A lot of people are paying for Paramount+ to watch Halo and Star Trek: Picard, even if neither series has been particularly outstanding. On Tuesday, Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS) announced that it added 6.8 million new Paramount+ subscribers in the first quarter of 2022. With those additions, the platform has almost 40 million customers. Among other content, the company credited its original programming, including the aforementioned Halo and Star Trek: Picard, for the continued growth of Paramount+.

In turn, that subscriber growth contributed to an increase in the company’s bottom line, with revenue from the service growing by 148 percent year-on-year to $585 million in Q1 2022. “The first quarter once again demonstrated the power and potential of Paramount’s unique assets and the company’s continued momentum,” said Paramount Global CEO and President Bob Bakish.”

Paramount’s success is particularly notable given Netflix’s recent struggles. Last month, the streaming giant announced that it lost about 200,000 customers in the first quarter of 2022, marking its first subscriber drop in a decade. The company has since embarked on a series of cost-cutting measures, canceling series like Space Force and gutting the editorial staff of its Tudum fansite.

What a difference a year can make. Roughly one year after pandemic-fueled buying spree pushed Amazon profits to new highs, the retail giant’s growth has now stalled to its slowest rate in more than two decades.

The company reported $116.4 billion in sales for the first quarter of 2021, an increase of just 7 percent from last year. That stands in stark contrast to the 44 percent jump it saw this time last year. It’s also the slowest single-quarter growth the company has seen since 2001, according toCNBC. Amazon lost $3.8 billion this quarter, its first loss since 2015.

The company attributed the slowdown to a number of factors, including effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine (something many tech companies have cited in recent earnings reports). The company’s stake in electric car-marker Rivian also accounted for some of the hit, as the company lost more than $7 billion on its investment in the company, whose stock has dipped amid production delays.

The report isn’t the first sign that Amazon has been struggling to turn its characteristically massive profits. The company recently raised the price of Prime for the first time since 2018, citing wage hikes for workers and increasing costs of transportation. The company also hiked prices for sellers by 5 percent.  

The company has also been dealing with a wave of organizing at its warehouses around the country, despite significant investments in anti-union consultants. Notably, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said one of the company’s priorities would be increasing “productivity” at fulfillment centers. “Today, as we’re no longer chasing physical or staffing capacity, our teams are squarely focused on improving productivity and cost efficiencies throughout our fulfillment network.”

Amazon also confirmed that its annual shopping bonanza Prime Day is set for July, though it didn’t provide an exact date.

All eyes are on Apple today, after a tumultuous series of earnings reports dropped this week. Google parent company Alphabet missed revenue expectations, while Meta (formerly Facebook) recorded a higher profit than expected this quarter. Apple just released its results and the company has performed respectably in its second quarter of the fiscal year 2022. This was its best March quarter yet, with revenues of $97.3 billion — a 9 percent jump from the same period last year. That said, it's still a drop from its results last quarter, where it broke all-time records with revenues of $123.9 billion. 

Apple also hit a new all-time high on its revenue from Services, which includes things like subscriptions to TV+, Music and Fitness+. With its strong showing on the awards circuit recently, it's hardly a surprise that TV+ is drawing in subscribers. Apple doesn't break down how much it makes specifically from each individual service, so it's hard to say just how much impact shows like Coda or Ted Lasso have had.

The rest of the company's products continued to do well too, with revenues from Mac, iPhone and "Wearables, Home and Accessories" all having increased year over year. The one segment that faltered was iPad, raking in about $7.6 billion compared to around $7.8 billion the same time last year. That's pretty typical for iPads, though. 

The wearables category was the most eye-catching, with Apple making $19.8 billion this quarter from sales of things like AirPods and watches, compared to $16.9 billion this time last year. That's more than it made from Macs, which came in at $10.4 billion this quarter (up from $9.1 billion last year). If you're keeping track, that means the Services category made Apple almost twice as much money as Macs, which is the next closest category (aside from iPhones, which came in at about $50.5 billion).

The company is hosting an earnings call at 5pm Eastern today, and may shed some light on what exactly helped its services segment perform so well. We'll be tuning in and will update this story with any relevant updates, so do check back later today. 

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.

Activision Blizzard's shareholders have overwhelmingly voted in favor of a proposed $68.7 billion takeover by Microsoft. More than 98 percent of the shares that voted at a special meeting held on Thursday approved of the merger.

