Techlife News #509

Concerns about a revenue growth slowdown pushed Facebook’s shares lower in after-hours trading Wednesday, not long after the company reported that its second-quarter profits doubled thanks to a massive increase in advertising revenue. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg set his sights far beyond the second half of 2021, exalting what he sees as the next phase of how people experience the internet. What the rest of the world might know as augmented and virtual reality with a dash of science fiction, Zuckerberg and others are calling “the metaverse,” a futuristic and somewhat vague notion that encompasses AR, VR and new, yet-to-be-imagined ways of connecting to one another via technology. Zuckerberg expects the metaverse to be the next big thing after the mobile internet, although he’s had a spotty track record when it comes…

Sky-high sales prices for its pickup trucks and SUVs helped Ford Motor Co. turn a surprise second-quarter profit despite a global shortage of computer chips that cut factory output in half. The Dearborn, Michigan, company said Wednesday that it made $561 million from April through June, largely because of cost cuts and higher-than-expected prices for its vehicles. The automaker warned earlier in the year that it would be hit especially hard by the chip shortage and a fire at Japanese supplier Renesas that manufactures many of its automotive-grade chips, resulting in a second-quarter loss. But Ford surprised investors by earning 13 cents per share excluding one-time items. That was far better than Wall Street expectations of a 3-cent-per-share loss, according to FactSet. Revenue was $26.8 billion, also above analysts’ forecasts of just over $23…

Wireless network maker and 5G technology provider Nokia reported substantially improved second-quarter profit Thursday, citing the help of its new operating model and booming sales of 5G equipment. The company, based in Espoo, Finland, reported net profit of 539 million euros ($640 million) for the April-June period, up 71% from 316 million euros a year earlier. Sales were up 4% at 5.3 billion euros. CEO Pekka Lundmark, who took over Nokia’s top job a year ago and has drastically changed the business strategy, said the second-quarter results showed the company was on the right track. “We are already seeing the benefits of our new operating model, which helped us to deliver such a strong financial performance,” Lundmark said. The executive has vowed to make Nokia the world leader in 5G - the new generation…

American Airlines plans to invest in a Chilean budget airline and sell seats on each other’s flights to help American extend its reach in South America. American said Thursday that it has signed a letter of intent for the deal with JetSmart. American executives declined to say how much the airline proposes to invest in JetSmart other than describing it as a minority stake. If the companies close the deal and win government approval, travelers could earn and spend American frequent-flyer points on JetSmart flights. Vasu Raja, American’s chief revenue officer, said the deal would let both airlines grow profitably throughout Latin America as the travel industry recovers from the pandemic. He said two-thirds of passengers on American flights to and from South America start in South America, and the deal will give…

Fueled by vaccinations and government aid, the U.S. economy grew at a solid 6.5% annual rate last quarter in another sign that the nation has achieved a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession. The total size of the economy has now surpassed its pre-pandemic level. Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department estimated that the nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — accelerated in the April-June quarter from an already robust 6.3% annual growth rate in the first quarter of the year. The quarterly figure was less than analysts had expected. But that was mainly because supply chain bottlenecks exerted a stronger-than-predicted drag on companies’ efforts to restock their shelves. The slowdown in inventory rebuilding, in fact, subtracted 1.1 percentage points from last quarter’s annual growth. By contrast,…

AstraZeneca said Thursday that it intends to seek U.S. approval for its COVID-19 vaccine later this year, further delaying the application even as the company announced it had already delivered more than 1 billion doses to other countries. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said the application has been delayed because it has decided to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for full regulatory approval, rather than the fast-track emergency use authorization originally anticipated. As part of this “biologics license application,” the FDA has requested extensive data from clinical trials around the world, as well as data on real world use of the vaccine. “We have an enormous amount of data, clinical data and all of the data coming from the work we’ve done around the world,” AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said on a…