2018-07-31

Apple $AAPL Quarterly Earnings LIVE Webcast, July 31, 5pm EDT

Apple Inc.
NASDAQ: AAPL
$AAPL
Principal domain: apple.com
Investor Relations website: investor.apple.com

Apple FY 18 Third Quarter Results: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. EDT
Listen to the conference call webcast - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com

Earnings Release"Revenue Up 17 Percent and EPS Up 40 Percent to New June Quarter Records - Services Revenue Reaches New All-Time High"--excerpts:
“We’re thrilled to report Apple’s best June quarter ever, and our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our Q3 results were driven by continued strong sales of iPhone, Services and Wearables, and we are very excited about the products and services in our pipeline.”
“Our strong business performance drove revenue growth in each of our geographic segments, net income of $11.5 billion, and operating cash flow of $14.5 billion,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We returned almost $25 billion to investors through our capital return program during the quarter, including $20 billion in share repurchases.”
Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter:
  • revenue between $60 billion and $62 billion
  • gross margin between 38 percent and 38.5 percent
  • operating expenses between $7.95 billion and $8.05 billion
  • other income/(expense) of $300 million
  • tax rate of approximately 15 percent before discrete items
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on August 16, 2018 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 13, 2018.

Editor's note: $AAPL shares are UP in after hours trading.

See also on Domain Mondo: Tech Review 1) Perils of Tech Stocks, 2) High Growth Tech Companies

source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2018-07-30

Tech Startup Zoox - $800M Robo Taxi That Could Beat Uber (video)

The $800M Robo Taxi That Could Beat Uber

Bloomberg.com video above published Jul 17, 2018: Zoox is on the verge of transforming the entire transportation industry by creating self-driving robots that will become the ride-shares of the future.

Zoox Inc. founded 2014: autonomous vehicles / autonomous mobility utilizing AI
Domain: zoox.com


feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2018-07-29

News Review: 1) More ICANN Mismanagement, 2) ICANN EPDP Update

graphic "News Review" ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-07-29) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) More ICANN Mismanagement, 2)Other ICANN news:  a. EPDP Team UPDATEb. Post-ICANN62 Policy Report, c. Temp Spec Noncompliance? and more, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: a. Verisign Q2 Results, b. GDPR & Trademarks, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

UPDATES:
August 1-2: ICANN's EPDP Team got off to a rocky start at its first meeting on August 1st, both in process and substance. "Dysfunctional" may be the best adjective to describe the working group process trying to deal with the ICANN Temporary Spec developed by ICANN's incompetent management team and approved by the inept ICANN Board right before the European Union's GDPR became enforceable on May 25, 2018. Meeting slides, transcript, and the chat transcript are embed below. Adobe recording here and MP3 here. Three takeaways (emphasis added):
  • Milton Mueller (NCSG):"The main point Alan is that supermajority is defined. In the ePDP it is not. That is dangerous - leaves room for arbitrary decisions that consensus exists when it does not."
  • Milton Mueller (NCSG): "Ashley - a unified access model based on ICANN is NOT part of the temp spec. The temp spec says that registrars will provide access on request. In that sense, we already have access."
  • Kristina Rosette (RySG - Amazon Registry): "If staff isn't already planning to circulate a meeting summary that includes decisions taken (if any) and clear action items, I'd be really appreciative of such a summary. My notes are not at all clear."
Next meetings: Aug 7 and Aug 9 at 13:00 UTC (9:00am EDT).

Meeting (Aug 1, 2018) slides

Meeting transcript:

Chat transcript:

July 31: ICANN Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) re: GDPR & WHOIS: EPDP Team first meeting Wednesday, August 1, 14:00 UTC. Non-members of the EPDP Team, observers and alternates not replacing members, may observe (listen) via live audio cast:
The EPDP Meeting's Draft Agenda has been modified by EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz (embed below):

Editor's note: many of the links in the embed above do not work due to ICANN staff or the EPDP Chair not knowing how to properly format a PDF with active links. Many of the documents are available here.

EPDP mail list here is now being filled with each EPDP member submitting a short bio. List of all EPDP Team members, alternates, and observers is on the wiki here.

