Connect with us

Published

on

Tony Avelar | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Hard drive maker Seagate Technology said on Wednesday it plans to cut 8% of its global workforce, or about 3,000 employees, citing economic uncertainty and declining demand for its parts.

“In addition to adjusting our production output, to drive supply discipline and pricing stability, we are implementing a restructuring plan to sustainably lower costs, including reduction in our global workforce,” Seagate CEO Dave Mosley said on a call with analysts.

The restructuring plan was announced after Seagate reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street expectations for revenue and earnings per share.

Seagate shares fell more than 7% during trading on Wednesday and are down over 55% so far in 2022.

Mosley added that Seagate’s customers, which include cloud providers, have a build-up of inventory of parts because they are spending less on computers. He said he doesn’t expect Seagate’s customers to finish using up their parts backlogs in the current quarter.

The company will maintain paying a dividend, Mosley said.

Seagate makes hard drives and other parts often used in PCs and cloud servers.

Seagate’s layoffs and lower demand are the latest sign that demand for PCs and cloud servers is deteriorating after two boom years driven by the pandemic.

On Tuesday, Microsoft, which makes the operating system for most PCs, reported that Windows licensing sales dropped 15% on an annual basis. Microsoft’s cloud business also came up short versus expectations.

Seagate said that its restructuring plan, which includes the layoffs, would save the company about $110 million per year and would be completed by the end of the company’s March quarter. It said it expected to pay pre-tax charges of about $65 million, mostly for severance and other termination benefits.

Seagate reported adjusted fiscal first-quarter earnings of 48 cents per share on Wednesday, significantly below FactSet consensus expectations of 71 cents per share.

Seagate’s revenue was $2.04 billion, which also came in under the FactSet consensus of $2.1 billion.

Seagate said it expected $1.85 billion in revenue in the current quarter, under FactSet expectations of $2.12 billion.

Continue Reading

Technology

Fintech stocks plummet as Wall Street worries about consumer spending, credit

Published

on

By

Fintech stocks plummet as Wall Street worries about consumer spending, credit

People wait in line for t-shirts at a pop-up kiosk for the online brokerage Robinhood along Wall Street after the company went public with an IPO earlier in the day on July 29, 2021 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

It was a bad day for tech stocks, and a brutal one for fintech.

As the Nasdaq suffered its steepest decline since 2022, some of the biggest losers were companies that sit at the intersection of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Stock trading app Robinhood tumbled 20%, bitcoin holder Strategy fell 17% and crypto exchange Coinbase lost 18%. Much of the slide in those three stocks was tied to the drop in bitcoin, which fell almost 5%, continuing its downward trajectory. The price of the leading cryptocurrency is now down 19% in the past month, falling after a big-post election pop in late 2024.

Beyond the crypto trade, online lenders and payments companies also fell more than the broader market. Affirm, which popularized buy now, pay later loans, dropped 11%, as did SoFi, which offers personal loans and mortgages. Shopify, which provides payment technology to online retailers, fell more than 7%.

JPMorgan Chase fintech analysts on Monday highlighted declining consumer confidence as a potential challenge for companies that rely on consumer spending for growth. In late February, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 98.3 for the month, down nearly 7%, the largest monthly drop since August 2021. Walmart recently reported a shift away from discretionary purchases, underscoring the potential trouble.

“Our universe has modestly outperformed the S&P 500 since the election, but sentiment has soured of late on declining consumer confidence and signs of slowing discretionary spend,” the JPMorgan analysts wrote.

The fintech selloff follows a strong rally in the fourth quarter, driven by Fed rate cut expectations and hopes for a more favorable regulatory environment under the Trump administration.

WATCH: PayPal CEO Alex Chriss on opportunities for consumers and small businesses

PayPal CEO Alex Chriss: Huge opportunity to deliver to consumers and help small business

Continue Reading

Technology

Oracle misses on earnings but touts data center growth from AI

Published

on

By

Oracle misses on earnings but touts data center growth from AI

Larry Ellison, chairman and co-founder of Oracle Corp., speaks during the Oracle OpenWorld 2017 conference in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2017.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Oracle issued quarterly results on Monday that trailed analysts’ estimates, but the company offered bullish comments on its cloud infrastructure segment.

Here is how Oracle did compared to LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: $1.47 adjusted vs. $1.49 expected
  • Revenue: $14.13 billion vs. $14.39 billion expected

Revenue increased 6% from $13.3 billion in the same period last year. Net income rose 22% to $2.94 billion, or $1.02 a share, from $2.4 billion, or 85 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue in Oracle’s cloud services business jumped 10% from a year earlier to $11.01 billion, accounting for 78% of total sales.

The company’s cloud infrastructure segment, which helps businesses move workloads out of their own data centers, has been booming due to demand for computing power that can support artificial intelligence projects. Oracle said revenue in its cloud infrastructure unit increased 49% from a year earlier to $2.7 billion.

“We are on schedule to double our data center capacity this calendar year,” Oracle Chair Larry Ellison said in a release. “Customer demand is at record levels.”

In January, President Donald Trump announced plans to invest billions of dollars in AI infrastructure in the U.S. in collaboration with Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank. The first initiative of the joint venture, called Stargate, will be to construct data centers in Texas — an effort that is already underway, Ellison said during the announcement at the White House.

Oracle’s cloud and on-premises licenses business contributed $1.1 billion in revenue during the quarter, down 10% year over year.

Oracle also said it is increasing its quarterly dividend to 50 cents a share from 40 cents.

As of Monday’s close, the stock is down almost 11% year to date.

Oracle will hold its quarterly call with investors and will share its outlook at 5 p.m. ET.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Oracle misses on quarterly results, raises dividend by 25%

Continue Reading

Technology

Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz announces retirement, stock plummets 25%

Published

on

By

Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz announces retirement, stock plummets 25%

Asana CEO and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz

PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA | AFP | Getty Images

Dustin Moskovitz, the CEO of Asana and one of the original founders of Facebook, is retiring from the software company he started in 2008.

Asana announced Moskovitz’s retirement on Monday as part of the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report, and its board has retained an executive search firm to help choose a new CEO. Moskovitz notified its board “of his intention to transition to the role of Chair when a new CEO begins,” the company said Monday.

“As I reflect on my journey since co-founding Asana nearly 17 years ago, I’m filled with immense gratitude,” Moskovitz said in a statement. “Creating and leading Asana has been more than just building a company — it’s been a profound privilege to work alongside some of the most talented minds in the industry.”

Asana said fourth-quarter sales rose 10% year-over-year to $188.3 million, which was in-line with analyst estimates.

The company said its fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share was breakeven, ahead of analyst estimates of a loss of one cent per share.

Asana said it expects fiscal first-quarter revenue of $184.5 million to $186.5 million, trailing analyst expectations of $191 million.

Asana’s stock price was down more than 25% in after-hours trading Monday.

WATCH: The market declines look more like a reversion to the Fed.

The market declines look more like a reversion to the Fed, says Fmr. Fed Vice Chairman Rich Clarida

Continue Reading

Trending