Thursday, November 1, 2018

Ariana Grande responded to Pete Davidson making fun of their engagement



Ariana Grande apparently chastised her ex-fiancé Pete Davidson on Twitter, just hours after the comedian poked fun at their failed engagement.

"For somebody who claims to hate relevancy u [sic] sure love clinging to it huh," she wrote. "Thank u, next."

While Grande did not mention Davidson by name, many fans interpreted these tweets as a response to a joke he made in a new promo for the upcoming episode of "Saturday Night Live."

In the short clip — posted on YouTube Thursday night, a few hours before Grande's tweets — Jonah Hill introduces himself as the host and Maggie Rogers as the musical guest.

"Hey Maggie, I'm Pete," Davidson then says. "Do you wanna get married?"

After she says no and looks away uncomfortably, Davidson looks back at the camera and says, "0 for three."

Davidson is, of course, referring to his recent split from Grande after their highly publicized engagement. He also seems to be implying that he proposed to his ex Cazzie David, from whom he split just before getting together with Grande.

Read more: Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson have reportedly broken up — here's a complete timeline of their relationship

Grande also retweeted a fan who directly replied to the "SNL" clip, writing: "tag yourself i'm maggie."

The "God Is a Woman" songstress also wrote, "hell naw tho," in a separate tweet, but quickly deleted it.

A screenshot of the now-deleted tweet.
@ArianaGrande/Twitter

After, Grande subtly acknowledged a fan who condemned others for bringing up painful memories of her relationship with Davidson.

"Idk [sic] why y'all feel the need to dig up her old tweets about him like. They were in love at some point but s--- happened," the fan wrote. "Life will go on."

Davidson previously joked about their breakup when he headlined a comedy event at California's Largo at the Coronet called "Judd & Pete for America."

The 24-year-old mocked the six tattoos that he inked as direct tributes to Grande, as well as his own track record of getting ink inspired by his relationships. Prior to dating Grande, he tattooed a portrait of David tattooed on his arm. He later got it covered up before entering into a relationship with Grande.

"Um, I've been covering a bunch of tattoos, that's fun," Davidson reportedly said onstage. "I'm f---ing zero for two in the tattoo [department]. Yeah, I'm afraid to get my mom tattooed on me, that's how bad it is."

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Rockset, a startup founded by ex-Facebook engineers, raised $21.5 million



For the past two years, a startup founded by two ex-Facebook employees has been lying low.

Since 2016, the employees at Rockset have been quietly working on a new kind of data platform. But on Thursday, the now startup has formally launched its product, and announced it had raised $21.5 million in seed and Series A funding from top-tier Silicon Valley venture firms Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Rockset's new cloud-based data platform is targeted at developers building data-driven applications and data scientists managing this data. Right now, software teams using traditional databases — like those from Oracle — have to take extra steps to prepare data to be read by software. Rockset aims to cut the middleman, speeding the process by which data and apps can "talk" to each other.

"There's nothing like this out there," Venkat Venkataramani, Rockset co-founder and CEO, tells Business Insider. "One of the challenges has been how quickly we can build for the market. We've been working very, very hard."

Before leaving to start Rockset, Venkataramani spent eight years at Facebook managing online data and search infrastructure, which supported Facebook's growth from 40 million up to a peak of 1.5 billion users at the time. He credits Facebook with much of the philosophy he learned and applies at Rockset.

For example, he says, Facebook is known for being fast and never going down (well, almost). And from Facebook, he realized that he wanted Rockset to make complex problems as simple as possible.

"I walked away thinking, the world [of data infrastructure] is way too complex," Venkataramani said. "It's not available for everyone. We started thinking, why does it have to be complex? What's the simplest product we can build?"

Read more:Facebook's product for businesses, Workplace, is taking a step to distance itself from the social network after a string of scandals

Leaving Facebook to start something completely new was a risk. Venkataramani left in 2015, but it still "feels like yesterday." Ultimately, he says, he settled into a groove to the point where things were "really comfortable" at Facebook, to the point where he "personally got uncomfortable."

"I didn't feel like I was learning as much as I used to. I wanted to make myself uncomfortable again."

He and co-founder Dhruba Borthakur, another ex-Facebook employee, started talking to other developers about his vision, writing out the problems on a whiteboard. The two would ultimately team up to make Rockset a reality.

With the funding, Rockset plans to hire more employees as it grows its customer base. Rockset now has 16 employees, and they're about to add four more employees who have been hired but have not yet started.

"Product engineers should be bottlenecked by their creativity, not what the data infrastructure can do for me," Venkataramani said. "We value how much we can add to customers' lives. We take complex, hard things and make them as easy as possible."




