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Young electric boat racing series E1 capped off its inaugural season last month with the first championship going to a team led by someone who knows how to win – Tom Brady. As we approach the new year, E1’s focus is on season 2, and it has shared the tentative racing calendar, which includes seven Grand Prix events scattered worldwide, including a race in the USA.

The UIM E1 Championship Series is an electric boat racing league that recently capped off its inaugural season. E1’s season 1 calendar initially consisted of eight scheduled Grand Prix, where its initial nine teams, led by owners like Rafael Nadal, Will Smith, and Marc Anthony, battled every couple of months for a chance to raise the first-ever E1 trophy.

As a nascent league, the E1 Series shifted its schedule several times in the past year. The league’s initial start was pushed, but several events ended up being locked in for competition around the globe.

Events originally planned for Geneva and Rotterdam were nixed mid-season, but the E1 racing teams have competed in five Grand Prix, including Jeddah, Venice, Monaco, and most recently, Lake Como. The E1 Championship was scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in November, but E1 ended up switching the date and location of that season finale to TBC before skipping it altogether.

As such, Team Brady, led by NFL legend Tom Brady, ended the shortened E1 season 1 racing calendar with the most points and was awarded the UIM Championship trophy. We asked a representative why the championship event in Hong Kong was no longer happening and were told that E1 decided it was in its best interests to conclude season 1 after the fifth event in Lake Como and shift its focus to season 2, with an exciting calendar of events to be announced “very soon.”

In early October, before we got details of an official racing calendar for season 2, E1 shared one confirmed location for a Grand Prix in 2025 – Doha in Qatar. Today, E1 has shared its full tentative racing calendar for season 2, and while some events remain TBD, there are some exciting locations on the schedule, including an event in the US.

E1 racing calendar
Source: E1 Series

E1’s season 2 racing events include Monaco and USA

The UIM E1 Championship announced its tentative racing calendar for season 2 this morning, including Grand Prix events returning to coastal areas like Jeddah, Monaco, and Lake Como and some new races in places like Doha and the US. E1 co-founder and CEO Rodi Basso spoke:

‘To see our revolutionary electric racing series come to life in season one was an incredibly special feeling. E1’s growth and expansion across the globe shows that it has arrived as a truly global sport. The inclusion of new race locations in Qatar and the United States in season two, with more to come, is a testament to the growing interest and investment in the championship and we are looking forward to taking the sport to new audiences.

Season 2 will kick off in January 2025 with a Grand Prix electric boat racing weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Here’s the current E1 racing calendar:

Grand Prix Location (Provisional) Dates
E1 Jeddah GP, Saudi Arabia January 24-25, 2025
Visit Qatar E1 Doha GP February 21-22, 2025
TBA April, 2025
E1 Monaco July 18-19,2025
E1 Lake Como GP, Italy August 22-23, 2025
TBA October, 2025
TBA – USA November, 2025

E1 shared that it will continue to accelerate preparations for season 2 and share more details of the 2025 racing calendar soon, alongside news of additional Racebird teams. E1 co-founder and chairman Alejandro Agag also spoke about the league’s upcoming second season:

Our mission in season one was to revolutionize and set a new standard for racing on the water. We are pleased to unveil the season two calendar and to continue to drive towards our mission and expand on this success. The calendar sees an inclusion of new cities around the world who are aligned with our vision of building a sustainable sport, and passionate about E1.

While the racing calendar has not revealed it yet, E1 shared that the season 2 championship will take place in a US city to be announced in December 2024. We are not sure if this is still the plan, but when E1 announced musical artist Marc Anthony was joining the league in December 2023 as the owner of Team Miami, it shared that Anthony’s company, Magnus, would help facilitate and host a Grand Prix in the team’s home city during season 2. If and when that event occurs, it will be E1’s debut in the US.

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Venmo revenue grows 20%, with debit card payment volume soaring

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Venmo revenue grows 20%, with debit card payment volume soaring

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Venmo, long a centerpiece of PayPal‘s growth story but often criticized for its lack of monetization, is becoming a bigger contributor to the business.

