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Pfizer, BioNTech to Supply U.S. With Additional 100 Million Doses of Covid Vaccine

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said the U.S. government has exercised its option for an additional 100 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine. This brings the total number of doses to be supplied by the companies to the U.S. government to 300 million. Consistent with the agreements for the prior 200 million doses, the U.S. government will pay $1.95 billion for the additional 100 million doses. Eligible U.S. residents will continue to receive the vaccine for free. Pfizer's facility in Kalamazoo, Mich., will remain the primary manufacturing site of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S.

15.02.2021

Disney+ Streaming Business Gives Disney Profit Surprise

The growing streaming business Disney+ has given the entertainment company Disney a strong profit surprise. The company benefited from people's search for entertainment in the pandemic and increased the number of its subscribers to 94.9 million. However, in other areas of Disney such as the theme parks, business came to a virtual standstill because of the lockdown measures. Disney (DIS) reported a surprise profit of $17 million, or 2 cents a share, for its fiscal first quarter on revenue of $16.25 billion, up from $15.8 billion a year earlier. Adjusted for restructuring and other effects, Disney posted earnings of 32 cents per share, up from $1.53 in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected an adjusted loss of 34 cents per share on revenue of $15.9 billion, according to FactSet.

12.02.2021

Uber Posts Significant Loss due to Corona Crisis

The US ride-hailing company Uber has posted another significant loss due to the Corona pandemic. In the fourth quarter of last year, revenues fell by 16 per cent to 3.2 billion US dollars compared to the same period last year, the company announced. Uber thus posted a loss of 986 million dollars. The company was able to partially offset the loss in the mobility division with growth in its food delivery service Uber Eats. Revenue in the ride-hailing business fell 52 per cent year-on-year, but the delivery division saw strong growth. Last year was a "test of Uber's resilience", said company chief Dara Khosrowshahi. But the company has also been able to "dramatically" expand its capabilities in local commerce.

11.02.2021

Twitter Tops USD 1 Billion in Quarterly Revenue for the Second Time

For the second time in its history, Twitter has closed a quarter with revenues of more than one billion dollars. The short message service increased its fourth quarter revenue by 28 per cent to 1.29 billion dollars, beating the consensus estimate of 1.18 billion. Net income reached $222 million, or 29 cents per share, hitting the Factset analyst estimate exactly. On an adjusted basis, Twitter earned 38 cents per share. Twitter was able to increase the number of daily active users, which is important for increasing advertising revenue, by 27 per cent year-on-year to 192 million, but just missed the consensus expectation of 193.5 million. The share price closed a good 3 per cent up with a 3-month performance of over 27%.

10.02.2021

Tesla Invests $1.5 Billion in Bitcoin

The US electric car manufacturer Tesla is betting big on the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. As the company of group CEO Elon Musk announced on Monday, Tesla is investing 1.5 billion dollars in the digital currency. The electric carmaker's bitcoin exposure represents about 8 percent of its total cash balance. The value of Bitcoin had risen sharply in recent months - at the beginning of January it climbed to over 40,000 dollars for a time. Tesla's announcement caused the price to rise to over 43,000 dollars within minutes. Musk had already made his stance on the currency clear a few days ago: He wrote #bitcoin succinctly on his Twitter profile. An important reason for the upswing in recent months was the announcement by the payment service Paypal in autumn that it would allow account holders to use the cryptocurrency.

09.02.2021

RTL Group sells ad tech subsidiary SpotX

The RTL Group broadcasting chain is divesting itself of the US advertising technology company SpotX. As the Bertelsmann subsidiary announced, the US company Magnite will pay 1.17 billion US dollars in cash and shares. The purchase price consists of a cash component of 560 million US dollars and 14.0 million Magnite shares. RTL had bought a majority stake in SpotX of 65 per cent for €107 million in 2014 and acquired the outstanding stake of €123 million in 2017. "The sale of SpotX is in line with our strategy to focus on growing our European digital businesses in streaming, advertising technology, digital video and audio, as well as our global content business Fremantle," said RTL CEO Thomas Rabe.

08.02.2021

Deutsche Bank Posts Surprise Profit as Revenue Grows

Deutsche Bank AG posted an unexpected profit in the fourth quarter with revenue also up. Net profit for the quarter was 51 million euros ($61.4 million) compared with a loss of EUR1.60 billion a year earlier, the German bank said Thursday. The after-tax profit was EUR189 million. Revenue rose 2% to EUR5.45 billion in the quarter.

05.02.2021

ABB Swings to 4Q Loss

ABB Ltd. said Thursday that it swung to a loss in the fourth quarter while revenue rose. The Swiss engineering company said quarterly net loss was $79 million compared with a profit of $325 million in the same period last year. Its operational earnings before interest, taxes and amortization increased 16% to $825 million. ABB's revenue rose 2% to $7.18 billion, while the company's orders for the quarter rose 2% to $7.00 billion.

04.02.2021

Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO

Jeff Bezos is stepping down as chief executive of Amazon.com Inc. to become executive chairman, marking the biggest change in leadership of the tech giant since he started it in a Washington state garage more than 26 years ago. Amazon said that he will be succeeded as CEO in the third quarter by Andy Jassy, Mr. Bezos's closest lieutenant and the longtime head of the company's booming cloud-computing business.

03.02.2021