Though the company called the vote non-binding and advisory, the deal could not have moved forward without the majority of shareholders giving it the green light. The board of directors unanimously agreed it was in the best interest of Activision Blizzard and its shareholders, and recommended they vote in favor.

The planned merger is not finalized and it could still collapse. The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the deal and is expected to closely scrutinize the details. Under chair Lina Khan, the FTC has put the kibosh on NVIDIA's attempt to buy ARM and revived an antitrust case against Meta over its purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will also need regulatory approval from the UK, the European Union, China and some other jurisdictions, according to an SEC filing. The companies expect the deal to close by June 2023.

There are other considerations that may impact the planned Activision Blizzard-Microsoft merger beyond antitrust concerns. The embattled game publisher has been the subject of lawsuits and accusations alleging workplace harassment and discrimination. Meanwhile, some quality assurance workers at Activision studio Raven Software are holding a union election over the next few weeks.

As it prepares itself for the possibility of becoming wholly owned by Elon Musk, Twitter is today revealing that it previously overstated its user figures between 2019 and 2021. In its newest financial reports, the platform says that users with multiple accounts were inadvertently counted as multiple people. The difference in the figures was never more than 2 million either way, but it reflects the even more limited nature of Twitter’s growth.

In terms of revenue, Twitter pulled in $1.20 billion across the first quarter, of which $1.11 billion was made through advertising. A further $94 million was added through “subscription and other revenue,” which includes data sales and other business-to-business services. A cash injection also came from Twitter’s sale of MoPub, its mobile ad platform, which it handed off to AppLovin for $1.05 billion in an all-cash deal. Despite this, the company posted an operating loss of $128 million compared to a modest gain of $52 million in the same quarter last year.

Twitter defines its user figures through the term "average monetizable Daily Usage (mDAU)," which means the number of people using the platform it can actually make money from. In the first quarter of 2022, that figure was 39.6 million for the US, and 189.4 million for the rest of the world, a significant increase compared to these figures last year. Twitter, as part of its user correction, published updated figures for Q4 2021, saying that it had 37.5 million mDAU in the US and 177.3 million internationally.

The company, as per the rules, couldn’t give guidance on its future performance given a deal to take it private is looming in the near future. But it’s interesting to wonder just how much value can be extracted from a platform that, despite seeing modest if healthy user growth, still managed to lose $128 million in a quarter. Financial-types believe that Musk will saddle the newly-private Twitter with at least $13 billion in debt (it currently owes around $5 billion), meaning that it needs to make more than a billion in pure profit each year just to satisfy its interest payments.

Samsung has reported a massive rise in operating profit for the first three months of 2022, thanks in part to the robust demand for its memory chips and the strong sales of its new Galaxy flagship devices. The Korean tech giant has posted an operating profit of KRW 14.12 trillion ($11.12 billion), which is 51 percent higher than the same period last year, and a record consolidated revenue of KRW 77.78 trillion ($61.2 billion). 

As usual, Samsung's memory division was a standout performer, exceeding market forecasts because memory prices didn't drop as much as analysts had expected. It posted a consolidated revenue of KRW 26.87 trillion ($21.14 billion), and while it saw a slight decline in profit due to incentives and seasonality, demand for PC and server chips remained solid. The company's foundry business also contributed to the division's performance by achieving its highest ever first quarter sales. Samsung is optimistic for the division's prospects going forward, but it also expects component shortages to persist through the second half of the year and will constantly monitor the situation. 

While overall demand for mobile was down due to seasonality and "geopolitical uncertainties," Samsung posted higher profit (KRW 3.82 trillion or $3 billion) and revenue (KRW 32.37 trillion or $25.5 billion) for the division this quarter compared to the last. The strong sales of its new flagship phones, particularly the Galaxy S22 Ultra, as well as of its mass market 5G phones contributed to both profit and revenue growth. Despite the allegations that a preinstalled app on S22 phones is throttling the performance of several applications, the company previously said that demand for the flagship is 20 percent higher than of its predecessor's. Samsung expects component shortages for mobile to continue, as well, but it also expects the availability of component supplies for the S22 to improve. That's why it plans to focus on maintaining strong sales for its flagships in the next quarter.

The tech giant reports a rise in mobile display earnings due to solid demand for premium products, as well. For larger displays, it says its QD monitors were well-received. It debuted its QD-OLED technology, which differs from standard OLED in that it only uses blue organic light-emitting diodes for a brighter output, at CES earlier this year. Samsung's TV business lagged behind its other divisions, though, and saw a decline in demand following strong sales in the end of 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In early March, Samsung halted its product shipments to Russia, where it has a TV plant and where it's known as the top smartphone brand. 