PayPal said Tuesday in its first-quarter earnings release that revenue at Venmo increased 20% year-over-year in the first quarter, though the company didn’t provide a dollar figure. PayPal acquired Venmo in 2013 through the acquisition of parent company Braintree.

While it’s long been a popular consumer service for sending money to friends, Venmo’s ability to drive meaningful revenue has been a major question mark for investors, especially as competition from rivals like Zelle and Square Cash has intensified.

Venmo’s total payment volume rose 10% from a year earlier, but revenue grew twice as fast, reflecting the business opportunity. Venmo only gets revenue from specific products like Pay with Venmo at online checkout, Venmo debit cards, and instant transfers, but not from peer-to-peer payments.

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Ahead of the earnings report, Jefferies analysts noted that Venmo revenue growth appeared to be “accelerating sharply” and flagged its rising contribution to branded checkout as a key area to watch. Compass Point analysts similarly said that while competition from Zelle and Square Cash remains fierce, Venmo’s traction with debit cards and online checkout could “open up new monetization avenues” if adoption trends continue.

The company added nearly 2 million first-time PayPal and Venmo debit card users during the quarter, and total debit card payment volume across PayPal and Venmo climbed more than 60%. Meanwhile, Pay with Venmo transaction volume surged 50% year over year, and Venmo debit card monthly active users grew about 40%.

PayPal reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter but missed on revenue. The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance, citing macroeconomic uncertainty.

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PayPal reports first-quarter earnings beat, maintains forecast

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PayPal reports first-quarter earnings beat, maintains forecast

CEO of PayPal Alex Chriss speaks during the Semafor 2025 World Economy Summit at Conrad Washington on April 24, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

PayPal reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter, but the company missed on revenue and reaffirmed its guidance for 2025 due to macro uncertainty. The stock fell about 2% in pre-market trading.

Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

  • Earnings per share: $1.33, adjusted vs. $1.16 expected
  • Revenue: $7.79 billion vs. $7.85 billion expected

While sales increased just 1% from $7.7 billion a year earlier, PayPal said the results reflect a strategy to prioritize profitability over volume, rolling off lower-margin revenue streams.

Transaction margin dollars, the company’s key measure of profitability, grew 7% to $3.7 billion, marking the company’s fifth consecutive quarter of profitable growth under CEO Alex Chriss.

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PayPal shares are down 24% this year, while the Nasdaq has dropped 10%

Total payment volume, an indication of how digital payments are faring in the broader economy, missed estimates, coming in at $417.2 billion, versus the nearly $418 billion analysts projected. The number of active accounts rose 2% from a year earlier to 436 million.

Venmo revenue rose 20% year over year, though the company didn’t provide a dollar figure. Total payment volume for Venmo increased 10% to $75.9 billion. Pay with Venmo transaction volume climbed 50% in the quarter and Venmo debit card monthly active users increased by about 40%.

Chriss has focused on better monetizing key acquisitions like Braintree and Venmo. DoorDash, Starbucks and Ticketmaster are among businesses now accepting Venmo as one way that consumers can pay.

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Ahead of PayPal’s earnings report, some analysts had struck a cautious tone despite the company’s focus on margin expansion. Morgan Stanley analysts warned in a note on Monday that investor sentiment remained bearish due to the potential impact of tariffs, competitive pressure from Apple and Shopify, and the risk of a long-term slowdown in branded checkout growth.

Jefferies analysts highlighted PayPal’s China cross-border exposure as an emerging risk tied to potential new tariffs and changes to the de minimis exemption.

For the second quarter, PayPal issued better-than-expected guidance, forecasting adjusted earnings per share of $1.29 to $1.31, above the average analyst estimate of $1.21. Transaction margin dollars will increase 4% to 5% to between $3.75 billion and $3.8 billion, the company said.

However, for the full year, PayPal chose to reaffirm its guidance, citing “global macroeconomic uncertainty.” The company expects earnings per share of $4.95 to $5.10 for the year and free cash flow in the range of $6 billion to $7 billion.

PayPal shares are down 24% this year, while the Nasdaq has dropped 10%.

