Latest news with #AIO
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
‘Don't Overlook the Innovation Story,' Says Colin Sebastian About Alphabet Stock
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has long been the undisputed leader in internet search, but the rise of generative AI is beginning to raise questions about its continued dominance in the field. Confident Investing Starts Here: Against this backdrop, Baird's Colin Sebastian, an analyst ranked in the top 4% of Wall Street stock experts, attended the company's Google Marketing Live event and came away convinced that Alphabet is taking decisive steps to stay ahead of the curve. 'While there were 'breadcrumbs' that foreshadowed key announcements at Google Marketing Live, it's encouraging to witness the company innovating quickly in search, showing a commitment to monetization, and even taking aim at competitors in new ways,' the 5-star analyst said. 'While competition in search is intensifying, Google presented, in our view, a compelling suite of new ad products and agentic capabilities that can expand monetization and contribute incrementally to revenues.' Google announced a deeper integration of AI into its core search advertising platform, including the expansion of ad placements within AI Overviews (AIO). This means that both search and shopping ads will now appear directly in AI-generated summaries on desktop browsers in the U.S. Additionally, the company is introducing ad formats specifically designed for AI Mode, tailored to fit the more conversational and context-aware nature of AI-powered search experiences. 'Importantly,' adds Sebastian, 'these newer formats should help expand search advertising and reach into middle- and upper-funnel consumer journeys, directly contradicting the bearish view that new AI formats will simply disintermediate core search.' Sebastian thinks that advertisers will be quick to adopt these new ad formats, especially as Google has indicated that monetization tests are performing similarly to traditional search ads. Over time, the analyst believes these formats could lead to higher conversion rates for commerce and retail advertisers. In addition, advertisers running Performance Max and shopping campaigns will be able to access the new formats effortlessly. For users, the key will be Google's ability to match relevant ads with the context of longer, more detailed search queries, allowing users to find answers, including ad content, directly within the AI search experience without needing to scroll to traditional website links. As is typical for Google, the company is also introducing enhanced measurement and analytics tools, including new agentic capabilities to help marketers streamline and automate tasks. 'While many investors remain skeptical in our conversations,' notes Sebastian, 'Google also continues to report growth in queries where AI Overviews are shown, and Gen-Zers are the most active search cohorts.' So, what's the bottom line for investors? Sebastian is backing Alphabet shares with an Outperform (i.e., Buy) rating and a $190 price target, implying a potential upside of 10% over the next year. (To watch Sebastian's track record, click here) Wall Street at large is also bullish. GOOGL carries a Strong Buy consensus rating, based on 29 Buy recommendations and 9 Holds. The average price target stands slightly higher at $199.14, suggesting the stock could climb ~15% in the coming months. (See GOOGL stock forecast) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks' Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks' equity insights.
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How AI Is Changing The Way Customers Search For Businesses
Jay Sen, CEO of JV Capital & HireCoder AI– Expert in AI, tech startups, VC & recruiting. Traditional search volumes are expected to drop 25% by 2026 due to AI chatbots, according to Gartner. Meanwhile, websites already ranking high on Google are losing nearly 50% of traffic because of Google's AI Overviews. It's not just a trend but an actual shift. The way people find businesses is changing rapidly—and I believe this change necessitates that we as business leaders modify our strategies to remain visible and competitive. Traditional search engines like Google initially relied on exact-match keywords to answer user queries. But this method was generally inefficient. To improve the search quality and user experience, they started incorporating large language models (LLMs) into their algorithm. For example, in 2019, Google came up with BERT, which helps the search engine understand user queries better and offer more relevant search results. But things have completely changed now. Google is losing its market share to AI chatbots like ChatGPT. To compete, Google released their own chatbot—Gemini. These AI chatbots are really good at leveraging user data to provide tailored recommendations, which directly impact how individuals find businesses. Google also released AI Overviews for information retrieval, providing users with the answers to their queries without even clicking on any search results. All these combined have reduced the organic search traffic by up to 50% for the top three ranking websites. And these numbers could