Starting next year, you'll be able to use the money anybody Venmos you to buy products directly from Amazon — so long as you live in the US. PayPal has announced that it has struck a deal with the e-commerce giant to allow US customers to pay with Venmo at checkout. It doesn't have an exact date for the feature launch, but when it does become available, you'll be able to pay either with your Venmo balance or your linked bank account. 

Amazon typically only accepts credit/debit cards and gift cards for payment, and you can't even purchase from the website using PayPal itself. But when Venmo payments arrive next year, you'll be able to check out using the option not just on the Amazon website itself, but also on the mobile app. Ben Volk, Director of Global Payment Acceptance at Amazon, said in a statement: "We understand our customers want options and flexibility in how they make purchases on Amazon. We're excited to team-up with Venmo and give our customers the ability to pay by using their Venmo accounts, providing new ways to pay on Amazon."

We'll likely hear more about the payment option the closer we get to its availability. PayPal made its announcement alongside the release of its third quarter earnings results for 2021, wherein it reported a $6.18 billion net revenue that's 13 percent higher than the same period last year. The company said it's off to a solid start in the fourth quarter but that growth rates still remain slightly below its expectations.

Robinhood has revealed that it experienced a security breach incident on November 3rd, which exposed the data of as many as 7 million users or around a third of its userbase. The bad actor, the financial services company said, obtained the email addresses of 5 million people and the full names of a different group of around 2 million customers. In addition, the infiltrator managed to steal additional personal information of 310 users, including their name, date of birth and zip code. More extensive account details were exposed for 10 customers among those 310. 

No Social Security numbers, bank account numbers or debit card numbers were exposed in the incident, Robinhood said, but it's still making the appropriate disclosures to the affected customers. The company, which allows users to make commission-free stock and crypto trades, said it had already contained the attack. Upon cutting the hacker's access off, the attacker demanded payment for the stolen data and made threats on what they would do with the information if they weren't paid. 

A Robinhood spokesperson told Bloomberg that it wasn't a ransomware attack, but they also declined to say if they paid up — and if so, how much money changed hands. It did say, however, that it informed law enforcement about the breach and that it had secured the services of security firm Mandiant to investigate the incident. Charles Carmakal, Mandiant's CTO, told Bloomberg that this could just be the start of a series of breaches. Apparently, the firm expects the attacker to target and extort other companies and organizations over the coming months.

On Friday, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Two Hat, a company best known for its AI content moderation tools. Financial details have not been disclosed, but Microsoft did share its vision for how they’ll work together moving forward. Over the years, the two companies have frequently collaborated to make Xbox Live and other gaming communities safer, and by the sounds of it, that will be the focus of Two Hat moving forward.

“We have partnered with Xbox and the Microsoft team for several years and share the passion and drive to make meaningful change in the advancement of online civility and citizenship,” said Two Hat founder Chris Priebe and CEO Steve Parkis in a joint statement. “We are committed to ensuring safety, inclusion and online health and wellness are always at the forefront of our work and through joining Microsoft, we can provide the greatest concentration of talent, resources and insight necessary to further this vision.”

Before today’s announcement, Microsoft was only one of Two Hat’s customers, and that won’t change following the acquisition. “This is a deep investment in assisting and serving Two Hat’s existing customers, prospective new customers and multiple product and service experiences here at Microsoft,” the company said. “With this acquisition, we will help global online communities to be safer and inclusive for everyone to participate, positively contribute and thrive.”

Since 2019, Microsoft has placed an emphasis on combating toxicity and abuse. "Gaming is for everyone," Xbox chief Phil Spencer said at the time. This acquisition should tie in nicely with that goal.

While Amazon had a huge revenue surge over the past year thanks to lockdown and the resulting rise of online shopping, the company’s recent earnings report shows that it might be slowing. Net sales increased 15 percent to $110.8 billion in the third quarter, which is a step down from the previous quarter’s 27 percent growth rate.

At the same time, Amazon also warns that global supply chain issues, labor shortages and increased shipping costs could incur “several billion dollars of additional costs” in the next quarter. Amazon shares dropped 3.8 percent in extended trading as a result.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company wanted to minimize the impact of these issues on the customers and selling partners this holiday season. “It’ll be expensive for us in the short term, but it’s the right prioritization for our customers and partners,” he said in a press release. This also marks Jassy’s first quarter as Amazon’s CEO since Jeff Bezos stepped down earlier this year.

Of course, Amazon is still making a lot of money; it’s the fourth consecutive quarter it’s earned over $100 billion. Even if online sales have dipped, Amazon Web Services continues to be a huge money maker for the company, with a 39 percent revenue increase to $16.1 billion.

