President Joe Biden nominated telecom attorney Anna Gomez to the Federal Communications Commission, his second attempt to fill an empty seat on the typically five-member panel that has left the agency in a 2-2 deadlock for his entire presidency thus far.
The nomination comes a couple of months after Biden’s previous nominee, Gigi Sohn, withdrew herself from consideration, following a years-long fight for confirmation. Though she was first nominated in October 2021, she faced criticism from Republicans and some senators from her own Democratic party.
The Senate Commerce Committee held multiple hearings with Sohn in an effort to assuage concerns, but it remained unclear if she would have enough support to be confirmed.
The 2-2 split between Democrats and Republicans on the FCC has meant that only actions that could gain the support of at least one Republican commissioner have been able to move forward. That’s left more contentious issues like net neutrality off the table, despite the Biden administration’s hope to restore the rules that would prohibit internet service providers from blocking or favoring certain content.
Gomez is a senior advisor for international information and communications policy in the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, according to the White House. She previously served as deputy administrator for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of the Department of Commerce that administers broadband funding and advises the president on telecom and information policy issues.
Gomez has previously worked for the FCC in several positions over 12 years, the White House said. She’s also worked in the private sector, including as a partner at the law firm Wiley Rein prior to joining the State Department in 2023. Earlier in her career, she served as vice president for federal and state government affairs for Sprint Nextel.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement that Gomez “brings with her a wealth of telecommunications experience, a substantial record of public service, and a history of working to ensure the U.S. stays on the cutting edge of keeping us all connected.”
Gomez’s nomination also received praise from the telecom industry.
Tom Reid, chief legal officer of Comcast, which owns CNBC parent company NBCUniversal, said in a statement that Gomez’s “deep knowledge across the breadth of issues before the FCC makes her exceptionally qualified to be a Commissioner.”
Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of USTelecom, a trade group that represents broadband providers like AT&T and Verizon, congratulated Gomez in a statement.
“I have come to know Anna over the years in her roles as an advocate in the public and private sectors, and if confirmed, I look forward to working with her and a full five-member FCC on our shared objective to connect everyone everywhere to the power and promise of broadband,” Spalter said.
Free Press, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports net neutrality, said Gomez’s nomination was long overdue.
“We’re now approaching two-and-a-half years without a fully functional Federal Communications Commission,” Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González said in a statement. “Never before has the American public had to wait so long for a commissioner’s seat to be filled. This senseless delay is harming millions of people, including working families trying to pay their rising monthly bills and Black, Indigenous, Latinx and rural communities that the biggest telecom companies and broadcast conglomerates have long neglected.”
González called Gomez “eminently qualified” for the role and praised the nomination of a Latinx candidate to the position.
“In addition to her corporate experience — which has often entailed working for competitive carriers instead of incumbents — Gomez has a long track record of public service, including high-ranking positions at the FCC and Commerce Department,” González said.
Biden also re-nominated two existing commissioners to the panel: Democrat Geoffrey Starks and Republican Brendan Carr. The agency cannot have more than three commissioners from one party at a given time.
A Senate vote is required to confirm the nominees.
Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC parent company NBCUniversal.
Lisa Su, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., during the AMD Advancing AI event in San Jose, California, on Dec. 6, 2023.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Advanced Micro Devices shares fell 7% on Wednesday after the chipmaker under-delivered on Wall Street’s estimates for its important data center business.
Shares traded at a 52-week low and were on pace for their worst session since October.
AMD reported better-than-expected results on the top and bottom lines, but it also reported data center sales of $3.86 billion. That reflected 69% growth from a year ago but fell short of the $4.14 billion in sales expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
The key unit, responsible for selling advanced chips for data centers, has benefited in recent years from growing demand for its graphics processing units, as megacap technology companies race to develop advanced artificial intelligence tools.