continue to increase with time. But there is still some good news for marketers and businesses: Although the organic search traffic has reduced, it has not completely vanished, and some of it is now coming in the form of referral traffic from AI Overviews and AI chatbots. Businesses need to adapt to these changes to stay competitive. One such step is changing your SEO approach to go beyond keywords and account for user intent. Since search engines can now understand user intent beyond keywords, they can provide more accurate and contextually relevant results to these voice queries. That's why it's important to optimize your webpages for long-tail conversational keywords. The next thing you can do is leverage your first-party data, such as customer reviews, behavior, preferences, past purchases, etc. Use this information to make hyper-personalized content for your audience, and implement structured data and FAQ schema into your webpages. Structured data helps search engines understand and categorize content more effectively and increases the chances of appearing in rich results. FAQ schema allows voice assistants to pull direct answers from web pages and, in my experience, can improve overall visibility in voice search queries. This personalized content, when paired with structured data markup, can not only rank you for long-tail queries to drive organic traffic but also increase your chances of being cited by AI chatbots and AI Overviews. Users don't always find your business on search engines, so it's important to be present on the platforms where your prospects can find you. These platforms analyze multiple factors before putting your business in front of your potential audience. For instance, Google Maps and Yelp rank businesses based on AI's assessment of your service quality, response times and review scores. Ecommerce platforms like Walmart and Amazon, on the other hand, leverage machine learning to predict and recommend products. An Omnisend survey of U.S. respondents shows that nearly 31% of users like recommendations made by AI, as it speeds up the shopping process. And these are just a few examples. AI is being used almost everywhere, and that's why a number of businesses are opting for a holistic marketing approach. By being digitally available on all the platforms where their audience is, leveraging reviews and engaging with users, businesses can show they're active and improve their visibility on such platforms. Business discovery goes beyond traditional text-based searches. Along with voice, image-based and multimodal searches allow users to find businesses in new ways. For example, there were already platforms like Google Lens, Pinterest Lens and Bing Visual Search that could be used for image-based searches. Now, we have platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini that allow users to combine text, voice and images to refine their queries. While visual and multimodal searches are not as common today as voice and text-based searches, these are not the concepts of the far future. In my experience, people are already switching to them, and that's why optimizing for these channels can be a worthy investment for businesses. I've found that the best way to optimize for this type of search is to properly use alt-tags, descriptions, metadata and schema for your visual content. Also, make sure that your business has consistent branding across platforms to make it easy for users and search engines to recognize your brand. AI isn't changing search to create obstacles; it's refining it to be more intuitive. Instead of just matching keywords, AI is used to understand intent, predict user needs, and deliver value—sometimes before the customer even realizes they need it. This shift creates opportunities for businesses to build trust and authority across multiple discovery channels. The better AI understands your business, the more it can recognize your expertise and credibility. And the stronger this association, the more frequently AI should surface your brand when potential customers search. There's no shortcut or algorithm trick. The key is to create valuable, discoverable and AI-friendly content that genuinely helps people—because when your content is useful, AI will distribute it naturally. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Business Wire
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Semrush Announces First Quarter 2025 Financial Results
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Semrush Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SEMR), a leading online visibility management SaaS platform, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025. 