Future, an organization backed by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan that was unveiled earlier this year. Another $350 million will serve as “additional commitments” that will be allotted to efforts that are deemed effective in the Bay Area or elsewhere where the company does business. The final $225 million is related to land that the company previously purchased and has zoned for housing.That’s similar to what Google is pursuing with the lion’s share of its own $1 billion pledge to build housing in the Bay Area, which was announced in June. Microsoft led the pack with a $500 million commitment to Seattle-area housing in January.Facebook’s Sethi emphasized that her company is also interested in changing policy and partnering with the public and private sector on the issue, so that California can start producing the 3.5 million homes it needs.“The funding alone is not going to get the job done,” she said.(Updates with executive’s comment starting in eighth paragraph)\--With assistance from Kurt Wagner.To contact the reporter on this story: Noah Buhayar in Seattle at nbuhayar@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Giammona at cgiammona@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, David ScheerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
Exclusive: U.S. states plan Google antitrust meeting next month in Colorado - sources
U.S. state attorneys general probing Alphabet's Google plan to meet next month in Colorado to discuss a probe into whether the search giant's business practices break antitrust law, according to three sources knowledgeable about the meeting. The meeting, which is being planned for Nov. 11, would be similar to a gathering this week in New York where state and federal enforcers from the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission discussed their probe of Facebook, according to one of the sources. The investigation of Google appears to be well underway since Texas sent the search and advertising giant a subpoena asking for information about its ad business.
- Bloomberg
Snap Beats Sales, User Estimates; Shares Fall on Tepid Outlook
(Bloomberg) -- Snap Inc.’s revenue and user growth beat analysts’ estimates in the third quarter, boosted by an increase in downloads of the revamped Android version of its mobile app. A tepid forecast for the current period, combined with a strong runup in the stock price this year, sent the shares lower in late trading.The company reported a 13% quarterly jump in daily active users for its Snapchat application, to 210 million, beating the 206 million average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Third-quarter sales jumped 50% to $446 million, compared with the $437.9 million projected by Wall Street.Snapchat, which lets people send video and picture messages that disappear and offers popular photo filters, seems to have mostly recovered from a rocky performance after its 2017 initial public offering. It has weathered executive departures, user defections and tough competition from Facebook Inc.’s Instagram. The company has been working toward reducing expenses, helping narrow the net loss in the recent period to $227 million, or 16 cents a share. Analysts had projected $262.3 million.But the positive results were overshadowed by Snap’s revenue outlook for the fourth quarter, which at the midpoint came in below analysts’ expectations. Even after three quarters of beating Wall Street’s projections, the forecast signaled that Snap’s growth is still a work in progress.The company has improved Snapchat’s performance, especially on Android phones, and increased the amount of fun and creative tools for the app, including social games and filters that allow people to manipulate their faces into cartoon characters. That’s led users to open it 30 times a day on average, according to Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel. Previously, the Android version of the app was buggy and slow, making it difficult for Snapchat to grow in important markets where Android is dominant -- outside the U.S. and Europe. Following the long process of rebuilding the app, the new Android version was finally released to all users earlier this year.Now, advertisers are slowly looking to Snapchat as an alternative to the technology industry’s much larger platforms.“Google and Facebook dominate mobile advertising, but there is plenty of room for other winners as mobile time spent continues to scale,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst at Lightshed Partners. “Our conviction in Snapchat’s recovery has grown meaningfully over the course of 2019, as we hear positive first-hand feedback from advertising clients.”Snapchat still needs to win over advertisers in Android-heavy countries, where most of its growth is. Snap said it expects 214 million to 215 million daily average users in the fourth quarter, helping the company generate revenue of $540 million to $560 million. Analysts on average expected $557 million in sales this quarter.Snap shares fell 1.4% in extended trading, after earlier closing down 4% at $14. The shares have more than doubled so far this year, but aren’t yet higher than their $17 IPO price in 2017.Santa Monica, California-based Snapchat has become a poster child for Facebook’s competitive hold on the social-media market. Facebook and its photo-sharing app Instagram have repeatedly copied Snapchat’s best features, cutting into its potential. Now, Facebook is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission for antitrust violations. Snapchat’s recovery could weaken the government’s argument.Both companies are now facing competition from TikTok, a new social network popular with young people, owned by China’s Bytedance Inc. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is rallying employees to compete with TikTok through a copycat app called Lasso, Snap’s Spiegel said Tuesday on a conference call that “we definitely consider them a friend,” noting that TikTok uses Snap’s app-development tools and advertises on Snapchat.(Updates with comment on TikTok competition in final paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in San Francisco at sfrier1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly SchuetzFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Skift
Airbnb Makes Debut in Google Vacation Rentals — For Now
The long drought is over: While Booking Holdings is gone, Airbnb is in. Airbnb listings have begun appearing for the first time in Google's vacation rentals feature in several European cities, including Paris, Amsterdam, and Madrid, for example. The listings we saw were for entire homes and apartments. The development, which could be a here-today-and-gone-tomorrow […]
- Market Realist
Huawei Ban: Trump Winning, but What About Google?
