Snap charts path to one billion monthly users at latest investor day

Snap (SNAP) held its second-ever Investor Day on Thursday just weeks after another brutal quarterly report that sent shares tumbling.

CEO Evan Spiegel’s message to investors on Thursday focused on monetization, the growth of Snap’s community, the appeal of Snap’s demographic and platform to advertisers, and, of course, augmented reality (AR). And a big number — one billion users.

At the company’s Santa Monica, Calif. headquarters, Snap revealed its monthly active user base has expanded to 750 million monthly active users (MAUs), a 25% increase from 600 million MAUs 10 months ago.

The company added it sees a path to getting that MAU number to 1 billion in the next couple of years.

Meanwhile, Snap’s daily active users (DAU) currently clock in at about 375 million.

“We have everything we need to build a successful business over the long-term, a large and growing community, an innovative and engaging product that continues to evolve, a strong balance sheet with a track record of positive free cash flow and a long-term vision for what we believe will be the most meaningful advancements in computing that the world has ever seen — augmented reality,” CEO Evan Spiegel told the audience.

On Jan. 31, Snap reported fourth quarter results, meeting analyst estimates for revenue and user growth, but showing a net loss and weak first quarter guidance.

Snap shares fell 4.7% on Thursday following its investor day. Still, shares are up about 20% so far this year. From its record high reached in 2021, shares are down about 85%.

AR’s still the long-term plan

Though generative AI has surged in popularity in recent months — and competitor Meta Platforms (META) has been aggressively pursuing its own metaverse-centered vision of the future — Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel is sticking to his guns.

“Augmented reality has the potential to make nearly everything in our daily lives better, whether discovering the storied history of your neighborhood, learning to play piano, re-decorating your living room or practicing your football spiral,” he said.

Snap’s decelerating revenue growth

Snap CFO Derek Andersen emphasized the difficulties of the macroeconomic climate, and how it’s affected Snap’s top and bottom line. He acknowledged in the Q&A session the company needs to boost its top line to set things right, but added the company is focusing on what it can control, rather than the macro and privacy changes that have rattled it over the last year and a half.

Last month, Snap guided to current quarter revenues dropping between 2%-10% from a year ago.

“We’re going to stay focused on the inputs we can control and hope that the environment cooperates,” he added.

Looking at the near-term, Andersen expressed optimism about the company’s direct response ads business and ability to monetize its AR capabilities.

In the medium-term, plans include leveraging and growing its subscription service, Snapchat Plus.

“We want to prioritize the opportunities we’re going to go after,” Andersen said. “We want to fully fund those priorities, then it’s all about execution.”

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Takeover News: February Opens With M&A Bang As Gold Miners, REITs Pitch $28 Billion In Deals

Mergers and acquisitions may be exiting their recent slump with multiple takeover deals suddenly making news. Public Storage (PSA) made an $11 billion bid for Life Storage (LSI) on Sunday. Also Sunday, gold miner Newmont (NEM) offered $16.9 billion for smaller competitor Newcrest Mining (NCMGY). Meanwhile, shares of drug components supplier Catalent (CTLT) spiked 19.5% Monday on murmurs of an acquisition by Danaher (DHR).

The proposals come as deal making fell starkly last year. Worldwide, mergers and acquisitions totaled $3.6 trillion in 2022, down 38.8% from 2021, according to markets research firm Dealogic. And fourth quarter takeover volume came in at $538 million. That was the lowest Q4 level since 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Law.

Public Storage Takeover

Public Storage, the largest American self-storage property company, proffered an $11 billion all-stock bid for Life Storage after it denied previous takeover offers, Reuters reported. According to terms of the deal, Life Storage shareholders would receive 0.4192 shares of Public Storage stock for each LSI stock they own. That would equal $129.30 per share based on PSA stock’s closing price on Friday. And it represents a 19% premium based on 20-day volume-weighted average price of both stocks. Including debt, the deal would value Life Storage at $15 billion.

Glendale, Calif.-based Public Storage first approached Life Storage in December. It had an initial bid rejected in January, the company said in a statement. Both companies are real estate investment trusts (REITs). That tax-sheltered business model return unused cash flow to investors via payouts.

