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Alphabetannounced its first-ever dividend on Thursday and a $70 billion stock buyback, cheering investors who sent the stock surging nearly 16% after the bell.

The Google parent is returning capital while spending billions of dollars on data centers to catch up with rivals on generative artificial intelligence. The dividend will be 20 cents per share.

Just three months ago, Alphabet’s Big Tech rival, Meta Platforms, announced its own first-ever dividend, a move that lifted the social media company’s stock market value by $196 billion the following day. Amazon remains the lone holdout among Big Tech firms not offering a dividend.

Alphabet beat expectations for the quarter in sales, profit and advertising – metrics that are all closely watched.

“Alphabet’s announced dividend payouts and buybacks on top of the solid earnings beat are not only a breath of fresh air for the tech market as a whole, but also a very intelligent strategy for the search engine giant going into a tough time of the year,” said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com.

Alphabet’s after-hours share surge of nearly 16% following the report increased its stock market value by about $300 billion to over $2 trillion.

In a call to discuss results, CEO Sundar Pichai touted Google’s AI offerings as a boon to its core search results. “We are encouraged that we are seeing an increase in search usage among people who are using the AI overviews,” he said.

Revenue was $80.54 billion for the quarter ended March 31, compared with estimates of $78.59 billion, according to LSEG data.

The search firm’s beat on first-quarter revenue was powered by rising demand for its cloud services on the back of increasing adoption of artificial intelligence and steady advertising spending.

Google reported advertising sales rose 13% in the quarter to $61.7 billion. That compares with the average estimate of $60.2 billion, according to LSEG data.

Alphabet is coming off a fourth quarter in which ad sales missed the mark, sending shares tumbling, amid rising competition from Amazon, Facebook and new entrants like TikTok. The latter faces an uncertain future after President Biden signed a bill that would ban the popular app if it is not sold within the next nine to 12 months.

Meanwhile, Google Cloud revenue grew 28% in the first quarter, boosted by a boom in generative AI tools that rely on cloud services to deliver the technology to customers.

Alphabet’s capital expenditures were $12 billion, a 91% rise from a year prior, a figure Gabelli Funds portfolio manager Hanna Howard called “higher than anticipated.”

Still, CFO Ruth Porat said on the call with analysts that she expects such expenditures to be at that level or higher throughout the remainder of the year, as the company spends to build artificial-intelligence offerings.

Despite the surge in capital expenditures, Porat said operating margin in 2024 would be higher than last year, without elaborating.

Google’s cloud services are attractive for venture capital-backed startups developing generative AI technologies due to their pricing and ease of integration with other tools, investors and experts have previously said.

Google has touted its AI-powered chatbot, Gemini, as a panacea for automation, from coding to document creation. The software was widely criticized, however, after it was found to generate historically inaccurate images, including of former US leaders and World War Two-era German soldiers.

Google has said it is aware of the issues and is working to address them.

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Technology

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s annual pay jumps to $96.5 million

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's annual pay jumps to .5 million

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2025.

Gerry Miller | CNBC

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is getting a big bump in his compensation, as the company’s stock price has continued to rally, propelled by the boom in artificial intelligence.

Nadella’s total pay for fiscal 2025 climbed 22% to $96.5 million from $79.1 million last year, Microsoft said in a proxy filing after the close of regular trading on Tuesday. That includes more than $84 million in stock awards and over $9.5 million in Nadella’s cash incentives.

The pay plan is largely tied Microsoft’s share performance. So far in 2025, Microsoft’s stock price has risen by 23%, topping the S&P 500’s 15% gain. The shares have more than doubled in valued over the past three years.

Microsoft is scheduled to report results for the fiscal first quarter next week. In its fourth-quarter disclosure in July, the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue, with sales climbing 18%, the fastest growth in more than three years. Microsoft Azure business is driving expansion as companies’ cloud infrastructure needs grow to meet AI demand.

In fiscal 2024, Nadella’s pay jumped 63% from 48.5 million the prior year, with 90% of his compensation coming from stock awards. Nadella was eligible for a $10.66 million cash incentive last year, but he asked the board’s compensation committee to reduce that number to $5.2 million as a result of a series of cyberattacks that the company endured.

Despite Microsoft’s strong financial and stock performance, the company has seen turmoil among its workforce in recent months. In July, Nadella penned a memo to employees saying that the company’s elimination of more than 15,000 employees in 2025 had “been weighing heavily” on him.

Microsoft has also terminated several activist employees who protested the company’s work with the Israeli military.

WATCH: Microsoft is trending toward a $5T market cap, says Wedbush’s Dan Ives

Microsoft is trending toward a $5T market cap, says Wedbush's Dan Ives

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Business

Chancellor looking at cutting energy bills in budget

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Chancellor looking at cutting energy bills in budget

Rachel Reeves will tell Cabinet colleagues she is considering measures to reduce household energy bills as part of her budget response to rising inflation, expected to reach 4% when official figures are announced on Wednesday.

Economists forecast that consumer price inflation (CPI) will have reached double the Bank of England’s target in September, driven up from the 3.8% recorded in August by rising fuel and food inflation.

Speaking ahead of publication of the figures by the Office for National Statistics, a Treasury spokesman said that bringing down inflation was a priority, and the chancellor would convene a meeting of key cabinet colleagues on Thursday to stress its importance across government.

