In July, the U.S. added 528,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate returned to its pre-pandemic level of 3.5%. Dow Jones had estimated 258,000 jobs added for the month and a 3.6% unemployment rate. The U.S. economy has fully recovered the 22 million jobs lost at the beginning of the pandemic. More: - Wages also increased in July, with average hourly earnings rising 0.5% for the month and 5.2% compared to last year.
- The labor-force participation rate fell to 62.1% in July from 62.2% in June.
- Leisure and hospitality added the most jobs with 96,000. The industry is still 1.2 million workers short of its pre-pandemic level.
- Professional and business services added 89,000.
- Healthcare added 70,000, and the government added 57,000.
- Retail added 22,000, and manufacturing added 30,000.
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Amazon is buying Roomba maker iRobot for $1.7B. The e-commerce giant is paying $61 a share for the company in an all-cash deal. The amount represents a 22% premium on iRobot’s Thursday close price of $49.99. Following news of the deal, iRobot shares rose over 19% on Friday. More: - iRobot launched its popular Roomba vacuum in 2002 and has sold over 40 million units of the wireless smart vacuum.
- The Roomba is one of the most popular items of Amazon’s annual Prime Day shopping event.
- The vacuum has been featured on Prime Day for eight straight years.
- In May, iRobot estimated reaching sales of $1.6B to $1.7B this year.
- The company withdrew the guidance on Friday following the Amazon purchase announcement.
- iRobot is Amazon’s fourth largest acquisition to date.
- In 2017 Amazon purchased Whole Foods for $13.7B, followed by an $8.5B purchase of movie studio MGM in March and last month’s agreement to buy 1Life Healthcare for $3.9B.
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Jack Dorsey’s Block released its Q2 earnings on Thursday, reporting a drop in total revenue due to the recent decline in Bitcoin prices. The company earned $4.4B in total revenue in the quarter, a 6.6% decrease from last year. Excluding Bitcoin, net revenue was $2.6B. More: - Block reported $1.47B in gross profit, up 29% YoY.
- The company reported a net loss of $208M, or 36 cents a share, compared to an income of $204M reported last year.
- CashApp, Block’s peer-to-peer payments service, generated a gross profit of $705M, up 29% YoY.
- Square reported $755M in gross profit, up 29% YoY.
- The company said it has slowed hiring and will cut its 2022 investment target by $250M.
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All common shareholders of AMC Entertainment will receive dividends in the form of preferred shares of “APE.” The NYSE granted approval for AMC’s preferred shares to be listed on the exchange under the ticker name APE. The firm also reported its Q2 earnings on Thursday, with revenue for the quarter totaling $1.17B, in line with analysts’ expectations. More: - AMC will issue one APE unit for each existing common share.
- The theater chain operator is expected to issue close to 517 million new share units and will have an additional 4.5 billion new units that could be sold later.
- AMC came up with the solution after it had difficulty issuing more of its common shares.
- Strong food and beverage sales combined with higher margins helped drive revenue growth for AMC in Q2.
- During the same period last year, AMC’s revenues totaled $444.7M.
- Net loss was down to $121.6M, from $344M in Q2 2021.
- At the end of Thursday’s trading session, AMC’s common share closed at $18.66 per share, a $9.6B market capitalization.
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 A message from WIND RIVER Can the VxWorks real-time operating system fill your embedded system needs? A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system with two key features: predictability and determinism. In an RTOS, repeated tasks are performed within a tight time boundary, while in a general-purpose operating system, this is not necessarily so. Predictability and determinism, in this case, go hand in hand: We know how long a task will take, and that it will always produce the same result. - Determinism: Repeating an input will result in the same output.
- High performance: RTOS systems are fast and responsive, often executing actions within a small fraction of the time needed by a general OS.
- Safety and security: As RTOSes are frequently used in critical systems, such as robotics or flight controllers, they must have higher security standards and more reliable safety features.
- Priority-based scheduling: Actions are scheduled according to their assigned priority; the most important tasks come first.
- Small footprint: Versus their hefty general OS counterparts, RTOSes weigh in at just a fraction of the size: Windows 10, with post-install updates, takes up approximately 20 GB. VxWorks, on the other hand, is measured in the low single-digit megabytes.
In this webinar, we'll go through some of the features of real-time operating systems that can revolutionize your embedded development process, and make sure that an RTOS is the right solution for your use-case. Watch Now
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Global pharmaceutical company Pfizer is looking to expand its rare diseases product portfolio with the acquisition of Global Blood Therapeutics. The deal is estimated to be worth $5B. According to the WSJ, other potential buyers have expressed interest in GBT, but Pfizer is close to closing the deal. More: - GBT is a South San Francisco, California-based biopharma company with a market capitalization of $3B.
- As of Thursday’s close, its shares were trading at $47.99 per share.
- The U.S. FDA approved GBT’s sickle-cell disease drug in early June.
- Pfizer’s sickle-cell drug failed in 2019, while another one is still in the early stages of development.
- Pfizer is having a strong run with its COVID-19 vaccine and pill products, with the company anticipating $54B worth of revenue from them this year.
- It does, however, expect that demand for its COVID-19 product portfolio will fade over time, so Pfizer plans to diversify its portfolio to generate revenue over the long term.
- By 2030, the company expects to generate $25B in revenue through business development activities, including acquisitions.
- Pfizer recently bought the remaining stake in Biohaven it didn’t already own for $11.6B and purchased Arena Pharmaceuticals for $6.7B.
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Virgin Galactic released its Q2 earnings on Thursday, reporting an EBITDA loss of $93M. Reported revenue was $357M, down from $571M during the same period last year. Net loss per diluted share was $0.43. The space tourism company also delayed its commercial service to Q2 2023. The delay was attributed to the extended refurbishing required for its 14-year-old jet-powered carrier aircraft VMS Eve. More: - Initially, commercial operations were scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.
- The company signed a contract with Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to build two new carrier aircraft last month, the first of which is scheduled to enter service in 2025.
- Last quarter, the company reported a loss of $77M.
- The company plans to issue up to $300M of common shares to gain "financial flexibility."
- As of the quarter ending June 30, it had $1.1B cash on its balance sheets.
- Analysts forecast that Virgin Galactic will go through about $500M of cash until the end of 2023.
- So far this year, the company has burned through $160M.
- Stocks dropped to $8.19 per share after market close, down 70% over the last 12 months.
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- Warner Bros. Discovery released its Q2 earnings on Thursday, reporting a $3.42B loss, partly due to costs related to its recent merger. The company said it plans to merge its HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming platforms.
- Nigeria received a $1.5B loan from the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. to develop solar power infrastructure. The new facility will be held by state-owned Niger Delta Power Holding Co.
- Lyft reported its highest earnings to date on Thursday with $991M in revenue, up 30% YoY. The ride-hailing company reported a 16% increase in active riders to 19.9 million. Lyft shares rose 15% on Friday.
- Tesla shareholders approved a 3-for-1 stock split at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. Most of the 13 board recommendations were passed by shareholders.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a Researcher at Inside. Her interests include finance, tech, and startups. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending music festivals, and traveling. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or through email at vanessa@inside.com |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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For nearly 35 years, VxWorks has been used to ensure the security, safety, and reliability you need to design and build mission-critical embedded systems that simply must work.
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