Life Storage currently yields 4.1%. Public Storage yields 2.6%.

In a separate statement, Life Storage said the public proposal is “substantially similar in all material respects,” to the previous deal that was denied. The company plans to review the proposal to determine the best course of action for shareholders. It advises shareholders not to take any action at this time.

Last year, REITs had $83 billion in merger and acquisition volume, making it the second-best year for the sector since 2007, according to the National Association of REITs.

PSA stock dipped 0.3% Monday while LSI stock jumped more than 11% following the news.

Newmont, Newcrest Mining

On Monday, Colorado-based gold miner Newmont made a $16.9 billion all-stock offer to buy Australia-based competitor Newcrest Mining. Newmont is the world’s largest gold producer by market value and ounce production.

Under terms of the deal, Newcrest shareholders would receive 0.38 Newmont share for each Newcrest stock share they own. That would result in the combined company being 70% owned by Newmont and 30% owned by Newcrest, Newmont stated in a new release. And the current offer price of $27.16 per Newcrest share would represent a 21% premium based on Newcrest’s Friday closing price of $22.45 per share.

“The proposed transaction would join industry-leading portfolios of assets and projects to create long-term value across the combined global business, and we welcome the consideration of Newcrest’s Board of Directors,” Newmont CEO Tom Palmer said in the announcement.

Takeover Bid Comes Amid Bobbing Gold Price

On Monday, Newcrest Mining confirmed that the offer followed a previously rejected proposal of 0.363 Newmont shares for each Newcrest stock share. However, Newcrest’s board of directors didn’t believe it delivered enough value to shareholders. Newcrest is considering Newmont’s latest proposal and advised shareholders to not take any action at this time.

The takeover attempt occurs as the price of gold bobs beneath an early February high. Spot gold prices rose to $1,953 per ounce on Feb. 1, it’s highest since April 21 last year when it traded at $1,951, according to data from metals dealer Scottsdale Bullion & Coin. Gold prices are currently hanging around $1,873 per ounce, but still well above November lows of $1,629. Bank of America projects it will reach $2,000 by the third quarter. JPMorgan and UBS Bank are a bit more bearish, projecting gold prices to reach $1,860 and $1,900 by the fourth quarter and end of year, respectively.

NEM stock slid 4.5% Monday while NCMGY stock rose about 12% following the news.

Catalent Chatter

Also on Monday, Catalent shares soared after Bloomberg reported that life sciences company Danaher is considering a takeover attempt. Those familiar with the matter say the deal is not imminent, and the companies have yet to comment publicly on the reports. Still, CTLT stock soared 19.5% by market close Monday after leaping 24% early in the day. DHR stock dipped 2.3% on the day.

Source: investors.com

Binance to Suspend US Dollar Transfers Using Bank Accounts

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it’s temporarily suspending deposits and withdrawals of US dollars using bank accounts, and will work to restart the service soon.

The suspension will start Wednesday, according to a Binance spokesperson. No specific reason was given for the suspension. Bank transfers using other fiat currencies, such as euros, are unaffected, the representative said.

“It’s worth noting that only 0.01% of our monthly active users leverage USD bank transfers, but that we are working hard to restart service as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Other methods of buying and selling crypto on Binance, such as via credit card, Google Pay and Apple Pay, “remain unaffected.”

Binance US, a separate entity designed for US users, said it’s not affected by the move.

Crypto companies have had difficulties finding banking partners to facilitate the sending of money to buy and sell digital assets. Following the collapse of FTX, banks have been warned by federal regulators of the risks of doing business with crypto firms.

While some banks are “withdrawing support for crypto, other banks are moving in,” Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao said on Twitter in response to the Binance announcement. “Some setbacks were expected from last year’s incidents.”

Last month, Binance said its banking partner Signature Bank would handle user transactions only if they’re for more than $100,000 as the lender decreases its exposure to digital-asset markets. The New York-based bank said in December it intends to cut as much as $10 billion in deposits from crypto clients.

