TechCheck

Carl Quintanilla sits down with Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, co-creators, writers and executive producers behind HBO’s five-part mini-series “White House Plumbers” based on the true story of Nixon's Watergate "masterminds," E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. The two discuss balancing historical fact and satire, the painstaking process behind recreating real-life locations, and why both Gregory and Huyck believe the show’s fresh take on the famous robbery is “the greatest story people have never heard.”

Snap and Pinterest stock are both plummeting today as they warn of ad revenue challenges ahead – even though other big tech names that reported this week are showing advertising resilience. Plus, an Amazon analyst explains why the market might be underappreciating the stock, despite showing positive Q1 metrics like growing profitability and curbing expenses. 

Microsoft and Alphabet both report earnings today – key for investors will be what they signal about AI in terms of announcements already made and what’s in store. 

Is something happening to Google’s dominance? For two decades it enjoyed one of the best business models in history – search. The stock boomed. The company grew and acquired its way to becoming one of the biggest companies in the world. But today Alphabet finds itself cutting staff and facing new competition from ChatGPT and Bing at a pivotal time. Why that matters, and why maybe it doesn’t matter at all.

Tesla cut prices a half dozen times in the last 6 months, and that cut into margins for the latest quarter. As investors are focused on the COST-CUTTING side of the portfolio and what that will do to earnings, we look at the revenue side and how margins could be squeezed from the top line. PLUS – more numbers and performance from Tiger Global as the private markets in tech catch up to the public ones.

CNBC reported that Google is at work developing its new Pixel phone with a foldable screen – set for a June release and costing in the realm of $1700. Why does Google still invest in phones and physical hardware with such small market share and cost-cuts in other businesses? The answer is in Android and its overwhelming market share, and why it may need leverage in that competition.

A bull-bear debate on wall street about Nvidia as Microsoft reportedly starts to work on its own chip production. Plus – a look at the stakes for Netflix earnings and what else Meta is doing outside the metaverse. 

Deirdre is back with the story of Samsung considering switching from Google as its default search engine. Where’d it think about going? Microsoft Bing of course. Why ChatGPT and Bing could destabilize Google’s Search dominance.

Tesla just keeps cutting prices. A sign of strength or weakness? And Walmart is selling Bonobos for much less than it bought it for. What that says about its e-commerce ambitions.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy published his letter to Amazon shareholders this morning – we parse some of the messages and themes that’ll play out for the rest of 2023 and beyond.