Tag Archives: googl

Facebook Revenue Engine Fuels Up Ahead Of F8 Developer Conference

The locomotive that drives Facebook ( FB ) is gaining steam from multiple products that will boost revenue growth this year, says an analyst who reiterated a buy rating on the social networking giant. Rosenblatt Securities analyst Martin Pyykkonen issued a research note focused on four Facebook businesses that will likely be a high-priority focus at the company’s large F8 global developer conference to be held in San Francisco in about two weeks. They are its photo- and video-sharing site Instagram, its Messenger and WhatsApp messaging platforms, and the Oculus virtual reality system that began shipping this week. “We see Facebook’s revenue growth visibility being enhanced by Instagram this year, Messenger in 2017, more mass-market virtual reality and maybe WhatsApp by 2018.” Pyykkonen wrote. He says Facebook will achieve ad revenue from Instagram this year of about $1 billion, or 5% of company revenue, as it gains more traction with large brand advertisers. He also expects Facebook, at the F8 conference, to provide more guidance on plans that will lead to monetizing Messenger. Facebook is in position to make its widely popular Messenger platform an all-in-one tool that could include a partnership or a battle with Apple ( AAPL ) and its Apple Pay system. Data from Apple iOS code examined by The Information suggest Facebook could provide users the ability to pay for goods in person. By entering the mobile payments fray, Facebook could either partner or compete with Apple, Android Pay by Alphabet ( GOOGL ), and other services. “We expect the F8 pitch will include Facebook’s Messenger app pushing further into a wide variety of business and consumer services,” Pyykkonen wrote. “We are especially focused on Facebook’s developer direction with mobile payments within the Messenger app.” Facebook began testing ads on Instagram about three years ago. One month ago, Facebook announced it had more than 200,000 advertisers on Instagram. Facebook competes with Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft ( MSFT ), Twitter ( TWTR ) and others in online advertising. He also expects Facebook to expand on plans for its Oculus Rift headset, especially as it relates to attracting a mass-market audience. Oculus began landing in the hands of consumers Monday, as the company received upbeat reports from two other analysts. With his buy rating, Pyykkonen also has a price target of 125. Facebook stock was near 114.50, down a fraction, in midday trading in the stock market today . Facebook is trading comfortably above its 50-day moving average as it works on a new base with a 117.69 buy point.

How Google Hands Free App Could Disrupt In-Store Payments

If Google and its Hands Free payments app can achieve a critical mass of brick-and-mortar stores, other digital wallet companies and payments processors could find themselves facing tougher competition — at least, based on my test of the app. Hands Free is designed to eliminate the need to pull out a smartphone and tap it on a point-of-sale system when paying with Android Pay. It uses a combination of your initials, phone and picture to complete each transaction. And it works. Well. Google, which is a unit of Alphabet ( GOOGL ), rolled out Hands Free in March to at least 15 businesses with locations around the South San Francisco Bay Area. Since IBD’s Silicon Valley bureau is located near several, I decided to test the idea of ordering and paying for something with only my voice — part of the future we’ve been promised. After taking a selfie — a photo is required to use the Hands Free app — on my Nexus 5X phone, I headed to a nearby McDonald’s ( MCD ), one of the chains participating in the pilot program. A colleague in the newsroom wanted a Diet Coke, and I was happy to oblige. Phone in my pocket, I walked up to the cash register, placed my order for a medium Diet Coke and then uttered the phrase “Can I pay with Google?” The cashier skipped a beat and replied, “Of course you can! Initials?” I replied with mine. “M.C. Hammer!” she said, and pressed a few more buttons on the register. “Wearing a hat today, I see,” she said, studying my hatless selfie on the register. And then she handed the beverage over with a receipt (I got an emailed receipt as well). Neither my phone nor wallet ever left my pockets. My order was small and the test limited, but it’s clear that the implications could be far-reaching if consumers take to the idea. If Hands Free were available widely, I would certainly use it — paying with just your voice is incredibly easy (and cool, too). At its core, Hands Free takes a swing at a big issue in payments (and e-commerce in general): how to make checkout as frictionless as possible. PayPal ( PYPL ) and its most recent endeavor on that front, One Touch , also attacks the friction problem. Apple ( AAPL ) Pay and rival Android Pay are also trying to innovate around the friction Silicon Valley perceives in paying with cash, a credit card or a mobile phone. With Google running a relatively small pilot program, it’s hard to say at this early stage what impact Hands Free will have on its digital wallet. I doubt that being able to pay with Hands Free would alter where I go to buy things, but it just might be enough to convince me to pick Android Pay over its competitors.

Yahoo CEO Mayer Gets A Bigger Golden Parachute If The Company Sells

Yahoo ( YHOO ) CEO Marissa Mayer has a bit of extra incentive to sell the ailing Internet company, which is facing a proxy fight. According to CNN Money, Mayer gets $37 million if she’s fired after selling the Sunnyvale-based company, under the terms of her employment contract . But she’ll be paid only $12.5 million if she’s let go without a sale. In that case, Mayer would take home $1 million in salary, a $2 million cash bonus and $9.5 million in stock that would vest in 2016, the report says . But being ousted after a sale significantly ups the ante by triggering “the release of all her stock awards. In virtually any other scenario, Mayer would have needed to stay at Yahoo for a certain period of time in order to cash out those rewards,” said CNN Money. In either scenario, her golden parachute will be worth significantly less now than it was a year ago, since the price of Yahoo stock has fallen 18% over the past 12 months. On Wednesday, Yahoo stock rose a fraction, to 36.56. A year ago, Mayer would have taken home $110 million had she lost her job because of Yahoo’s sale and $26 million if she was let go without a sale, the report said. Mayer, who joined Yahoo in 2012, earned $42 million in cash and stocks in 2014, CNN Money said. Her 2015 compensation is expected to be reported next month. Sale or not, Yahoo is facing rough waters. Last week, in a letter charging the current board of Yahoo with failing to deliver results for its shareholders, activist investor Starboard Value announced that it wants to sweep out all of the ailing Web company’s nine directors and replace them with its own slate during Yahoo’s 2016 shareholder meeting. The letter — from Starboard Value managing member Jeffrey Smith, one of Starboard’s slate of Yahoo board nominees — indicates that Starboard also doesn’t trust Yahoo’s current directors to perform in terms of either the strategic review of Yahoo’s core search and display-ad business or with the eventual fate of Yahoo’s 15% stake in China e-commerce giant Alibaba Group ( BABA ) and its holdings in Yahoo Japan. Yahoo this month appointed two members to its board, Catherine Friedman, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley ( MS ), and Eric Brandt, a former chief financial officer of Broadcom ( AVGO ). Yahoo’s revenue growth has stalled for nearly a decade as ad dollars continue to slip away to rivals including Facebook ( FB ), Netflix ( NFLX ), Alphabet ( GOOGL )-unit Google, and others that include high-profile startups Snapchat and Pinterest. Yahoo has reportedly gotten interest from as many as 40 groups who have until April 11 to submit preliminary bids for its core business and Asian operations.