FAANG Report: Apple buys UK chipmaker for $600 million; Facebook unveils 'Came Out' feature

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) forged a deal to buy part of Dialog Semiconductor for $600 million, allowing it to license power management technology, a report by Cnet said.

The company will pay the UK chip designer $300 million in cash initially and an additional $300 million for product delivery over the next three years.

Dialog relies on Apple for about 75% of its revenue, mostly through the supply of chips for charging and power management in smartphones. 

Apple will take over Dialog facilities in Livorno, Italy; Swindon, England; and Nabern and Neuaubing, Germany, strengthening the company’s foothold in Europe, the report said.

Apple shares were off 0.17% to $216.

Amazon.com Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) decision to raise the minimum wage of its workers to $15 per hour came under criticism from long-time warehouse employees over the loss of bonuses and stock awards, a report by Bloomberg carried in Time Magazine said.

Amazon said the decision to remove stock awards from the compensation plan will make workers’ pay “more immediate and predictable.”

Workers suspect they could lose money, according to an employee who asked not to be identified. The previous cash bonuses based on attendance and productivity could total more than $2,000 a year, which made a $1-an-hour raise a wash, according to another person familiar with the pay policies.

The loss of stock that was awarded annually in exchange for bonuses every five years could still leave some employees with less overall money, one of the people said.

Amazon shares declined 2.8% to $1,706.01.

READ: Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 per hour as CEO Jeff Bezos admits critics of its pay scale were right

Three Republican US Senators asked Alphabet Inc’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to explain why it chose to delay disclosing vulnerabilities with its Google+ social network, a report by CNBC said.

Google said this week it would shut down the consumer version of Google+ and tighten its data-sharing policies after disclosing that private profile data of at least 500,000 users may have been exposed to hundreds of external developers.

Google discovered and fixed the bug that led to the exposure in March but only disclosed the issue in October.

Google stock rose 0.78% to $1,089.65.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) unveiled a new update on its “Major Life Event” product where users can select “Came Out” and share their story, a report by NBC News said.

“For the LGBTQ community, Facebook is a way for you to come out, celebrate your pride and find support,” Tudor Havriliuc, a vice president at Facebook, told NBC News.

To add “Came Out” as a major life event on Facebook, users can tap “Life Event” in the composer window on their timeline.

Then, choose “Family & Relationships” in the drop-down menu (or just “Relationships” if you’re on a mobile phone), and then select “Came Out” in the list of life events.

Facebook shares added 0.76% to $152.53.

FAANG Report: Facebook launches tools to delete bullies

Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) said it showed nearly 676 hours of original programming in the quarter ending on September 30, a report by Variety said.

That’s more than double the amount of Netflix originals launched in 3Q of 2017 at 289 hours. The relative quality of that glut of new content is debatable, but Netflix’s track record shows that greater amounts of exclusive programming leads to higher sub growth and lower churn, the report said.

In the most recent quarter, the company released new seasons of “Orange Is the New Black,” “Marvel’s Iron Fist” and “Bojack Horseman” among others.

Netflix stock fell 0.96% to $322.75.

Reporting by Rene Pastor, contactable on [email protected]

Story by ProactiveInvestors