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Brian Chesky, co-founder and chief executive officer of Airbnb Inc., during a news conference in Los Angeles, California, US, on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Airbnb shares surged 14% and headed for their best day ever after the company reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.

The stock debuted on the Nasdaq in December 2020, and its sharpest rally to this point came in February 2023. The shares are up 22% this year.

The online rental platform posted earnings of 73 cents per share on $2.48 billion in revenue. That topped analyst estimates of 58 cents per share of earnings and $2.42 billion in revenue, according to LSEG. Revenue increased 12% from a year ago.

“Airbnb is a fundamentally stronger company today than it was several years ago,” the company said in a letter to shareholders. “We’re continuing to build on this momentum in 2025, executing a multi-year strategy to perfect the core service, accelerate growth in global markets, and launch and scale new offerings.”

The company also swung to a profit, reporting net income of $461 million, or 73 cents per share. In the year-ago quarter, Airbnb reported a loss of $349 million, or 55 cents a share. Adjusted profit totaled $765 million, reflecting 4% year over year growth.

Gross booking value, which measures host earnings, taxes, and service and cleaning fees, rose to $17.6 billion and topped a StreetAccount forecast of $17.2 billion. Airbnb also reported 111 million nights and experience booked for the period, representing 12% year-over-year growth. That was above the 108.7 million StreetAccount estimate.

During an earnings call with investors, finance chief Ellie Mertz said Airbnb will invest $200 million to $250 million to scale new business opportunities it plans to announce in May.

“We want the Airbnb app — kind of similar to Amazon — to be one place to go for all of your traveling and living needs,” CEO Brian Chesky said on the call. He also said that each business the company plans to roll out could take three to five years to scale but should strengthen its core business.

“A great business could get to $1 billion of revenue,” he said. “And you should be able to expect one or a couple of businesses to launch every single year for the next five years.”

Despite the strong fourth-quarter results, Airbnb offered light guidance for the current quarter of $2.23 billion to $2.27 billion in revenue. That trailed a $2.3 billion estimate from LSEG. The company said the first quarter of 2024 benefitted from Easter and an extra day in February.

Airbnb also commented on the recent wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles area last month, saying that its nonprofit Airbnb.org housed over 19,000 people and 2,300 pets and has received $27 million in donations. That includes $18 million from its founders.

— Ashley Capoot contributed reporting

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Trump Media reports $400 million in 2024 losses

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Trump Media reports 0 million in 2024 losses

U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order establishing the Energy Dominance Council led by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in the Oval Office at the White House on February 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump signed a second executive order withholding federal funding from schools and universities that impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Andrew Harnik | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Trump Media & Technology Group shares were down about 1% in extended trading on Friday after the operator of Truth Social released its 2024 results.

Here’s how the company performed:

  • Earnings: Loss of $2.36 per share
  • Revenue: $3.6 million

The company’s revenue declined 12% year over year, according to its annual report. The company saw its net loss widen to $400.9 million from $58.2 million in 2023.

Trump Media debuted on Nasdaq under the ticker “DJT” last March, completing its merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. The stock nearly doubled in value in 2024, with its namesake, Donald Trump, winning the U.S. presidential election in November. As of Friday’s close, the stock was down about 11% year to date giving it a market capitalization of $6.59 billion.

In 2024, Trump Media incurred merger-related legal fees because of obstruction from former President Biden’s Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a statement. A change to a revenue-sharing agreement with an advertising partner resulted in lower sales. “Additionally, revenue has varied as we selectively test a nascent advertising initiative on our Truth Social platform,” the company said in the annual report.

Unlike Meta and other social media companies, Trump Media management said in the filing they do not believe in using traditional metrics such as the number of active users or average revenue per user. Doing so “could potentially divert its focus from strategic evaluation with respect to the progress and growth of its business,” according to the filing.

In the fourth quarter, Trump Media announced the availability of its Truth+ video streaming service on Android, iOS and the web.

The company has not held an earnings call since the merger.

As of Friday, a trust where President Trump is the sole beneficiary owns 52% of the voting power of the company’s stock, the filing states.

Trump publishes posts on Truth Social, where he has 8.9 million followers. On X, owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been helping with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, Trump has 100.9 million followers.

Trump Media now has $776.8 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, with $9.6 million in debt.

“We will continue to explore opportunities to partner, merge with, and acquire other entities that are able to function effectively if TMTG evolves into a holding company with subsidiaries spanning several industries,” Chairman and CEO Devin Nunes, a former Republican Congressman was quoted as saying in the statement.

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Dell shares pop on report of $5 billion deal for AI servers for Elon Musk’s xAI

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Dell shares pop on report of  billion deal for AI servers for Elon Musk's xAI

Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France.

