Sherwood News

Google’s bigger bets are showing promise, but Search is still the company’s cash cow

Google, Snap, and Reddit all reported good numbers.

10/30/24 8:39AM

Yesterday, a trio of technology companies — all of which actually derive most of their revenue from advertising — reported earnings. All had good news for their investors.

Snap reported that sales had jumped 15%, losses had narrowed, and numbers of daily active users had climbed to 443 million, sending the company’s shares up ~10% in premarket trading. Reddit did one better, crushing expectations and giving out-of-hours traders enough confidence to bid the stock up more than 20% at one point yesterday evening, thanks in part to its new AI-content licensing deals.

But most consequential of the three was Alphabet, which is worth roughly 60x Reddit and Snap combined. The Google owner revealed that its Google Cloud business — think servers, computing, analytics, and other enterprise IT solutions — continues to reap the rewards from the AI gold rush, with revenues rising 35% year on year. But, despite all the AI hype, good old Google Search continues to be the profit center of the company.

The continued dominance of Google is enabling the company to take some very expensive swings on nascent technologies. Many of these are in their infancy, but some are starting to make a splash. Its self-driving car division, Waymo, is reportedly doing 150,000 paid trips per week, and its Gemini AI model has now been squeezed into pretty much all of its products.

The dependability of the Google Search cash firehose also means that some of the company’s other highly used products, like Gmail, Google Maps (which just hit 2 billion users), and Google Chrome, don’t need to be huge moneymakers in their own right (yet). Of course, that dominance is catching the eye of the regulators: just a few weeks ago, the Justice Department said it was considering taking action to break Google’s monopoly on Search.

Microsoft and Meta report today.

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Chris Stokel-Walker7h

Max Knoblauch8h

Ford joins GM in backing off of its EV tax credit extension plan following GOP criticism

Ford, despite benefiting from an electric sales surge in recent months, is giving up on a clever accounting plan to extend the expired $7,500 EV tax credit to some of its customers.

Like its rival GM earlier this week, Ford on Thursday night confirmed to Reuters that it will not claim the tax credit, backing off from its short-lived leasing strategy.

The automakers’ plan was to extend the subsidy by using their financial arms to put down payments on electric vehicles already on their dealers’ lots in late September. Those transactions would qualify for the credit, and Ford and GM could pass the discount on to customers through leases.

But the strategy angered GOP senators, who last week wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accusing the automakers of “bilking” taxpayers.

Ford CEO Jim Farley last month said he expects the end of the tax credit to cut EV sales in half.

Exclusive: Ford reverses plan to claim EV tax credits, following GM

But the strategy angered GOP senators, who last week wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accusing the automakers of “bilking” taxpayers.

Ford CEO Jim Farley last month said he expects the end of the tax credit to cut EV sales in half.

Tom Jones

china crisis

13h

Porsche’s problems in China just keep getting worse

Sales in the region fell by more than a fifth in Q3.

Vintage Paint-Chipped Silver Porsche Speedster

Max Knoblauch

10/9/25

Delta, boosted by premium ticket sales, says customers who go Comfort+ don’t go back

Delta’s third-quarter revenue beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday, led by 9% growth in its premium ticket category.

Tom Jones10/9/25

Domino’s just announced its first rebrand in 13 years — maybe a new, “doughier” font will help sales pick up

Shaboozey! Domino’s Sans! Hotter colors as a nod to the melty heat of a pizza pulled fresh from the oven!

In a buzzword-laden justification of its rebrand yesterday, Domino’s laid plain its new aesthetic direction, coined the term “Cravemark,” and announced it would be bringing the focus back to its food, having (at least in its executive vice president’s words) become known as “a technology company that happens to sell pizza” over the last decade.

It can’t go any worse than Cracker Barrel’s refresh efforts, at least...

The raft of changes, which will roll out across the US and other international markets in the coming months, includes a new “audio and visual expression” of the brand’s name (throwing a few extra M’s on the boxes and getting country/hip-hop artist Shaboozey to elongate the letter in a jingle); brighter packaging and hotter colors; “more youthful” team uniforms (company-color Salomons and an apron with “pizza is brat” on it, maybe?); and a new “Domino’s Sans” font, which is “thicker and doughier” and has circles and semicircles “in nod to pizza, with lots of personality baked right in!”

Domino’s is down about 2% so far this year.

Domino's® New Craveable Brand Refresh Makes You Say "Mmm" | Domino's Pizza