A spokesperson for Signature said Monday that the bank can’t comment on client-related matters.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Car buyers face ‘inhibiting factors’ for EV adoption: Mazda USA CEO

Japanese automaker Mazda (7261.T) has a small, yet cult-like following here in the U.S. While fans of Mazda enjoy the driver-focused characteristics and sporty handling, there is one one area that the company is lagging: electrification.

Though the brand had a strong Q4 in North America—sales jumped around 40% versus a year ago—Mazda saw its overall sales dip around 12% for the year compared to 2021, partly because of supply chain issues. Mazda sold around 295,000 cars in North America last year, highlighting its small brand status in a region where GM (GM) sold nearly 10 times as many cars.

It’s why investing big time into fully electric vehicles has been so hard for Mazda, because of the billions of dollars needed for new platforms. It’s also why Mazda is leaning hard into its hybrid options, like it’s all new flagship SUV, the CX-90.

“So CX-90 launches with our most powerful engine ever in both gasoline mild hybrid and also plug-in hybrid forms – so the platform has only electrified powertrains,” says Mazda North America president & CEO Jeff Guyton in an intervie. “It really represents a big step forward in terms of the premium-ness of the Mazda brand, and we’re bringing that together with a premium experience in our new retail evolution showrooms across the country.”

The CX-90 is a big three-row, premium SUV, and as Guyton mentions, will only have “electrified” powertrains. In a country like the US where EV is growing every year, the question is this: why wasn’t the CX-90 given a fully-electric powertrain?

Guyton says it’s because Mazda’s customers haven’t been asking for that—yet.

“What we see happening right now is that customers are obviously quite interested in the journey of electrification, but there are also inhibiting factors because the customer experience for electric is, let’s say, it has growing pains right now,” Guyton says. “Whether you’re talking about charging, or cold weather, or hot weather, or electricity in California in the summertime, and so forth.”

Mazda currently has only one EV for sale in America, the midsize MX-30 EV which has a paltry 100 mile range, and is only sold in limited quantities in California. Mazda says a hybrid range-extending version of this car is coming out later this year, with the company’s first true EVs slated for 2025-2027 timeframe.

It’s all part of the company’s $10.6 billion investment into EV’s, which does sound like a decent sum of money, but pales in comparison with what giants like GM, Ford (F), and Volkswagen (Vow3.DE) are spending.

Guyton says the company’s plan to delay its EV rollout, and devote funding to hybrid powertrains, is the right answer for the current environment.

“I think there’s a lot of demand, there’s a lot of interest [in EVs], but the technology and the scenery around it in terms of charging and so forth is not really mature yet,” he says. “So we think that the customer experience right now suffers a bit, and that our formula can provide something more timely.”

Speaking of timely: Mazda investors will be hoping Guyton and the management team in Japan are right and haven’t waited too long to begin its EV transformation.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Amazon expected to post first unprofitable year since 2014 and worst loss since the dot-com bust

Holiday earnings will have to greatly exceed expectations for Amazon to reach an annual profit for the year.

Amazon.com Inc. is expected to reveal this week its first unprofitable year since 2014 and the worst year for its bottom line since 2000 — and expectations for this year aren’t headed in a positive direction.

Amazon AMZN, +2.57% reported roughly $3 billion in total losses through the first nine months of the year, and Wall Street analysts on average are projecting about $2 billion in net income in the holiday season, according to FactSet. Beyond being its first annual loss since 2014, a loss of $1 billion or more would challenge for the biggest annual loss on Amazon’s books — the only time it has lost more than $1 billion in a year was a $1.4 billion loss in 2000, when Amazon had less than $3 billion in annual revenue.

Amazon’s losses are driven by Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN, +7.54%, which Amazon invested in and contracted with for delivery vehicles; the electric-vehicle maker’s stock plunged in 2022 after a successful initial public offering at the end of 2021. Amazon is unlikely to face those paper losses again in future years, and Wall Street projects that Amazon will storm back to more than $17 billion in profit in 2023 by cutting costs and shedding employees it brought on to deal with spiking demand in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That forecast may be too bright, though, amid growing doubt about Amazon’s most profitable business, Amazon Web Services. While Amazon is not expected to produce a net income this year, its operating income will be in the black solely because of an expected $23 billion profit from AWS, countering an $11 billion loss from the rest of the business.

