Tag Archives: request

CEO Bezos Says Amazon Cloud Business Outpacing Its E-Tail Business

After 10 years, Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing division, is a $10 billion business, Amazon.com ( AMZN ) CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in a letter to shareholders Tuesday. Though the $10 billion figure is not new — the firm’s Q4 AWS sales suggested a run-rate of $10 billion — it is the first time that Bezos has offered AWS guidance for 2016. Bezos also said in the shareholder letter, contained in the company’s 8-K filing with the SEC, that AWS is larger than Amazon was at the same stage in its history. “Over time, it’s likely that most companies will choose not to run their own data centers, opting for the cloud instead,” Bezos wrote. Amazon stock was up nearly 2%, near 597, in afternoon trading on the stock market today . The company has an IBD Composite Rating of 77, where 99 is the highest. AWS dwarfs rival Microsoft ( MSFT ), which has been fighting to make gains in the cloud market. Alphabet ( GOOGL )-run Google is a distant third in market share. At its GPU technology conference in San Jose, Calif., this week, chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA ) announced several new pieces of hardware targeted at cloud computing.

Weibo Stock Soars As Alibaba Is Rumored Ready To Boost Its Stake

Weibo ( WB ), the “ Twitter ( TWTR ) of China,” saw its stock surge Wednesday on speculation that China e-commerce titan Alibaba Group ( BABA ) might boost its stake in the rising social media service. Weibo stock was up 11% in afternoon trading in the stock market today , near 20. Weibo was spun off in 2014 by Shanghai-based Web portal Sina ( SINA ) which still owns the majority of Weibo’s stock. Alibaba also has a strong stake in the company. With about a 20% ownership of Weibo as of now, “investors naturally believe Alibaba has interest (in) Weibo ultimately,” ITG Investment Research analyst Henry Guo told IBD via email on Wednesday. In May 2015, Summit Research had downgraded Weibo on concerns of increasing competition from other social networks, including from China Internet giant Tencent Holdings ( TCEHY )-owned WeChat. Summit also pointed to Weibo’s sluggish efforts to monetize and the China microblog’s too-pricey valuation back then. Weibo owes much of its current success to a surge in mobile users. Monthly active users rose 34% year over year to 236 million in December, with 83% of those users connecting with mobile devices. Weibo last month reported Q4 earnings that beat expectations. Weibo’s Q4 beat came with light Q1 sales guidance of $111 million to $116 million, up 15% to 20% year over year but below Wall Street’s expectations of $118.2 million, almost a 23% rise. The stock is forming a cup-type base with a potential buy point at 20.66. The pattern is within a much longer consolidation. Weibo stock has traded below its all-time peak of 26.08 since September 2014. Weibo still carries a strong IBD Composite Rating of 96 out of a possible 99. The company went public in April 2014 at 17 a share. After spiking on the initial public offering, shares flattened out, eventually sliding to an all-time low of 8.78 in August 2015, during China’s stock market crash . Sina stock was up 3%, near 49 in afternoon trading on Wednesday. Alibaba stock was up 2%, near 79 and Twitter stock was up 2%, near 17.

Facebook, Alphabet Winners In Trump-Cruz, Clinton-Sanders Battles

The election cycle in 2016 should drive a record year in political ad spending, with Facebook[ ticker symb=FB] and Alphabet ( GOOGL ) cashing in on the digital-media slice of the pie. About $1 billion will be spent on digital media platforms during the 2016 election cycle, about five times higher than in 2012, wrote Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente in a research note. He expects Alphabet to capture 40% of that amount and Facebook 30%. The growth in political-ad spending is due to the intense battles waged between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to be the Democrat Party presidential nominee and between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on the Republican side. Another is a greater mix of ad spending by political action committees, especially PACs seeking to deny Trump the GOP nomination. As always, TV advertising will get the bulk of political-ad spending. The reason political spending on digital media is growing in power is the unique ability to track its effectiveness. “Political campaigns have been slow to adopt digital marketing despite clear attribution benefits, competitive ROI, and significant growth in consumer time spent on digital platforms,” DiClemente wrote. “Our checks with campaign ad buyers suggest that improvement in attribution technology and the ability to link ad spend with turnout at a candidate’s rallies is proving a key driver of growth of spend on digital.”