Original Post:
1)  More ICANN Mismanagement: 18 Jul 2018 Letter from Dean Marks and Steve Metalitz to Akram Atallah, Cyrus Namazi, Göran Marby, and Cherine Chalaby (pdf) re: Privacy/Proxy Consensus Policy implementation, excerpt (highlighting added):
The letter's final paragraph below (emphasis added):
"Please let us know what steps you are taking to expedite any remaining legal review or formatting issues to incorporate general provisions of the Temporary Specification so that the comprehensive implementation documents developed by the IRT over more than a year of intensive IRT efforts can be finalized. A failure of ICANN to timely implement a multi-stakeholder policy, especially in a post-IANA transition world, seriously undermines ICANN’s credibility, and calls into question this form of governance. We stand ready to assist in the successful conclusion of the implementation process of the policy the board approved almost two years ago. And we believe doing so is in the best interest of ICANN and all of its stakeholders."
More info on Privacy / Proxy here and here.

2) Other ICANN News
graphic "ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers"
ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck ©2018 DomainMondo.com (graphic)
ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck
ICANN President & CEO Goran Marby, July 27, 2018: "We aim to prepare another iteration of a potential unified access model to gain as much clarity as possible on the GDPR's application to how non-public registration data may be accessed and used. An updated model will be posted in August." (emphasis added)
a. Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Update--first EPDP Team meeting 1 Aug 2018 at 14:00 UTC (10:00am EDT in the US) re: EPDP on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data. EPDP Team meetings, recordings, transcripts, scheduled conference calls are posted on the GNSO Master Calendar; non-member observers can listen in on meetings via audio cast. More info at EPDP Team wiki. List of EPDP Team members, alternates, and observers is on the wiki here. Here's the link to the EPDP Team mailing list

Also note:
•  A committee of the government of India has published a draft data protection law that recommends a data protection authority, right to be forgotten, data localisation, and more--thequint.com:
"The committee recommends that processing (collection, recording, analysis, disclosure, etc) of personal data should be done only for “clear, specific and lawful” purposes. Only that data which is necessary for such processing is to be collected from anyone."
•  The U.S. Government Is Coming to the Incompetent ICANN Management Team's Rescue--Remarks of the U.S. Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary Redl at IGF-USA 2018 (Redl is also NTIA Administrator):
"... The most pressing issue facing ICANN right now is updating the WHOIS service in light of the European General Data Protection Regulation, or “GDPR.” The WHOIS is a service that, prior the GDPR’s effective date in May, provided public access to domain name registration information, including contact information for the entity or person registering the domain name ... Unfortunately, European authorities have indicated that the collection and public provision of domain name registration data violates the GDPR. Because of this, as of late May, domain name registries and registrars have stopped providing important domain name registration information contained in the WHOIS. This is an unmitigated victory for the spammers and scammers that plague consumers and businesses. NTIA and the highest levels of the U.S. government are engaging with the European Data Protection Board, the European Commission, and European Member States to provide clarity and guidance to the community as it works to facilitate access and accreditation to WHOIS information, which is now private. This access mechanism is critical to meeting the needs of law enforcement, cybersecurity, and rights protection. NTIA will take a lead role in the process to develop this access mechanism and will fight hard for the important governmental and commercial equities in the WHOIS service ..." (emphasis added)
Editor's note: at least NTIA (unlike ICANN) is competent enough to understand the real issue is not the unnecessary and superfluous administrative and technical contact data (only the contact data for the legal entity or person registering the domain name is necessary), but instead the real issue is, and has always been, access and accreditation, which is where the ICANN management team should have been focused starting in May 2016, 20 days after the GDPR was published.

See also: Submission of GNSO Council Review of the Panama City GAC Communiqué (pdf).

b. Post-ICANN62 Policy Report (pdf) embed below:
Table of Contents:
03 Letter from David Olive
SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION/ADVISORY COMMITTEE UPDATES
04 Address Supporting Organization (ASO)
05 Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO)
08 Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)
12 At-Large/At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)
15 Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)
17 Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC)
18 Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)


Editor's Note: ICANN63, Barcelona, Spain, is Oct 20-25, 2018, only 83 days from now (July 29, 2018).

