Twitter in Sh*tter- Stock Tanks After Earnings Miss; Foxconn ‘Conned’ WisCONsin; Apple TV+ May Make 9 Billion; CNN Targets Apple News+ With Subscription Service

Twitter shares dropped 12% before the market opened when they missed third quarter earnings and Wall Street’s profit expectations…and it’s still down this morning. Businessinsider.com reports that Twitter warned of product issues and weaker advertising demand. Their ad revenue actually rose 8%, worldwide and 11% in the US, which sounds pretty good, but that’s a big drop from the 32% growth in the 3rd quarter last year. The 4th quarter guidance is now below expectations, with the social platform looking for revenue of $940 million to $1.01 billion, under the $1.06 billion expected by analysts.

Foxconn made big promises to Wisconsin and got some nice tax breaks and the like in exchange. Now, two years in, their footprint in Wisconsin is akin to ‘vaporware,’ according to theverge.com. The promise of 5 so-called innovation centers employing 100 to 200 high paid jobs each have not materialized, nor has the factory they promised that would employ 13,000 people. The buildings they bought are sitting empty….although Wisconsin Public Radio notes they did install HVAC in one. After 2 years of sliding deadlines, Foxconn says they hope to have the factory open in 2020. Now, it will employ 1500 people if it happens, not 13,000. Wisconsin…you got conned!

Apple TV+ is about to happen (November 1st), and analysts at Goldman Sachs predict that TV+ could be a 9 billion a year business for Apple as soon as 2025. 9to5mac.com says this is figuring that 10% of Apple users sign up for the service, which will run a relatively cheap $4.99 per month. On top of that, if you buy a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV, you get a free year of Apple TV+. Goldman expects synergy between pent up iPhone sales next year when 5G comes online and the free Apple TV+ deal to push growth of both for Apple.

it seems like everyone and their brother are trying to get a piece of the streaming– but also the nice cash flow from subscriptions. Now, CNN has announced that they plan a new news aggregation service to compete with Apple News +. According to The Information, the CNN product would include a mix of subscription and ad-based content. There’s no official name yet, but inside CNN, it’s being dubbed ‘NewsCo.’ CNN, like everyone in the media business, is seeing a decrease in revenue from ads, and is looking to the subscription model as a way to replace some of those dollars. No word on when the service will bow, or how much it will be monthly as yet.