Huawei is suffering without Google's (GOOGL) support. President Donald Trump's administration has hit Huawei with trade sanctions.
- Bloomberg
Snap Stabilizes. Next Step: Sell Ads Without Being Creepy.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Snapchat’s ability to thrive boils down to this question: Can it close the gap with Facebook without becoming Facebook?Investors in internet companies have tended to fixate on whether the companies can keep pulling in more people to spend more time with their online hangouts. Those metrics are watched extra closely at Snapchat for signs of whether its generally young fans are drifting away to Facebook’s Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Fortnite or other internet distractions.But as parent company Snap Inc. grows up, it has sensibly said it wants to increasingly focus on generating more money from the people who choose to spend time on Snapchat. The question is both whether Snapchat can become an effective internet money-making machine and whether it can do so without following the Google and Facebook model of increasingly invasive internet surveillance.Snap, so far, has taken steps in the right direction, but it has a long way to go — if it can ever get there.In a disclosure of its third-quarter financial results on Tuesday, Snapchat reported a second consecutive quarter of relatively steady growth in the number of users and said it expects a similar rate of gains in the fourth quarter. Revenue jumped 50% from a year earlier. In its most lucrative domestic market, Snapchat’s growth in average revenue from each user continued to pick up speed. This is all good. (Snap shares fell in after-hours trading, perhaps reflecting worries about a slightly lower-than-expected revenue forecast for the fourth quarter.)As analysts have expected, CEO Evan Spiegel said in a conference call script that Snap is on a path to the company’s first positive number in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization after stripping out more costs such as stock compensation. It’s kind of profitable, with an asterisk, but it’s an important milestone now that the mood has turned sour for wildly unprofitable young companies.The company’s shares have rallied this year — though they remain below the price at which Snap sold stock in its March 2017 initial public offering — as it recovers from mostly self-imposed missteps. It now seems that Snapchat’s app is stable; the company continues to come up with fresh and fun ideas; it is no longer focused on 15 contradictory priorities; and it is restoring credibility with its fans, partners and companies that want to pitch to Snapchat’s largely young users.Snapchat knows what its financial future could look like if it does everything right. That is, it could look like Facebook, which honed the model of turning people’s time and attention into revenue from pitching ad messages. Yes, newspaper, radio and television did the same thing, but Google and Facebook have played this tune on an entirely different scale. Those companies are both a model of what Snapchat could become financially and a cautionary tale.Snapchat generated an average of $2.12 of revenue for each of its daily users in the third quarter. The figure at Facebook was $10.64 in the second quarter.(1)The gap is not a surprise, given the relative immaturity of Snapchat’s advertising sales machine and its stumbles.To close it, the company has copied sensibly from Facebook, giving a retailer, for example, options to pitch a specific handbag from its catalog to Snapchat users who might be interested. Snapchat needs to offer more options like this to businesses, prove that ad messages translate into sales and avoid annoying its fickle young fans. It’s a tall order.Snapchat also has to do this without getting too creepy. We don’t yet have a model of an internet company that can be successful without following the Google and Facebook model of sucking up ever-more granular information on people’s habits to fine-tune marketing pitches. Snapchat promises it can make money without being an insatiable data hog in the service of selling movie tickets or sneakers, but that remains to be seen. I’m also not sure that, structurally, Snapchat can resolve the division between the features on which users spend most of their time and the features that generate big chunks of the company’s revenue. That division may be a permanent ceiling on Snapchat’s revenue.For now, stability is a new and welcome look for Snapchat. To continue to fulfill its potential, Snapchat now has to pivot from recovery to a grown-up advertising vehicle while writing new rules for being a responsible internet company. (1) Facebook discloses a different average revenue figure based on monthly users. My figure is calculated from Facebook's daily user numbers.To contact the author of this story: Shira Ovide at sovide@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Niemi at dniemi1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Shira Ovide is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. She previously was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- MarketWatch
Meg Whitman’s new venture is thinking big with a short-form streaming service
Quibi, short for “quick bites,” is scheduled to launch in April with shows and films from A-list directors such as Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro sliced into increments shorter than 10 minutes that are meant to be viewed on smartphones.
- Yahoo Finance
Hidden security risks caused by the latest technology
Phone camera quality has made it possible to identify a location from the reflection in a person's eyeball. This, as well as many other concerns, has arisen with our access to ever-improving tech.
