Connect with us

Published

on

Box office smash “Barbie” helped Warner Bros Discovery top core quarterly profit estimates but the effects of two Hollywood strikes and a weak advertising market could hamper earnings into next year, company executives said on Wednesday.

The dour outlook sent the company’s shares tumbling over 14%.

Although Hollywood’s film and television writers ratified a new three-year contract in September, ending their 148-day work stoppage, members of the SAG-AFTRA actors union have been on strike since July, roiling the industry’s 2024 film slate and depriving media companies of new content to sell.

Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels on a call with investors said there’s a “real risk” that the financial hit from the strike will linger into 2024.

“It is becoming increasingly clear now that much like 2023, 2024 will have its share of complexity, particularly as it relates to the possibility of continued sluggish advertising trends,” Wiedenfels said. “We don’t see when this is going to turn.”

Chief Executive David Zaslav said the company saw its lightest original content slate in years and had to delay some releases, leading to a drop in third-quarter streaming subscriber numbers.

Wiedenfels said that for full-year 2023 there will likely be a few hundred million dollars of a negative impact on EBITDA due to strike impacts, and several hundred million dollars of positive cash flow as a result of not being able to spend on production.

“The extreme success of the Barbie movie may be a one-off for them that won’t be repeated for at least a few years,” said Michael Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital.

The media company, forged by the union of WarnerMedia and Discovery, posted third-quarter adjusted core earnings of $2.97 billion, above estimates of $2.92 billion, according to LSEG data. Overall revenue of $9.98 billion was in line with estimates.

The company reported free cash flow of $2.06 billion, compared with $1.72 billion in the prior quarter. This surpassed expectations for $1.74 billion, according to Visible Alpha.

The company posted a net loss of $417 million, narrowing from a $2.3 billion net loss from a year-ago period.

“The market is not thrilled with the fact that even with the unparalleled blockbuster success of Barbie, they still found a way to lose $417 million in the quarter. Not ideal,” Great Hill Capital Chairman Thomas Hayes said.

Advertising revenue at its networks segment declined 12% to $1.71 billion as global conflicts and inflation created an uncertain climate for marketers.

The company’s streaming unit posted an adjusted core profit of $111 million, compared with a loss of $634 million a year ago. Global average revenue per user in the segment rose 6%.

Warner Bros Discovery had 95.1 million global direct-to-consumer customers at the end of the quarter, down from 95.8 million in the previous quarter.

In May, it launched its Max streaming service — combining HBO Max’s scripted entertainment with Discovery’s reality shows.

The company lost 17 cents per share, larger than estimates for a loss of 6 cents.

Continue Reading

US

Crypto prices rally after Trump names Bitcoin and others for US strategic reserve

Published

on

By

Crypto prices rally after Trump names Bitcoin and others for US strategic reserve

Cryptocurrency prices have jumped after Donald Trump revealed he would like Bitcoin and other lesser-traded tokens to be in a new US strategic crypto reserve.

He said his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano (ADA).

The names had not previously been announced.

The American president said in a post on Truth Social: “A US Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration, which is why my Executive Order on Digital Assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA.”

“I will make sure the US is the Crypto Capital of the World.”

“And, obviously, BTC and ETH, as other valuable Cryptocurrencies, will be at the heart of the Reserve,” he said in a follow-up post. “I also love Bitcoin and Ethereum!”

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, rose over 11% to $94,164 after Sunday’s announcement.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was up around 13% at $2,516.

XRP surged 33% while the token tied to Solana jumped 25%. Cardano’s coin soared more than 60%.

Bitcoin was trading up around 20% from last week’s lows.

President Trump signed an executive order on cryptocurrencies in January. Pic: Reuters
Image:
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on cryptocurrencies in January. Pic: Reuters

The total cryptocurrency market rose about 10%, or more than $300bn (£238bn), in the hours since the announcement, according to cryptocurrency data and analysis company CoinGecko.

This is the first time Mr Trump has specified his support for a crypto “reserve” rather than a “stockpile”. While the former assumes actively buying crypto in regular installments, a stockpile would not sell any of the crypto currently held by the US government.

