In a research note previewing the year ahead for Application and Infrastructure Software, Piper Jaffray analyst Alex Zukin raised his price target for Twilio (TWLO) to $110 from $95 and for Zendesk (ZEN) to $85 from $72.50. The analyst keeps Overweight ratings on both names. His top picks for 2019 are Twilio, Zendesk and Adobe (ADBE). Zukin believes all three possess a combination of "strong fundamentals given their respective leadership positions in large markets and positive numbers revisions on already discounted valuations vs. peers." The analyst also made some "wild predictions of potential industry shaking events." He admits these are "low probability" predictions. The first one is Amazon.com (AMZN) spinning out Web Services. The second "wild" prediction is Oracle (ORCL) going private. The third is Google (GOOG, GOOGL) buying ServiceNow (NOW). And the fourth is Salesforce agreeing to merge with Workday (WDAY) in an all-stock transaction.

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Big River Services International sells around $1M a year in goods in e-commerce marketplaces and is an arm of Amazon that gathers intelligence on the company's competitors, Dana Mattioli and Sarah Nassauer of The Wall Street Journal reports. Big River uses its sales across multiple countries to gather pricing data, logistics, and other details about rival marketplaces, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. Reference Link

Citi analyst Tyler Radke raised the firm's price target on ServiceNow to $906 from $896 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst maintains a positive view on ServiceNow, holding estimates just above the high end of guidance as the firm's partner checks suggest solid demand and further Pro Plus interest. Commentary continued a similarly positive tone to Q4, as partners saw larger deal sizes and stronger pipelines than this time last year, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Citi says that while the shares have outperformed peers and the current valuation creates a high bar, a "beat/raise" quarter heading into the analyst and second half of 2024 growth acceleration "provide a positive event path."

Oracle Corporation Japan "announced that it plans to invest more than $8B over the next 10 years to meet the growing demand for cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Japan. The investment will grow Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's footprint across Japan. In addition, to help customers and partners address the digital sovereignty requirements in Japan, Oracle will significantly expand its operations and support engineering teams with Japan-based personnel. Oracle plans to increase local customer support of its public cloud regions in Tokyo and Osaka and its local operations teams for Oracle Alloy and OCI Dedicated Region. This will enable governments and businesses across Japan to continue to move their mission-critical workloads to the Oracle Cloud and embrace sovereign AI solutions."

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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