Top Stories Tuesday, May 23: Activist Investor Recommends Yelp Explore Sale, Micron Projects China Ban To Curb Revenues, Spruce Point Capital Raises Concerns About Perion Network's Financial Practices - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Wall Street Journal

Activist investor TCS Capital Management has built a stake in Yelp Inc YELP and urged the service-recommendation site to explore strategic alternatives, including a sale.
TCS Capital believes that Yelp could be sold to another technology or media company or private-equity buyer for at least $70 a share—or more than double the current stock price.
Semler also proposes to tell Yelp's board that his investment firm is looking to make its bid to acquire Yelp, with a group that includes an executive who has served as CEO of a public company in the same business.

Reuters

Micron Technology Projects China Ban To Curb Revenues

Micron Technology Inc MU projects the recent China ban on memory chip sales to curb revenues. At a conference on Monday, Micron's CFO Mark Murphy stated, "We are currently estimating a range of impact in the low single-digit percentage of our company's total revenue at the low end, and high single-digit percentage of total company revenue at the high end," reported Reuters.
He further stated that the direct and indirect sales to China-headquartered companies comprised around a quarter of its revenue and cited the lack of clarity on Beijing's concerns.

Shell PLC SHEL has reportedly cut crude oil imports at its Singapore refinery this month for maintenance work and repairs at its single buoy mooring (SBM) facility.
Shell is moving crude from Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) onto smaller Aframax tankers through ship-to-ship transfers before discharging them at another jetty on Pulau Bukom.
Pulau Bukom is the island south of Singapore where the refinery is located.

The Alliance for Open Media (AOM) avoided a potential fine following the conclusion of an inquiry into its video licensing policies by EU antitrust investigators.
AOM's members include Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG unit Google, Amazon.com Inc AMZN, Apple Inc AAPL, and Meta Platforms META.
Since last year, the European Commission has been investigating suspected anti-competitive behavior linked to the license terms of AOM's new standard streaming software, called AV1.

Benzinga

A short report issued by Spruce Point Capital on Tuesday raises concerns about the financial practices of Perion Network Ltd PERI. The short seller is questioning the company's reporting and growth sustainability, with the report stating the situation could result in "sloppy and error-prone reporting, and at worst case manipulative accounting and reporting practices."
The short report also asks why, given Perion's seemingly impressive results, the stock hadn't attracted any significant technology specialist growth investors and why insider ownership remains below 1% of the company. Spruce Point Capital reiterated a "Strong Sell" opinion on PERI, citing a 25%-40% potential downside risk.

The FDA has approved Indivior PLC's INVVY Opvee (nalmefene) nasal spray for the emergency treatment of opioid overdose in adults and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older.
Opvee is expected to be in the market in Q4 of 2023.
Indivior believes the clinical profile of Opvee supports the potential for this treatment to deliver annual net revenue of $150 million to $250 million, with expected earnings accretion after the second full year of launch.

Lowe's Companies Inc LOW reported a first-quarter FY23 sales decline of 5.5% year-on-year to $22.35 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $21.60 billion.
Comparable sales decreased by 4.3%, driven by lumber deflation, unfavorable weather, and lower DIY discretionary sales.
Adjusted EPS of $3.67 beat the analyst consensus of $3.44.
Lowe's cuts FY23 revenue outlook from $88 billion - $90 billion to $87 billion - $89 billion, against the Street view of $88.57 billion.

Bloomberg

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA has reportedly reached a tentative settlement with consumers in Arizona and California who received blood tests from the now-defunct Theranos Inc and alleged that Walgreens Boots was aware of the fraud but turned a blind eye.
Lawyers representing the company and consumers have filed a notice with a federal judge in Arizona, stating that they have reached a settlement in principle.
They anticipate submitting a request for court approval in approximately three weeks.

TechCrunch

DISH Network Corp DISH recently confirmed that hackers targeted the personal information of nearly 300,000 individuals months after the February ransomware attack.
The firm said hackers accessed hundreds of thousands of employee-related records during the cyberattack.
It said that former employees, employees' family members, and a "limited number of other individuals" were affected by the breach.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Activist Investor Recommends Yelp Explore Sale, Micron Projects China Ban To Curb Revenues, Spruce Point Capital Raises Concerns About Perion Network's Financial Practices: Today's Top News