Freenet earns less + Bitcoin with a new ATH + AT&T continues to expand its fiber optic business + Alphabet strong due to praise for AI statements + Infineon and Nvidia cooperate
Freenet $FNTN (+0.1%)earns less
- Despite somewhat weaker business in the first quarter, mobile communications and TV provider Freenet believes it is on course to achieve its targets for the year.
- Thanks to additional subscribers, sales rose by just under two percent year-on-year to a good 604 million euros according to adjusted figures, as the MDax-listed company announced in Büdelsdorf on Wednesday evening.
- Profits actually fell - due to a tax credit in the previous year, but also due to higher advertising expenditure for the company's own mobile brands.
- As a result, the bottom line for Freenet shareholders was a profit of a good 57 million euros this time, compared to almost 70 million euros a year earlier according to adjusted figures.
- Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) fell by just under 1 percent to a good 126 million euros.
- Analysts had expected higher sales and operating earnings.
- However, the Freenet Management Board is confident for the current year.
- Adjusted operating profit is expected to rise to between 520 and 540 million euros as planned.
- The news was initially rather poorly received on the financial market.
- In after-hours trading on the Tradegate platform in the evening, the Freenet share lost almost two percent compared to the Xetra closing price.
Bitcoin $BTC (-0.45%)with a new ATH
- Bitcoin reached almost USD 112,000 in early trading on Bitstamp as hopes for an easing of crypto regulation in the US increased.
- Since the election of Donald Trump as US president, Bitcoin has gained around 60 percent and currently has a total valuation of 2.2 trillion dollars.
AT&T $T (-0.39%)continues to expand its fiber optic business
- AT&T has reached an agreement to acquire the consumer fiber optics business of Lumen Technologies for USD 5.75 billion in cash, the companies announced on Wednesday.
- The deal further expands the wireless carrier's national fiber infrastructure.
- By purchasing the business, AT&T gains 1 million fiber customers and significantly expands its fiber network in Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City and Seattle, according to an AT&T statement.
- The sale of the consumer fiber assets, first reported by Reuters, will allow Lumen to focus on growing the company's enterprise fiber business, Chris Stansbury, Lumen's chief financial officer, told Reuters in an interview.
- The cash proceeds from the sale will help Lumen reduce its debt by $4.8 billion and improve cash flow by reducing interest expense by more than $300 million a year, according to Stansbury.
Alphabet $GOOGL (-0.62%)strong, due to praise for AI claims
- At Alphabet, a positive interpretation of the company's latest statements on artificial intelligence (AI) prevailed in the middle of the week.
- This was matched by a series of favorable analyst comments.
- On the second and final day of the company's annual developer conference, shares in Google's parent company rose by almost four percent to around 170 US dollars on Wednesday.
- The stock market heavyweight thus led the list of winners in the Nasdaq 100.
- At times, the shares reached their highest level in two and a half months at 173.14 dollars.
- The day before, the company's initial statements on the AI mega-trend had met with a negative response.
- Since the beginning of the year, however, the share price has still fallen by ten percent, placing it in the lower midfield of the technology-heavy selection index.
- The latter has risen by one percent in the same period.
- Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had already announced on Tuesday that the company would bring its own products to market more quickly in order to keep pace with the new competition in the age of AI.
- After decades of dominance, the tech giant's important search engine business is coming under increasing pressure.
- However, it still maintains a market share of around 90 percent here - and is upgrading its search engine with AI functions.
- This should help the Group to strengthen its continued leading role in the search engine market, commented analyst Ingo Wermann from DZ Bank.
- His colleague Doug Anmuth from the US bank JPMorgan added that the developer conference had confirmed his assessment that Google is taking a leading role in many AI areas with its xxx Gemini.
- Jefferies expert Brent Thill titled his commentary on the developer conference "Year of Gemini".
- According to Justin Post from Bank of America, the topic of AI is not yet adequately priced in at Alphabet.
Infineon $IFX (+0.37%)and Nvidia $NVDA (-0.5%)cooperate
- Infineon and Nvidia are working together to develop the next generation of power supply systems for AI data centers.
- These systems are based on a new architecture with centralized power generation using 800V high-voltage DC, according to Infineon.
- The new high-voltage DC distribution ensures a safe and even more efficient power supply.
- According to Infineon, the company has set itself the goal of creating new standards in power supply for AI data centers.
Thursday: Stock market dates, economic data, quarterly figures
- ex-dividend of individual stocks
- Porsche AG € 2.31
- Puma SE € 0.61
- CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA € 1.66
- Takkt AG € 0.60
- ZEAL Network SE € 2.40
- Imperial Brands PLC £ 0.40
- Quarterly figures / company dates USA / Asia
- 05:00 Lenovo annual results
- 15:00 Home Depot AGM
- 19:00 DuPont AGM
- Untimed: Autodesk quarterly figures
- Quarterly figures / Company dates Europe
- 07:30 CTS Eventim | Assicurazioni Generali quarterly figures
- 08:00 Easyjet | BT Group quarterly figures
- 11:00 Amadeus Fire | SFC Energy AGM
- 13:45 Evonik Industries Capital Markets Day
- Economic data
08:45 FR: Business Climate Index May PROGNOSE: 99 previous: 99
09:15 FR: Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI non-manufacturing | 09:15 FR: Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI manufacturing (1st release) May FORECAST: 48.9 PREVIOUS: 48.7
09:30 DE: Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI non-manufacturing (1st release) May PROGNOSE: 49.2 previous: 49.0 Total Purchasing Managers' Index (1st release) FORECAST: 50.3 previous: 50.1
09:30 DE: Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI manufacturing (1st release) May FORECAST: 48.8 PREVIOUS: 48.4
10:00 DE: Ifo Business Climate Index May PROGNOSE: 87.5 PREVIOUS: 86.9 Situation assessment PROGNOSE: 86.9 PREVIOUS: 86.4 Business expectations PROGNOSE: 87.9 PREVIOUS: 87.4
10:00 EU: Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI non-manufacturing | Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI manufacturing Eurozone (1st release) May FORECAST: 49.3 PREVIOUS: 49.0 Total Purchasing Managers' Index (1st release) FORECAST: 50.8 PREVIOUS: 50.4
10:30 UK: Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI non-manufacturing (1st release) May PROGNOSE: 50.7 previous: 49, | Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI Manufacturing (1st release) May PROGNOSE: 46.7 previous: 45.4
14:30 US: Initial Jobless Claims (week) Forecast: 230,000 Previous: 229,000
15:00 BE: Business Climate Index May FORECAST: n/a previous: -14.7
15:45 US: Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI Services (1st release) May FORECAST: 50.6 PREV: 50.8
15:45 US: Purchasing Managers' Index/PMI Manufacturing (1st release) May FORECAST: 49.8 PREVIOUS: 50.2
16:00 US: NAR, Existing Home Sales April FORECAST: +2.7% yoy previous: -5.9% yoy