'I am thrilled to be part of the Semrush team as we leverage our best-in-class data platform to seize the emerging marketing opportunity presented by AI and extend our reach into the enterprise market," said Bill Wagner, CEO. "We reported a strong start to the year, delivering first quarter revenue growth of 22% along with strong margins and free cash flow. We are especially pleased by the early traction of our AI products and continued momentum of our Enterprise SEO Solution.' First Quarter 2025 Financial Highlights First quarter revenue of $105.0 million, up 22% year-over-year. Loss from operations of $0.1 million for the first quarter, compared to income from operations of $1.5 million the prior year's quarter. First quarter operating margin of (0.1)%, compared to 1.7% in the prior year period. Non-GAAP income from operations of $12.2 million for the first quarter for a non-GAAP operating margin of 11.6%, compared to non-GAAP income from operations of $9.7 million in the prior year period for a non-GAAP operating margin of 11.3%. Q1 free cash flow of $18.5 million and free cash flow margin of 17.6%. ARR of $424.7 million as of March 31, 2025, up 20% year-over-year. Approximately 118,000 paying customers as of March 31, 2025, up approximately 5.1% from a year ago. Dollar-based net revenue retention of 106%, as of March 31, 2025. See 'Non-GAAP Financial Measures & Definitions of Key Metrics' below for how Semrush defines ARR, dollar-based net revenue retention, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP operating margin, free cash flow, and free cash flow margin, and the financial tables that accompany this release for reconciliations of each non-GAAP financial measure to its closest comparable GAAP financial measure. First Quarter 2025 Business Highlights We remain committed to empowering our customers with a best-in-class platform designed to boost their online presence and gain an edge in the market. We advanced and expanded many of our offerings and continued investments in Generative AI to provide enhanced, more efficient content creation and marketing capabilities through Semrush's platform and App Center: Launched AI Optimization (AIO), now in open beta, a Semrush Enterprise Solution that provides businesses with the tools to track, control, and optimize brand presence across AI-powered search platforms. Released AI Toolkit, a solution that simplifies how businesses assess their visibility in AI-driven search results and guides strategic decisions to improve performance and positioning. Semrush customers who pay more than $10,000 annually grew by 39% year-over-year. Semrush customers who pay over $50,000 increased 86% year-over-year to 388. Ended the quarter with over 1.0 million registered free active customers. 'We reported a strong first quarter - overachieving on our top line growth and profitability, as we executed on our cross-sell and up-sell strategy and continued to expand our average revenue per customer,' said Brian Mulroy, CFO of Semrush. 'We saw increased adoption during the quarter of our Enterprise SEO solution and continued momentum building our enterprise cohort, delivering 86% year-over-year growth in customers paying over $50,000. Non-GAAP operating margin increased to 11.6% and cash flow from operations increased to $22.1 million. Looking ahead, we are confident about our ability to drive growth, profitability, and free cash flow generation, and we are reiterating our previous full year 2025 guidance.' Based on information as of today, May 7, 2025, we are issuing the following financial guidance: Second Quarter 2025 Financial Outlook For the second quarter, we expect revenue in a range of $108.2 million to $109.2 million, which at the mid-point would represent growth of approximately 20% year-over-year. We expect second quarter non-GAAP operating margin to be approximately 11%. Full-Year 2025 Financial Outlook For the full year, we expect revenue in a range of $448.0 to $453.0 million, which at the mid-point would represent growth of approximately 20% year-over-year. We expect full year non-GAAP operating margin to be approximately 12%. We expect the full year free cash flow margin to be approximately 12%. To note, our full year 2025 guidance now absorbs an incremental $8.0 million expense headwind due to the recent movement in exchange rates. Our previous guidance assumed a EURO to USD exchange rate of 1.05 and we are now modeling an exchange rate of 1.13. Reconciliations of non-GAAP operating margin and free cash flow margin guidance to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are not available without unreasonable efforts on a forward-looking basis due to the high variability, complexity and low visibility with respect to the charges excluded from these non-GAAP measures, in particular the measures and effects of share-based compensation expense, employer taxes and tax deductions specific to equity compensation awards that are directly impacted by future hiring, turnover and retention needs. We expect the variability of the above charges to have a significant, and potentially unpredictable, impact on our future GAAP financial results. Conference Call and Webcast Details Semrush will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its financial results, business highlights, outlook and other matters, the details for which are provided below. Date: Thursday, May 8th, 2025 Time: 8:30 a.m. ET Hosts: Bill Wagner, CEO, and Brian Mulroy, CFO Conference ID: 923956 Participant Toll Free Dial-In Number: +1 833 470 1428 Participant International Dial-In Number: +1 929 526 1599 The live webcast of the conference call as well as the replay can be accessed for a limited time from the Semrush investor relations website at About Semrush Semrush is a leading online visibility management SaaS platform that enables