Latest news with #ZaheerKachwala
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Roblox raises annual bookings forecast as viral hits spur spending boom
By Zaheer Kachwala (Reuters) -Roblox raised its forecast for annual bookings on Thursday and crossed 100 million in daily active users on its videogame platform, riding on the success of viral hits such as "Grow a Garden" and sending its shares up 19% before the bell. Many of the platform's games have become highly popular due to their free-to-play nature and wide availability, drawing millions of users across diverse age groups and demographics. Average daily active users, a key measure of engagement, grew 41% to 111.8 million in the second quarter, while hours engaged jumped 58% to 27.4 billion. A large portion of the engagement and bookings growth in the second quarter came from "Grow a Garden", a tycoon-style game which allows players to grow their plots of land by trading seeds and plants. In June, the game set a world record for the most concurrent players to play a videogame, highlighting Roblox's reach across geographies. The company has been investing in search and discovery features that allow greater visibility for games like "Grow a Garden", with already healthy engagements, the company's newly appointed CFO, Naveen Chopra, told Reuters. In an uncertain economy, Roblox is diversifying its revenue sources beyond gaming and turning the platform into a hub for socializing, commerce and advertising. Such efforts have excited investors, who have more than doubled the company's shares so far this year, far outperforming rival videogame publishers. Roblox now expects fiscal 2025 bookings of between $5.87 billion and $5.97 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $5.29 billion to $5.36 billion. It forecast third-quarter bookings between $1.59 billion and $1.64 billion, compared with an estimate of $1.35 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Bookings for the second quarter came in at $1.44 billion, beating market estimates of $1.24 billion. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Star
3 days ago
- Business
- The Star
EA forecasts quarterly bookings below expectations on cautious gamer spending
FILE PHOTO: A smartphone with the Electronic Arts logo is seen in front of a displayed stock graph in this illustration taken September 16, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters) -Electronic Arts forecast net bookings below Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, pressured by uncertain consumer spending on its core sports portfolio amid a challenging economic environment. Shares of the company fell more than 2% in extended trading. With shifting U.S. trade policies threatening to push inflation higher, gamers have become more cautious with discretionary spending. EA said the second-quarter bookings forecast includes a four percentage point year-over-year headwind , due to changes in recognizing returns from the Ultimate Edition of "FC 26", which will now be booked in the third quarter. Earlier this month, the videogame publisher launched "College Football 26", hoping to build on the success of last year's edition, which became one of the best-selling titles of 2024. However, analysts warned that growth comparisons for "College Football 26" may be challenging, given the breakout success of its predecessor, which revived the franchise after a more than 10-year hiatus. The company said it expects a more "normalized curve" for College Football sales, partially offset by the launch of "Madden NFL 26". EA last week unveiled the first trailer for "Battlefield 6, placing a big bet on the title to reinvigorate the franchise after the previous installment fell short of fan expectations. The title is set to launch in EA's current fiscal year with analysts expecting the game to sell millions of copies. EA forecast second-quarter bookings of between $1.80 billion and $1.90 billion, below analysts' expectations of $2.01 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. For the first quarter, EA reported bookings of $1.30 billion beating estimates of $1.29 billion. The Redwood city, California-based company reaffirmed its full-year bookings forecast. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zhaid)
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
EA forecasts quarterly bookings below expectations on cautious gamer spending
By Zaheer Kachwala (Reuters) -Electronic Arts forecast second-quarter net bookings below Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, pressured by uncertain consumer spending on its core sports portfolio amid a challenging economic environment. With shifting U.S. trade policies threatening to push inflation higher, gamers have become more cautious with discretionary spending. EA said the bookings forecast includes a four percentage point year-over-year headwind, due to changes in recognizing returns from the Ultimate Edition of "FC 26", which will be booked in the third quarter. Earlier this month, EA launched "College Football 26", hoping to build on the success of last year's edition, which became one of the best-selling titles of 2024. However, analysts warned that growth comparisons for "College Football 26" may be challenging, given the breakout success of its predecessor, which revived the franchise after a more than 10-year hiatus. The company said it expects a more "normalized curve" for College Football sales, partially offset by the launch of "Madden NFL 26". Its shares were up more than 1% in extended trading. EA last week unveiled the first trailer for "Battlefield 6", placing a big bet on the title to reinvigorate the franchise after the previous installment fell short of fan expectations. "With Battlefield competing in the shooter category this year after not releasing a title for four years, we think Battlefield stands to benefit more than Call of Duty does in the back-half of 2025," D.A. Davidson & Co analyst Wyatt Swanson said. Battlefield competes with Activision Blizzard's "Call of Duty" franchise, which has long-been the dominant player in the first-person shooter genre. "Battlefield 6" is set to launch in EA's current fiscal year with analysts expecting the game to sell millions of copies. EA forecast second-quarter bookings of between $1.80 billion and $1.90 billion, below analysts' expectations of $2.01 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. For the first quarter, EA reported bookings of $1.30 billion beating estimates of $1.29 billion. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time of India