Cloud-computing growth is slowing, however, as large corporate customers look to cut back on their spending. Last week, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +2.10% executives revealed that an Azure slowdown that spooked investors in October had gotten worse in December, and that they expected it to continue to get worse this quarter. AWS revenue growth has already decelerated, and many analysts rushed to adjust their projections for Amazon revenue and profit forecasts ahead of Thursday’s guidance from executives.

“Our lower AWS margin forecasts further drag down our Amazon [operating income] estimates and pose some risk to the outlook,” UBS analysts wrote last week in a report that predicted just 15% revenue growth this year for AWS, a slowdown for a business that has more than doubled sales since the end of 2019 to an expected $80 billion this year.

All of this explains the recent corporate cuts at Amazon, which more than doubled its workforce to become the second-largest private U.S. employer during the pandemic. No amount of cutting is expected to return Amazon to the heights it enjoyed in 2020 and 2021 — when the e-commerce and cloud-computing giant produced more than $54 billion in profit collectively, more than in its entire existence to that point — but now those cuts may be the only way to come close to expectations this year.

“A weaker outlook at AWS puts even more pressure on cost cuts at the retail segment to drive the margin story,” UBS analysts bluntly stated, while maintaining a buy rating but cutting their price target to $118 from $121.

It’s still possible for Amazon to exceed expectations, maybe by enough to reach break-even for the year — holiday earnings have beaten estimates at least five years running, according to FactSet records that date to 2017, including a huge beat last year thanks to the Rivian IPO. The direction of the stock likely depends on the forecast, though, and what it says about the direction of profit, and AWS, in 2023.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

These Stocks Are Moving the Most Today: Tesla, IBM, Chevron, ServiceNow, and More

Stock futures were mostly higher Thursday and tech stocks looked poised to rally after Tesla TSLA +0.38% delivered solid quarterly earnings.

These stocks could make moves Thursday:

Tesla (TSLA) was up more than 7% in premarket trading. The electric-vehicle maker reported fourth-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates. Tesla’s operating earnings of $3.9 billion in the fourth quarter were a record.

International Business Machines IBM –0.52% (IBM) declined 2%. IBM posted better-than-expected quarterly revenue, and its revenue forecast also was upbeat. But the company’s outlook on free cash flow was slightly disappointing. IBM also said it would be cutting 3,900 jobs.

Chevron (CVX) was gaining 3% after the energy giant raised its dividend and announced a new round of buybacks valued at up to $75 billion.

ServiceNow NOW +1.21% (NOW) was down 1.7% even after the cloud-software company posted fourth-quarter earnings that were better than expected and its forecast for first-quarter subscription revenue also was higher than expectations.

Shares of Lam Research (LRCX) fell 1.9% after the silicon-foundry equipment supplier said it would be cutting its work force by 7% to reduce costs as chip equipment demand slows.

American depositary receipts of SAP (SAP) fell 4.4% after the German enterprise software giant announced plans to reduce its staff by 2.5%, and said it has begun exploring the sale of its majority stake in Qualtrics (XM).

American depositary receipts of Nokia (NOK) rose 3% after the Finnish telecommunications company beat analysts’ expectations for its fourth-quarter earnings and sales.

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) rose 2% after the casino company reported a fourth-quarter loss but said revenue jumped 11%. It also said it was confident that travel and tourism spending would continue to recover this year.

American Airlines (AAL) and Southwest Airlines (LUV) will be reporting quarterly earnings before the stock market opens Thursday.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

2 Under-the-Radar Dividend Stocks With 8% Dividend Yields – or Better

While the big-name stocks may get the attention and the headlines, they’re not the only game in town. And sometimes, the market giants aren’t even the best place to turn for solid returns on that initial investment. There are small- to mid-cap stocks in the market that can present an unbeatable combination for income-minded investors: share appreciation and high-yielding dividend returns.

These stocks, however, can go undercover, slipping under investors’ radar, for numerous reasons, everything from living in unusual business niches to consistent failure to post profits, but sometimes the reason can be much more mundane: they’re just smaller companies. It’s inevitable that some sound equities will get overlooked.

