Facebook beat Wall Street revenue projections and announced that its user numbers were in line with estimates in the wake of a user data privacy scandal. Up to 87m users saw their data end up in the possession of political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Facebook has since been scrambling to mollify angry politicians and reassure users that it will safeguard their personal information. Amid that turmoil, observers were keenly watching the company’s user figures to assess the potential damage and see if the scandal would suppress Facebook’s long-term growth. Read more Professor apologises for helping Cambridge Analytica harvest data Cambridge Analytica whistleblower to give evidence to US Congress Suspended Cambridge Analytica boss refuses to appear before MPs Its North American user numbers were already flagging at the end of 2017, and since then a number of users have vowed to quit the platform, … [Read more...] about Facebook beat Wall Street revenue projections with user numbers on target despite data privacy scandal
Wall street
Twitter smashes Wall Street expectations with $665m in first quarter revenue
Social media giant Twitter has beaten Wall Street estimates and posted its second profitable quarter, driven largely by the company’s overseas expansion. Total revenues for the San Francisco-based company rose 21 per cent to $664.9m (£476.6m), beating analyst estimates of $607.6m, according to the firm’s shareholder report. Advertising revenue was $575m for the quarter, beating expectations of $523m. Twitter’s strong performance comes on the back of its rapid international expansion. International revenue for the company totaled $318m, an increase of 53 per cent year-over-year, while US revenue totaled $347m, an increase of just 2 per cent on the same period last year. Read more: Facebook, Google and Twitter warned of new legislation on child protection “We knew Twitter would be moving from strength to strength this quarter,” said Nick Fletcher, vice president at Rakuten Marketing. “Marketers are becoming more aware of the scale of their … [Read more...] about Twitter smashes Wall Street expectations with $665m in first quarter revenue
Wall Street Gender Gap Narrows, 5,000 Miles South of Wall Street
It’s been a good year for female bankers with C-suite ambitions in Brazil -- the ones who work for foreign companies, that is.Goldman Sachs Group Inc. named Maria Silvia Bastos Marques chief executive officer for Brazil in February, the first woman to lead one of the firm’s local operations in Latin America. The same month, Credit Suisse Group AG nominated Ana Paula Pessoa to a seat on its global board, the first Brazilian to hold that post. And Deutsche Bank AG in March picked Maite Leite as its new country head for Brazil.It’s a different story at the nation’s three biggest local banks, where recent progress has yet to land a woman in one of the top spots.At those companies, just two women have been named to board seats, at Banco Bradesco SA and Itau Unibanco Holding SA, and both are descendants of the firms’ founding families. Banco do Brasil SA has none. On the three companies’ lists of the 10 highest-ranking company executives, women account for … [Read more...] about Wall Street Gender Gap Narrows, 5,000 Miles South of Wall Street
Andreessen, Costolo Want Wall Street to Adopt a Longer View
Members of the technology elite have endorsed an exchange’s attempt to pull the stock market out of its short-term mindset.Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, former Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo and AOL co-founder Steve Case were among those who sent U.S. securities regulators comment letters on Monday supporting IEX Group Inc.’s plan to introduce rules designed to get public companies to focus on long-term strategy. (To be sure, there’s self-interest at work in their enthusiasm: All three invest in a company associated with the project.)IEX, which runs a stock market, hasn’t yet gotten its corporate listings business off the ground. Currently, companies that want publicly traded U.S. shares can turn to two exchange operators: the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Inc. IEX wants to be the third option, and it’s working with Eric Ries, a guru for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, to get there.Read more about the Long-Term Stock … [Read more...] about Andreessen, Costolo Want Wall Street to Adopt a Longer View
The SEC Wants Wall Street to Treat Clients Better. What’s at Stake?
Wall Street is known for making money by selling risky investments with complicated names. Some examples: equity indexed annuities, structured notes and leveraged inverse exchanged traded funds.The days of marketing such products aren’t necessarily coming to an end. But things could get more challenging if regulators require financial firms to make sure whatever they are peddling is in their clients’ interests.This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took the first step by proposing a new "best-interest" standard for brokers. At a high level, the strictures -- laid out in hundreds of pages of text -- are designed to root out sales practices that investor advocates say encourage firms to steer customers into inappropriate investments that boost broker compensation.Read More: Trump’s SEC Proposes Rewrite of Obama-Era Broker Conflict RulesWhile the SEC has long been urged to do more to address broker misconduct, the issue started boiling over in 2016 when … [Read more...] about The SEC Wants Wall Street to Treat Clients Better. What’s at Stake?