Welcome to "#SocialStocks," The Fly's weekly recap of Wall Street's reactions to social media stock news.
SNAP EARNINGS RECAP: On October 22, Snap, Inc. (SNAP) reported its fiscal third quarter results. The company reported Q3 adjusted earnings per share of (4c) against a consensus estimates of (5c). Snap also reported Q3 revenue of $446.2M, against analyst expectations of $434.79M. Snap added 7M Daily Active Users in Q3 and saw increased engagement across key metrics, the company said. Daily active users, or DAUs, were 210M in Q3, compared to 203M in Q2 and 186M in Q3 of 2018. DAUs were up sequentially and year-over-year in each of North America, Europe, and Rest of World. DAUs were up sequentially and year-over-year on each of iOS and Android platforms, the company noted. "We delivered strong results this quarter, and we are pleased that the investments we have made are continuing to drive the growth of our community and our business. We are a high growth business, with strong operating leverage, a clear path to profitability, a distinct vision for the future, and the ability to invest over the long term. We are excited about executing on the many opportunities in front of us," said Evan Spiegel, CEO.
ZUCKERBERG TESTIFIES TO CONGRESS ABOUT LIBRA: On October 22, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in prepared remarks ahead of a key congressional hearing on Project Libra that Facebook will not launch Libra anywhere in the world unless all U.S. regulators approve it. He will tell lawmakers that the Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency "will extend America's financial leadership as well as our democratic values and oversight around the world." "While we debate these issues, the rest of the world isn't waiting. China is moving quickly to launch similar ideas in the coming months," Zuckerberg said in his prepared remarks. "Libra will be backed mostly by dollars and I believe it will extend America's financial leadership as well as our democratic values and oversight around the world. If America doesn't innovate, our financial leadership is not guaranteed." "Even though the Libra Association is independent and we don't control it, I want to be clear: Facebook will not be part of launching the Libra payments system anywhere in the world until US regulators approve," Zuckerberg said. "By design, we don't expect to be leading those efforts going forward," Zuckerberg said. "The Libra Association has been created, has a governance structure in place, and will be driving the project from now on." "Finally, there's the question of whether libra is intended to replace sovereign currency, and whether it's appropriate for private companies to be involved in this kind of innovation," he said. "I want to be clear: this is not an attempt to create a sovereign currency. Like existing online payment systems, it's a way for people to transfer money."
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS ACT: On October 17, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, introduced sweeping new privacy legislation, the Mind Your Own Business Act, to "create the strongest-ever protections for Americans' private data and to hold accountable the corporate executives responsible for abusing our information." The bill contains the "most comprehensive" protections for Americans' private data ever introduced, and goes further than Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, according to Wyden's office. It would give American consumers an easy, one-click way to stop companies from selling or sharing their personal information, give consumers radical transparency into how corporations use and share their data, and impose harsh fines and even prison terms for executives at corporations that misuse Americans' data and lie about those practices to the government. Publicly traded companies that may be affected include Facebook, Twitter, Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN).
Snap
-0.73 (-5.21%)
Ticker changed to META
+2.3 (+1.26%)
-0.52 (-1.34%)
Alphabet
+10.81 (+0.87%)
Alphabet
+10.64 (+0.86%)
Amazon.com
-9.01 (-0.51%)