Crescent Capital BDC, Inc. (CCAP)

We’ll start with Crescent Capital, a BDC firm that is part of the larger Crescent Group. Crescent Capital BDC offers a range of financial services to mid-market private enterprises, the type of companies that has long been drivers of the overall US economy but are frequently too small to access extensive credit and financing services from the traditional banking sector. Crescent serves this base through loan origination, equity purchases, and debt investments; the company’s portfolio totals over $1.29 billion in fair value and leans heavily toward unitranche first liens (62.7%) and senior secured first lien (25.4%).

Crescent Capital will be reporting its Q4 financial results in February; analysts are forecasting bottom-line earnings of 44 cents per share. It’s interesting to note that the company has beaten the EPS guidance by approximately 21% in each of the last two quarters reported. In the most recent, 3Q22, the company showed total investment income of $29 million, up 13% year-over-year, and a net investment income of $16 million, up 26% y/y. Net investment income per common share for Q3 came to 52 cents, compared to the 45 cents reported in the prior-year quarter.

Back in November, Crescent Capital declared its Q4 dividend, which was paid out this past January 17. The payment was set at 41 cents per common share, and the annualized rate of $1.64 gives a yield of 11.5%. This yield is nearly 5 points higher than December’s 6.5% annualized rate of inflation, and nearly 6x the average dividend paid by S&P-listed companies. It should be noted that, since Q4 of 2021, Crescent Capital has, in addition to its 41-cent regular quarterly dividend, also consistently paid out a 5-cent special dividend.

The Fed is committed to fighting inflation through increased interest rates, and Raymond James’ 5-star analyst Robert Dodd sees this as a net gain for Crescent. He writes, “Rising base rates should benefit earnings in 4Q22. The earnings benefit from higher rates is the plus side of inflation, the downside is margin pressure, and its impact on some portfolio companies. We do expect portfolio deterioration, and rising non-accruals as we head into the back end of the year (for all BDCs), but we believe that rate benefits will overwhelm the potential negative impact of non-accrual increases in the near/medium term.”

At the bottom line, Dodd says, “We see an attractive risk/reward, with positive rate sensitivity and strong credit quality — for a BDC trading at a material discount to current NAV/Share, and at a discount multiple to its peer group.”

Taking this forward, Dodd gives CCAP shares an Outperform (i.e. Buy) rating, and his price target, set at $18, implies that a one-year gain of ~25% lies ahead. Based on the current dividend yield and the expected price appreciation, the stock has ~36% potential total return profile.

Overall, this BDC has picked up 3 recent analyst reviews – and they are all positive, supporting a unanimous Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares are priced at $14.42, with a $17.67 average price target suggesting ~22% upside potential over the next 12 months.


Piedmont Office Realty Trust (PDM)

From the BDC world we’ll shift our focus to a real estate investment trust (REIT), another leading sector among dividend payors. Piedmont Office is a ‘fully-integrated and self-managed’ REIT, focusing on the ownership and management of high-end, Class A office buildings in high-growth Sunbelt cities such as Orlando, Atlanta, and Dallas. The company also has a strong presence in the northeast, in Boston, New York, and DC. In addition to existing office space, Piedmont has ownership of prime land plots, totaling 3 million square feet, for build-to-suit or pre-leased projects.

Come February 8, Piedmont is scheduled to release its 4Q22 and FY2022 results. The company has already published full-year guidance of $73 million to $74 million in net income, and core funds from operations per diluted share of $1.99 to $2.01. Keeping these numbers in mind, we can look back at 3Q22, the last quarter reported.

In that quarter, the company had a net income of $3.33 million; the first three quarters of 2022 saw a net income of $71.26 million. Net income per share for the quarter came to 3 cents, missing the 6-cent forecast by a wide margin. The company’s core funds from operations – a key measure for dividend investors, as it funds the payments – for Q3 remained in line with the prior-year results, at $61.35 million. Core FFO came to 50 cents per share in 3Q22.

