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.

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.

With YouTube's Shorts gathering significant momentum over the past year, Google is now experimenting with ads on the platform, Bloomberg reported. At first, you're likely to see app-install ads and other promotions, according to Google. "While it's still early days, we're encouraged by initial advertiser feedback and results," said Google's chief business officer Philipp Schindler on an investors call. 

Shorts launched in September 2020 to counter TikTok offering 15-second videos shot on mobile phones, and expanded to the US in March 2021. The platform now averages over 30 billion daily views, up more than four times over last year. "As we've always done with products, we focus on building a great user experience first, and we'll work to build monetization over time," said Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

YouTube as a whole missed expectations by a good margin, posting $6.87 billion in sales compared to the $7.48 billion investors were expecting, according to Variety. Parent Alphabet also fell a bit short of targets with $68.01 billion in revenue, but that's still up 8 percent over the same quarter last year.

Along with YouTube shorts, a bright spot was the YouTube TV cord-cutting subscription service that "continues to deliver substantial revenue growth," the company said. Pichai also revealed that viewers watch more than 700 million hours of YouTube content per day on connected TVs. He added that YouTube will introduce new smartphone features for connected TVs this year that will make it easier for users to comment and share content. 

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 has accepted Elon Musk's buyout offer. Musk is purchasing the social media giant for $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion. Musk is taking the company private, as expected. 

The decision comes after a flurry of activity from Musk. The Tesla CEO bought a 9.2 percent share of Twitter in early April following criticism of the social media firm's free speech policies. He argued Twitter was falling short of its duties as a "de facto public town square." Twitter quickly said Musk would join its board of directors, but the tech executive decided against the move days later. While he didn't say why he had second thoughts, the board appointment would have prevented him from owning more than 14.9 percent of the company — he couldn't have taken control during his term.

Twitter was initially cautious and adopted a "poison pill" share strategy to prevent a hostile takeover. However, it reportedly gave Musk's final offer a second look this weekend. The two sides are believed to have hashed out finer details at the last minute, such as financial guarantees if the purchase falls apart.

Musk still faces problems following this decision, including the SEC's insider trading investigation and a class action lawsuit accusing him of stiffing shareholders through the timing of his Twitter investment disclosure.

Developing...

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.”

HBO Max and HBO picked up 3 million subscribers in the same quarter that Netflix lost 200,000 of them for the first time in years, Variety reported. The streaming/cable service reported earnings under former parent AT&T for the last time, as it's set to become part of the new Warner Bros. Discovery media conglomerate.

The lion's share of new HBO/HBO Max subs were in the US (1.8 mllion), and the services now count 48.6 million subscribers domestically and 76.8 million worldwide. That's up 12.8 million over last year, showing solid growth. (HBO Max costs $15 per month ad-free or $10 with ads, and HBO on cable is $15 per month.)

However, it was still a drag on parent AT&T (for the last time). WarnerMedia revenue was down 32.7 percent over last year to $1.3 billion due to investments in HBO Max and the failed launch of CNN+.

That's essentially why AT&T decided to divest WarnerMedia and focus strictly on its core telecom business. To wit, the company announced its largest gain in post-paid phone net additions in more than a decade. Excluding WarnerMedia and other divested businesses, AT&T revenue was $29.7 billion, up 2.5 percent over the same quarter last year.

With WarnerMedia and Discovery divested, AT&T plans to invest any free cash in 5G and fiber deployments (it still has $169 billion in debt, despite the $43 billion dollar deal to sell WarnerMedia.) "AT&T has entered a new era," said CEO John Stankey in a prepared statement during the company's earnings call.