Musk Reportedly Suspends Twitter Work On Crypto Wallet, Boeing's Jeppesen Hit By Potential Ransomware Attack, Lyft Cuts Workforce: Top Stories Friday, Nov. 04

Reuters

Musk's Twitter Cost Cut Plot Could Impact Google Cloud Services As He Orders To Cut Infra Costs By $1B

• Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk has ordered Twitter Inc's teams to find up to $1 billion in annual infrastructure cost savings raising concerns that Twitter could go down during high-traffic events like the U.S. midterm elections.
• Twitter must find between $1.5 million - $3 million a day in savings from servers and cloud services, Reuters reported citing Muck's Slack message, which referred to the project as the "Deep Cuts Plan."

Vonage Bows Down Before FTC Directive; To Pay A $100M Penalty

• Communications firm Vonage agreed to pay $100 million to resolve a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit.
• FTC prosecuted Vonage for failing to provide a simple method for customers to cancel their telephone services and imposed "junk fees," the agency said.
• Vonage also agreed to offer clear disclosures about recurring charges and a simple method to stop recurring payments or avoid increased costs.

Nissan, Renault Talk About Restructuring Their EV Partnership

• Nissan Motor Co, Ltd's NSANF NSANY discussions with Renault SA RNLSY RNSDF on revamping their alliance focused on competitiveness as equal partners and getting value from their investment in electric cars.
• Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said the goal was to improve the automakers' ability to compete during economic uncertainty and as the industry shifted to electric vehicles.
• But, over the years, Nissan executives have had issues over the unequal ownership structure, with Renault owning 43% of Nissan and the Japanese automaker holding only a 15% non-voting stake in Renault.

Bloomberg

Toshiba Buyout's Japan Industrial Partners-Led Bidder For May Miss Deadline To Secure Financing

• A consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners Inc might miss the November 7 deadline to secure financing for Toshiba Corp TOSBF TOSYY at a valuation of about ¥2.4 trillion ($16.1 billion).
• Four banks, including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, were considering whether to issue loans to the consortium. They have decided not to proceed before the cutoff date set by Toshiba, the people said.

Boeing's Jeppesen Unit Sees Potential Ransomware Attack, Causes Flight Planning Disruptions

• Boeing Co's BA unit Jeppesen was impacted by a cyber incident affecting access to its flight planning software.
• Jeppesen, a U.S.-based firm, provides analytical services to air carriers.
• "Our subsidiary, Jeppesen, experienced a cyber incident affecting certain flight planning products and services," Boeing spokesman Yukui Wang said in an email.

Lyft To Let Go Of 13% Of Workforce, Divest Vehicle Business To Beat Slowdown

• Lyft Inc LYFTsaid it would cut 13% of staff, equivalent to 683 employees.
• The ride-hailing company chose to downsize as it struggled to cope with a complex economic backdrop.
• Lyft will also divest its first-party vehicle service business and expects the buyer will offer workers in that division positions.

Apple Lures China iPhone Customers With Deep Discounts But Sales Stutter Amid Domestic Weakness

• Apple Inc's AAPL iPhone 14 sales in China are taking a hit as consumers tighten their purse strings amid economic uncertainties.
• iPhone 14 sales in China, since its launch on Sept 7, have declined about 33% compared to the sales of iPhone 13 models in a comparable timeframe, Jefferies analyst Edison Lee said in a recent note. The high-end iPhone 14 models — Pro and Pro Max — have also seen a dip in sales, the analyst said.

Benzinga

Dogecoin Sinks 10% As Elon Musk's Twitter Reportedly Suspends Work On Crypto Wallet

• Twitter is reportedly halting its plan to launch a cryptocurrency wallet, days after Elon Musk announced a plethora of changes since taking over the microblogging platform. The news appears to have significantly dented Dogecoin (DOGE/USD).
• According to Platformer, a recently revealed plan to build a cryptocurrency wallet for Twitter appears to be on pause. As a result, DOGE tumbled 10.86% in the last 24 hours.

Alibaba Comes Back Strong Against US Sanctions; To Power 20% Operations By In-House CPUs By 2025

• Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA plans to power 20% of its operations with its homebrew CPUs by 2025.
• Alibaba showcased its Yitian 710 server-class CPU in 2021. In early 2022 the operation started trials of the devices and offered more info about their specs.
• The features included 128 Armv9-compatible CPU cores, a clock speed of up to 3.2GHz, eight DDR5 channels, and 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes, all cooked up on a 5nm process.

Illumina's Q3 Profits Hit By Impairment Of Almost $4B, Cuts Annual Guidance

• Illumina Inc ILMN posted Q2 revenue of $1.12 billion, up 1% Y/Y and up 3% on a constant currency basis, almost in line with the consensus.
• Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.34 compared to $1.45 a year ago, beating the consensus of $0.30.
• During the quarter, GAAP diluted loss per share of $(24.26) includes a goodwill impairment of $3.91 billion related to the GRAIL segment.

Amgen Reports Q3 Higher Profit, Despite Slight Fall In Topline Growth

• Amgen Inc's AMGN Q3 revenue reached $6.65 billion, down 1% Y/Y, due to 8% volume growth offset primarily by a 5% lower net selling price and a 2% negative impact from foreign exchange. Analysts estimated sales of $6.56 billion.
• The company reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $4.70, up 15%, beating the consensus of $4.44.
• For FY22, Amgen narrowed its adjusted EPS outlook to $17.25-$17.85 on revenue of $26-$26.3 billion.

Hershey's Beat On Q3 Earnings, Expects Sweetened Holiday Season, Boosts Annual Guidance

• Hershey Co HSY has reported Q3 sales of $2.73 billion, an increase of 15.6%, beating the consensus of $2.61 billion.
• The company reported adjusted EPS of $2.17, beating the consensus of $2.10.
• Hershey expects full-year 2022 net sales to grow between 14%-15%, compared to the previous forecast of 12% to 14% growth.