businesses globally to run search engine optimization, advertising, content, social media and competitive research campaigns and get measurable results from online marketing. Semrush offers insights and solutions for companies to build, manage, and measure campaigns across various marketing channels. Semrush is headquartered in Boston and has offices in Austin, Dallas, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Munich, Limassol, Prague, Warsaw, and Yerevan. Forward-looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which are statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as 'may,' 'will,' 'shall,' 'should,' 'expects,' 'plans,' 'positioning,' 'anticipates,' 'could,' 'intends,' 'target,' 'projects,' 'contemplates,' 'believes,' 'estimates,' 'predicts,' 'potential' or 'continue' or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, guidance on financial results for the second quarter and full fiscal year of 2025 (including revenue, non-GAAP operating margin, and free cash flow margin); statements about transition and the impact of recent changes to our executive management team; statements regarding the expectations of demand for our products and cash flow generation; statements about improvements to and expansion of our products and platform, and launching new products; statements about future operating results, including revenue, growth opportunities, variability of expenses, ability to realize efficiencies, future spending and incremental investments, business trends, our ability to deliver profits, and growth and value for shareholders; and assumptions regarding foreign exchange rates. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC'), including in the sections entitled 'Risk Factors' and 'Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations'' in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on form 10-K, and our subsequently filed quarterly reports and other SEC filings. Although we believe that our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved. The forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Additional information regarding these and other factors that could affect our results is included in our SEC filings, which may be obtained by visiting our Investor Relations page on its website at or the SEC's website at Non-GAAP Financial Measures & Definitions of Key Metrics We believe that providing non-GAAP information to investors, in addition to the GAAP presentation, allows investors to view the financial results in the way management views the operating results. We further believe that providing this information allows investors to not only better understand our financial performance, but also to evaluate the efficacy of the methodology and information used by management to evaluate and measure such performance. We also believe that the use of non-GAAP financial measures provides an additional tool for investors to use in evaluating ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing our financial results with other companies in our industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures to investors. We also believe free cash flow margin is useful to investors as we monitor it as a measure of our overall business performance, which enables us to analyze our future performance without the effects of non-cash items and allows us to better understand the cash needs of our business. The non-GAAP information included in this press release should not be considered superior to, or a substitute for, financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures presented by other companies. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures provided in the financial statement tables included below in this press release. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is defined as the total subscription revenue as of a given date that we expect to contractually receive over the subsequent 12 months from customers on an annualized basis, assuming no increases, reductions or cancellations. This ARR definition was updated in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2024 to simplify the explanation of our calculation around the treatment of monthly and longer-term contracts, and to be more consistent with other SaaS businesses, which we believe improves the ability for investors to compare our metric against other businesses. Additionally, our definition was updated to note that we do not assume there will be any increases, reductions, or cancellations. Given our efforts to retain and win back customers, and our belief that we will be successful in many of those retention efforts, we believe the updated definition is more accurate. We are not recasting ARR results to conform ARR under the prior definition to the updated definition as there is no variance between the two definitions for the periods presented. Dollar-based net revenue retention is defined as (a) the revenue from our customers during the twelve-month period ending one year prior to such period as the denominator and (b) the revenue from those same customers during the twelve months ending as of the end of such period as the numerator. This calculation excludes revenue from new customers and any non-recurring revenue. Free cash flow