c.  Temp Spec Non-Compliance? "At this point, Facebook, Inc. is providing ICANN with this information to inform ICANN’s compliance processes, rather than serving as an official complaint against the registrars specified in the attached materials. As a result, it is not authorizing the forwarding of any complaint, attachments, requests or other documentation to the registrars of record"--excerpt from Letter to ICANN Compliance Jul 13, 2018 (pdf).

d. GNSO Council Response (pdf) to the ICANN Board Resolution on the SSAC Advisory on the Use of Emoji in Domain Names (SAC095), excerpt: "the Council feels that the combination of the IDN related requirements contained in the Applicant Guidebook, RA, and RAA effectively prevent the introduction of emoji at the top or any level." 

e. Public comment period ending in August, 2018 (at 23:59 UTC), on the date indicated (subject to change): The Independent Review Process Implementation Oversight Team (IRP-IOT) Draft Recommendations --Close Date 10 Aug 2018.

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
graphic "Names, Domains & Trademarks" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
a. Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) Q2 2018 earnings release and webcast July 26, 2018: Verisign's Chairman reported Verisign and NTIA (U.S. Dept of Commerce) were currently in talks about an amendment to the Cooperative Agreement which includes Amendment 32 on TLD .COM pricing. More info on Verisign's Q2 2018 earnings release and webcast here.

b. GDPR & Trademarks: GDPR brings new challenges for brand protection | boyesturner.com: The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force on 25 May 2018 has brought significant new challenges for brand owners, in terms of their ability to enforce trade mark rights ... GDPR has caused a conflict between the contractual requirements of ICANN to collect and make certain personal data publicly available and the obligations of GDPR to protect personal data ..." (emphasis added)

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 
graphic "ICYMI Internet Domain News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
  • India--Meet the father of India’s fight for internet freedom--pingie.com.
  • India--Internet Shutdowns: 2018 the Worst Year Already, Reveals RTI--thequint.com.
  • China--Blockchain Is Helping to Circumvent Censorship in China--slate.com.
  • Vietnam’s New Cybersecurity Law and Push for Internet Sovereignty Reduces Freedom--pogowasright.org.
  • Facebook Confirms It's Working On A New Internet Satellite--wired.com

5) Most Read Posts this past week on DomainMondo.com: 
graphic "Domain Mondo" ©2017 DomainMondo.com



-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2018-07-28

Tech Review 1) Perils of Tech Stocks, 2) High Growth Tech Companies

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2018-07-28)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Perils of Tech Stocks, 2) High Growth Tech Companies, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: Another China Crisis Looming?, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Facebook, Bitcoin ETF, Qualcomm, Apple, Intel, Google Cloud, Q2 2018 Earnings, and more.

1) Perils of Tech Stocks

RBC Capital Market’s (rbccm.com) Senior Tech Analyst Mark Mahaney gives 10 lessons in 10 minutes about the stock market and investing in tech stocks at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech 2018. Fortune.com video above published Jul 17, 2018.

How Wall Street Is Reacting to Facebook's Q2 2018 Earnings effect on $FB shares this week:

On Thursday, 26 Jul 2018, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) closed down 19% after the disappointing user numbers and revenue growth projections, losing almost $120 billion in market value in a day, and dragging the rest of the sector lower. Before Thursday, Facebook's largest single-day loss came in July 2012 when it shed 11 percent. The company missed projections on key metrics. See also Update: The Great Facebook GDPR Debacle.
Editor's note: Facebook $FB closed Friday at $174.89, DOWN -19.56% since Wednesday's close (graphic below). Twitter $TWTR closed DOWN -20.54% on Friday (Jul 27) at $34.12.
$FB
2) High Growth Tech Companies

a16z.com podcast with Elad Gil (@eladgil) and Chris Dixon (@cdixon): There's a lot of knowledge out there -- and networks of talent (especially in Silicon Valley) -- on what to do in the early stages of a company, going from 0 to 1, and even in going from 1 to 100... but what about beyond that? It's not as simply linear as merely doubling or tripling resources and org structures; it's actually much more complex on many levels, communication to coordination. Because with great scale comes great complexity... and many, many more places for things to break down.