Chesnot | Getty Images

Dell shares rose 4% on Friday following a report from Bloomberg that Elon Musk’s startup xAI was preparing an agreement to buy $5 billion in artificial intelligence servers from the hardware maker.

The equipment containing Nvidia‘s GB200 graphics processing units (GPUs) would be delivered this year, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources.

Many data center gear manufacturers have been seeing growth from selling boxes for training and running AI models. Dell said in November that it had $3.6 billion in quarterly AI server order demand. Dell’s total revenue for the latest quarter totaled $24.37 billion, up 10% year over year.

In December, xAI announced a $6 billion funding round. CNBC reported that the Musk startup, which competes with OpenAI, was raising the money to purchase GPUs. The Grok assistant from xAI is available for people to use on X, which is also owned by Musk.

Musk has been building out xAI’s facility in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dell declined to comment. xAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full Bloomberg report here.

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Amazon ‘anti-union propaganda,’ employee surveillance loom over labor vote at North Carolina warehouse

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Amazon 'anti-union propaganda,' employee surveillance loom over labor vote at North Carolina warehouse

Workers picket in front of an Amazon Logistic Station on December 19, 2024 in Skokie Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Italo Medelius-Marsano was a law student at North Carolina Central University in 2022, when he took a job at an Amazon warehouse near the city of Raleigh to earn some extra cash.

The past month has been unlike any other during his three-year tenure at the company. Now, when he shows up for his shift at the shipping dock, Medelius-Marsano says he’s met with flyers and mounted TVs urging him to “vote no,” as well as QR codes on workstations that lead to an anti-union website. During meetings, managers discourage unionization.

The facility in the suburb of Garner, North Carolina, employs roughly 4,700 workers and is the site of Amazon’s latest labor showdown. Workers at the site are voting this week on whether to join Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity (CAUSE), a grassroots union made up of current and former employees.

CAUSE organizers started the group in 2022 in an effort to boost wages and improve working conditions. Voting at the site, known as RDU1, wraps up on Saturday.

Workers at RDU1 and other facilities told CNBC that Amazon is increasingly using digital tools to deter employees from unionizing. That includes messaging through the company’s app and workstation computers. There’s also automated software and handheld package scanners used to track employee performance inside the warehouse, so the company knows when staffers are working or doing something else.

“You cannot get away from the anti-union propaganda or being surveilled, because when you walk into work they have cameras all over the building,” said Medelius-Marsano, who is an organizer with CAUSE. “You can’t get into work without scanning a badge or logging into a machine. That’s how they track you.”

CAUSE representatives have also made their pitch to RDU1 employees. The union has set up a “CAUSE HQ” tent across the street from the warehouse and disbursed leaflets in the facility’s break room.

I'd buy Amazon over Meta, says Hightower's Stephanie Link

Amazon, the nation’s second-largest private employer, has long sought to keep unions out of its ranks. The strategy succeeded in the U.S. until 2022, when workers at a Staten Island warehouse voted to join the Amazon Labor Union. Last month, workers at a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

In December, Amazon delivery and warehouse workers at nine facilities went on strike, organized by the Teamsters, during the height of the holiday shopping season to push the company to the bargaining table. The strike ended on Christmas Eve.

Union elections at other Amazon warehouses in New York have finished in defeat in recent years, while the results of a union drive at an Alabama facility are being contested. Organizers have pointed to Amazon’s near-constant monitoring of employees as both a catalyst and a deterrent of union campaigns.

The NLRB has 343 open or settled unfair labor practice charges filed with the agency against Amazon, its subsidiaries and contracted delivery companies in the U.S., a spokesperson said. 

Amazon has argued in legal filings that the NLRB, which issues complaints against companies or unions determined to have violated labor law, is unconstitutional. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s have also made similar claims that challenge the agency’s authority.

Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hards said the company’s employees can choose whether or not to join a union.

“We believe that both decisions should be equally protected which is why we talk openly, candidly and respectfully about these topics, actively sharing facts with employees so they can use that information to make an informed decision,” Hards said in a statement.

Hards said the company doesn’t retaliate against employees for union activities, and called claims that its employee monitoring discourages them from unionizing “odd.”

“The site is operating, so employees are still expected to perform their usual work,” Hards said in a statement. “Further, the camera technology in our facilities isn’t to surveil employees — it’s to help guide the flow of goods through the facilities and ensure security and safety of both employees and inventory.”

Orin Starn, a CAUSE organizer who was fired by Amazon early last year for violating the company’s drug and alcohol policy, called Amazon’s employee tracking “algorithmic management of labor.” Starn is an anthropology professor at Duke University who began working undercover at RDU1 in 2023 to conduct research for a book on Amazon.

