Tesla posted a $702.1 million net loss in the first quarter as sales of its electric cars slumped and demand appeared to be waning.
The company lost $4.10 per share from January through March, when deliveries fell 31 percent from the fourth quarter. Tesla had warned it would lose money after turning two-straight quarterly profits last year for the first time in its 15-year history.
Excluding one-time items and stock-based compensation, the company lost $2.90 per share, worse than Wall Street estimates. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of $1.15 per share. Revenue rose almost 40 percent over a year ago to $3.5 billion. But it still fell short of analyst estimates of $5.42 billion.
CEO Elon Musk last year predicted quarterly profits in the future. But Tesla had trouble cutting the cost of its Model 3 mass-market electric vehicle.
The company said it ended the quarter with $2.2 billion in cash, $1.5 billion less than the end of last year. Tesla attributed the cash decline to a $920 million bond payment and an increase in the number of vehicles in transit to customers at the end of the quarter, postponing that revenue.
Tesla has lost more than $6 billion since setting out to revolutionize the auto industry 15 years ago, but Musk foresees a profitable future fueled in part by a ride-hailing service made up of electric cars driven by robots.
-- The Associated Press
Facebook expecting $5B privacy fine
SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook said it expects a fine of up to $5 billion from the Federal Trade Commission, which is investigating whether the social network violated its users' privacy.
The company set aside $3 billion in its quarterly earnings report Wednesday as a contingency against the possible penalty but noted that the "matter remains unresolved."
The one-time charge slashed Facebook's first-quarter net income considerably, although revenue grew by 25 percent in the period. The FTC has been looking into whether Facebook broke its own 2011 agreement promising to protect user privacy.
Facebook has had several high-profile privacy lapses over the past couple of years. The FTC has been looking into Facebook's involvement with the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica scandal since March 2018. That company accessed the data of as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent.
In addition to the FTC investigation, Facebook faces several others in the U.S. and Europe, including by the Irish Data Protection Commission, and others in Belgium and Germany. Ireland is Facebook's lead privacy regulator for Europe.
-- The Washington Post
Occidental makes $38B bid for Anadarko
HOUSTON -- Occidental Petroleum unveiled a $38 billion takeover bid for Anadarko Petroleum on Wednesday, challenging Chevron -- a company four times its size -- in a battle for dominance of the biggest and most productive oil field in the United States.
This is the Houston-based company's fourth bid for Anadarko in two years, but the first since Anadarko and Chevron entered a deal this month. This newest offer appeared to signal an acceleration of a bidding war for Anadarko's oil and gas assets that range from West Texas' giant Permian Basin to deep-water oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico to a large natural-gas export project in Mozambique.
The offer attracted immediate skepticism from Wall Street analysts as Occidental's shares declined.
But Vicki Hollub, Occidental's chief executive, said in an interview that she was committed to the battle and urged Anadarko shareholders to back the new bid.
Occidental said it would pay $76 per share in cash and stock, about 17 percent more than what Chevron agreed to pay for Anadarko. Occidental said that with the assumption of Anadarko's debt, the offer was worth $57 billion, 20 percent more than the Chevron deal.
-- The New York Times
No decisions on Foxconn, governor says
MADISON, Wis. -- Foxconn Technology Group has not detailed what changes it wants to see in its contract with Wisconsin for a project forecast to employ up to 13,000 people, Gov. Tony Evers said in an interview Wednesday.
Foxconn insists it remains committed to a $10 billion project, while saying it is also looking for "flexibility" in the deal struck with much fanfare in 2017 and heralded by President Donald Trump as the "eighth wonder of the world."
Evers told The Associated Press that no decisions have been made on what could be changed in the contract.
Evers, a Democrat, disagrees with Republican legislative leaders over the extent to which the company wants to renegotiate its contract with the state for a project that could net Foxconn more than $4 billion in tax credits.
Evers campaigned as a skeptic of the project against then-Gov. Scott Walker, who made the deal. Evers said last week that the current deal is "no longer in play" because Foxconn is building a smaller display screen factory than the one envisioned in the contract. Evers also said he doesn't think Foxconn will employ 13,000 people, which necessitates changes.
-- The Associated Press
Water pre-shipped before fire season
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA used to wait until after a natural disaster hit before delivering cans of emergency drinking water. But the shifting realities of climate change mean it's now pre-shipping to disaster-prone areas, with the assumption another event is always right around the corner.
The beer-maker announced Wednesday that for the first time, it will send 1 million cans of water to volunteer firefighters in vulnerable areas of California, Colorado, Arizona and other states before the West Coast wildfire season begins again June 1.
"The reality is there are more wildfires," said Adam Warrington, vice president of corporate social responsibility for the maker of Budweiser and Michelob Ultra.
Anheuser-Busch donates between 1 million and 4 million cans of water each year to communities after disasters, but after 2017's Hurricane Harvey, it started to forecast increased demand, Warrington said.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 04/25/2019