Even though Piedmont’s income has fallen over the past year, the company had no problem covering the 21 cent common share dividend payment. The dividend was declared in October and paid out on January 3 of this year. At 84 cents per common share, the annualized payment yields 8.5%, beating inflation by a solid 2 points. Piedmont has a long history of keeping its dividend reliable; the company has paid out a regular quarterly div since 2009, and has maintained the current payment since 2014.

Assessing the outlook for Piedmont, Baird analyst Dave Rodgers explains why this REIT remains a top pick: “We believe PDM is among the best positioned to outperform during 2023. The current space market is denoted by Office leasing activity concentrated across small-to-mid-sized tenants supporting 1) PDM’s focus on value-add and asset repositioning; 2) its 14ksf average in-place tenant size; and 3) its 8ksf average size for 2023 lease expirations.”

“While we expect leasing to be an opportunity for PDM, the bigger catalyst, in our view, is the likely recovery in the investment sales market —driving PDM’s return to its capital recycling strategy and the accretive exit of NYC, Boston and Houston in the near term,” Rodgers added.

Rodgers goes on to give PDM shares an Outperform (i.e. Buy) rating, with a price target of $13, indicating his confidence in a 28% upside on the one-year horizon.

This stock holds a Moderate Buy rating from the analyst consensus, based on 3 recent reviews that include 2 Buys and 1 Hold. The average price target of $13.67 suggests a 35% upside potential from the current trading price of $10.12.


Source: finance.yahoo.com

Taxes: Here are the federal tax brackets for 2023 vs. 2022

The income thresholds for the seven federal tax brackets increased by a bigger-than-normal amount for the 2023 tax year to reflect runaway inflation seen last year.

“They are just the usual changes due to inflation,” Jon Whiten, from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told Yahoo Finance. “More dramatic this year since inflation was also dramatic.”

The inflation-adjusted amounts jumped by more than 7% from 2022, according to the Tax Policy Center, compared with last year’s 3% uptick. The changes themselves are not a new development — the Internal Revenue Service adjusts its tax brackets annually for inflation.

One positive outcome: Taxpayers whose income didn’t rise on par with inflation last year will likely avoid tax bracket creep in 2023 and ultimately pay lower taxes.

Changes to 2023 federal income tax brackets

For the 2023 tax year, there are seven federal tax brackets: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. Your tax bracket is determined by your taxable income and filing status and shows what tax rate you’ll pay on each portion of your income.

According to the IRS, the income thresholds for all brackets will increase as follows:

Remember: These are progressive marginal rates. It doesn’t mean that, if you have $100,000 in taxable income as a single taxpayer, you’re taxed at 24% on that entire amount.

Instead, the first $11,000 is taxed at the 10% rate in 2023, the next dollars up to $44,725 are taxed at 12%, the next dollars up to $95,375 are taxed at 22%, and the last dollars over $95,375 are taxed at 24%.

What these increases mean for you

According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, wages only increased 4.4% for the 12-month run ending September 2022, up just 2.4% from a year earlier. Though some folks saw a jump in their salaries last year, most of those gains still fell behind rising inflation levels.

“The whole point of adjusting tax brackets for inflation is to reduce the impact or mitigate the impact of inflation,” topld Eric Bronnenkant, head of tax at Betterment. “Let’s say some people got a 10% raise in wages last year, while others may have not gotten any raise at all. Arguably, people whose income outpaced the estimated inflation hike of 7% now may be paying more taxes because their tax bracket is higher, while those with wages with little growth may be paying less.”

What this means is that taxpayers whose salaries didn’t keep up with inflation are able to bypass bracket creep. According to the Tax Foundation, this occurs when inflation pushes you into a higher income tax bracket, which will reduce the value of credits, deductions, and exemptions.

“You still have to remember that a 7% tax bracket increase is still a rough estimate of inflation, and it’s never about any one person’s individual situation,” Bronnenkant said. “It’s possible that inflation was low, but you lived somewhere where your landlord increased your rent 10% and your personal costs may have increased a lot. It’s not perfect for everybody, but it’s the best the IRS can do to average inflation for a large amount of people.”

