Peloton has hired former Twitter chief marketing officer Leslie Berland as its new chief marketing officer. Berland left Twitter in November following Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. Before Twitter, Berland led marketing at American Express for 10 years. More: - Berland will report to Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy and oversee the company’s marketing, membership, and global communications teams.
- Berland is succeeding CMO Dara Treseder, who left the company in September.
- Peloton has been struggling to return to profitability after a pandemic-induced surge in demand for the company’s connected fitness bikes and treadmills.
- Peloton shares fell more than 75% in 2022; at its peak, the company was trading at $167.42 a share in January 2021.
- Peloton shares closed at $11.94 on Tuesday, up ~2.7%.
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Morgan Stanley released its Q4 and full-year earnings on Tuesday, beating expectations. The bank posted $12.7B for Q4 revenue and $53.7B for full-year revenue. Q4 net income dropped to $2.2B or $1.26 per share, from $3.7B, or $2.01 per share, reported for the same period last year. More: - Full-year net income came in at $11B or $6.15 per share, down ~27% YoY.
- The bank’s profit was impacted by a slowdown in deal-making in 2022.
- In December, the bank announced it was laying off about 2% of its workforce, or about 1,600 workers.
- The bank’s wealth management unit posted a record net revenue of $6.63B, up 6% YoY.
- Its trading business earned $3.02B in revenue, up ~26% YoY.
- Morgan shares were up nearly 8% during afternoon trading; it closed at $97.98, up ~6% for the day.
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Emerson Electric has offered to buy National Instruments in a deal valued at about $7B. Emerson would pay $53 a share, a 32% premium on National Instruments’ close price on Thursday, the day before the company’s board announced it was undergoing a strategic review process that may include a possible sale. More: - Emerson has been trying to acquire National Instruments for the past eight months.
- In May, National Instruments rejected Emerson’s initial offer to buy the company at $48 a share.
- National Instruments confirmed on Tuesday that it had received an updated offer from Emerson, but the company remains committed to its review process.
- On news of the purchase offer, National Instruments shares closed at $52.04 on Tuesday, up more than 10% for the day.
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Goldman Sachs released its Q4 and full-year earnings on Tuesday, posting weaker-than-expected results. The investment bank’s Q4 profit fell more than 60% to $1.33B, or $3.32 per share. Q4 revenue was $10.6B, down 16% YoY. More: - The bank’s operating expenses rose to $8.09B in Q4, up 11% YoY.
- Goldman set aside a $972M provision for credit losses in the quarter, up from $344M reported same period last year.
- Goldman’s investment banking fees dropped to $1.87B in Q4, down nearly 50% compared to last year.
- The bank’s Asset & Wealth Management business posted $3.56B in revenue, down 27% YoY.
- Last week Goldman laid off about 6% of its workforce, or 3,200 workers, as part of a cost-cutting measure.
- Goldman shares were down more than 7% during afternoon trading on Tuesday; it closed at $349.92, down ~6.5% for the day.
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Defunct crypto exchange FTX said it had identified about $5.5B worth of liquid assets, which includes $415M worth of crypto that was hacked from the exchange’s accounts. FTX’s new CEO, John Ray, said it took a Herculean investigative effort from the team to recover that amount of assets. More: - FTX filed for bankruptcy in November after suffering a liquidity crunch.
- Founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is facing several federal charges of fraud and money laundering.
- In December, Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on a $250M bond.
- His trial is set for October.
- Earlier estimates put the amount of unaccounted FTX funds at over $8B.
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Chinese videogame publisher NetEase has rejected Activision Blizzard’s offer to extend their licensing agreement by six months. The licensing partnership, set to expire next week, has brought Activision’s popular videogames like “World of Warcraft” and “Overwatch” to Chinese customers. More: - In a post on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo, Activision said it had offered NetEase a six-month extension under the same terms both parties had agreed to in 2019.
- Activision said it is in talks with other videogame publishers to find a new partner in China.
- NetEase, responding to Activision’s statement, said Activision usually strikes three-year deals with partners.
- NetEase noted that Activision was attempting to extend their partnership for six months to bridge the gap of service while it negotiates with other videogame publishers for a better deal.
- In November, Activision and NetEase said they would end their 14-year licensing partnership on Jan. 23 after failing to reach a new licensing agreement.
- Both parties could not agree on control over IP and player data.
- Activision shares fell nearly 3% on Tuesday.
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- The World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of business and government leaders, kicked off in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday and is set to run through the week.
- Roblox shares surged more than 11% on Tuesday after the company released its December 2022 metrics report showing a 17% to 20% increase in bookings (revenue). The report showed bookings were between $430M to $439M.
- Apple unveiled several new Macs on Tuesday with the company’s M2 chips. The company announced new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and an update to its Mac Mini computer.
- Bitcoin has recovered its losses since the collapse of FTX in November. The cryptocurrency has remained above $21,000 for the last couple of days.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a writer for Inside.com; she writes the daily Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, traveling, and exploring. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. |   | | 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 and 1972 Fords. | |
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