After speaking with an industry expert, Wells Fargo says that AOL (AOL) should help Verizon (VZ) better monetize many of its assets, while having access to Verizon's data and tracking capabilities should help AOL better compete with Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOG). The firm quotes the expert as saying that Verizon could become a strong competitor to Google and Facebook following the deal.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists. 1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Welcome to "#SocialStocks," The Fly's weekly recap of Wall Street's reactions to social media stock news.  TIK TOK BAN... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Microsoft (MSFT) is scheduled to report results of the third quarter of its fiscal year 2024 after the market close on Thursday, April 25, with a conference call scheduled for 5:30 pm ET. What to watch... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

TikTok Policy issued the following statement on the enactment of "the TikTok Ban": "This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court. We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation. This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans. As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy, and be inspired." Publicly traded companies in the social media space that compete with TikTok include Meta Platforms (META), Alphabet (GOOGL), Pinterest (PINS) and Snap (SNAP). Reference Link

Ribbon Communications (RRBN) announced plans for a major network modernization program with Verizon (VZ) to retire legacy TDM switching platforms and replace their function with modern cloud-based technologies. Verizon is leveraging Ribbon's portfolio of Voice Products including the vC20 Call Controller, G5 Line Access Gateway, G6 Universal Media Gateway, virtual and Cloud-native Session Border Controllers, and other products which allows for the consolidation and replacement of equipment with energy efficient, software-centric platforms while maintaining full feature functionality.

Meta Platforms (META), the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Threads and other brands, is scheduled to report first quarter 2024 results after market close on Wednesday, April 24 with a conference call scheduled for 5 pm ET. Here's what to... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Wells Fargo lowered the firm's price target on Verizon to $40 from $44 and keeps an Equal Weight rating on the shares. The firm sees encouraging signs in Q1 - improvement in sub trends and limited churn from price-ups - offset by some softness in the business segment and prepaid. Wells would get more constructive when there's visibility on a sustainable improvement in sub trends.