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Amazon beats on revenue, AWS revenue down slightly

Amazon on Thursday issued first-quarter guidance that came in light of estimates, overshadowing better-than-expected revenue for the fourth quarter. The stock slid after hours, erasing most its rally from the regular trading day. Here are the key numbers:

  • Earnings: 3 cents per share
  • Revenue: $149.2 billion vs $145.42 billion expected, according to Refinitiv estimates

Here’s how other key Amazon segments did during the quarter:

  • Amazon Web Services: $21.4 billion vs $21.87 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
  • Advertising: $11.56 billion vs $11.38 billion expected, according to StreetAccount

It’s not immediately clear if the reported earnings are comparable to the Refinitiv analyst estimate of 18 cents per share.

Amazon closed out its slowest year of growth in its quarter century as a public company. Revenue for the year increased 9% as inflationary pressures and rising rates put a damper on consumer spending. The stock price lost almost half its value in 2022.

The e-retailer said it expects to post first-quarter revenue of between $121 billion and $126 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 4% to 8%. Analysts were expecting sales to come in at $125.1 billion, according to Refinitiv.

Amazon’s report, along with earnings from Apple and Alphabet, wrap up a mixed earnings season for the mega-cap tech companies.

Apple reported its first revenue decline since 2016 on Thursday, and Alphabet missed on earnings and revenue. On Wednesday, Facebook parent Meta topped estimates and gave an optimistic outlook on its expenses.

Sales in Amazon’s online stores segment contracted 2% year over year. The company has been contending with slowing sales as rising gas and food prices forced consumers to pull back discretionary spending. The pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom has also fizzled with consumers increasingly returning to physical retailers.

CEO Andy Jassy, who succeeded founder Jeff Bezos at the helm in July 2021, has spent the past year working to reel in costs. In January, Amazon said it’s eliminating 18,000 jobs among its corporate workforce, after cutting a number of employees in November. The company has also instituted a hiring freeze in its corporate ranks, cut some projects and paused warehouse expansion in an effort to tame rising expenses.

Jassy made a surprise appearance on the company’s earnings call, telling analysts that he wanted to offer his thoughts after wrapping up his first full year at the helm. His predecessor, Bezos, stopped participating in earnings calls in 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“We’re working really hard to streamline our costs and trying to do so at the same time that we don’t give up on the long-term strategic investments that we believe can meaningfully change broad customer experiences and change Amazon over the long term,” Jassy said on the call.

Jassy said in a statement that the company is “encouraged by the continued progress” it’s making in lowering retail costs.

“In the short term, we face an uncertain economy, but we remain quite optimistic about the long-term opportunities for Amazon,” Jassy said.

Amazon’s cloud business — Amazon Web Services — missed estimates for the fourth quarter, reflecting a slowdown in business spending. AWS grew just 20% in the period, down from 27.5% in the third quarter.

Advertising revenue jumped 19% from a year earlier (23% excluding changes in foreign exchange rates), again outpacing online ad companies like Google, Facebook and Snap. Amazon has emerged recently as one of the leaders in digital advertising by giving brands and sellers more ways to pay to promote their goods across the company’s website, apps and media properties.

Operating income in the quarter came in at $2.7 billion, down from $3.5 billion a year ago. The fourth-quarter figure includes about $2.7 billion of charges, of which $640 million came from severance costs related to the layoffs, the company said.

Correction: A prior version of this story had the wrong figure for EPS.

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Stock and crypto trading site eToro prices IPO at $52 per share ahead of Nasdaq debut

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Stock and crypto trading site eToro prices IPO at  per share ahead of Nasdaq debut

Omar Marques | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

EToro, a stock brokerage platform that’s been ramping up in crypto, has priced its IPO at $52 a share, as the company prepares to test the market’s appetite for new offerings.

The Israel-based company raised nearly $310 million, selling nearly 6 million shares in a deal that values the business at about $4.2 billion. The company had planned to sell shares at $46 to $50 each. Another almost 6 million shares are being sold by existing investors.

IPOs looked poised for a rebound when President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January after a prolonged drought spurred by rising interest rates and inflationary concerns. CoreWeave’s March debut was a welcome sign for IPO hopefuls such as eToro, online lender Klarna and ticket reseller StubHub.

But tariff uncertainty temporarily stalled those plans. The retail trading platform filed for an initial public offering in March, but shelved plans as rising tariff uncertainty rattled markets. Klarna and StubHub did the same.

EToro’s Nasdaq debut, under ticker symbol ETOR, may indicate whether the public market is ready to take on risk. Digital physical therapy company Hinge Health has started its IPO roadshow, and said in a filing on Tuesday that it plans to raise up to $437 million in its upcoming offering. Also on Tuesday, fintech company Chime filed its prospectus with the SEC.

Another trading app, Webull, merged with a special-purpose acquisition company in April.