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BP profit falls sharply but CEO says oil major ‘off to a great start’ in strategy reset

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BP profit falls sharply but CEO says oil major 'off to a great start' in strategy reset

British oil and gasoline company BP (British Petroleum) signage is being pictured in Warsaw, Poland, on July 29, 2024.

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British oil giant BP on Tuesday posted slightly weaker-than-expected first-quarter net profit, following a recent strategic reset and a slump in crude prices.

The beleaguered oil and gas major posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $1.38 billion for the first three months of the year. That missed analyst expectations of $1.6 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus.

BP’s net profit had hit $2.7 billion a year earlier and $1.2 billion in the final three months of 2024.

The results come as the energy major faces fresh pressure from activist investors less than two months after announcing a strategic reset.

Seeking to rebuild investor confidence, BP in February pledged to slash renewable spending and boost annual expenditure on its core business of oil and gas.

BP CEO Murray Auchincloss told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday that the firm was “off to a great start” in delivering on its strategic reset.

BP CEO Murray Auchincloss discusses first-quarter results

“We had a great operational quarter. We had our highest upstream operating efficiency in history. Our refineries in the first quarter ran at the best they’ve run in 24 years. We had six exploration discoveries in a row, which is really unusual and we started out three major projects,” Auchincloss said.

For the first quarter, BP announced a dividend per ordinary share of 8 cents and a share buyback of $750 million.

Net debt rose to $26.97 billion in the January-March period, up from $22.99 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. BP had previously warned of lower reported upstream production and higher net debt in the first quarter, when compared to the final three months of last year.

Shares of BP fell 3.3% on Tuesday morning. The firm is down roughly 8% year-to-date.

Activist pressure

BP’s green strategy U-turn does not appear to have gone far enough for the likes of activist investor Elliott Management, which went public last week with a stake of more than 5% in the London-listed firm.

The disclosure makes the U.S. hedge fund BP’s second-largest shareholder after BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, according to LSEG data.

Elliott was first reported to have assumed a position in the oil and gas company back in February, driving a share price rally amid expectations that its involvement could pressure BP to shift gears back toward its oil and gas businesses.

BP’s Auchincloss declined to comment on interactions with investors when asked whether the firm was under pressure from the likes of Elliott to go beyond the plans announced in its February pivot.

Notably, BP suffered a shareholder rebellion at its annual general meeting earlier this month. Almost a quarter (24.3%) of investors voted against the re-election of outgoing Chair Helge Lund, a symbolic result that reflected a sense of deep frustration among the firm’s shareholders.

Mark van Baal, founder of Dutch activist investor Follow This, told CNBC last week that he hoped the shareholder revolt means Amanda Blanc, who is leading the process to find Lund’s successor, will look for a new chair who is “climate competent” and “will not respond to short-term activists so quickly.”

Lund is expected to step down from his role next year.

Takeover candidate

BP’s underperformance relative to industry peers such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell has thrust the energy major into the spotlight as a prime takeover candidate. Energy analysts have questioned, however, whether any of the likeliest suitors will rise to the occasion.

BP’s Auchincloss on Tuesday said that he wouldn’t speculate on whether the company is a takeover target, but confirmed the oil major had not asked for any sort of protection from the British government.

“What I will say is we’re a strong, independent company and we’ve got sector-leading growth. And if we can deliver the sector-leading growth, and the first quarter is a fantastic example of that, then I have no concerns. I think we’re going to do great,” Auchincloss said.

Murray Auchincloss, chief executive officer of BP, during the “CERAWeek by S&P Global” conference in Houston, Texas, on March 11, 2025.

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Oil prices have fallen in recent months on demand fears. International benchmark Brent crude futures with June delivery traded at $65.19 per barrel on Tuesday morning, down more than 1% for the session. That’s lower from around $84 per barrel a year ago.

Asked whether weaker crude prices could put the some of the firm’s reset plans in jeopardy, Auchincloss said, “Not really. We have a balance of products that we think about that generate revenue for us. So, oil, natural gas and refined products as well.”

— CNBC’s Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this report.

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