Mr Trump is hosting the first White House Crypto Summit on Friday, and investors will be watching closely for more clues about the direction of the reserve plans.

His family have also launched their own coins, including his wife Melania.

Read more from Sky News:
TikTok and Reddit investigated over use of children’s data
Second privately funded spacecraft touches down on moon

Mr Trump first introduced the idea of a Bitcoin stockpile, which would “keep 100% of all the Bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires into the future” last summer at major industry conference Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville.

After his re-election to the White House in November, there were more calls for a strategic Bitcoin reserve, helping to send the price of the flagship cryptocurrency to new all-time highs.

Under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, regulators cracked down on the industry in an attempt to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering.

Under Mr Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission has withdrawn investigations into several crypto companies and dropped a lawsuit against Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US.

But in recent weeks, crypto prices have fallen sharply, with some of the biggest digital currencies erasing nearly all of the gains made after Mr Trump’s election win triggered excitement across the industry.

Continue Reading

Technology

Chinese EV startup Xpeng delivers over 30,000 cars for a fourth straight month

Published

on

By

Chinese EV startup Xpeng delivers over 30,000 cars for a fourth straight month

The flagship store of Xiaopeng Motors in Shanghai, China, on Feb. 18, 2025.

CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Chinese electric car company Xpeng delivered more than 30,000 cars for a fourth-straight month in February, as its mass-market brand helped the company stand out in an otherwise tepid market.

Xpeng delivered 30,453 cars last month, including more than 15,000 units of its lower-priced Mona vehicle, the company said over the weekend.

Deliveries of the Mona M03, which include a basic driver-assist system, have topped 15,000 a month since December, according to company figures. Xpeng also said strong demand for driver-assist propelled deliveries of its P7+ electric sedan to more than 30,000 less than three months since its launch in November.

Looking ahead, Xpeng’s planned new vehicles also give the company “a good chance to extend its solid delivery momentum,” Nomura analysts said in a Sunday note.

The January to February period tends to be seasonally soft for Chinese car sales since it coincides with the week-long Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest holiday of the year. The local auto market remains highly competitive as traditional automakers and new entrants have rushed to cut prices and launch vehicles with new tech features.

China's EV overcapacity is a bigger issue for Japanese automakers than Korean ones

Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi delivered more than 20,000 electric cars for a fifth straight month in February. The company last week slashed the starting price of its luxury electric sedan, the SU7 Ultra, to 529,900 yuan ($72,750), down from 814,900 yuan ($111,878).

The SU7’s “new order situation is even better than actual sales,“ Nomura analysts said, citing its own industry survey. That means the only challenge for Xiaomi is its ability to produce enough cars, the analysts said.

Figures on Tesla‘s China deliveries are typically released around the middle of the month.

Industry giant BYD reported 318,233 new energy vehicle passenger car sales in February, up slightly from the prior month. The company last month announced it was rolling out driver-assist across a range of its cars and integrating artificial intelligence from DeepSeek.

Geely-owned Zeekr delivered 14,039 units in February, up from the 11,942 delivered the previous month, according to company figures.

EV brands that struggled in February

However, deliveries of several other major Chinese electric car brands declined over that time.

Li Auto deliveries fell to 26,263 units last month, from 29,927 in January, according to the company. Its premium-priced vehicles have been popular with Chinese consumers since they come with a fuel tank for extending the battery’s driving range. Last month, Li Auto revealed the exterior design of its first fully battery-electric SUV.

Nio deliveries dropped to 13,192 units in February, down from 13,863 the month before. The company announced a five-year, 0% interest plan on Feb. 1 in a bid to boost sales.

Aito, the Seres-owned brand that uses Huawei technology, reported its lowest deliveries in a year, at 21,517 units in February, according to CNBC analysis of publicly available figures.

Continue Reading

Politics

Uphold relaunches crypto staking in the US amid regulatory shifts

Published

on

By

Uphold relaunches crypto staking in the US amid regulatory shifts

Uphold praised crypto-aware regulators in the US as the company relaunched its staking offering in the country after halting the service in 2023.

Continue Reading

Trending