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Samsung Electronics shares retreat after Tesla deal, as challenges remain
By Hyunjoo Jin and Zaheer Kachwala Seoul: Shares in Samsung Electronics came under pressure on Tuesday, following a powerful rally the previous day after the South Korean technology company clinched a $16.5 billion deal to supply artificial intelligence chips to Tesla . Analysts said the deal could bolster the technology company's unprofitable contract manufacturing business, but Samsung faces challenges in securing additional large customers both for logic chips and memory chips where it struggles against TSMC and SK Hynix. "This new deal breathes some much-needed life into the business and may signal the start of a turning point for Samsung, but its memory business will need to make considerable progress too," Ben Barringer, global technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said. Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chip maker, has suffered delays in supplying the latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to key U.S. customer Nvidia , a setback that has dented its profits and weighed on its stock. In its "foundry" or contract manufacturing business, where it manufactures logic chips designed by customers, Samsung remains a distant second to market leader TSMC. "Whether this will open the door for additional large customers will depend heavily on its execution," Barringer said. Shares of Samsung recovered to around flat by midday on Tuesday, versus the broader market's 0.6% gain. The shares were down more than 2 percent earlier in the session. FAVORABLE TERMS Tesla CEO Elon Musk said late on Sunday that Samsung's new chip factory in Taylor, Texas, would make the auto company's next-generation AI6 chips, likely to be used in self-driving cars, humanoid robots and data centers, without elaborating on the timing of the production. The deal comes as Samsung has struggled to win major customers for its new Texas factory, partly due to low production yields of its cutting-edge chips. "There also has to be a chance that the company was able to strike the long-term deal on favourable terms, given that Samsung needed to prove its contract manufacturing capabilities," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. The long-term supply deal for a key technology from a U.S. factory would "lessen the risk of supply-chain dislocations or tariff friction," he said. "Samsung now needs to prove it can deliver in the right volume to the right quality for what is likely to be a demanding customer." While the deal is "more about securing the longer-term future, we won't see these in cars for at least a year or two," said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Mint
22-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Alphabet will seek to reassure investors as AI rivals step up competition
By Deborah Mary Sophia and Zaheer Kachwala (Reuters) -Alphabet, faced with unprecedented threats from AI rivals, will be keen to assure investors this week that the company's own spending on the technology is helping it dig a deeper moat around its search and advertising businesses. Rivals of the Google parent, including AI startups such as OpenAI and Perplexity, have attracted tens of millions of users to their platforms. They are looking to break Google Chrome's dominance with their own browsers, even as a U.S. court weighs breaking up the tech company with remedies that may include a forced Chrome sale. To maintain its grip, Alphabet has rolled out tools such as AI Overviews, which show AI-generated summaries on top of traditional links that have drawn 1.5 billion users per month, and made more Gemini models available to enterprise users. The integration of AI into Google search is key to its advertising appeal, as it offers advertisers the ability to run more effective campaigns and get bigger returns on their dollars. In March, Google added a new AI-only mode to its search. Alphabet, scheduled to report second-quarter results on Wednesday, has also staged a coup, securing rival OpenAI as a customer for its cloud business. "AI targeting advantages and increasing ad loads in AI Overviews could drive ad performance above traditional search," BofA Global Research analysts said. Wall Street has been looking for returns from Big Tech's AI spending spree that is expected to total $320 billion this year. Google reassured investors in late April with better-than-expected first-quarter earnings that were powered by AI demand. But OpenAI and Perplexity's launch of their own browsers has intensified pressure on Google's search business, which was already under strain from AI chatbots pulling away queries. "As those (AI) companies deploy their browsers, that'll take more searches away from Google. But the bigger threat will be when those companies have enough of a user base that they start selling advertising," said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria. "It's only when Google loses advertisers that the revenue is going to be impacted." Also, Alphabet's Waymo, the early U.S. leader in autonomous cabs and often overlooked during earnings, is likely to draw more attention as Elon Musk's Tesla rolls out a test fleet in Austin, Texas. ** Alphabet is expected to report a near 11% jump in total revenue for the second quarter, per LSEG data. ** Analysts expect a 7.5% rise in advertising revenue and a 26.2% jump in its cloud computing segment. ** Per-share earnings are expected to be around $2.18, excluding one-off items. ** Alphabet shares are largely flat so far this year. ** Stock is among the laggards in the "Magnificent Seven" group of megacap stocks, with Nvidia leading the range with a 28% jump and Tesla at the bottom with a 19% decline. ** Alphabet is rated "buy" on average among 55 brokerages, with a median price target of $203.84.