and free cash flow margin. We define free cash flow, a non-GAAP financial measure, as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and capitalized software development costs. We define free cash flow margin as free cash flow divided by GAAP revenue. Non-GAAP income (loss) from operations, and non-GAAP operating margin. We define non-GAAP income (loss) from operations as GAAP income (loss) from operations, excluding Stock Based Compensation, Amortization of Acquired Intangible Assets, Acquisition Related Costs, Restructuring Costs and other one-time expenses outside the ordinary course of business (for example, our Exit Costs incurred primarily in 2022). We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP income (loss) from operations divided by GAAP revenue. We believe investors may want to consider our results with and without the effects of these items in order to compare our financial performance with that of other companies that exclude such items and to compare our results to prior periods. Stock-based compensation. Stock-based compensation is a non-cash expense accounted for in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 718. We believe that the exclusion of stock-based compensation expense allows for financial results that are more indicative of our operational performance and provide for a useful comparison of our operating results to prior periods and to our peer companies because stock-based compensation expense varies from period to period and company to company due to such things as differing valuation methodologies, timing of awards and changes in stock price. Amortization of acquired intangible assets. Excluding amortization of acquired intangible assets from non-GAAP expense and income measures allows management and investors to evaluate results 'as-if' the acquired intangible assets had been developed internally rather than acquired and, therefore, provides a supplemental measure of performance in which our acquired intellectual property is treated in a comparable manner to our internally developed intellectual property. These amounts are inconsistent in amount and frequency and are significantly impacted by the timing and size of acquisitions. Although we exclude amortization of acquired intangible assets from our non-GAAP expenses, we believe that it is important for investors to understand that such intangible assets contribute to revenue generation. Restructuring and other costs. Restructuring and other costs include restructuring expenses as well as other charges that are unusual in nature, are the result of unplanned events, and arise outside the ordinary course of our business. Restructuring expenses consist of employee severance costs, charges for the closure of excess facilities and other contract termination costs. Other costs include litigation contingency reserves, asset impairment charges, relocation expenses associated with the migration of employees in 2022 that occurred throughout 2022 and early 2023, and gains or losses on the sale or disposition of certain non-strategic assets or product lines. Acquisition-related costs. In recent years, we have completed a number of acquisitions, which result in transition, integration and other acquisition-related expense which would not otherwise have been incurred, are unpredictable and dependent on a significant number of factors that are deal-specific or outside of our control, are not indicative of our operational performance (or that of the acquired businesses or assets) and are likely to fluctuate as our acquisition activity increases or decreases in future periods. By excluding acquisition-related costs and adjustments from our non-GAAP measures, management is better able to evaluate our ability to utilize our existing assets and estimate the long-term value that acquired assets will generate for us. The following table sets forth a reconciliation of our (loss) income from operations and operating margin to non-GAAP income from operations and non-GAAP operating margin, respectively (percentage amounts may not sum due to rounding): The following table sets forth a reconciliation of our net cash provided by operating activities and net cash provided by operating activities (as a percentage of revenue) to free cash flow and free cash flow margin, respectively (percentage amounts may not sum due to rounding): Semrush Holdings, Inc. (in thousands) As of December 31, 2024 Assets Current assets Cash and cash equivalents $ 64,665 $ 48,875 Short-term investments 197,125 186,693 Accounts receivable 11,034 8,955 Deferred contract costs, current portion 10,161 10,044 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 14,461 21,617 Total current assets 297,446 276,184 Property and equipment, net 6,401 6,534 Operating lease right-of-use assets 12,133 11,126 Intangible assets, net 33,007 32,055 Goodwill 57,682 56,139 Deferred contract costs, net of current portion 3,379 3,080 Other long-term assets 6,453 5,825 Total assets $ 416,501 $ 390,943 Liabilities, noncontrolling interest, and stockholders' equity Current liabilities Accounts payable $ 14,218 $ 10,463 Accrued expenses 21,606 20,216 Deferred revenue 79,926 71,827 Current portion of operating lease liabilities 5,202 4,669 Other current liabilities 