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Sony's PlayStation 5 sales remain relatively steady and strong, with 3.3 million units sold in fiscal Q2 compared to 2.2 million last quarter, bringing total sales to 13.4 million units, Sony announced. Game sales were also up significantly at 76.4 million units compared to 63.6 million in the previous quarter, due in large part to third-party sales.

All told, this amounted to a healthy 27 percent boost in gaming revenue to 645.4 billion yen ($5.68 billion). However, operating income of 82.7 billion yen ($728 million) was down compared to last quarter by 3.4 billion yen ($29 million). Sony's fiscal year ends on March 31, 2022.

So how can profit be lower when sales and revenue are up? While Sony did sell more games last quarter, first-party titles dropped very significantly, from 10.5 million last quarter to 7.6 million in Q2. That was offset in numbers by third-party games, but those don't tend to be as profitable. Both Microsoft and Sony have acquired gaming studios to boost their Xbox/PS first-party titles, but Microsoft has been more prolific in that regard. 

And while PS5 sales were up, PS4 units dropped considerably, down to just 200,000 from a half a million the quarter before. Other factors that Sony mentioned are a "loss resulting from strategic price points for PS5 hardware that were set lower than manufacturing costs." That means that Sony may have sold the PS5 with minimal or negative profits this quarter, although in August, the company said it was no longer selling the PS5 at a loss. 

Despite the drop in quarterly income, Sony's gaming division appears to be on pretty solid footing. In its August earnings call, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki told investors that the company believes it will eclipse the 14.8 million unit sales achieved by the PlayStation 4 in its first year. PS5 sales are tracking close to that figure.

The company also said at the time that it had secured enough components for 22.6 million units sold by March 2022. That would be enough to meet its sales projections, but if sales really explode during the holidays, it may not have a lot of margin for error — meaning shortages could continue through next year. 

The third quarter of 2021 was a record breaker for Samsung, which posted a revenue of 73.98 trillion Korean won or US$63.1 billion. That's 10 percent higher from the same period last year. It also reported an operating profit of 15.82 trillion Korean won or U$13.5 billion, which is 26 percent higher than the previous quarter's. 

Despite the pandemic, the tech giant's semiconductor business posted 26.4 trillion won or US$22.6 billion in revenue, thanks to a strong demand for computers due to companies implementing work-from-home arrangements. Its DRAM sales, mainly for servers, continue to grow and is the leading factor for the division's stellar performance. Samsung says it was able to do business as usual despite the global shortage in chip components "by flexibly operating its product mix."

In addition to its chip business, Samsung's mobile division also contributed greatly to its record-breaking third quarter. It saw an improvement from the previous quarter, with its 28.42 trillion won or U$24.2 billion in revenue, thanks to strong sales of its mass-market lineup and its flagship models. The latter includes its new foldable devices, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, though the company admitted that the bigger marketing investments for its foldables affected the division's total profits. 

It's also thanks to the high demand for its phones that Samsung's display business was able to post 8.86 trillion won or US$7.5 billion in revenue. Display earnings were up from the previous quarter primarily due to the higher demand for small to medium OLED panels despite a sluggish demand for bigger panels.

Samsung remains optimistic for the fourth quarter, as well as for next year, but it didn't provide specific guidance for its chip business due to the ongoing component supply issue affecting various industries. It expects continued high demand for PCs and servers, nonetheless. For the fourth quarter specifically, it's expecting even higher earnings "due to expanded supply of SoCs and related products for launches of new 5G smartphones in 2022."

Tesla has just had a double-shot of good news on the sales front today. Hertz has ordered 100,000 Tesla EVs for its fleet, with plans to rent them out in major US markets and parts of Europe starting in November, according to Bloomberg. That would mark the largest electric vehicle order of all time and a major move by Hertz into electric car rentals.

The order is reportedly worth $4.2 billion for the fleet (which appears to be Model 3s) according to the report. It represents about a 1/10th of what Tesla can currently produce annually, possibly allowing Hertz to lock out other rental companies. It reportedly purchased well-appointed, rather than base model versions, and paid nearly the full list price for each unit.  

Hertz customers will have access to Tesla's supercharger network, and Hertz is supposedly also building its own charging infrastructure. Eventually, Hertz (which also owns the Dollar, Thrifty and Firefly brands) plans to go nearly fully electric with its half-million vehicle fleet. 

That's a pretty sharp turnaround for Hertz, considering that it went bankrupt in 2020 and only emerged in June of this year. It was purchased out of bankruptcy by distressed-debt firm Knighthead Capital Management (among other firms) for $6 billion. Following a big turnaround in the market, however, it's currently valued at $11.6 billion ahead of relisting on Nasdaq, Bloomberg reported. 