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CEOs and founders of tech's biggest names lost $61 billion during the stock market's plunge in October - here's who got hit hard



Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

October was a rough month for billionaires in the tech sector, who saw their net worth plummet as stocks took a hammering.

According to Bloomberg data, the CEOs and founders of the most popular tech companies "FAANG+BAT" lost $61 billion in October.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index plunged 9.2%, posting its worst month since the financial crisis.

And among the hardest hit were the "FAANG+BAT" stocks - Facebook (-7.7%), Apple (-3.1%), Amazon (-20.2%) Netflix (-19.3%), Google (-9.8%), Baidu (-16.9%), Alibaba (-13.6%) and Tencent (-14.1% in Hong Kong).

The list below provides details of the estimated net worth of some of tech's richest CEOs and founders:


Reed Hastings - CEO and cofounder of Netflix

Reuters/Mike Blake

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 463

Net worth on October 31: $3.9 billion (-19% from $4.8 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Netflix: $1.7 billion

Source: Bloomberg


Robin Li - CEO and cofounder of Baidu

China Photos/Getty Images

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 82

Net worth on October 31: $13.6 billion (-16% from $16.1 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Baidu: $13.4 billion

Source: Bloomberg


Laurene Powell Jobs - widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs

Getty

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 35

Net worth on October 31: $21 billion (-3% from $21.6 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Apple: $8.5 billion

Source: Bloomberg


Pony Ma - CEO and cofounder of Tencent

Kin Cheung

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 26

Net worth on October 31: $28 billion (-17% from $33.6 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Tencent: $25.6 billion

Source: Bloomberg


Jack Ma - CEO and founder of Alibaba

Ruben Sprich/Reuters

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 19

Net worth on October 31: $37 billion (-8% from $40.2 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Alibaba: $20.3 billion

Source: Bloomberg


Sergey Brin - Cofounder of Google

Ruben Sprich/Reuters

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 10

Net worth on October 31: $52 billion (-9% from $57.1 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Alphabet: $41.8 billion

Source: Bloomberg


Larry Page - Cofounder of Google

Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 8

Net worth on October 31: $53.2 billion (-9% from $58.4 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Alphabet: $43.4 billion

Source: Bloomberg


Mark Zuckerberg - CEO and cofounder of Facebook

Reuters

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 6

Net worth on October 31: $60.2 billion (-8% from $65.2 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Facebook: $57.6 billion

Source: Bloomberg


Jeff Bezos - CEO and founder of Amazon

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 1

Net worth on October 31: $132.8 billion (-20% from $166.1 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Amazon: $126 billion

Source: Bloomberg




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Apple is in serious danger of no longer being a $1 trillion company



Wall Street was unimpressed with Apple's quarterly earnings results, announced on Thursday— so much so, that shares plunged over 7% after the bell, putting Apple in danger of losing its much-vaunted market cap of $1 trillion.

At the time of writing, Apple stock is priced at $206.30 in after-hours trading, and still moving around. Should that price hold through the opening bell on Friday, Apple will have a market cap below that $1 trillion threshold. The threshold is $207.45; any Apple share price less than that will value the company below that line.

Apple made headlines earlier this year when it became the first-ever American company to reach a $1 trillion market cap.

While Apple's earnings beat Wall Street expectations on both the top and bottom lines, there appear to be two main sources for the investor negativity.

First, Apple whiffed on iPhone sales. In the quarter, Apple sold 46.9 million iPhones, well short of Wall Street expectations of 48.4 million. Apple also announced on Thursday that it will stop breaking out iPhone, Mac, and iPad unit sales entirely.

Second, Apple gave a lower-than-expected revenue forecast for the holiday quarter of this year. Apple projects that it will generate between $89 billion and $93 billion in revenue for the quarter ending in December. Wall Street was expecting Apple to project revenues of about $93 billion, placing the company's estimates on the low end.

Still, for better or for worse, nothing is going to happen to Apple's $1 trillion valuation until Friday morning: A company's market cap isn't affected by after-hour trading, and it all comes down to how investors are feeling by the time the opening bell rings.




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Netflix, SVOD services see increase in older subscribers: Analysis



After a plateau in the US, subscriptions to streaming services are growing again thanks to a boom in Netflix and Hulu subscribers this year, a report from Ampere Analysis found.

The report found that subscriptions to SVOD — streaming video on demand — services had steadily increased from the third quarter of 2015 until the first quarter of 2017, when numbers began to stagnate. But subscriptions have been rising consistently since the beginning of this year, according to Ampere.

