Square is planning financial domination
Plus, Zoom settles user privacy lawsuit for $85 million & more tech earnings this week.
Hello there,
Square (SQ) has announced plans to acquire Australia's Afterpay in a $29 billion deal.
Why this matters: The ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ industry is having a moment and Square wants to get in on it. The company plans to integrate Afterpay into both its consumer Cash App, and its Seller product for small businesses. They’ll have to watch out as larger competitors have made moves of their own as well - Apple (AAPL) is apparently teaming up with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on a buy now, pay later service. This is a market we’ll be watching closely.(CNBC)
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Zoom to pay $85 million
Zoom (ZM) has agreed to bolster its security practices and pay $85 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it violated users' privacy rights.
Why this matters: Yikes. According to the lawsuit, the company was sharing personal data with Facebook (FB), Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL), and LinkedIn. Also, hackers were able to log in and disrupt Zoom meetings in a practice called "Zoombombing." Zoom’s customers have grown (497,000 in April 2021 vs 81,900 in January 2020) since the Covid-19 pandemic forced more people to work from home so they’re going to have to fix up quickly. (Yahoo Finance)
More tech earnings this week
Earnings month continues as more tech companies report earnings this week.
Why this matters: Two key beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic are set to report earnings results this week - Etsy (ETSY) and Square (SQ). It would be great to see if the pandemic growth continues or if it’s starting to wane. Other company’s earnings we’re expecting this week include Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Alibaba (BABA), Coursera (COUR) (first earnings since it went public), Match Group (MTCH), Uber (UBER), Dropbox (DBX), and DraftKings (DKNG). Let’s see what the books of these buzzy companies are saying. (Yahoo Finance)
That’s it from us.
See you tomorrow.