Facebook Just Surpassed General Electric in Market Value
Following a stellar earnings report.
The total market value of Facebook FB stock is now worth more than of General Electric GE , according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The change comes after Facebook announced a stellar quarter of earnings Wednesday night, sending the value of its stock soaring. Facebook is now the sixth most valuable company in the S&P 500 index, bigger than Wells Fargo WFC , Johnson and Johnson JNJ , and Amazon AMZN , in addition to GE.
The change is illustrative of the evolving nature of American business. General Electric, more than 120 years old, was founded by Thomas Edison himself and came to represent the industrial prowess of the American economy.
Facebook, on the other hand, is only about a decade old and represents the American economy’s shift away from manufacturing goods to the creation of software and ideas. One statistic that underscores the difference in these two business models: GE employs more than 300,000 workers, while Facebook’s head count is just under 12,000.
Triple Crown Winner American Pharoah is Still Making a Lot of Money
Even off the track.
American Pharoah became the first horse in 37 years to win the elusive Triple Crown in horse racing by winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes this year. Now, with the horse headed for retirement, he’s slated to make $200,000 each time he’s bred, according to Bloomberg.
Coolmore Stud, which owns the rights to American Pharoah’s mating, is the breeding house.
“Hopefully somebody will drop another horse like this in my lap,” said Pharoah’s trainer, Bob Baffert, after the Breeders’ Cup in an interview with Bloomberg. “It’s going to be a tough act to follow, I’m telling you what, but we’re going to go back to work to try to find another one.”
Per Bloomberg:
Typically, a stallion is bred to about 100 to 150 mares a year, meaning Pharoah, at $200,000-per-session, could generate more than $20 million in 2016 alone. By comparison, he earned $8.7 million on the track during an 11-race career that saw him become the first horse in 37 years to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.
Due to American Pharoah’s success, the stud fee for his sire, Pioneerof the Nile, could get a boost of more than $125,000 from $60,000, Bloomberg reported.
Fortune previously reported that American Pharoah could be worth as much as $100 million over the next few years. At the time, it was expected that the horse’s stud fee could range anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000.
Report: Verizon Weighs Blockbuster Sale of its Enterprise Business
The telecom giant is considering selling a big chunk of its business that targets corporate customers for nearly $10 billion.
(Reuters) – Verizon Communications is exploring a sale of its enterprise assets which could be worth as much as $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the largest U.S. wireless carrier seeks to focus on its core business.
The sale would include the business formerly known as MCI, which provides landline and Internet services for large business customers, as well as Terremark, its data center unit, the people said this week.
The businesses have struggled to keep up with advances in cloud computing, and face fierce price competition from players such as Alphabet and Amazon.com.
Verizon‘s enterprise assets might not be easy to separate and any potential buyer would likely have to sign commercial agreements with the company, some of the people said. Verizon is still considering how some of these asset sales could best be structured and no deal is imminent, the people added.
Wireline provider CenturyLink was in talks with Verizon earlier this year to buy some of the assets but could not agree on terms, the people said. In a strategy shift, CenturyLink announced this week it would instead explore options for some of its data centers, including possibly selling them.
Citigroup has been advising Verizon on the possible sale of the assets, which have estimated annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of around $2 billion, the people added.
The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Verizon, CenturyLink and Citigroup declined to comment.
The enterprise telecommunications industry has had to adapt in recent years to corporate customers seeking more sophisticated and cheaper offerings to manage their data.
AT&T has been exploring a sale of its data center assets for some time, while Windstream Holdings sold its data center business for $575 million to TierPoint last month.
Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said, during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 20, that it continues “to work through secular and economic challenges” with its global enterprise division, which posted a 4.9% decline in revenue in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
Verizon‘s $8.4 billion acquisition of MCI was completed in 2006 following a fierce bidding war with Qwest Communications, which is now part of CenturyLink. It acquired Terremark Worldwide in 2011 for $1.4 billion.
Verizon VZ has been looking to sell other non-core assets as well. In February, it announced the sale of residential landline assets to Frontier Communications for $10.54 billion, and unloaded its tower portfolio for more than $5 billion.
For more about Verizon, watch this Fortune video:
This Google Maps Update Will Get You Through the Holidays
Avoid disappointments this season.
Never find yourself in the parking lot of a closed store again this holiday season.
Google Maps announced in a blog post that it has added holiday hours to its Map and Search function, so if a store is closed for the holidays in the next seven days, your app will alert you. And if holiday hours aren’t listed, Google will remind you that the hours might not be as advertised.
“If you want to find out what’s open as the holiday draws close, just search for a place and if the holiday hours are listed, you’ll see them,” the post wrote.
Alabama Schools Say Verizon Cancelled Affordable Wi-Fi Program
The partnership is less than a year old.
In January, the Huntsville, Ala. school system announced that it would offer a discounted, unlimited Wi-Fi program for students through a Verizon partnership. Now, less than a year later, the school system says that Verizon has pulled the plug.
The discounted program, called OmniLynx, provided city residents with free hotspot equipment and unlimited internet access for $47.75 per month, no contract required. The goal was to provide students, and later, all Huntsville residents, with affordable internet access at home so they could study and work, according to AL.com.
Last week, Verizon informed the school district that it was canceling the partnership, which went “beyond the terms of the agreement,” according to Consumerist. Says district superintendent Casey Wardnyski to AL.com: “Their concern for education was dwarfed by some other concern.”
OmniLynx provided discounted internet access to 1,900 people by the time it was terminated. While city schools will continue to have Wi-Fi, city school bus Wi-Fi will be shut off.
Verizon has not yet responded to Fortune’s request for comment, but it previously released a brief statement: “Verizon has and will continue to discuss this situation directly with Huntsville City Schools.”
This is What Tesla's Elon Musk Thinks About Uber vs. Lyft
It was a surprise question.
In a surprise appearance at the Baron Investment Conference in New York City Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also taken by surprise by one of the questions he was asked on stage.
Interviewing the CEO at the annual event at Lincoln Center, conference host Ron Baron, founder of Baron Capital, asked the chief of electric car maker Tesla TSLA what he thought of the threat that ride-sharing company Lyft posed to its larger competitor Uber. Noting that legendary investor Carl Icahn recently took a large stake in Lyft, Baron asked Musk, “What is it about Uber’s business that will make them immune from being attacked by Lyft? Does Lyft have a chance against Uber?”
Musk initially acted somewhat dumfounded by the question. “Oh wow,” he said. “I’m not really the expert in that arena.”
But then he took a stab anyway, while offering another disclaimer while hinting that he’s been more focused on running his own companies, which include Tesla as well as SpaceX. “I mean I’ve spent no time thinking about it,” Musk said. “But my impression with like, low, low confidence, is there’s room for both Uber and Lyft. Yeah, that’s what I can see.”
Musk had recently dodged questions about Uber, such as on an August earnings call in which an analyst askedwhether Tesla would consider selling its cars to companies like Uber and Lyft, or whether it might decide to compete directly with its own on-demand ride-hailing service. Musk declined to comment at that time, but acknowledged at the Baron conference, “I’ve been asked that a lot.”
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