5,750 6,913 Total current liabilities 126,702 114,088 Deferred revenue, net of current portion 235 235 Deferred tax liability 1,634 1,621 Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion 8,569 7,602 Other long-term liabilities 1,203 1,045 Total liabilities 138,343 124,591 Commitments and contingencies Stockholders' equity Class A common stock 1 1 Class B common stock — — Additional paid-in capital 331,917 322,586 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (311 ) (2,221 ) Accumulated deficit (62,913 ) (63,762 ) Total stockholders' equity attributable to Semrush Holdings, Inc. 268,694 256,604 Noncontrolling interest in consolidated subsidiaries 9,464 9,748 Total stockholders' equity 278,158 266,352 Total liabilities, noncontrolling interest and stockholders' equity $ 416,501 $ 390,943 Expand Semrush Holdings, Inc. UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (in thousands) Three Months Ended March 31, 2025 2024 Operating Activities Net income $ 655 $ 2,003 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities Depreciation and amortization expense 3,424 2,183 Amortization of deferred contract costs 3,474 3,016 Amortization (accretion) of premiums and discounts on investments (659 ) (1,071 ) Non-cash lease expense 1,257 1,164 Stock-based compensation expense 9,112 5,115 Change in fair value included in other income, net (1,164 ) — Deferred taxes (55 ) (100 ) Other non-cash items 880 844 Changes in operating assets and liabilities Accounts receivable (2,167 ) 782 Deferred contract costs (3,891 ) (3,455 ) Prepaid expenses and other current assets (379 ) (2,275 ) Accounts payable 3,559 1,012 Accrued expenses 1,632 1,414 Other current liabilities (299 ) (390 ) Deferred revenue 7,873 5,658 Other long-term liabilities 158 — Change in operating lease liability (1,301 ) (1,121 ) Net cash provided by operating activities 22,109 14,779 Investing Activities Purchases of property and equipment (725 ) (759 ) Capitalization of internal-use software costs (2,879 ) (2,015 ) Purchases of short-term investments (27,156 ) (46,706 ) Proceeds from sales and maturities of short-term investments 18,000 25,000 Funding of investment loan receivables — (7,000 ) Proceeds from repayment of investment loan receivables 7,676 — Cash paid for acquisition of assets and businesses, net of cash acquired (512 ) (501 ) Purchase of noncontrolling interest (90 ) — Net cash used in investing activities (5,686 ) (31,981 ) Financing Activities Proceeds from exercise of stock options 365 844 Repayment of acquired debt (611 ) — Payment of finance leases (99 ) (410 ) Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities (345 ) 434 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (288 ) (507 ) Increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 15,790 (17,275 ) Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period 49,060 58,848 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $ 64,850 $ 41,573 Expand
WIRED
30-04-2025
- WIRED
Corsair's Void Wireless v2 Is a Great-Sounding Headset for Big Heads
If I'm going to use a headset regularly, it needs a visible way to indicate that I'm muted. A light is preferable, but the Corsair's microphone clicks upward and gives an audible voiceover that lets you know the mic is muted or unmuted. There's a mix of voice prompts and beeps, and I generally prefer beeps to spoken voice prompts. Language issues aside, a voice prompt will always interrupt whatever is happening onscreen or in a chat, but eventually you'll always learn what a certain beeping means. You can turn off the voice prompts in iCUE, but that doesn't replace them with beeping, it just makes them not play at all. I'm glad we've reached a point where most gaming headsets can run for way longer than you could reasonably game in one sitting. Of course, I'm terrible at remembering to charge my devices, but charging them twice a week was enough for regular gaming without ever seeing a low battery warning. Corsair quotes them at 70 hours on 2.4 GHz, and with the lights on and regular gaming and video watching, I'd put them comfortably above 45 hours. The Software Photograph: Brad Bourque You can use the Void Wireless v2 on PC without an app, but if you want to use all of the features you really need to download iCUE. I already had Corsair's peripheral management software on my machine for my AIO cooler and some of my components, and it picked up the headset right away without an update. iCUE is stuffed to the brim with features and app connections, as well as the ability to change settings in a very granular way, but the interface can be a little awkward to use, especially for making more basic changes. There are two physical buttons on the side of the headphones, one of which has a power symbol on it. You can hold that button to turn the headphones on or off, or press it once to switch between Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz. It still works that way if you haven't set up a Bluetooth device, so if you press that button the audio will just mute until you press it again. The button beneath it is locked to media controls, which is great for quickly pausing your music, but I doubt anyone will take these to the gym, so I'd rather see that button be user-controlled.
