Companies can make brilliant moves, but there are also times when things don’t work out quite as planned. From a widely anticipated IPO to a reputation-burning engine fire, here’s a rundown of the week’s best and worst moves in the business world.
Twitter — Winner
Investors finally got to crack open the hood to check out Twitter’s engine ahead of its IPO race. The dot-com darling filed its prospectus on Thursday night. No one should be surprised to find that Twitter is not profitable. It’s just starting to monetize its booming traffic that consists of more than 500 million tweets a day — on average — going out to more than 200 million users.
However, Twitter’s revenue nearly tripled to $316.9 million and it has more than doubled through the first half of this year.
There’s also no mobile monetization challenge with Twitter. Unlike some companies that have struggled to profit from advertising on smartphones and tablets, mobile usage accounts for 65 percent of Twitter’s revenue. Sure, it would be great to see Twitter go public as a profitable company, but there’s little reason to think that this won’t be a hot IPO later this year.
Tesla Motors (TSLA) — Loser
Tesla’s been having no trouble selling its desirable but expensive Model S sedans pretty much as fast as it can manufacture them, with hundreds of orders coming in a week — especially in California, where its sales numbers are beating some big and familiar names.
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However, the electric car maker may struggle in the near term after a video came out showing a Tesla Model S whose engine caught on fire after it reportedly crashed into a large metal object. No one was hurt, but the same can’t be said about Tesla’s reputation.
Engine fires happen often in the world of internal combustion engine cars, too, but Tesla’s trying to get folks to pay $63,000 or more for its vehicles. That may not be quite as easy a sell for now.
Amazon.com (AMZN) — Winner
The National Retail Federation expects retail sales to climb 3.9 percent year-over-year during the upcoming holiday shopping season, but some merchants will be faring even better.
Amazon.com is one of the market darlings that should do well this season. It’s certainly preparing for a deluge of shoppers: The leading online retailer announced that it would hire 70,000 temporary workers as it braces for the holiday rush, 40 percent more seasonal hires than last year.
Angie’s List (ANGI) — Loser
Shares of the Angie’s List fell nearly 18 percent on Thursday after confirming that it is testing a lower annual price of $10 in some markets. The basic membership price until now has been $40 a year, as subscribers take advantage of reasonably honest reviews for local service providers.
Angie’s List is hoping that it can make that back by embracing a model where it gets a piece of the eventual transaction. There is potential there, but investors don’t like to see prices come down. Even if it’s in a few major markets, it won’t be long before information spreads and folks will demand the 75 percent price break, too.
Facebook (FB) — Winner
You may not want to live near your coworkers, but Facebook is betting that some its employees may see it differently. The leading social networking website operator is working with a developer to construct a $120 million apartment complex that will have 394 housing units near its corporate headquarters.
Real estate prices in Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., home have understandably started to get out of hand, so the company is going on the offensive to offer convenient a housing solution for potential hires.
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