Roblox shares rise 12% after company beats estimates and issues strong guidance

Published

2 years ago

February 7, 2024

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The New York Stock Exchange welcomes executives and guests of Roblox in celebration of its direct listing, March 10, 2021.

NYSE

Roblox reported results for the fiscal fourth quarter Wednesday that beat consensus estimates on the top and bottom lines. Shares were up 12% in morning trading.

Here’s how the company did:

Losses per share: 52 cents vs. 55 cents expected by analysts, according to LSEG, formerly Refinitiv.
Revenue (bookings): $1.13 billion vs. $1.08 billion expected, according to LSEG.

The revenue figure is what Roblox calls bookings, a category that includes sales recognized during the quarter and deferred revenue.

The video game developer generates revenue from sales of its virtual currency called Robux, which players use to dress up their avatars and buy other premium in-game features.

Roblox also reported full-year revenue of $3.52 billion, versus an LSEG consensus estimate of $3.41 billion. The company’s full-year loss per share was $1.87, compared with a consensus estimate of $1.91.

Roblox’s quarterly bookings hit $1.13 billion — the company’s highest ever.

“We enter 2024 with even more conviction of being able to achieve our long-term goal of attracting over 1 billion daily active users with optimism and civility,” Roblox CEO David Baszucki said in a release. The company reported average daily active users, or DAUs, of 71.5 million for the quarter, up 22% compared with the year-ago period.

Roblox’s average DAUs have grown for the past two quarters, after stalled growth in the back half of fiscal year 2022 and a slight slip between the first and second fiscal quarters of 2023.

Average bookings per daily active user increased 3% to $15.75, mirroring a bump that Roblox has historically seen in its fiscal fourth quarter.

“We’re seeing strength, both international as well as older players on the platform,” CEO Baszucki told CNBC’s Steve Kovach, pointing to double-digit growth in both the 13-and-up segment and non-U.S. & Canada segment. “Those are good trends, because those are really big cohorts,” Baszucki said.

The number of engaged hours for users fell from 16 million for the third quarter of 2023 to 15.5 million during the fourth quarter. Still, it represents a 21% spike compared with the year-ago period.

The company provided guidance for 2024 and the first fiscal quarter. The company expects first-quarter bookings between $910 million and $940 million, and a net loss ranging from $342 million to $347 million. It guided to full-year 2024 bookings between $4.1 billion and $4.28 billion, higher than the consensus range of $3.4 billion to $4.27 billion, and a net loss of between $1.37 billion and $1.4 billion.

Personnel costs continue to weigh on the company, although they’ve grown at a slower rate than bookings have. Excluding share-based compensation, quarterly personnel costs grew 24% year over year from $160 million to $198 million, with the sharpest increases reflected in Roblox’s infrastructure and trust and safety teams.

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Technology

SpaceX aims for $800 billion valuation in secondary share sale, WSJ reports

Published

5 hours ago

December 6, 2025

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SpaceX aims for 0 billion valuation in secondary share sale, WSJ reports

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is initiating a secondary share sale that would give the company a valuation of up to $800 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

SpaceX is also telling some investors it will consider going public possibly around the end of next year, the report said.

At the elevated price, Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor would be valued above ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which wrapped up a share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.

SpaceX has been investing heavily in reusable rockets, launch facilities and satellites, while competing for government contracts with newer space players, including Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin. SpaceX is far ahead, and operates the world’s largest network of satellites in low earth orbit through Starlink, which powers satellite internet services under the same brand name.

A SpaceX IPO would include its Starlink business, which the company previously considered spinning out.

Musk recently discussed whether SpaceX would go public during Tesla‘s annual shareholders meeting last month. Musk, who is the CEO of both companies, said he doesn’t love running publicly traded businesses, in part because they draw “spurious lawsuits,” and can “make it very difficult to operate effectively.”

However, Musk said during the meeting that he wanted to “try to figure out some way for Tesla shareholders to participate in SpaceX,” adding, “maybe at some point, SpaceX should become a public company despite all the downsides.”

WATCH: What retail investors should know about OpenAI and SpaceX

Technology

Judge finalizes remedies in Google antitrust case

Published

6 hours ago

December 5, 2025

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Judge finalizes remedies in Google antitrust case

The logo for Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 17, 2021.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

A U.S. judge on Friday finalized his decision for the consequences Google will face for its search monopoly ruling, adding new details to the decided remedies.

Last year, Google was found to hold an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search, and in September, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the most severe consequences that were proposed by the Department of Justice.

That included the proposal of a forced sale of Google’s Chrome browser, which provides data that helps the company’s advertising business deliver targeted ads. Alphabet shares popped 8% in extended trading as investors celebrated what they viewed as minimal consequences from a historic defeat last year in the landmark antitrust case.

Investors largely shrugged off the ruling as non-impactful to Google. However some told CNBC it’s still a bite that could “sting.”

Mehta on Friday issued additional details for his ruling in new filings.

“The age-old saying ‘the devil is in the details’ may not have been devised with the drafting of an antitrust remedies judgment in mind, but it sure does fit,” Mehta wrote in one of the Friday filings.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has previously said it will appeal the remedies.

In August 2024, Mehta ruled that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act and held a monopoly in search and related advertising. The antitrust trial started in September 2023.

In his September decision, Mehta said the company would be able to make payments to preload products, but it could not have exclusive contracts that condition payments or licensing. Google was also ordered to loosen its hold on search data. Mehta in September also ruled that Google would have to make available certain search index data and user interaction data, though “not ads data.”

The DOJ had asked Google to stop the practice of “compelled syndication,” which refers to the practice of making certain deals with companies to ensure its search engine remains the default choice in browsers and smartphones.

The judge’s September ruling didn’t end the practice entirely — Mehta ruled out that Google couldn’t enter into exclusive deals, which was a win for the company. Google pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine on iPhones. It’s lucrative for Apple and a valuable way for Google to get more search volume and users.

Mehta’s new details

In the Friday filings, Mehta wrote that Google cannot enter into any deal like the one it’s had with Apple “unless the agreement terminates no more than one year after the date it is entered.”

This includes deals involving generative artificial intelligence products, including any “application, software, service, feature, tool, functionality, or product” that involve or use genAI or large-language models, Mehta wrote.

GenAI “plays a significant role in these remedies,” Mehta wrote.

The judge also reiterated the web index data it will require Google to share with certain competitors.

Google has to share some of the raw search interaction data it uses to train its ranking and AI systems, but it does not have to share the actual algorithms — just the data that feeds them.” In September, Mehta said those data sets represent a “small fraction” of Google’s overall traffic, but argued the company’s models are trained on data that contributed to Google’s edge over competitors.

The company must make this data available to qualified competitors at least twice, one of the Friday filing states. Google must share that data in a “syndication license” model whose term will be five years from the date the license is signed, the filing states.

Mehta on Friday also included requirements on the makeup of a technical committee that will determine the firms Google must share its data with.

Committee “members shall be experts in some combination of software engineering, information retrieval, artificial intelligence, economics, behavioral science, and data privacy and data security,” the filing states.

The judge went on to say that no committee member can have a conflict of interest, such as having worked for Google or any of its competitors in the six months prior to or one year after serving in the role.

Google is also required to appoint an internal compliance officer that will be responsible “for administering Google’s antitrust compliance program and helping to ensure compliance with this Final Judgment,” per one of the filings. The company must also appoint a senior business executive “whom Google shall make available to update the Court on Google’s compliance at regular status conferences or as otherwise ordered.”

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.