Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss said the benefits of many big secular themes in software and technology, such as "Big Data," the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, may accrue to existing mega-cap companies like Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB), Google (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT), but contends that there are still trends capable of producing a new $100B market cap software company. Salesforce (CRM), which has the most customer data in the cloud and multiple solutions targeting over 62M users, is the "clear leader" in SaaS-based applications and is "well on the way" to a $100B valuation, Weiss tells investors. The most effective consolidator in security is Palo Alto (PANW), which could become a $100B cap company if it successfully expands its focus from network security to the broader pool of overall security spending, Weiss believes. If a vendor could truly make app development easy enough for information workers to automate their own business processes, a very large vendor could be supported, and Atlassian (TEAM) has the potential of extending its easy-to-use workflow automation engine to the broader information worker base, said Weiss, who gave the caveat, "If We Get This Right, We're Geniuses."

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Microsoft's (MSFT) Rare said that its 2018 video game "Sea of Thieves," has achieved 40M players across Xbox, Windows 10 and Steam so far. The Fly notes that the game is set to release on PlayStation 5 (SONY) on April 30. Reference Link

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Truist raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $170 from $158 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm is expecting the company to report "solid" Q1 results driven by "healthy" user engagement that continues to drive more ad spending across Search and Social, helped by an ongoing recovery in pricing. Conversations with digital ad agencies suggest that the momentum seen in Q4 was sustained in Q1 across Search and YouTube, though the management's commentary for Q2 may be cautious given the macro environment, with continued emphasis on investments in Cloud and AI, the analyst tells investors in a research note.

As previously reported, Maxim analyst Tom Forte initiated coverage of Amazon.com with a Buy rating and $218 price target. The firm believes the company will be able to exploit consumer internet trends that include advertising, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, healthcare, logistics, and over-the-top, or OTT, video. The firm projects a compound annual sales growth rate of 6.5% from 2023-2026, which it notes compares to 14.2% in the prior three-year period.

Maxim initiated coverage of Amazon.com with a Buy rating and $218 price target.

Enthusiast Gaming Holdings (EGLXF) announced that in partnership with Amazon (AMZN), its esports team, Luminosity will be hosting a Rocket League invitational event featuring North America's top-ranked teams and players to promote Amazon Prime. The two-day invitational event will be hosted by Sean 'Spaceman' Rogers and Jack 'Corelli' Collier and feature eight of the top professional North American Rocket League teams, including Luminosity's very own, as they compete to earn a $15,000 prize pool on April 30th and May 1st. Throughout the tournament, players will be able to use unlimited boost as part of the 'Prime Boost Advantage' while Luminosity will run dynamic overlays that encourage fans to boost their shopping and streaming experience with Amazon. To promote the event, participants will be actively posting on their personal social media accounts and streaming their perspective of the event. In addition, the Company is pleased to announce that its previously announced sale of select non-core and non-profitable casual gaming assets has closed. Among the assets included as part of the divestment were Shockwave, LittleBigSnake, MathGames.com, and TypeRacer.com. Further details on the transaction can be found in the Company's press release dated April 1, 2024.

Amazon's HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia lost 200 jobs in 2023, missing the company's goal of adding 2,500 jobs, The Washington Post's Teo Armus reports. Amazon's HQ2 has roughly 8,000 employees and plans to reach about 25,000 by the end of the decade, according to its agreement with Virginia, Armus writes. Reference Link

The U.K. plans to hold talks this month with Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Alphabet (GOOGL) and others to push a voluntary charter granting parents more control of social media use by young teens, Bloomberg's Ellen Milligan reports. According to people familiar with the matter, ministers want to launch a consultation later this month to gauge ways of limiting the potential harm to children caused by social media, and the proposed voluntary charter may involve tech firms agreeing to alert parents when their children are repeatedly looking up disturbing content. Reference Link