- Bloomberg
Facebook Slides as More States Join New York Antitrust Probe
(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. shares fell the most in two months after a state antitrust investigation into the social-media company widened, with dozens more states joining the probe led by New York.Facebook dropped after the New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday that 45 states -- plus Guam and the District of Columbia -- are investigating whether the company harmed competition. Shares fell 3.3% to $183.44 at 3:13 p.m. in New York, the most since Aug. 14.“Big Tech must account for its actions,” Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, whose state joined the probe, said in a statement. “I am proud to join my Republican and Democrat colleagues in efforts to ensure tech giants can no longer hide behind complexity and complicity.”The expansion of the investigation deepens the antitrust scrutiny into Facebook at the state and federal levels. In addition to the attorneys general, the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department and the House Judiciary Committee are conducting their own investigations.Separately on Tuesday, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, who is probing large internet platforms as part of a broad review of competition in digital markets, said at a Wall Street Journal tech conference in California that a breakup of a tech company is “perfectly on the table” if justified by the evidence uncovered in the probe.James, a Democrat, has said the state antitrust probe aims to find out whether Facebook’s actions endangered user data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices or increased the price of advertising, its main source of revenue. State attorneys general led by Texas are separately investigating Alphabet Inc.’s Google for possible antitrust violations.A Facebook spokesman said the company intends to cooperate with the state attorneys general.“People have multiple choices for every one of the services we provide,” the company said. “We understand that if we stop innovating, people can easily leave our platform. This underscores the competition we face, not only in the U.S. but around the globe.”On Monday, James hosted a meeting of policy experts to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various antitrust legal theories involving Facebook, according to a person familiar with the gathering. They also reviewed Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as privacy issues and the company’s power in the digital-advertising market, the person said. The Wall Street Journal first reported the meeting.James and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general met earlier this month with key officials at the Justice Department and the FTC to discuss the investigation. The meetings raised the prospect that the states could join the federal probes, similar to the way states collaborated with the epic U.S. antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. that started in the 1990s.(Updates with share price in second paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net;David McLaughlin in Washington at dmclaughlin9@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve StrothFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
SoftBank Takes Control of WeWork as Part of Bailout, Adam Neumann to Leave Board
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. is taking control of beleaguered WeWork, part of a rescue financing plan that will see former Chief Executive Officer Adam Neumann sever most of his remaining ties with the company he co-founded, according to people familiar with the matter.The eleventh-hour deal throws a lifeline to WeWork parent We Co., which was on the verge of running out of cash after a failed public offering in September. By salvaging one of its biggest investments, SoftBank will give a second chance to WeWork to start over under new ownership. It also tosses a buoy to Neumann, who will give up his board seat and walk away with as much as $1.2 billion as well as a $500 million credit line from SoftBank, after it pushed him out as chief executive officer last month.Neumann is allowed to sell slightly less than $1 billion of stock to the Japanese conglomerate as part of the deal, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the agreement hasn’t been announced. He’ll remain as a board observer and can assign two board seats, one of the people said. Neumann will also get a roughly $185 million consulting fee. His net worth would still be at least $1 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.WeWork chose the offer from SoftBank, which already owns about one-third of the company, over a competing proposal from JPMorgan Chase & Co. The deal, which values the office-sharing startup at about $8 billion before any new capital from SoftBank, marks a shocking fall from grace for a business emblematic of the latest tech boom that had been valued as recently as January at $47 billion.As Bad as WeWork Is, It Could Get Even Worse: Shira OvideAs part of SoftBank’s plan, one of its executives, Marcelo Claure, will take over as chairman of WeWork’s board, one of the people said. WeWork appointed Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham as co-CEOs last month after investors pushed back against the IPO.SoftBank and JPMorgan declined to comment. WeWork couldn’t immediately be reached. Dow Jones earlier reported details of the deal.Buying SharesSoftBank’s stock purchase from Neumann is part of a broader offer to buy as much as $3 billion from existing shareholders, one of the people familiar with the matter said. The $500 million credit line for Neumann -- of which roughly $395 million is drawn -- will be secured by some of his stock. And a $500 million loan to Neumann extended by JPMorgan, UBS and Credit Suisse will be repaid, one of the people said. When Neumann stepped down from the CEO role, it triggered terms of the loan that would have put him in technical default, according to a person familiar with the matter.JPMorgan had been pitching a $5 billion debt package for WeWork. Last week, the company had been leaning toward the bank’s plan over SoftBank’s, because it wouldn’t dilute existing shareholders or force the startup to cede control.But disagreements over the company’s valuation -- JPMorgan’s plan had pegged WeWork about $5 billion -- pushed the company toward SoftBank, which was willing