How should founders/CEOs of growing tech startups think about everything from hiring (including key executives) to product management (what is it, really, beyond common myths/misconceptions around the role?) to thinking about late-stage financing, M&A, and other key aspects of building a company? This episode of the a16z Podcast shares both specific answers to -- and general mindsets for thinking about -- these questions. Chris Dixon, general partner on a16z crypto, interviews Elad Gil, investor/advisor to numerous tech companies; co-founder of Color Genomics; formerly of Google and also co-founder and CEO of Mixer Labs (acquired by Twitter, where he also became a VP). He's the author of the new book, The High Growth Handbook, on scaling companies from 10 to 10,000 people.

The two also explore the growth -- and evolution -- of market and tech trends, including the continuation of mobile/cloud; machine learning (and silicon); crypto; and finally, longevity -- both in the near term and further out in the future. Should people -- and even companies for that matter -- really live longer?

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite -1.1% | S&P 500 Index +0.6% | DJIA +1.6% The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) booked weekly gains, but losses in the tech sector left the Nasdaq Composite lower for the week.
“As we discussed previously, what happens in the middle of the week is of little consequence to us. We are only truly interested in where the week ends"--Lance Roberts.
G.D.P. Grew at 4.1% Rate in U.S. Q2 2018: "Some economists think full-year growth in gross domestic product could hit 3 percent in 2018 for the first time in the nearly decade-long recovery, a prospect that became more likely following Friday’s strong numbers."--NYTimes.com 27 Jul 2018.

Wall Street's Charging Bull
graphic of Charging Bull | DomainMondo.com
Investing Notes: Another China Crisis Looming?

• As China Suffers Its Biggest Bankruptcy Of 2018, The PBOC Finally Panics--zerohedge.com, and
China steps up management of cross-border financial network and information services--reuters.com. See also China Caves: The Full Details Behind Beijing's Launch Of Fiscal Easing.

• China's devaluation of its currency:

China's renminbi hit by trade and economic woes: China's currency
has devalued sharply against the dollar (US$) in recent weeks. The last time China surprised the markets with a devaluation, in the summer of 2015, it prompted a global sell-off of risk assets. China’s currency has topped the Rmb6.8 per dollar mark, its weakest level in a year, reflecting slower growth and tighter credit. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published July 23, 2018.

4) ICYMI Tech News
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
  • Facebook's plans for an innovation hub in China are apparently now off.
  • Bitcoin ETF: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday stood by a decision blocking Winklevoss bitcoin ETF--SEC.gov (pdf).
  • Qualcomm $QCOM says Apple $AAPL will use only modems from a competitor, likely Intel $INTC for next iPhone release, making iPhones slower than Android phones--CNET.com. Qualcomm also says it will drop its $44B offer and pay a $2B breakup fee to NXP since the latest deadline has passed with no approval from China--reuters.com.
  • Google Cloud: the full breadth of Google Cloud serverless technologies--cloud.google.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2018-07-27

Twitter $TWTR Q2 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast July 27 REPLAY

Twitter, Inc.
NYSE: TWTR  Update Jul 27: shares are trading DOWN:

Principal domain: twitter.com
Investor Relations: investor.twitterinc.com live webcast replay at link:
UPDATES: Second quarter 2018
Original Post:

2018-07-26

Amazon $AMZN Q2 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast July 26, 5:30pm EDT

Q2 2018 Amazon.com, Inc. Earnings Conference Call
Thursday, July 26, 2018, 5:30 p.m. EDT
Webcast Presentation: Click here for webcast
NASDAQ: AMZN
$AMZN
Q2 2018 earnings release excerpts: "Second Quarter Sales up 39% to $52.9 Billion--Operating cash flow increased 22% to $21.8 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $17.8 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2017. Free cash flow increased to $10.4 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $9.6 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2017. Free cash flow less lease principal repayments decreased to $4.1 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $5.4 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2017. Free cash flow less finance lease principal repayments and assets acquired under capital leases decreased to $546 million for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.4 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2017. Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 506 million on June 30, 2018, compared with 502 million one year ago. Net sales increased 39% to $52.9 billion in the second quarter, compared with $38.0 billion in second quarter 2017. Excluding the $760 million favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 37% compared with second quarter 2017.Operating income increased to $3.0 billion in the second quarter, compared with operating income of $628 million in second quarter 2017. Net income increased to $2.5 billion in the second quarter, or $5.07 per diluted share, compared with net income of $197 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, in second quarter 2017. “We want customers to be able to use Alexa wherever they are,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “There are now tens of thousands of developers across more than 150 countries building new devices using the Alexa Voice Service, and the number of Alexa-enabled devices has more than tripled in the past year. Our partners are creating a wide variety of new Alexa-enabled devices and experiences, including soundbars from Polk and Sonos; headphones from Jabra; smart home devices from ecobee and First Alert; Windows 10 PCs from Acer, HP, and Lenovo; and cars from automakers including BMW, Ford, and Toyota.”