The spokesman specified that action to bring down energy prices was among the options being considered, the strongest indication yet that action on soaring consumer bills will feature in next month’s budget.

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Has Rachel Reeves changed her tone on budget?

The chancellor is understood to be considering cutting the 5% VAT rate on bills to zero, a move that would save billpayers around £80 a year and cost £2.5bn to implement.

Labour’s manifesto promised it would cut bills by £300 a year, but the last Ofgem price review saw a small increase driven by policy costs, leaving the government under pressure to reduce the impact of domestic energy rates that are the second-highest in Europe.

The spokesman said: “The chancellor’s view is that tackling the cost of living is urgent, and everything is on the table – including measures to bring down energy bills. She’s getting the whole of government to play its part, it’s her number one focus.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Pic: PA
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Pic: PA

The chancellor’s actions are a tacit acknowledgement that Wednesday’s inflation figures will be a difficult moment for a government that came to power promising to bring down the cost of living.

After peaking at more than 11% in October 2022, CPI returned to the Bank’s target of 2% in May last year, two months before Labour took office.

After briefly falling below 2% in September 2024 as higher energy prices from a year earlier dropped out of the calculation, it has marched steadily upwards, largely driven by energy and food prices.

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The Bank of England has forecast that this September’s figures will mark the peak of this inflation cycle for the same reason, with the Ofgem energy cap rising less this October than a year ago.

That underlines the importance of gas and electricity bills to household finances, the official figures and the government’s energy policy.

Campaigners and some energy companies have urged the government to bring down electricity bills by shifting levies for renewables and funding for social programs to general taxation, a move estimated to cost £6bn.

The Conservatives have said they would cut levies that currently pay for carbon taxes and older forms of renewable power subsidy, cutting bills by £165 a year.

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World

Police helicopter targeted with lasers by ‘mob intent on violence’ in Dublin

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Police helicopter targeted with lasers by 'mob intent on violence' in Dublin

A police officer has been injured after a night of violent protests outside an asylum hotel in Dublin – with six arrests made.

Bricks were thrown and fireworks were discharged outside the Citywest Hotel – with glass bottles used as missiles and a police van set on fire.

A Garda helicopter was also targeted with lasers, and the police service says some of those on the streets were seen carrying garden forks.

Pic: PA
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Pic: PA

Pic: PA
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Pic: PA

Commissioner Justin Kelly added: “This was obviously not a peaceful protest. The actions this evening can only be described as thuggery. This was a mob intent on violence.

“We will now begin the process of identifying those who committed crimes and we will bring those involved in this violence to justice.”

It is the second night of demonstrations after an alleged sexual assault in its vicinity in the early hours of Monday morning.

Some of the crowd threw stones and other missiles at the public order officers as they moved the protesters back – and water cannon was deployed at the scene.

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A line of officers was preventing the protesters from approaching the hotel.

Police officers block protesters outside the hotel. Pic: PA
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Police officers block protesters outside the hotel. Pic: PA

This protest felt different

There had been a small protest on Monday outside the former Citywest Hotel, now an asylum centre, but last night’s felt very different.

The 26-year-old man who allegedly attacked the young girl had appeared in court yesterday morning, charged with sexual assault. He can’t be named but an Arabic translator was requested. Anger grew online, and another protest was called.

It’s hard to get a clear estimate of numbers, partly due to the street geography around the former hotel, but it’s thought up to 2,000 attended. Most were peaceful, some were not. After a Garda van was torched, a major policing operation began.

The smell of fireworks hung in the air as youths hurled missiles at the Gardai. A Garda water cannon truck was deployed for the first time in the Republic of Ireland, parked visibly behind the riot officers.

I spoke to local residents who had reasonable concerns about the influx of asylum seekers to the community in recent years. Most did not approve of violent protest, but they articulated the anger and pain felt by many here after the attack on the young girl.

Although it has not been confirmed officially that the accused is an asylum seeker, most of the local residents had the same message: the enemy is not necessarily those who come to Ireland, rather it’s the perceived open-doors policy of the Irish government.

‘Those involved will be brought to justice’

Ireland’s premier, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, paid tribute to the officers who were on the frontline of the protests.

“There can be no justification for the vile abuse against them, or the attempted assaults and attacks on members of the force that will shock all right-thinking people,” he said.

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said those involved in the violence will be brought to justice.

“The scenes of public disorder we have witnessed at Citywest must be condemned,” he said.

“People threw missiles at Gardai, threw fireworks at them and set a Garda vehicle on fire.

“This is unacceptable and will result in a forceful response from the Gardai.

“Those involved will be brought to justice.”

‘No excuse’ for violence

The minister said a man had been arrested and had appeared in court in relation to the alleged assault in the vicinity of the hotel.

He added: “While I am not in a position to comment any further on this criminal investigation, I have been advised that there is no ongoing threat to public safety in the area.”

He said attacks on officers would “not be tolerated”, adding: “Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our democracy. Violence is not.

“There is no excuse for the scenes we have witnessed.”

The demonstration on Monday night passed without a significant incident.

It comes two years after anti-immigrant demonstrators triggered a major riot in the centre of Dublin after three young children were stabbed.

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