 |
|
|
|||||
United Parcel Service posted third-quarter results that handily beat Wall Street’s expectations and gave details about its turnaround efforts, including approximately 48,000 job cuts. Shares rose more than 7% in afternoon trading on Tuesday. UPS earned $1.31 billion, or $1.55 per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30. The Atlanta-based company earned $1.99 billion, or $1.80 per share, a year earlier. Removing one-time costs, earnings were $1.74 per share. That easily topped the $1.31 per share that analyst polled by Zacks Investment Research were calling for. Revenue totaled $21.42 billion, surpassing Wall Street’s estimate of $20.84 billion. UPS said in a regulatory filing that it has cut about 34,000 operational positions and closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during the first nine months of this year as part of its turnaround plan. The company also announced approximately 14,000 job cuts, mostly within management. It said that it is still looking to identify additional buildings to close. In April, UPS announced that it was looking to slash about 20,000 jobs and close more than 70 facilities as it drastically reduces the number of Amazon shipments it handles. At the time, the company said that it anticipated closing 73 leased and owned buildings by the end of June. The company noted that it was still reviewing its network and might identify more buildings to be shuttered. In January, UPS announced that it had reached a deal with Amazon, its biggest customer, to lower its volume by more than 50% by the second half of 2026. During UPS fourth-quarter earnings conference call in January, CEO Carol Tomé said that the company had partnered with Amazon for almost 30 years and that when its contract came up this year, UPS decided to reassess the relationship. UPS has realized cost savings of approximately $2.2 billion as of Sept. 30. It anticipates achieving $3.5 billion total year over year cost savings in 2025. Michelle Chapman, AP business writer
Category:
E-Commerce
ChatGPT wants to be your personal shopper. PayPal announced Tuesday that its digital payment system will be integrated into ChatGPT, inviting anyone who uses it to shop directly from the chatbot. Starting next year, ChatGPT users will be able to check out with a click through a PayPal account and connect directly with the tens of millions of sellers who rely on PayPals payments system. “By partnering with OpenAI and adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol, PayPal will power payments and commerce experiences that help people go from chat to checkout in just a few taps for our joint customer bases, PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said in a press release. PayPals shares rose on the news, which was announced on the same day as the companys quarterly earnings report. PayPal is all-in on an AI-focused future of online retail. Beyond the new ChatGPT plans, the company is collaborating to create new AI shopping experiences with Google and partnering on free premium trials with AI search engine Perplexity. Chriss said on Tuesdays earnings call, adding that the company was better positioned than it was two years ago. With differentiated competitive advantages, clear strategic direction and building execution momentum, we believe we are exceptionally well-placed to win into the future. OpenAIs shopping mall PayPal is the latest partner to join OpenAIs e-commerce vision, but it isnt the first. In September, ChatGPTs parent company revealed that it would integrate Shopify and Etsy directly in what it described as first steps toward agentic commerce through an instant checkout platform built with Stripe. ChatGPT doesnt just help you find what to buy, it also helps you buy it, OpenAI wrote in a blog post on the announcement. The Etsy integration is already live, surfacing U.S. Etsy sellers directly in response to prompts in chat, like Find me blue and white teacups under $50. The Shopify partnership will bring major retailers into the mix, with products from brands like Glossier, SKIMS and Vuori woven into the chat. Earlier this month, it struck a similar deal with Walmart. For OpenAI, aggressively gobbling up the market with ChatGPT has been the name of the game, not monetization. The build first, profit later method a Silicon Valley special has gone swimmingly for the AI company so far and it boasts more than 700 million weekly active users. OpenAI shot out of the gate with a buzzy free product, collecting loyal customers and funneling power users toward tiered premium subscriptions, though it actually loses money on some of those paid plans. For OpenAI, e-commerce is a logical next step for revenue. Its also a direction that opens the door wide for advertising, which the company was one staunchly against but seems to be gravitating toward with recent hiring and its new corporate structure which was finalized this week. On the consumer side, the plunge into AI-powered shopping is poised to steer people away from Google as a first port of call and toward tailored results shaped by AI queries. That behavior shift is just one more way that AI continues to creep into every aspect of digital life, reshaping every interaction and transaction we make in the process.
Category:
E-Commerce
Apple suppliers Skyworks Solutions and Qorvo will merge in a cash-and-stock deal to create a radio chip company with an enterprise value of $22 billion. Qorvo shareholders will receive $32.50 in cash and 0.96 of a Skyworks common share for each Qorvo share held at the close of the transaction, which is expected in early 2027, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. Activist investor Starboard Value, which owns about 8% of Qorvo, has already signed off on the deal. On a conference call with investors Tuesday, Skyworks said its biggest customers also expressed approval of the merger. After closing, Skyworks shareholders will own roughly 63% of the combined company, with Qorvo shareholders owning the remaining 37%. The companies which make radio frequency components and semiconductors for a broad array of technology including mobile phones, said that with demand growing, they will be better able compete with larger rivals as a single company. Skyworks CEO Phil Brace will take the chief executive job at the combined company, while Qorvo CEO Bob Bruggeworth will join the board. Upon closing, the companys board will have eight directors from Skyworks and three from Qorvo. Skyworks specializes in high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, while Qorvo provides connectivity and power solutions. The companies say combining will create a $5.1 billion mobile business. Skyworks, based in Irvine, California, released its preliminary fourth-quarter results on Tuesday, beating Wall Street revenue and profit expectations. Qorvo, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, posted preliminary results from its most recent quarter as well, which also came in ahead of Wall Street’s projections.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||