See also: Amazon Earnings Just Proved It's the Most Prolific FANG Stock--thestreet.com: "The e-commerce retailer and cloud services provider smashed Wall Street profit forecasts for the second quarter, posting $5.02 a share vs. estimates for $2.49 a share. Amazon hit all the key notes for the bulls who have sent shares up 50% year to date."
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com


feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

Verisign $VRSN Q2 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast July 26, 4:30pm EDT

Verisign, Inc.
NASDAQ: VRSN
$VRSN
Principal domain: verisign.com
Investor Relations: investor.verisign.com

Listen to Webcast  /  Earnings Results (pdf)  /  Earnings Presentation (pdf)

VeriSign (VRSN) Q2 2018 Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com: Executive Chairman Jim Bidzos:  "Our financial position remains strong with $1.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at the end of the quarter ... At the end of June, the domain name base in [top-level domains] .COM and .NET totaled 149.7 million, consisting of 135.6 million names for .COM and 14.1 million names for .NET. During the second quarter we processed 9.6 million new registrations and the domain name base increased by 1.4 million names. Although renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter, we believe that the renewal rate for the second quarter of 2018 will be 74.9%. This preliminary rate compares to 74.0% achieved in the second quarter of 2017. We now expect full year 2018 domain name base growth [.COM + .NET] of between 3.5% and 4.25% with an increase to the domain name base for the third quarter of 2018 of between 1.3 million and 1.8 million net registrations. To update you on our discussions about the Cooperative Agreement, VeriSign and NTIA are engaged in dialogue about amending the Cooperative Agreement and what that amendment would look like. But beyond that we don't have anything else to say at this time." (emphasis added)

Editor's note: Verisign's Chairman James Bidzos reported above that Verisign and NTIA (U.S. Dept of Commerce) were currently negotiating an amendment to the Cooperative Agreement which includes Amendment 32 on .COM pricing (which unless extended, expires November 30, 2018).

Q2 2018 earnings release excerpts--Second Quarter GAAP Financial Results:
"VeriSign, Inc. and subsidiaries (“Verisign”) reported revenue of $302 million for the second quarter of 2018, up 4.8% percent from the same quarter in 2017. Verisign reported net income of $128 million and diluted earnings per share (diluted “EPS”) of $1.04 for the second quarter of 2018, compared to net income of $123 million and diluted EPS of $0.99 for the same quarter in 2017. The operating margin was 63.8 percent for the second quarter of 2018 compared to 60.6 percent for the same quarter in 2017."
"Verisign ended the second quarter with 149.7 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the domain name base, a 3.7 percent increase from the end of the second quarter of 2017, and a net increase of 1.39 million during the second quarter of 2018. In the second quarter, Verisign processed 9.6 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, compared to 9.2 million for the same quarter in 2017. The final .com and .net renewal rate for the first quarter of 2018 was 75.3 percent compared with 72.5 percent for the same quarter in 2017. Renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter."
"On May 1, 2018, Verisign settled the conversion/redemption of all of its outstanding subordinated convertible debentures by payment of $1.25 billion in cash and the issuance of 26.1 million shares of Verisign’s common stock. Verisign ended the second quarter with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $1.17 billion, a decrease of $1.24 billion from year-end 2017. Cash flow from operating activities was $202 million for the second quarter of 2018, compared with $181 million for the same quarter in 2017. Deferred revenues on June 30, 2018, totaled $1.03 billion, an increase of $27 million from year-end 2017. During the second quarter, Verisign repurchased 1.0 million shares of its common stock for $125 million. At June 30, 2018, $813 million remained available and authorized under the current share repurchase program which has no expiration."
 Q2 2018 Verisign Earnings Conference Call LIVE Webcast Jul 26, 2018 at 4:30 PM EDT
Verisign will host a live teleconference call on July 26, 2018, at 4:30 p.m. (EDT), which will be accessible by direct dial at (888) 676-VRSN (U.S.) or (323) 701-0225 (international), conference ID: Verisign. A listen-only live webcast of the earnings conference call will also be available at https://investor.verisign.com. An audio archive of the call will be available at the same website.
See also: News Review | The State of the Domain Name Industry Q1 2018.

