A few stories under the radar here for Apple, Amazon, and Tesla
Apple has lost market share for the iPhone for the 4th month in a row in China. While the entire sector is off, the big winner is Huwei, whose sales rose 42% in the quarter after the launch of its latest premium model. (Overall China sales of everything are down a bit leading to speculation and worry that the country is entering a phase of deflation.) China is Apple’s 2nd largest market.
I bought some solar panels on eBay, and they are being delivered by… Amazon. Generally that stuff comes via USPS, FedEx, or UPS depending on size and weight; this is the first time I’ve had something non-Amazon delivered by Amazon. (In fact, after going to the tracking page I got an ad saying “Amazon can deliver from any website”, so clearly they are expanding their logistics business.) I also note a couple of other new entrants, a dedicated shipper for Temu and another for, uh, I forget but one I’d not heard of before. Could auger trouble for UPS & FedEx?
Finally, Tesla has overpaid…a bunch of people, apparently.
Tesla directors including Chair Robyn Denholm and James Murdoch got court approval on Wednesday for a settlement worth up to $919 million that requires they return compensation to the carmaker to resolve allegations they overpaid themselves.
The settlement requires Tesla board members including Denholm and Murdoch to return roughly $277 million in cash, $459 million in stock options and to forgo stock options for 2021-23 worth $184 million. The settlement was not covered by insurance, according to a court filing by the shareholder who brought the case.
I’m pretty sure most of the cases brought to the Delaware Chancery Court are settled before they come to trial. Musk & Company seem to be getting their legal education through large adverse court judgements.
Just FYI, Amazon has about 20,000 all electric delivery vans that are supplied by Rivian. It has 150 mile range. You can buy one for about $85K. Don’t know what price Amazon gets them for. Am curious if Rivian makes a profit on this deal.
The original contract was for 100,000 vans by 2030, and for Amazon exclusivity for 4 years from 2019. It’s hard to imagine that a solid contract like that wouldn’t have the specter of profitability built in somewhere. It all depends on how things like the factory and such are amortized, but I would suspect that there is profitability on the horizon, if not achieved already.
Having seen a couple of them up close and personal I’d have to say they’re pretty impressive; definitely built for maximum cargo with a fair footprint: smaller than a large UPS truck but larger than a USPS vehicle.
I’ve also talked with a couple of the drivers, one of whom really liked it, one of whom did not. I would love to have probed the “why not” but I didn’t want to keep them from their appointed rounds, so…
I wonder how much an exodus would cost Delaware taxpayers.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is reportedly considering moving its incorporation from Delaware to another state, such as Texas, according to reports in the national press.
The company has been in talks with Texas officials about the potential move, though other states are also being considered. An unnamed source told The Wall Street Journal that these discussions predated former President Donald Trump’s return to office.