Data center revenue grew 94% for the full year to $12.6 billion, with $5 billion of those sales stemming from AMD’s AI-focused Instinct GPUs. The company is the second-largest producer for gaming after Nvidia, which has triumphed as the market leader in AI chips and ballooned in value to a nearly $3 trillion market value.
“We believe this places AMD on a steep long-term growth trajectory, led by the rapid scaling of our data center AI franchise from more than $5 billion of revenue in 2024 to tens of billions of dollars of annual revenue over the coming years,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said on the earnings call with analysts.
Several Wall Street firms trimmed their price targets on shares amid the disappointing data center results and expectations for a weak first half. Citi downgraded shares to neutral from a buy rating, while JPMorgan its target to $130 from $180. Bank of America’s Vivek Arya said the company has yet to “articulate how it can carve an important niche” relative to Nvidia.
Morgan Stanley highlighted AI expectations as the most significant pressure point, saying that “visibility likely needs to improve for the stock to find its footing.”
CEO of Alphabet and Google Sundar Pichai in Warsaw, Poland on March 29, 2022.
Mateusz Wlodarczyk | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Alphabet shares dropped more than 7% on Wednesday after the search giant fell short of Wall Street’s fourth-quarter revenue expectations and announced big spending plans for its ongoing artificial intelligence buildout.
The stock headed for its worst session in more than a year.
The company topped earnings estimates by 2 cents per share. Revenue came in at $96.47 billion, behind the $96.56 billion expected by LSEG. Alphabet’s revenue grew 12% overall from a year ago, while its YouTube advertising business, search business and services segment slowed year over year.
Alphabet also said it plans to spend $75 billion on capital expenditures as it builds out its AI offerings and races against megacap rivals to build out data centers and new infrastructure. The figure was much higher than the $58.84 billion expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.
Finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said the higher expenses will help “support the growth of our business across Google Services, Google Cloud and Google DeepMind.” She also said the spending will go toward “technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking.”
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The company expects capital expenditures to range between $16 billion and $18 billion. That was higher than the $14.3 billion estimate from FactSet.
JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth highlighted costs, capex and cloud revenue as the “culprits” for the stock’s post-earnings performance. Bernstein’s Mark Shmulik also noted that this is the third quarter that the stock move connects to Google’s cloud segment.
“If digital ad growth is akin to a long drive competition, then Google would be sitting comfortably here with strong Search and YouTube bombs down the fairway,” Shmulik said.
“But as the game shifts to the AI putting green, there’s little room for error with a slight cloud miss, a whopping CAPEX guide up to $75B for 2025, and lack of actionable operating leverage commentary leaves Google 3- putting for bogey,” he added.
Teladoc Health on Wednesday announced it will acquire the preventative care company Catapult Health in an all-cash deal for $65 million.
Catapult offers an at-home wellness exam that allows members to check their blood pressure, collect a blood sample, log other screening information and meet virtually with a nurse practitioner. Teladoc, a virtual care platform, said the acquisition will help it improve its ability to detect health conditions early.
The company said Catapult will operate within its integrated care segment after the deal closes. At JPMorgan’s health-care conferencein January, Teladoc said it is actively working to grow membership and use of services within its integrated care segment.
“Catapult Health’s capabilities will help advance our strategy in meaningful ways — from giving more members access to convenient and impactful wellness and preventative care, to unlocking greater value for our customers,” Teladoc CEO Chuck Divita said in a statement.
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Catapult generated around $30 million in trailing twelve-month revenue as of the third quarter of 2024, Teladoc said. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.
Teladoc’s acquisition of Catapult comes after a tumultuous period for the company. When Teladoc acquired Livongo in 2020, the companies had a combined enterprise value of $37 billion. The stock has tumbled since then, and Teladoc’s market cap now sits under $2 billion.
In April, Teladoc announced the sudden departure of Jason Gorevic, who joined as CEO in 2009 and steered the company through the Livongo deal and the Covid-19 pandemic. Divita took over as chief executive in June and pledged to position the company for “long-term, sustainable success.”