to increase its equity stake and provide a payout to Neumann, according to a person familiar with the situation.SoftBank is WeWork’s largest investor, and had committed more than $10 billion to the company even before the bailout. As its estimated valuation cratered, WeWork last month ousted Neumann and, eventually, pulled its IPO paperwork.Canceled IPOThe canceled public offering left WeWork, which lost $900 million in the first half of the year, without a crucial source of funding: a $6 billion loan that had been contingent on a successful entrance into the stock market.SoftBank’s bailout of WeWork is happening at a particularly sensitive time for the investment powerhouse run by billionaire Masayoshi Son. SoftBank is currently looking to raise money for a second version of its Vision Fund, a $100 billion technology-focused fund that reshaped the way the Silicon Valley startup world works by dint of its sheer size. Today, investors are expressing hesitance about the fund’s second iteration, which SoftBank hopes to make even bigger than the first.In a recent interview with the Nikkei Business magazine, Son said he was “embarrassed and impatient” with his recent track record. WeWork is not the only big bet for SoftBank that went south. It was also the largest investor in Uber Technologies Inc., whose stock price is down about a third since its May IPO.On a call Monday, Son apologized to investors in the first Vision Fund, which injected capital into WeWork at a valuation of north of $21 billion in 2017, according to a person briefed on the matter. Representatives for SoftBank and the Vision Fund declined to comment.Despite the bailout, WeWork still has a long way to go to deal with the repercussions of its growth-at-all-costs strategy. It has become the biggest private office tenant in cities like New York and London and had lease obligations worth more than $47 billion as of June, according to a regulatory filing last month.In the filing, WeWork said it only considers 30% of its space “mature,” which typically means the sales and marketing process is complete and the property is generating steady revenue. The company still faces costs associated with renovating work spaces it has already leased, which could approach $1 billion based on data in the filing.Landlords and tenants have become cautious when dealing with the firm: Google has walked away from a potential Toronto lease after months of negotiations and landlords are reaching out to WeWork rivals to see if they will take over WeWork leases or buildings if necessary. A project in Seattle was also recently scrapped.(Updates with details on call with vision fund investors in 14th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Natalie Wong and Patrick Clark.To contact the reporters on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net;Michelle F. Davis in New York at mdavis194@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Giammona at cgiammona@bloomberg.net, Molly SchuetzFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- MarketWatch
Spotify to give away Google Home Mini speakers to users while supplies last
Spotify Technology S.A. said Tuesday it is giving away Google Home Mini smart speakers to premium individual and family account users, for free, while supplies last. The streaming music service said the give-away starts Tuesday. This year's give-away represents and increase from last year, when Spotify unveiled the offer to only Premium for Family account users. Spotify's stock fell 0.5% in afternoon trading, while shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc. inched up 0.1%. Year to date, Spotify's stock has gained 4.3% while the S&P 500 has run up 20.2%.
- MarketWatch
Americans are spending almost half a billion dollars on Halloween costumes for their pets
Halloween — or should we say Howl-o-ween — is going to the dogs. Americans will spend $490 million on costumes for their pets this Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation, which is more than double what they dropped to dress their dogs, cats and other critters in 2010. Sara Ochoa is one of the 29 million people getting her furbaby into costume for the occasion.
- Barrons.com
Big Tech Antitrust Is Where Republicans and Democrats Can Agree, DOJ Official Says
Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general, says effective antitrust regulation now can help prevent the need for “heavy handed government regulation of any sector down the road.”
- American City Business Journals
Facebook commits $1 billion to address California's housing crisis
Facebook's announcement follows a similar commitment from Google to spend $1 billion on housing development and a $4.7 billion plan from Stanford University for housing and transportation investments.
- Market Realist
The Top 5 Augmented Reality Stocks to Buy
Check out these augmented reality stocks to buy as the space heats up! AR is making waves because of its massive potential in virtually all industries.
- American City Business Journals
This Week in Amazon: The 'Who is Jeff Bezos?' edition
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) said it will release third-quarter earnings Thursday and hold a conference call to discuss the numbers at 5:30 p.m. HQ2 time, 2:30 p.m. HQ1 time. AMZN stock price at Tuesday's open: $1,785.66 per share One-week change: Up $43.55 Translation: Jeff Bezos' wealth bump from the one week of appreciation is about $2.6 billion. Here are a few things that we will be looking for in the quarterly earnings: Amazon said to expect third quarter revenue between $66 billion to $70 billion, according to its second quarter forecast.
- Yahoo Finance
How YouTube's 'snackable' content could change the streaming landscape
“YouTube has got a really strong hold on the market around the snacking of content,” says one analyst.
- Market Realist
Google’s Nest Business Is Losing Key Customers—What’s Next?
Google’s Nest business made system changes that could weaken its device sales. Some homebuilders are dropping these products in their smart homes.
- Bloomberg
Google Cuts Back on Free Storage While Prodding Users Toward Paid Cloud Subscription
Oct.22 -- Google has whittled down some free storage offers in recent months, while prodding more users toward a new paid cloud subscription called Google One. That’s happening as the amount of data people stash online continues to soar. Bloomberg's Alistair Barr has more on "Bloomberg Technology."