Globe and Mail
28-04-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Market Analysis: April 28th, 2025
Global Markets Canadian Markets The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) traded lower on Monday as investors remained cautious ahead of Canada's upcoming general election, widely viewed as highly competitive. Political uncertainty weighed on investor sentiment. Adding to the pressure, a drop in global oil prices hurt Canada's energy-heavy index. Weakness in crude came amid renewed concerns around global demand and potential oversupply. However, the decline in oil was partially offset by gains in gold prices, which buoyed the precious metals mining sector—a traditional safe haven during times of geopolitical or economic stress. American Markets U.S. equity markets were mixed to start the week, as investors prepared for a packed calendar of economic releases and high-profile corporate earnings. Investors and traders are particularly focused on inflation indicators and Federal Reserve guidance, which will shape expectations for future interest rate moves. Uncertainty around U.S. trade policy developments under President Donald Trump also contributed to market jitters, especially in sectors exposed to global supply chains, as Nvidia's stock led the way down on competition fears from Huawei, which is a consequence of the export ban on Nvidia's chipsets. European Markets European stocks closed higher as investors looked forward to clarity on potential trade tariffs. Optimism over easing trade tensions helped support the broader market. Nonetheless, underlying concerns about the euro zone economy persisted. European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers issued fresh warnings about a deteriorating economic outlook, citing weak industrial output and fragile consumer sentiment as key risks going forward. Spain posted a positive economic data point, with retail sales rising 3.6% in March compared to the same month a year earlier. This marked a notable sign of consumer resilience in the euro zone's fourth-largest economy UK Markets UK stocks also moved higher, supported by strength in the healthcare and consumer sectors. However, data from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) painted a mixed picture of the retail landscape. According to the CBI's latest survey, retail sales volumes fell again in April, but the pace of decline slowed significantly. The CBI's gauge of year-on-year sales rose to -8 in April—its highest since October—after plunging to -41 in March, which had been the worst reading since July 2024. Despite this relative improvement, retailers remain cautious, with many expecting business conditions to deteriorate further in May due to sluggish consumer confidence and broader economic headwinds. Corporate Stock News Alphabet IncRaymond James cut its target price on GOOGL to $185 from $205 due to uncertainty over AIO and AI cloud monetization. IncOppenheimer cut target price to $220 from $260 citing tariff concerns; third-party sellers reducing Prime Day participation to protect margins. Aritzia IncRBC cut target price to C$65 from C$73 due to uncertainty about tariffs' effects on margins and demand. Barrick Gold CorpSubcontractors at Mali complex laying off staff amid tax dispute with government; operations suspended since January after gold stock seizure. Biogen IncHSBC cut target price to $118 from $342 citing weak Alzheimer's sales and slowing Skyclarys performance. BlackRock IncISS urged investors to vote against executive compensation plan, citing unaddressed concerns over one-time awards. Boeing CoRiyadh Air offered to buy jets redirected from China due to trade conflict; Boeing expects strong alternative demand. Banc of California IncJPMorgan cut target to $15 from $16 after slight reduction in 2025 loan and deposit growth outlook. Domino's Pizza IncReported 0.5% drop in U.S. same-store sales in Q1 despite promotions; EPS beat estimates at $4.33. DoorDash Inc / DeliverooDeliveroo paused $133M share buyback after $3.6B takeover proposal from DoorDash at a 22.8% premium. Goldman Sachs Group IncAppointed Sushil Bathija and Vikram Chavali as new Asia ex-Japan M&A heads to expand deal coverage. Interactive Brokers Group IncFined over $540K in Hong Kong for unauthorized client securities lending due to system error; no client losses reported. Kenvue IncThird Point building a stake; joins other activist investors pushing for strategic changes including possible sale. Mandalay Resource Corp / Alkane ResourcesAlkane to acquire Mandalay in $357.8M all-share deal to create gold and antimony producer with 2025 output target of 160,000 ounces. Meta Platforms IncOrdered by Singapore to block posts from foreigners accused of attempting to influence national elections. Merck KGaA / SpringWorks Therapeutics IncMerck to acquire SpringWorks for $3.9B to expand cancer drug pipeline; deal priced at $47/share. Nike IncSued by NFT buyers alleging losses after abrupt shutdown of RTFKT digital asset business; class action filed in New York. Novo Nordisk A/SLaunched Wegovy in Thailand, its first Southeast Asian market, ahead of Eli Lilly's rival drug. Penn Entertainment IncAdding directors backed by HG Vora amid proxy fight; firm criticized for poor acquisitions and stock down 87% since 2021. Phillips 66Positive outlook with TD Cowen target of $114 as part of broader earnings week activity. RTX CorpJPMorgan reduced price target to $145 from $150 citing possible tariff headwinds despite strong earnings. Spirit AeroSystems Holding IncAirbus finalizing acquisition of key Spirit plants in U.S., Northern Ireland, and France to stabilize aerospace supply chain. Starbucks Corp81% of union delegates rejected new contract proposal citing lack of economic improvements like pay or healthcare changes. Unilever PlcDenied ousting Ben & Jerry's CEO over activism; seeks dismissal of lawsuit alleging efforts to dismantle brand's independent board. Winpak LtdCIBC raised target price to C$52 from C$50 based on improved balance sheet and free cash flow.
