Microsoft has announced it will continue with talks to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States. In a blog post, CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft ‘will move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in a matter of weeks, and in any event completing these discussions no later than September 15, 2020.’
The move comes after President Donald Trump announced US Government plans to ban TikTok from the country citing national security concerns.
The United Kingdom on Friday announced it was postponing the easing of virus restrictions citing new spikes in the country. This comes as Russia plans to start a mass COVID-19 vaccination in October with doctors and teachers being the first to be vaccinated
Earnings Briefing
Apple
American tech firm Apple Inc. beat analysts’ expectation to report an 11% growth in revenues for the third quarter ended June to $59.68 billion.
Despite the disruptions caused by the global pandemic, net income rose slightly to $11.25 billion, from $10.04 billion reported in the same period last year.
Google’s parent firm Alphabet Inc. revenue for the second quarter of 2020 fell slightly by 2% $38.29 billion. Total costs rose by 7% to $31.91 billion while operating income declined by 30% to $6.38 billion.
Revenue from Google Search fell 10% to $21.32 billion, earnings from its cloud segment shot up 43% to $3.01 billion while other revenues rose 26% to $5.12 billion.
Social media giant Facebook Inc. reported second-quarter revenues of $18.69 billion, a growth of 11% compared to the same period in 2019. Net income for the three months ending June period rose by 98% to $5.18 billion. Its monthly active users rose 12% YoY to 2.7 billion for the same period.
Amazon
Ecommerce giant Amazon.com diluted EPS for the second quarter rose by 97% to $10.3 while net income spiked by 100% to $5.2 billion. Net sales were up 40% to $88.9 billion for the three month period ended June 30, 2020.
Amazon’s free cash flow rose by 28% to $31.9 billion while operating cash flow was up by more than 40% to $51.2 billion.