Founded in 2007 by brothers Yoni and Ronen Assia along with David Ring, eToro competes with the likes of Robinhood and makes money through fees related to trading, including spreads on buy and sell orders, and non-trading activities such as withdrawals and currency conversion.

Net income jumped almost thirteenfold last year to $192.4 million from $15.3 million a year earlier. The company has been ramping up its crypto business, with revenue from cryptoassets more than tripling to over $12 million in 2024. One-quarter of its net trading contribution last year came from crypto, up from 10% the prior year.

This isn’t eToro’s first attempt at going public. In 2022, the company scrapped plans to hit the market through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) during a sharp downturn in equity markets. The deal would have valued the company at more than $10 billion.

CEO Yoni Assia told CNBC early last year that eToro was still aiming for a market debut but “evaluating the right opportunity” as it was building relationships with exchanges, including the Nasdaq.

“We definitely are eyeing the public markets,” he said at the time. “I definitely see us becoming eventually a public company.”

EToro said in its prospectus that BlackRock had expressed interest in buying $100 million in shares at the IPO price. The company said it planned to sell 5 million shares in the offering, with existing investors and executives selling another 5 million.

Underwriters for the deal include Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and UBS.

— CNBC’s Ryan Browne and Jordan Novet contributed reporting

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Dallas Mavericks were paid $33 million over 3 years by Chime for jersey patch

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Dallas Mavericks were paid  million over 3 years by Chime for jersey patch

Klay Thompson #31 of the Dallas Mavericks handles the ball during the game against the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2025 SoFi Play-In Tournament on April 18, 2025 at FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee.

Joe Murphy | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

Chime Financial paid the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks roughly $33 million over three years to have its logo worn as a patch on player jerseys, the company disclosed in its IPO filing Tuesday. 

The Mavericks finalized the jersey deal, along with “certain other sponsorship and promotional rights,” in 2020, but terms weren’t announced. CNBC reported at the time that, citing an NBA official, that the league’s patch sponsorships ranged from $2 million to $20 million per season, depending on market size.

Chime, a San Francisco-based fintech company that provides online banking services like direct deposit and credit cards, plans to soon debut on the Nasdaq. Cynthia Marshall, who was CEO for the Mavericks from 2018 until December of last year, is on Chime’s board, so the company included details of the arrangement in the related party transactions section of its filing.

The company said it paid the Mavericks $10.5 million in 2022, $11.5 million in 2023 and $11.2 million last year.

Marshall told CNBC in 2020 that the decision to select Chime for its jersey patch came as the team was looking to fill its official sponsorship slot, which came with the deal. The logo has been displayed around American Airlines Center, where the Mavericks play their home games.

“We wanted somebody that was doing well as a business and growing,” Marshall said. “It’s a perfect fit.”

Chime’s IPO filing lands a day after the Mavericks shocked the NBA world by winning the draft lottery and the right to draft presumed top pick Cooper Flagg from Duke University. The Mavericks had only a 1.8% chance of landing the top pick based on where they finished in the standings. ESPN reported on Wednesday that the Mavericks plan to draft Flagg and are not considering the possibility of trading him.

It was a remarkably fortuitous turn of events for a front office and ownership team that’s been roundly criticized for months since trading franchise cornerstone Luka Doncic in February, bringing back older star Anthony Davis in return.

Longtime owner Mark Cuban sold a majority stake in the Mavericks in 2023 to casino owner Miriam Adelson and her family.

In October, the Mavericks announced a multi-year extension to its Chime deal, agreeing to showcase the brand and the company’s products more broadly. One new aspect was the creation of Chime Lane, “a dedicated entrance featuring exclusive benefits for Chime members during Mavs games and select events at AAC,” the team said in a press release.

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

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Epic Systems sued by CureIS Healthcare for alleged ‘scheme to destroy’ its business

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Epic Systems sued by CureIS Healthcare for alleged 'scheme to destroy' its business

A sign that reads “Epic Intergalactic Headquarters” on campus.

Epic Systems

CureIS Healthcare, a managed care services company, filed a civil lawsuit against Epic Systems on Monday night, alleging the electronic health record, or EHR, giant has carried out a “multi-prong scheme to destroy” CureIS’ business.

CureIS offers technology and managed services for government programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and other state health initiatives. In a 40-page complaint that was made public on Tuesday, CureIS claims Epic has interfered with its customer relationships, blocked access to necessary data and raised unfounded security concerns, among other anticompetitive practices.

Epic, the leader in the EHR market, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The lawsuit is the latest legal battle facing Epic, which houses medical records for about 280 million patients in the U.S. and offers other health-care tools. Data startup Particle Health filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company in September, alleging Epic has used its dominance in the EHR space to stifle competition in other markets that use that data. 

“Particle’s claims are baseless,” Epic told CNBC in a statement at the time.

CureIS’ suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The company is being represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, the same firm that is representing Particle.

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