That's just half the good news for Tesla, though. The company's Model 3 was the best-selling car in Europe in September with around 24,600 registered units, marking the first time that an EV has topped the monthly standings, according to automotive analyst JATO. It's also the first time a vehicle manufactured outside the EU has led in sales. Tesla's sales were up by 58 percent over last year, and EV/PHEV sales in general rose 23 percent from 2020.

Last month, registrations accounted for 74 percent of [Tesla's] third quarter volume. Since its’ entry to the European market, the Model Y has also performed well, securing second position in the BEV ranking.

The news is big for Tesla and the EV industry in general, showing that EV sales in Europe are continuing to grow. Much of that has been driven by generous tax rebates and trade-in incentives on internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. September was a particularly good month for Tesla, accounting for 74 percent of its third quarter volume, according to JATO

Still, the automotive sector as a whole has plummeted in Europe and elsewhere because of a global chip shortage. Renault recently said that it would produce at least 300,000 fewer vehicles this year due to the global semiconductor shortage, according to Reuters. "This year, the industry has responded well to the the pandemic, but it is now facing new supply chain challenges," said JATO analyst Felipe Munoz. "The growing popularity of EVs is encouraging, but sales are not yet strong enough to offset the big declines seen across other segments."

Despite a global pandemic and ongoing chip shortage, Tesla continues to make money hand over fist. The company reported on Wednesday that it had a net income of $1.62 billion — five times more than it did this time last year. What's more, Tesla's operating income grew some 54 percent over the past quarter to $2 billion.

Company executives pointed to record-setting sales of both the Model 3 and Model Y — a combined 232,102 units delivered during Q3 2021 — for the explosive earnings growth, though only 9,289 Models X and S were shipped during the same period, a nearly 40 percent drop from Q2 2021 rates.

On the technology front, Tesla continues its FSD City Streets beta rollout and plans to "continue to monitor fleet data closely to help facilitate a smooth rollout," per its quarterly update. 

The company also released a more streamlined iteration of its car companion app that "enables phone key for multiple vehicles simultaneously, allows commands to be sent to the vehicle immediately upon opening the app and integrates the purchase of upgrades, subscriptions and accessories." New features include Disney+ streaming, a scrolling arcade shooter dubbed Sky Force Reloaded, a "car wash mode," and various tweaks to improve the vehicle's cold weather performance. 

Looking ahead, the company expects to achieve a 50 percent average annual growth in vehicle deliveries "over a multi-year horizon" and eventually reach "industry-leading" operating margins.

Stay tuned! The Tesla Q3 investors call starts at 2:30 PT today, we'll have more details as the event progresses.

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PayPal is reportedly in late-stage talks to acquire Pinterest. According to Reuters, the payments company made a $45 billion offer on Wednesday to buy the social network. News of the potential sale was first reported by Bloomberg earlier in the day. The outlet put the value of the deal at approximately $39 billion, noting PayPal planned to finance it mostly through stock.

At first glance, PayPal’s interest in Pinterest may seem like a head-scratcher, but an acquisition could help the company gain a foothold in the growing social commerce space. That’s an area where Pinterest has been an active player since 2015. In a way, Pinterest is also a safe purchase. It has managed to avoid many of the problems with misinformation that have plagued Facebook and Twitter.

It’s also worth pointing out PayPal has spent much of the past year and a half expanding outside of its traditional wheelhouse. For instance, it recently spent $2.7 billion to solidify its presence in the buy-now-pay-later space and has gotten into cryptocurrency trading in a big way.

We’ve reached out to Pinterest and PayPal for comment.

Toyota plans to spend approximately $3.4 billion to scale its battery production capabilities in the US, the automaker announced on Monday. As part of the investment, Toyota says it will establish a new company that will, with help from its Toyota Tsusho subsidiary, build a battery manufacturing plant somewhere in the US. The company expects to invest $1.29 billion into the facility by the end of 2031.

Toyota said it would share details on the project, including where it plans to build the plant, in the future. However, the facility will initially focus on making batteries for hybrid electric vehicles, with production expected to start sometime in 2025. Toyota expects to create about 1,750 jobs through the project.

If nothing else, the investment is an acknowledgment by Toyota that it needs to diversify its electrification strategy. More so than almost any other automaker, it has invested significantly into fuel cell technology, with not a lot to show for its efforts, at least not in the US. Outside of California, you can’t buy its Mirai fuel-cell sedan. But as part of its Beyond Zero push, Toyota hopes to change that, with it currently planning to offer 70 different electric models, including 15 battery electric vehicles, by 2025.