Business

Facebook revenue grows 22%, but its pandemic user bounce fades – CNN

Published

4 years ago

October 29, 2020

Facebook on Thursday said that its daily and monthly active users in the US and Canada, a core market, declined slightly in the third quarter compared to the previous three months, and it expects this trend to continue. Facebook does not break down user numbers by region, so the full extent of the damage is unclear.

Globally, the earnings release paints a rosier picture both in terms of financial performance and user growth.

Facebook’s revenue jumped 22% to $21.47 billion compared to last year, which beat analysts’ expectations. Net income increased 29% to $7.85 billion year-over-year.

The company had 2.74 billion monthly active users during the quarter ending in September, an increase of 12% from the prior year. When combining all of Facebook’s various apps, including Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, the company reported 3.21 billion users, an increase of 14%.

Last quarter, Facebook said its daily and monthly active user numbers “reflect increased engagement as people around the world sheltered in place and used our products to connect with the people and organizations they care about.” However, the company previously cautioned that as stay at home orders begin to ease, it expected engagement to be flat or to slightly drop in the future.

Shares of Facebook initially jumped following its latest earnings report, then fell about 3% before climbing slightly into positive territory in after-hours trading.

Looking ahead to 2021, the company said it continues to face “a significant amount of uncertainty.”

“We believe the pandemic has contributed to an acceleration in the shift of commerce from offline to online, and we experienced increasing demand for advertising as a result of this acceleration. Considering that online commerce is our largest ad vertical, a change in this trend could serve as a headwind to our 2021 ad revenue growth,” the company said in its earnings report.

Facebook also cited other challenges, including iPhone software changes that it expects will hurt its advertising business, as well as the “evolving regulatory landscape.”

Facebook’s quarterly report comes a day after Zuckerberg appeared before Senators on the Commerce Committee alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Though the hearing was meant to focus on a crucial law, known as Section 230, which protects the companies’ ability to moderate content as they see fit, Senators also confronted the executives on other topics, including antitrust, misinformation about voting and election interference.

“We had a strong quarter as people and businesses continue to rely on our services to stay connected and create economic opportunity during these tough times,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

The quarter included a major advertising boycott of Facebook that included numerous household brands, such as Hershey’s, Starbucks and Patagonia. A civil rights coalition that includes the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP launched the #StopHateforProfit campaign, calling on major companies to stop advertising on Facebook for the month of July due to the platform’s “repeated failure to meaningfully address the vast proliferation of hate on its platforms.” “We deeply respect any brand’s decision and remain focused on the important work of removing hate speech and providing critical voting information. Our conversations with marketers and civil rights organizations are about how, together, we can be a force for good,” Carolyn Everson, VP of Facebook’s global business group, said at the time, in response to the boycott.

“Facebook has rebounded nicely from both the early-pandemic advertiser pullout, when marketers pulled ads across all media to redo messaging or conserve funds, and from the July ad boycott,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “Despite its challenges with election turmoil and content moderation, it remains a go-to for advertisers seeking to engage a broad base of consumers.”

Heading into the US election next week, Facebook faces continued scrutiny for how it handles misinformation and foreign interference.

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Business

TC Energy cuts cost estimate for Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico

Published

4 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.

It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.

The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

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Business

BCE reports Q3 loss on asset impairment charge, cuts revenue guidance

Published

4 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.

The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”

Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.

BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.

The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.

BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.

It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.

The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”

Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)

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Business

Canada Goose reports Q2 revenue down from year ago, trims full-year guidance

Published

4 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.

The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.

Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.

In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.

It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GOOS)

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