Twitter: @Verisign


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DISCLAIMER

2018-07-25

Facebook $FB Q2 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast July 25, 5pm EDT

UPDATE: The Great Facebook GDPR Debacle
$FB mid-day July 26, 2018
I [Mark Zuckerberg] also want to talk about privacy. GDPR was an important moment for our industry. We did see a decline in monthly actives in Europe, down by about 1 million people as a result ... MAU and DAU in Europe were both down slightly quarter-over-quarter due to the GDPR roll out ... [Analyst question] "do you have a read into whether things have based out and started to improve again post GDPR implementation?"  Answer: David M. Wehner, Facebook CFO: On Europe, yeah, we don't have any update on trends. We had indicated in the first quarter that we would expect to see a decline. We're not providing any guidance on MAU and DAU in Europe on this call ... When you look at the deceleration, the one that I called out was really Europe where you saw the currency impact as well ... GDPR causing sort of faster deceleration than in the other regions ... Facebook DAU [Daily Active Users]. U.S. and Canada, sort of consistent with past quarters, has been flat at about 185 million ... Europe, we saw the declines that we anticipated from GDPR. And I would say there, really, those impacts were purely due to the GDPR impact, not other engagement trends--Facebook (FB) Q2 2018 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com (emphasis and link added).
Facebook, Inc.
Principal domain: facebook.com
Investor relations: investor.fb.com
$FB Jul 25, 2017 - Jul 23, 2018
Facebook Q2 2018 Earnings July 25, 2018 5:00 PM EDT: Listen to Webcast

Update: $FB shares are DOWN in afterhours trading as Facebook's Q2 2018 revenue missed analysts consensus estimate--see also SeekingAlpha.com.
$FB July 25, 2018
Earnings Release (pdf) excerpt below, and Slides (pdf).

source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com

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DISCLAIMER

2018-07-24

Texas Instruments $TXN Q2 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast July 24

$TXN
Texas Instruments Incorporated
Stock exchange: symbol  NASDAQ: TXN
Domain: ti.com
Investor Relations ti.com/ir or investor.ti.com
Q2 2018 Earnings Release here, excerpt below:
"Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) reported second-quarter revenue of $4.02 billion, net income of $1.41 billion and earnings per share of $1.40. Earnings per share include a 3 cent discrete tax benefit not in the company's original guidance. Regarding the company's performance and returns to shareholders, Rich Templeton, TI's chairman, president and CEO, made the following comments:

  • "Revenue increased 9 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Demand for our Analog and Embedded Processing products continued to be strong in the industrial and automotive markets.
  • "Our cash flow from operations of $6.6 billion for the trailing 12 months again underscored the strength of our business model. Free cash flow for the trailing 12 months was $5.7 billion, or 36.6 percent of revenue. This reflects the quality of our product portfolio, as well as the efficiency of our manufacturing strategy, including the benefit of 300-millimeter Analog production.
  • "We have returned $5.6 billion to owners in the past 12 months through stock repurchases and dividends, and our strategy to return to owners all of our free cash flow remains consistent. Over the last 12 months, our dividends represented 41 percent of free cash flow, emphasizing their sustainability.
  • "TI's third-quarter outlook is for revenue in the range of $4.11 billion to $4.45 billion, and earnings per share between $1.41 and $1.63, which includes an estimated $10 million discrete tax benefit. We continue to expect our ongoing annual operating tax rate to be about 20 percent in 2018 and 16 percent starting in 2019."

LIVE webcast of the second-quarter 2018 earnings conference call: Tuesday, July 24, at 4:30 p.m. EDT. Rafael Lizardi, senior vice president and chief financial officer, and Dave Pahl, vice president and head of Investor Relations, will discuss TI's financial results and answer questions from the investor audience. Access the audio webcast on the Investor Relations section of the company's website at the link above or at www.ti.com/ir. An archived copy of the webcast will be available shortly after the call concludes.

