Netflix added 9.3 million subscribers to begin the year, and its profit increased as a result of its still-emerging push into advertising, but investors were taken off surprise by a shift that will make tracking the video streaming service’s future development more difficult.

The performance released Thursday showed that Netflix is still building on its momentum from last year, when a crackdown on free-loading viewers using shared passwords and the introduction of a low-cost option with advertisements rekindled its growth after a post-pandemic lull.

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Netflix Now Has Nearly 270 Million Subscribers After Another Strong Showing To Begin 2024

Netflix’s strategy resulted in 30 million new customers last year, the second greatest annual gain in the service’s history.

Netflix’s increases from January to March more than doubled the 1.8 million customers added at the same time last year, and were nearly three times higher than analysts expected. The Los Gatos, California-based corporation finished March with almost 270 million global customers, including approximately 83 million in its largest market, the United States and Canada.

Netflix’s stock price has more than doubled since the end of 2022, as investors increasingly see it as the clear winner in a tough streaming battle with Apple, Amazon, Walt Disney Co., and Warner Bros. Discovery.

But Netflix stunned investors by announcing in a shareholder letter that it will no longer provide quarterly updates on member totals beginning next year, making it more difficult to watch the video streaming service’s growth — or shrinkage. Since going public 22 years ago, the corporation has consistently reported quarterly subscriber totals.

Netflix’s shares fell more than 5% in extended trading despite a great financial performance.

In a video chat with analysts, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters stated that management believes the company’s financial growth has become more important to monitor than quarterly variations in subscriber numbers.

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Netflix Now Has Nearly 270 Million Subscribers After Another Strong Showing To Begin 2024

“We think this is a better approach that reflects the evolution of the business,” Peters went on to say.

The corporation still plans to provide annual updates on total subscribers. Raj Venkatesan, a business administration professor at the University of Virginia who researches the video streaming market, claims that Netflix is attempting to persuade investors to pay attention to long-term trends rather than three-month increments, which are susceptible to short-term factors like programming changes and household budgetary pressures that result in sporadic cancellations.

Now that Netflix has been tightening down on password sharing for more than a year, management is likely to understand it has gained the majority of the subscriber gains from those measures and that maintaining that pace would be more challenging, according to eMarketer analyst Ross Benes.

“They are quitting while they are ahead by no longer reporting quarterly subscriber numbers,” Benes told me.

Netflix’s increased subscriber growth has coincided with a tighter focus on increasing profit and revenue, which has pushed management to be more frugal in its spending on original programming and to regularly raise subscription fees.

It’s a strategy that helped Netflix earn $2.33 billion, or $5.28 per share, in the most recent quarter, up 79% from the same period previous year. Revenue increased 15% from a year ago to $9.37 billion. FactSet polled analysts, who predicted earnings of $4.52 per share on $9.27 billion in revenue.

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Netflix Now Has Nearly 270 Million Subscribers After Another Strong Showing To Begin 2024

Advertising revenues continue to play a minor role in Netflix’s profitability, with BMO Capital Markets analyst Brian Pitz predicting the firm will earn approximately $1.5 billion from advertising streaming on its service this year, with years of steady growth ahead. According to Pitz, the low-cost advertising option is having a significant influence on attracting and retaining users, with 41 million people expected to pay for the commercial format.

SOURCE – (AP)

AUSTIN, Texas – Tesla will ask shareholders to approve the reinstatement of a $56 billion compensation package for CEO Elon Musk, which a Delaware judge rejected earlier this year, and move the electric car manufacturer’s headquarters from Delaware to Texas.

In a statement with federal regulators early Wednesday, the business stated that shareholders will vote on both measures at its annual meeting on June 13.

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Tesla wants shareholders to reinstate $56 billion pay package for Musk rejected by Delaware judge

The Tesla board of directors offered Musk an unprecedented compensation plan that could be worth $55.8 billion over ten years starting in 2018, but Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick ruled in January that Musk is not eligible for it.

Five years ago, a Tesla shareholder lawsuit argued that the pay package should be void because Musk dictated it and forged agreements with directors who weren’t impartial to him.

Musk announced a month after the judge’s decision that he would try to relocate Tesla’s corporate listing to Texas, where he has already relocated the company’s headquarters.

Almost immediately after the judge’s order, Musk moved Neuralink, his privately held brain implant company, from Delaware to Nevada.

Tesla met all of the operational and stock value benchmarks outlined in a 2018 CEO pay package, according to Chairperson Robyn Denholm in a letter to shareholders this week. She also stated that Musk has met the automaker’s growth expectations.

“Because the Delaware Court second-guessed your decision, Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla for the past six years, which has helped to generate significant growth and stockholder value,” Denholm said. “That strikes us — and the many stockholders from whom we already have heard — as fundamentally unfair, and inconsistent with the will of the stockholders who voted for it.”

According to a regulatory filing, Tesla delivered 1.8 million electric vehicles worldwide in 2023. However, the value of its shares has dropped sharply this year as sales of electric vehicles fall.