Robinhood is letting around nine percent of its full-time employees go, company CEO Vlad Tenev has announced. In a blog post, Tenev said the company grew rapidly throughout 2020 and in the first half of 2021, thanks to several factors that include COVID-19 lockdowns. Robinhood's revenue grew from $278 million in 2019 to over $1.8 billion in 2021, and it hired so many new employees to "meet customer and market demands" that its headcount grew from 700 to nearly 3,800.

Tenev explained that the rapid growth in headcount led to "some duplicate roles and job functions" and the the company decided that reducing its workforce is the right move to improve efficiency. "We will retain and continue to hire exceptional talent in key roles and provide additional learning and career growth opportunities for our employees," he said. 

The CEO's announcement comes just as the company's stock hit its lowest closing price ($10) since it went public. As TechCrunch reports, it also comes just before Robinhood announces its first quarter results on April 28th and could be a measure meant to preempt investor disfavor in case its results fall short. 

Robinhood is known for pioneering commission-free stock trades and, as Tenev said, skyrocketed in popularity in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, its practices had previously drawn criticism, as well. In late 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined the company $65 million for "misleading customers about revenue sources and failing to satisfy duty of best execution." It was also hit with a class action lawsuit after it restricted trading on GameStop and other "meme stocks." And in late 2021, the company was targeted by a cyberattack that exposed the data of as many as 7 million users.

Even Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal doesn’t know what Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company means for the service or its employees. That’s the biggest takeaway from accounts of the company’s first all-hands meeting following news of the $44 billion deal.

Will Musk unban Donald Trump? Will there be layoffs? What about employees’ stock grants? For now, all those questions seem to be up in the air. Agrawal reportedly told employees there were no layoffs planned “at this time,” but acknowledged that he was also uncertain about the future. “Once the deal closes, we don’t know what direction this company will go in,” he said according toThe New York Times.

Meanwhile, Twitter chairman Bret Taylor confirmed that the board will dissolve once the acquisition is finalized. The whole process could take another six months, Bloombergreported. The deal has left many Twitter employees unsettled, and the company has reportedly “locked down changes to its platform through Friday,” in an effort to guard against “rogue” employees.

In announcing the deal, Musk outlined a number of changes he wanted to make, including ridding Twitter of spam bots and “authenticating all humans.” One person who hasn’t publicly weighed in yet is Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who has previously endorsed Musk’s involvement with the company. In its statement, Twitter’s board of directors confirmed that its decision to accept Musk’s offer was unanimous, meaning Dorsey had also approved the deal.

Twitter may be warming up to the idea of selling itself to Elon Musk. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company is re-examining Musk’s takeover bid after the billionaire announced he had the financial backing to get the deal done. When Musk first announced he was ready to pay $43 billion to buy the social media giant, noting at the time it was his “best and final offer,” Twitter was widely expected to reject the proposal. The company even went so far as to adopt a so-called “poison pill” strategy to ward off a hostile takeover attempt.

But Twitter is now “taking a fresh look” at Musk’s offer and is more likely to engage in negotiations, according to The Journal. The outlet reports the two sides are meeting on Sunday to discuss the proposal, but a handful of hurdles could complicate negotiations. For instance, company executives could insist on Musk agreeing to monetary protections if the deal falls through.

Twitter declined to comment on the report. When Musk first announced his bid, the company said it was committed to a “careful, comprehensive and deliberate review” of the offer. It’s very likely we’ll learn how Twitter plans to proceed sometime in the next few days. The Journal reports the company will weigh in on the situation when it reports its first-quarter earnings on Thursday, “if not sooner.”

Tesla's in-house insurance is now available in three more states. As Forbesnotes, Tesla revealed during its latest earnings call that its "real-time" insurance has reached Colorado, Oregon and Virginia. The automaker has also filed paperwork in Nevada with plans to offer insurance as early as June, although nothing has been announced so far.

As in some other states, the insurance determines your premiums based on driving behavior rather than standard criteria like age and credit. Tesla examines the safety scores from its EVs and looks for signs of aggressive habits that might lead to incidents, such as collision warnings, hard braking and tailgating. This rewards better driving — and, of course, keeps you buying Tesla vehicles.

The company eventually plans to offer insurance across the entire US. Whether or not that goes smoothly is unclear. Tesla offers insurance in California, but it's still seeking permission to use real-time info. It could be a while before the insurance and its signature feature are consistently available.