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Signature Bank Halts SWIFT Transactions Under $100,000 for Crypto Users, Says Binance

Signature Bank’s customers facilitating fiat operations with Binance will not be able to make SWIFT transfers of less than $100,000, according to the crypto exchange.

“One of our fiat banking partners, Signature Bank, has advised that it will no longer support any of its crypto exchange customers with buying and selling amounts of less than 100,000 USD as of February 1st, 2023,” a Binance spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Decrypt. “As a result, some individual users may not be able to use SWIFT bank transfers to buy or sell crypto with/for USD for amounts less than 100,000 USD.”

SWIFT is a vast messaging system that allows banks and other financial institutions from all around the world to send and receive encrypted information, namely cross-border money transfer instructions.

Only 0.01% of Binance’s monthly users are served by Signature Bank. Other Binance banking partners have not been affected, the exchange noted, adding that it is “actively working to find an alternative solution” for affected users.

“Furthermore, all other Binance functions are unaffected by this change, and all users can continue using their accounts. Notably, buying and selling crypto using credit or debit cards, using one of the other fiat currencies supported by Binance (including Euros) and our Binance P2P marketplace will continue to operate as usual,” added Binance’s spokesperson.

Decrypt didn’t immediately hear from Signature Bank after reaching out for additional comment.

Signature Bank steps back from crypto

Signature Bank has been hit hard by the recent turmoil in the crypto industry, as per its latest fourth-quarter filing.

In the final quarter of 2022, the firm announced a decline in customer deposits of roughly $14 billion, citing its “planned reduction in digital asset banking deposits” alongside industry-wide chaos. Last quarter, markets were rocked by the high-profile collapse of FTX and a suite of legal charges against the exchange’s disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Despite a hefty rally year-to-date, with Signature Bank stock (SBNY) rising from $113 on January 3 to $127 on January 20, the past year has been brutal for the bank.

On January 24, 2022, the NASDAQ-listed stock traded at more than $314.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Netflix: Password sharing ‘undermines’ business, warns crackdown will intensify

Netflix (NFLX) freeloaders, beware! The company is ramping up its password sharing crackdown.

Following fourth quarter earnings results on Thursday that saw subscriber numbers leap past expectations, the company warned in its quarterly letter to shareholders it will be intensifying its push to combat password sharing.

“Later in Q1, we expect to start rolling out paid sharing more broadly. Today’s widespread account sharing (100M+ households) undermines our long term ability to invest in and improve Netflix, as well as build our business,” Netflix said.

The company explained it’s been building additional new features to improve the overall Netflix experience, including the ability for members to review which devices are using their account and to transfer a profile to a new account.

Members can also pay extra if they want to share the platform with people they don’t live with.

“As we work through this transition – and as some borrowers stop watching either because they don’t convert to extra members or full paying accounts – near term engagement, as measured by third parties like Nielsen’s The Gauge, could be negatively impacted,” Netflix said.

However, the company referred to its recent testing in Latin America, which showed engagement steadily increase over time as borrowers signed up for their own accounts and new content was released.

Investors will be closely monitoring the company’s earnings call for additional updates regarding its crackdown on password sharing, in addition to its newly launched ad-supported tier.

Netflix has looked at those two initiatives as profitability drivers, especially as competition within the streaming space escalates: “As always, our north stars remain pleasing our members and building even greater profitability over time,” the streamer said.

Quarterly net additions grew by 7.66 million, above company guidance of 4.5 million amid a slew of high-profile and record-breaking content releases, including “Glass Onion,” “Troll,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “My Name is Vendetta,” and “Wednesday.”

Although the company delivered a miss on both the top and bottom lines, guidance came in strong with revenue expectations for the first quarter of 2023 set at $8.17 billion with earnings per share expected to come in at $2.82.

Amid the earnings announcements, Netflix co-CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings announced he would step down from his role leading the company. COO Greg Peters will join current Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos in that role. Hastings will now serve as the company’s executive chairman.

Shares of Netflix were up as much as 6% in after-hours trading following Thursday’s results.

Netflix stock have been on a tear in recent weeks, up roughly 60% over the past six months with about a 10% gain so far in January, outperforming the Nasdaq Composite’s 5% gain.

Source: finance.yahoo.com