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Tesla wants shareholders to reinstate $56 billion pay package for Musk rejected by Delaware judge

Future growth is still being determined, and it may be difficult to persuade shareholders to support a large pay package in a market where competition has increased globally, and demand for electric vehicle sales is declining. Shareholders will also be asked to submit a nonbinding advisory vote on future CEO pay.

Tesla’s stock has lost over one-third of its worth this year as dramatic price cuts have yet to attract new purchasers. The business said it shipped 386,810 automobiles from January to March, about 9% fewer than last year.

Musk’s package was valued at more than $55.8 billion at the time of the Delaware court verdict, but the court may have cost the erratic CEO more than $10 billion due to the company’s stock decline this year. According to the report, Musk’s 2018 remuneration totaled $44.9 billion at the close of trading on April 12.

Since last year, Tesla has reduced prices by up to $20,000 on some models. The price decreases caused the prices of used electric vehicles to fall, reducing Tesla’s profit margins.

Tesla announced this week that it would lay off nearly 10% of its workforce, or approximately 14,000 individuals.

Following receipt of a report from a special committee under the direction of one board member, Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, Tesla’s board stated in the filing that it sought shareholder approval of Musk’s 2018 compensation package.

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Tesla wants shareholders to reinstate $56 billion pay package for Musk rejected by Delaware judge

The board stated that if a significant vote is cast against future executive pay packages, “we will consider our stockholders’ concerns, and the compensation committee will evaluate whether any actions are necessary to address those concerns.”

Tesla Inc. shares, which fell another 8% this week, were marginally down in trade shortly after Wednesday’s opening bell.

SOURCE – (AP)

Boeing is the focus of back-to-back Senate hearings on Wednesday as Congress investigates allegations of severe safety failings at the troubled aircraft manufacturer.

The Senate Commerce Committee was hearing testimony from members of an expert team that discovered major weaknesses in Boeing’s safety culture. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the public expects the Federal Aviation Administration and Congress to ensure that boarding one of the company’s planes is safe.

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Boeing In The Spotlight As Congress Calls A Whistleblower To Testify About Defects In Planes

“Commercial air travel is the safest mode of transportation, although recent events have justifiably concerned the flying public. Cruz stated, “The perception is that things are getting worse.”

In a February study, the expert panel stated that, despite reforms made following the Max crashes, Boeing’s safety culture remains faulty, and employees who express concerns may face pressure and punishment.

One of the witnesses, MIT aeronautics instructor Javier de Luis, lost his sister when a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in Ethiopia in 2019.

A second Senate hearing will feature a Boeing engineer who believes that pieces of the 787 Dreamliner’s skin are improperly connected and may eventually fall apart. The whistleblower’s lawyer claims Boeing ignored the engineer’s warnings and prohibited him from speaking with specialists about the problems.

Sam Salehpour, a whistleblower, provided information to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the quality and safety of Boeing’s manufacturing. Ed Pierson, a former manager on the Boeing 737 program, is also slated to appear before a Senate investigative subcommittee on Wednesday. Two other aircraft technical specialists are also on the witness list.

The Democratic chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s subcommittee, as well as its top Republican, have requested papers dating back six years from Boeing.

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Boeing In The Spotlight As Congress Calls A Whistleblower To Testify About Defects In Planes

The senators want all information about the production of Boeing 787 and 777 planes, including any safety issues or complaints submitted by Boeing employees, contractors, or airlines. Some issues concern Salehpour’s claims about poorly installed carbon-composite panels on the Dreamliner.

A Boeing spokeswoman stated that the business is working with the MPs’ probe and has offered to share papers and briefings.

The business denies accusations regarding the 787’s structural integrity. This week, two Boeing engineering officials stated that no fatigue or cracking in the composite panels was discovered during design testing or inspections of planes, some of which were 12 years old. They claimed that the material, composed of carbon fibers and resin, is practically immune to fatigue, a continual concern with conventional aluminum fuselages.

Boeing executives also denied Salehpour’s claim that he had witnessed production workers jumping on fuselage parts on 777s to position them.

Salehpour is the latest whistleblower to come forward with allegations of production difficulties at Boeing. The business was plunged into crisis mode when a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jet during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Investigators focused on four bolts removed but not reinstalled during a repair procedure at Boeing’s manufacturing.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal inquiry into the company, while the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting separate probes.

CEO David Calhoun, who will step down at the end of the year, has repeatedly stated that Boeing is working to enhance its manufacturing quality and safety culture. He described the blowout on the Alaska jet as a “watershed moment” that will result in a better Boeing.

Such comments are met with widespread suspicion.

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Boeing In The Spotlight As Congress Calls A Whistleblower To Testify About Defects In Planes

“We need to look at what Boeing does, not just what it says it’s doing,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, before the hearing on Wednesday.

The FAA is also sure to face some criticism. Duckworth stated that until recently, the agency had “looked past far too many of Boeing’s repeated bad behaviors,” including when it certified the 737 Max more than a decade ago. Two Max jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people, due to incorrect activation of a flight-control system that the FAA did not fully comprehend.

The heads of the Senate investigations panel have also demanded information from the FAA about its monitoring of Boeing.

SOURCE – (AP)