Technology Roundup – Citi reiterates Buy on AT&T, Uber, Grubhub arguing over antitrust concessions

科技精选——花旗重申AT&T的购入评级,优步和Grubhub未达成反垄断一致意见
Published on: June 8, 2020
Author: Amy Liu

Citi reiterates Buy on AT&T after management talk

Citi has reiterated its Buy rating on AT&T (T +0.5%) after a visit with Communications management that indicated company emphasis in the coming months.

The firm notes a commitment to high-speed broadband applications and communications that are capital-light, along with an emphasis on lower-cost cloud-centric platforms.

The company’s also reiterating a commitment to $6B in cost cuts in the coming three years.

From a tactical standpoint, the telecom will look to drive share in wireless by leaning on its recent network investments, its bundling options and a nationwide 5G service launch.

Citi has a $36 price target, implying 9.4% upside.

Uber, Grubhub arguing over antitrust concessions – CNBC

Uber (UBER -2.1%) and Grubhub (GRUB -7.1%) are disagreeing over antitrust concessions, according to CNBC’s David Faber.

GRUB is reportedly committed to consolidation but wants to protect its business during the regulatory process.

Sources say Uber is resisting GRUB’s desire for concessions.

Last week, Grubhub shares jumped after CNBC reported that JustEat and Delivery Hero were eyeing the company.

Last month, GRUB reportedly balked at Uber’s offer of 1.9 Uber shares for each Grubhub share.

Airbnb sees demand surge

Airbnb’s (AIRB) U.S. bookings increased Y/Y during the period between May 17 and June 3, showing the first signs of growth since the coronavirus pandemic hit the industry in March.

The company and peers Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) and Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) are reporting a jump in domestic vacation rentals as people venture out of quarantine.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says the company isn’t “ruling out going public this year,” but Airbnb also isn’t committing to that IPO schedule.

Earlier this year, Chesky said he expects Airbnb’s 2020 revenue to be half of last year’s sales.

Airbnb recently cut 25% of its staff, which came a month after a new $1B debt deal and securing a $1B loan.

Roku launches shopper data program with Kroger

Roku (ROKU +1.4%) is launching a shopper data program to improve TV advertising for consumer packaged goods.

Kroger is joining as a launch partner, with its Kroger Precision Marketing joining in to help build targeting and attribution tools for streaming television.

That will get marketers access to Kroger data science to pursue targeting and closed-loop attribution for streamed content. Roku will also apply the power of its system, using its tools to measure the effectiveness of linear TV.

KPM has data from 60M households across nearly 2,800 Kroger stores; Roku has 39.8M active accounts as of Q1, and 13.2B hours streamed during the quarter.

Apple bull suggests DuckDuckGo purchase

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi suggests that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) purchase the search engine for about $1B to gain lucrative ad money and put pressure on Google (GOOG,GOOGL).

In a research note, Sacconaghi notes that Google could break ties with Apple rather than pay the $7-8B per year to be the default search engine for iOS.

The analyst thinks Google has stayed with Apple to keep Microsoft from stepping into the vacated deal. Google would also have to walk away from the roughly $15B in profits it gets from iOS.

The purchase of DuckDuckGo, the fourth most popular U.S. search engine, would give Apple more leverage and cost less than a week’s cash flow.

Benrstein maintains an Outperform rating on Apple.

Technology