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By Swissquote Analysts
Morning News

Salesforce Names Three Directors, Braces for Proxy Fight

Salesforce Inc. has appointed three new directors, including the finance chief of Mastercard Inc., to its board as a potential proxy fight with activist investor Elliott Management Corp. looms. The business-software maker said that Mastercard CFO Sachin Mehra, ValueAct Capital Chief Executive Mason Morfit and Arnold Donald, the former president and chief executive of Carnival Corp., have been named independent directors, effective March 1.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

STMicroelectronics Shares Jump on Better-Than-Expected Revenue Guidance

Shares of STMicroelectronics NV - a key Apple Inc. supplier - jumped in trading after the company posted better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter of 2022 and guided for revenue growth ahead of analysts’ forecasts for the current quarter and the full year. The European chip maker is targeting net revenue of $4.20 billion at the midpoint for the current quarter. Analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note to investors that the forecast is above consensus of $3.81 billion as well as their own $3.84 billion estimate.

By
David VERELST
Morning News

Boeing Reports Quarterly Earnings Fall, Plans to Increase Jet Production

Boeing Co. reported another quarterly loss but maintained plans to increase jet production and deliveries this year despite lingering supply-chain challenges. The company reported its fourth annual loss in a row as it wrestles with commercial-jet production costs that are higher than planned. Both Boeing and rival Airbus SE benefited from a rebound in aircraft orders last year as airlines recovered from the pandemic-driven travel downturn. The companies have struggled to boost production to match, citing shortages of jet engines and other components. Boeing’s fourth-quarter earnings and sales both fell short of analysts’ expectations.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Microsoft Earnings Fell Last Quarter Amid Economic Concerns

Microsoft Corp. recorded its slowest sales growth in more than six years last quarter as demand for its software and cloud services cooled on concerns about the health of the global economy. The Redmond, Wash., company’s revenue expanded 2% in the three months through Dec. 31 from a year earlier to $52.7 billion. Its net income fell 12% to $16.4 billion. That is the company’s lowest revenue growth since the quarter that ended in June 2016. “Organizations are exercising caution given the macroeconomic uncertainty,” Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said on an earnings call.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Microsoft to Deepen OpenAI Partnership, Invest Billions in ChatGPT Creator

Microsoft Corp. said it is making a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, substantially bolstering its relationship with the startup behind the viral ChatGPT chatbot as the software giant looks to expand the use of artificial intelligence in its products. Microsoft said the latest partnership builds upon the company’s 2019 and 2021 investments in OpenAI. The companies didn’t disclose the financial terms of the partnership. Microsoft had been discussing investing as much as $10 billion in OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Google Parent Alphabet to Cut 12,000 Jobs Amid Wave of Tech Layoffs

Google’s parent company said it would cut its staff by 6% in its largest-ever round of layoffs, extending a retrenchment among technology companies after record pandemic hiring. Alphabet Inc. said the cuts would eliminate roughly 12,000 jobs across different units and regions, though some areas, including recruiting and projects outside of the company’s core businesses, would be more heavily affected. The layoffs reached as high as the vice president level and affected divisions including cloud computing and Area 120, an internal business incubator that had already faced cuts last year, said people familiar with the matter.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Netflix Q4 Subscriber Growth Above Expectation - Reed Hastings Transitions to Chairman Role

Shares of Netflix Inc. gained over 6% in extended session on Thursday after the online-video streaming giant reported fourth-quarter results, with earnings missing Street view. However, the company added over 7 million subscribers, beating its expectations. The company also announced that Reed Hastings is resigning from Co-CEO role. Netflix added 7.66 million subscribers globally in the quarter, which was better than the company's estimate of 4.50 million. The company ended the quarter with 230.75 million subscribers. Los Gatos, California-based Netflix's fourth-quarter profit dropped to $55 million or $0.15 per share from $607 million or $1.33 per share last year.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Geberit to lose momentum in 2022

Sanitary installation specialist Geberit slowed down last year in a difficult environment, marked in particular by soaring costs and currency effects. The Jona-based company nevertheless confirmed its medium-term objectives. Over the past 12 months, the St. Gallen-based multinational saw its net revenues fall by 2% to 3.39 billion francs, as wholesalers emptied their stocks with energy and raw material prices rising. Excluding exchange rate fluctuations, however, revenues edged 4.8% higher, Geberit announced on Thursday.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Profits Dented by Deal Slump

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley reported sharply lower fourth-quarter, hurt by a continued slowdown in corporate deal-making that had fueled record Wall Street earnings a year earlier. Goldman’s quarterly profit fell 66% from a year ago, and Morgan Stanley’s fell 40%. Both also reported lower revenue. Goldman missed analysts’ expectations for both profit and revenue. Its earnings amounted to $3.32 per share, compared with the $5.56 per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet. It was Goldman’s biggest earnings miss in years, according to FactSet. Investment bankers at both Goldman and Morgan Stanley saw big declines in the fees they earned from advising companies on mergers and from underwriting stock and bond offerings.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Lindt & Sprüngli reports strong sales growth

After returning to its pre-Covid-19 level in 2021, Lindt & Sprüngli continued to grow last year. Buoyed in particular by its business in the United States and approaching the 5 billion franc mark in revenues, the Zurich chocolate maker increased its sales by 8.4% compared to the previous year to 4.97 billion francs. Despite a market environment considered to be difficult, organic growth stood at 10.8%, the chocolate manufacturer based in Kilchberg on the banks of Lake Zurich announced on Tuesday. All regions contributed to the increase in sales, in particular the countries of the "rest of the world" zone and North America, which recorded increases of 16.6% and 15.7% respectively.

By
Nadine PEREIRA