Ampere Analysis

Toby Holleran, an Ampere senior analyst, told Business Insider that an older generation rooted in pay TV was catching on to the benefits of SVOD services.

"Traditional users were more ingrained in the pay-TV space, and there was slightly less awareness of SVOD during that period" of plateauing, he said, "whereas now, especially with older demographics, we're starting to see more and more growth in those."

"I feel the plateauing was taking place among younger demographics because they formed such a large proportion of the overall SVOD base, whereas now with older demographics slowly familiarizing themselves with SVOD that's actually starting to grow again," he added.

That could be bad news for pay-TV companies, which could see an acceleration in cord-cutting if older generations find a viable alternative in streaming.

Read more: Data suggests that Hasan Minhaj's 'Patriot Act' could succeed where other Netflix talk shows have failed

Exclusive content is also key for streaming services, Holleran said, as Netflix has been heavily investing in its catalog of original content in an effort to have 1,000 original TV shows and movies by year's end. Hulu also has acclaimed shows like "The Handmaid's Tale," which won the Emmy for best drama last year.

As the SVOD landscape rapidly evolves, more players are entering the game. Disney is set to launch a competitor late next year and is already developing Marvel and "Star Wars" TV series for it. Meanwhile, AT&T recently announced it would roll out a service next year that would include HBO.

That could lead to a new form of SVOD bundle — but Holleran urged caution, saying that the best course of action for streamers is to give users as many options as possible for the best price.

"I think forcing bundles upon people might not be the best move," Holleran said. "It depends on the price point. Additional costs may turn away consumers who may only want to take one service."




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Here comes Starbucks... (SBUX) | Markets Insider








StarbucksStarbucks


  • Starbucks reported fourth-quarter results that beat on both the top and bottom lines.

  • Same-store-sales growth was at the high end of the estimated range.

  • Shares soared 7% after Thursday's closing bell. 

  • Watch Starbucks trade in real time here.

Starbucks reported strong fourth-quarter results after Thursday's closing bell, sending shares up 7%.


Here are the key numbers compared to Bloomberg estimates:


  • Earnings per share: $0.62 versus an expected $0.60

  • Revenue: $6.3 billion versus an expected $6.27 billion

  • Q4 Comparable Store Sales: +3% versus an expected +2.2%

"Starbucks record Q4 performance reflected meaningful improvement in virtually every critical operating metric compared to Q3," said CEO Kevin Johnson in the press release.


"As we enter fiscal 2019, we are executing against a clear growth agenda, with a focus on our long-term growth markets of the U.S. and China. We are also excited about the long-term growth potential of our new Global Coffee Alliance with Nestlé."


Shares faced a huge selloff in June when the company lowered its third-quarter same-store-sales growth forecast to 1% from its previous estimate of 3%-5%. The coffee giant also said it would close roughly 150 underperforming US stores.


Ahead of the results, UBS analyst Dennis Geiger said the focus for Starbucks' earnings will be the company's performance in the US and China markets, as well as its guidance. 


"Primary focus for earnings on November 1 will be whether US/Americas comparable sales returned to 3% and if the momentum is sustainable," Geiger said in a note sent out to clients on Wednesday. "We model 3% F4Q Americas same-store sales, including 3% ticket and flat traffic."


He added: "For China, we don't believe same-store sales are as bad as feared(worse than F3Q's -2%) and we think FY19 expectations are low." 


Geiger has a "buy" rating and a $62 price target on Starbucks — 5% above where shares were trading on Thursday.


Starbucks was up 2% this year.


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SBUXMarkets Insider







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Starbucks earnings results Q3 2018



Starbucks is set to report third-quarter results after Thursday's closing bell.

Here are what analysts are expecting, according to Bloomberg:

  • Earnings per share: $0.60
  • Revenue: $6.27 billion

Shares faced a huge selloff in June when the company lowered its third-quarter same-store-sales growth forecast to 1% from its previous estimate of 3%-5%. The coffee giant also said it would close roughly 150 underperforming US stores.

Ahead of the results, UBS analyst Dennis Geiger said the focus for Starbucks' earnings are the company's performance in the US and China markets, as well as its guidance.

"Primary focus for earnings on November 1 will be whether US/Americas comparable sales returned to 3% and if the momentum is sustainable," Geiger said in a note sent out to clients on Wednesday. "We model 3% F4Q Americas same-store sales, including 3% ticket and flat traffic."

He added: "For China, we don't believe same-store sales are as bad as feared(worse than F3Q's -2%) and we think FY19 expectations are low."

Geiger has a "buy" rating and a $62 price target on Starbucks — 5% above where shares were trading on Thursday.

Starbucks was up 2% this year.

Now read:

Markets Insider




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