Texas Instruments Inc. is a U.S. based technology company that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globally.

See also: Texas Instruments: Reasons To Buy On The News | SeekingAlpha.com



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DISCLAIMER

2018-07-23

Alphabet $GOOGL $GOOG Q2 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast July 23

Alphabet 2018 Q2 Earnings Call

Alphabet Investor Relations LIVE video scheduled for Jul 23, 2018: Alphabet 2018 Q2 Earnings Call, transcript here.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) holding company of Google, Q2 2018 quarterly conference call to discuss second quarter 2018 financial results: Monday, July 23, at 4:30 p.m. EDT.

The live webcast of the earnings conference call can be accessed here (embed above). A replay of the webcast will be available through the same link above following the conference call. The Investor Relations website has published the earnings release: earnings release prior to the conference call (embed below):

$GOOG
See also 
source: Statista.com
source: Statista.com


feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2018-07-22

News Review | ICANN Is Unfit, The IANA Transition Should Be Unwound

graphic "News Review" ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-07-22) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) Comment to NTIA: ICANN Is Unfit, The IANA Transition Should Be Unwound, 2) ICANN news: a. ICANN vs EPAG - ICANN Loses Again, b. WHOIS & GDPR: Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Team, and more, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: a. The Power of TLD .COM,  b. Verisign Q2 2018 earnings, and more, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

UPDATE--Should the IANA Transition Be Unwound? Read all comments submitted to NTIA here.

Original Post:
1) Comment to NTIA: ICANN Is Unfit, The IANA Transition Should Be Unwound
"ICANN is incompetent, corrupt, and unfit for the role it was given by the U.S. government in 1998 ... The IANA transition was a mistake and a fraud upon the American people and the global internet community."


Full comment with all attachments (pdf 2MB) (57 pages), also at NTIA here (pdf).

See also George Kirikos's comment here (pdf).

2) ICANN News
graphic "ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers"
a. ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH
 ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck: ICANN Loses Again in German Court
ICANN and its IP Constituency (trademark lawyers) lost Round 2 in ICANN's legal action (request for an injunction) against EPAG Domainservices, GmbH, an affiliate of Tucows, the world's second largest domain name registrar, filed in the Regional Court of Bonn, Germany. The case is now headed to the Higher Regional Court of Cologne as the court of appeal, which could refer the matter to the European Court of Justice. For more read the updates at last week's News Review.

b. WHOIS & GDPR: Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Team 
As noted in the  updates to last week's News Review, the GNSO Council approved the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Initiation Request (pdf) and Charter (pdf) at its meeting Thursday, July 19, 2018.  It is expected that the EPDP Team, chaired by Kurt Pritz, will hold its first meeting during the week of 30 July 2018. The three dissents: Ayden Fedérline (pdf), Tatiana Tropina (pdf) and Stephanie Perrin (pdf):
"Yes, and I think that Tatiana and Ayden have eloquently expressed many of my reasons. There is one issue that I would like to add to those and that is that it is plainly evident from the way that we have approached this question and the EPDP that we've not yet, as ICANN, and as the GNSO addressing the problem of GDPR, some of us don't think it’s a problem, some of us think it’s an improvement, but at any rate we have not addressed the issue with the benefit of the advice that we have received from the data commissioners, in other words, with the perspective of data protection law. And I feel that it’s long overdue to address these concerns. I don't wish to delay the progress; we have to get busy. I have a remedy and I will try and bring remedy throughout the work on the EPDP. We have a volunteer from the Council of Europe to assist us in legal interpretation, that would be Peter Kimpian, a data protection lawyer from the Hungarian Data Protection Office who has worked extensively with the Council of Europe on GDPR and on Convention 108 and the revised Convention 108. They have offered to assign him to us. I would recommend that the Council accept that offer because at the moment we have a – we have a charter that is not framed the way it should be in terms of data protection analysis and we need to remedy this. And I share with both Ayden and Tatiana the concerns that we have many members that are turning this into a cross community working group but none of them who could, are bringing a data protection expertise to the table. Thank you."--Stephanie Perrin (emphasis added).