“Where 100 years ago in a factory you would’ve had a supervisor come around to tell you if you’re slacking off, now in a modern warehouse like Amazon, you’re tracked digitally through a scanner,” Starn said.

‘Just the algorithm’

John Logan, a professor and director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, told CNBC in an email that Amazon has “perfected the weaponization” of technology, workplace surveillance and algorithmic management during anti-union campaigns “more than any other company.”

While Amazon may be more sophisticated than others, “the use of data analytics is becoming far more common in anti-union campaigns across the country,” Logan said. He added that it’sextremely common” for companies to try to improve working conditions or sweeten employee perks during a union drive.

Other academics are paying equally close attention to the issue. In a research paper published last week, Northwestern University PhD candidate Teke Wiggin explored Amazon’s use of algorithms and digital devices at the company’s BHM1 warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.

“The black box and lack of accountability that comes with algorithmic management makes it harder for a worker or activist to decide if they’re being retaliated against,” Wiggin said in an interview. “Maybe their schedule changes a little bit, work feels harder than it used to, the employer can say that has nothing to do with us, that’s just the algorithm. But we have no idea if the algorithm has changed.”

People protest in support of the unionizing efforts of the Alabama Amazon workers, in Los Angeles, California, March 22, 2021.

Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

Some Amazon employees see the situation differently. Storm Smith works at RDU1 as a process assistant, which involves monitoring worker productivity and safety. Amazon referred Smith to CNBC in the course of reporting this story.

Amazon’s workplace controls, like rate and time off task, are “part of the job,” Smith said. Staffers are “always welcome” to ask her what their rate is, she added.

“For my people, if I see your rate is not where it’s supposed to be, I’ll come up to you and say, ‘Hey, this is your rate, are you feeling alright? Is there anything I could get you to get your rate up? Like a snack, a drink, whatever,” Smith said.

Wiggin interviewed 42 BHM1 employees following the first election in 2021, and reviewed NLRB records of hearings. The facility employed more than 5,800 workers at the time of the union drive.

The NLRB last November ordered a third union vote to be held at BHM1 after finding Amazon improperly interfered in two previous elections. The company has denied wrongdoing.

Amazon staffers told Wiggin that during the union campaign, the company tweaked some performance expectations to “improve working conditions” and dissuade them from unionizing. One employee said these changes were partly why he voted against the union, according to the study.

Workers at an Amazon warehouse outside St. Louis, Missouri, filed an NLRB complaint in May. The employees accused Amazon of using “intrusive algorithms” that track when they’re working to discourage them from organizing, The Guardian reported. The employees withdrew their complaint on Tuesday.

Hards said Amazon doesn’t require employees to meet specific productivity speeds or targets.

Lawmakers zeroed in on how surveillance can impact organizing efforts in recent years. In 2022, the former NLRB general counsel issued a memo calling for the group to address corporate use of “omnipresent surveillance and other algorithmic-management tools” to disrupt organizing efforts. The following year, the Biden Administration put out a request for information on automated worker surveillance and management, noting that the systems can pose risks to employees, including “their rights to form or join a labor union.”

However, the Trump administration is attempting to purge the NLRB, with the president firing the chair of the organization on his first day in office last month. Trump has put Musk, a notorious opponent of unions, in charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, with the goal of cutting government costs and slashing regulations.

Fired by an app

Jennifer Bates, an Amazon.com, Inc. fulfillment center employee, stands for a portrait at the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) office in Birmingham, Alabama on March 26, 2021. 

Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which sought to represent BHM1 workers, has said the AtoZ app can access a user’s GPS, photos, camera, microphone and WiFi-connection information. The union also claims that “Amazon can sell the data collected to any third party companies and that data cannot be deleted.” The technology raises several concerns, including that it may suppress “the right to organize,” RWDSU said.

Hards said the RWDSU’s claims are inaccurate and denied that the company sells any data affiliated with AtoZ use. She said AtoZ users must give the app permission to access things like their GPS location.

At the Garner facility, the AtoZ app has been plastered with “anti-union propaganda” since the RDU1 election was announced last month, Medelius-Marsano said.

One AtoZ message suggested employees’ benefits could be at risk if they voted in a union, while another described CAUSE as an “outside party” that’s “claiming to be a union.”

RDU1 site leader Kristen Tettemer said in another message that a group like CAUSE “can get in the way of how we work together,” and that “once in, a union is very difficult to remove.” Smith said Amazon’s response to the union drive has been centered around “putting out the facts and telling you to do your research.”

Medelius-Marsano said it all amounts to an environment of intimidation.

“There’s no doubt about it,” Medelius-Marsano said. “If we lose, fear is going to be the reason.”

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