Also note ICANN at a Crossroads: GDPR and Human Rights | circleid.com by Raphaël Beauregard-Lacroix:
"... In a 17 May letter, European commissioners asked ICANN, through its CEO, to "show leadership and demonstrate that the multi-stakeholder model actually delivers." Be it taunting or encouraging, this challenge underscores the current need for intentional, proactive leadership from both the ICANN organisation and its community ..."
See also:

c. Approved Board Resolutions | Special Meeting of the ICANN Board 18 Jul 2018--ICANN.org: Big Fat Pay Increases for ICANN's Incompetent Management Team, Extension of CEO's contract to run through through May 2022, Reconsideration requests of dotgay, Dot Music, and more at link above.

d. Famous Last Words--"ICANN org has increased confidence that the root KSK rollover planned for 11 October 2018 will have the potential to affect only a tiny fraction of DNS users"--ICANN.org 18 July 2018.

e. ICANN Board Approves Dysfunctional Implementation of At-Large Review over objections from members of the ICANN community--ICANN Board Minutes | ICANN.org 23 June 2018 meeting. The objections included comments from the Registrar Stakeholder Group,  Registries Stakeholder Group "... Structures that are intended to support user engagement in ICANN may, in fact, hinder direct user participation and discourage new voices from engaging with ICANN policy development processes ... Fifty percent of At-Large respondents and seventy-five percent of non-At-Large respondents believed that At Large Structures are not truly representative of global end user opinion ... These findings point to fundamental problems with At-Large representation" and NCSG--"... At-Large has been dominated by a few people for too long ... It is not focused enough on holding ICANN (via the Board) accountable and empowering individual Internet users ..." [Editor's note: any wonder why the ICANN Board brushed aside these valid objections? ICANN: unfit, incompetent, corrupt.]

f. CCWG-Accountability WS2 have distributed their final report for consideration to the ICANN Chartering Organizations. on The Final Report includes a summary of work completed by WS2 and a listing of recommendations, here and here (with annexes). The Chartering Organizations have been asked to complete their approval of the Final Report by the conclusion of ICANN63 October 20-25, 2018. If approved, it will then be sent to the ICANN Board for approval and implementation.

g. Methodology Review of the Domain Abuse Activity Reporting (DAAR) System | ICANN.org.

h.  Better Late Than Never--Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP)--report-comments-ncap-project-plan-13jul18-en.pdf (pdf) excerpt: "The ALAC urges the SSAC to proceed with the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Work Party's project plan and allocate enough time to do it right. We believe it is important to minimize the unintended consequences for end users. Name Collision occurs when a user, attempting to reach a private domain name, unintentionally reaches a public domain name and, as such, cut to the core of end user trust of the internet and could pose potential security issues."

i. ICANN Naming Services portal User Guide for Registries 19 Jul 2018: nsp-user-guide-19jul18-en.pdf [637 KB]

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
graphic "Names, Domains & Trademarks" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
a.  The Power of Top Level Domain .COM: After years of complaints from rival search engine DuckDuckGoGoogle has relented--Google obtained domain name duck.com when it bought video compression startup On2 (on2.com) in 2010, and redirected duck.com to google.com, but now Google is redirecting the domain name duck.com to on2.com, a page with links to duckduckgo.com, ducks.com which redirects to basspro.com (Bass Pro Shops), and to an article on Wikipedia.org about ducks. On Friday, DuckDuckGo CEO & Founder Gabriel Weinberg tweeted "Thank you! That will clear up the consumer confusion. Would you please consider selling the domain to us?"

b. Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) Q2 2018 earnings webcast July 26, 4:30pm EDT.
$VRSN
c. ICANN's New gTLD IDNs: Cyrillic Characters Are Favorites for IDN Homograph Attacks--bleepingcomputer.com.

d. Next steps for brand protection in a post-GDPR world: trademark takeaways from ICANN 62 | worldtrademarkreview.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 
graphic "ICYMI Internet Domain News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
  • India: Bordering on Absurd: Rajasthan’s Obsession with Internet Shutdowns--thequint.com.
  • U.S. to help organizations interested in programs supporting Internet Freedom--devdiscourse.com.
  • ITU and Global Cyber Alliance join forces to help countries prepare for and respond to cyber-threats: "Secured cyberspace vital for the development of the digital economy"--itu.int

5) Most Read Posts this past week on DomainMondo.com: 
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