Google Layoffs 12K Employees, Netflix's Q4 Earnings And CEO Steps Down, FDA Rejects Eli Lilly's Alzheimer's Candidate: Top Stories Friday, Jan. 20

Here's a round-up of stories from around the globe and from various media outlets.

Benzinga

Google To Fire 12K Employees Worldwide; Extends Support Packages

• Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google prepared to cut 12,000 jobs globally.
• CEO Sundar Pichai said the eliminations reflected a rigorous review across product areas and functions
• Google proposed to reimburse employees during the whole notification period.

Netflix Q4 Results Screening: Shares Fast Forward On Revenue Beat, Subscriber Jump, Strong Forecast

• Netflix Inc NFLX said fourth-quarter revenue increased 2% year-over-year to $7.85 billion, which beat average analyst estimates of $7.84 billion. The year-over-year growth was driven by a 4% increase in average paid memberships.
• The streaming platform company reported quarterly earnings of 12 cents per share, which missed average estimates of 44 cents per share.
• Netflix said it ended the quarter with 230.75 million paid subscribers after adding 7.7 million, which was well ahead of company expectations of 4.5 million.

Trump Says 'Arrest Reporter, Publisher, Editor' After Supreme Court Fails To Identify Roe V Wade Draft Opinion Leaker

• Former President Donald Trump called for the arrest of journalists who broke a story about a leaked draft opinion that indicated the Supreme Court was headed toward overturning Roe V Wade.
• Trump said on Truth Social, "Arrest the reporter, publisher, editor — you'll get your answer fast. Stop playing games and wasting time!"
• The former U.S. leader was reacting to a news story titled "Supreme Court can't identify the abortion-opinion leaker."

Genesis Owes Creditors Over $3.5B: Here Are Top 5 Claims

• Genesis Global, the crypto lending company that filed for bankruptcy protection in New York late Thursday, owed more than $3.6 billion to its top creditors. 
• Genesis released a list of its top 50 unsecured creditors.
• Meanwhile, more than $700 million had been attached to entities whose identities are unknown.

After Bumper Profit Of $3.4B In 2022, Boosts Quarterly Dividend By 43%

• Oilfield services giant Schlumberger NV SLB, which does business as SLB, reported in its fourth quarter a whopping 83% leap in its net income during its 2022 results to $3.4 billion.
• For the fourth quarter FY22, the company reported revenue of $7.9 billion, which increased by 5% sequentially and 27% Y/Y, beating the consensus of $7.81 billion.
• Adjusted EPS reached $0.71, increased 13% sequentially and 73% Y/Y ahead of the consensus of $0.68.
• The firm described 2022 as a "remarkable year for SLB with great success."

ABB Divests Non-Core Power Conversion Unit To AcBel Polytech For $505M

• ABB Ltd ABB agreed to sell its non-core Power Conversion division to AcBel Polytech Inc for $505 million in cash.
• Power Conversion generated revenues of $440 million and income from operations of $50 million in 2022.
• The division currently capitalized on the rollout of 5G networks, the increased use of cloud computing, and manufacturing automation.

FDA Rejects Eli Lilly's Donanemab For Alzheimer's Disease, Needs More Data

• The FDA issued a complete response letter for the accelerated approval submission of Eli Lilly And Co.'s LLY donanemab for early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease due to the limited number of patients with at least 12 months of drug exposure data provided in the submission. 
• No other deficiencies in the application were noted.
• The confirmatory Phase 3 TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 trial remained ongoing with topline data read-out expected in Q2 2023, and will form the basis of donanemab's application for traditional approval shortly after that. 

Ericsson's Q4 Profit Takes Hit Due To Cloud Strategy Adjustments; Goes Cautious On Q1 Amid Macro Headwinds

• Telefonaktiebolaget ERIC, better known as Ericsson, reported a fourth-quarter FY22 sales growth of 21% year-on-year to SEK 86 billion.
• Group organic sales grew by 1% Y/Y, driven by IPR Networks. 
• It reported an EPS of SEK 1.82 vs. SEK 3.02 last year.
• Adjusted gross margin contracted 200 basis points to 41.5% due to business mix changes in Networks and charges for contract exits and portfolio adjustments in Cloud Software and Services.

Reuters

Israel Says No Stroke Risk Associated With Pfizer/BioNTech Updated COVID-19 Shots

• Israel health ministry official said Isreal had not identified any evidence linking strokes to an updated coronavirus vaccine by Pfizer Inc PFE and BioNTech SE - ADR BNTX.
• "We have not turned up such a finding, even after we went back and rechecked all our data after the FDA announcement," Salman Zarka, the head of Israel's coronavirus task force, said in a video briefing sent to Reuters.

Rite Aid Starts Selling Abortion Medication From Few Pharmacies 

• Rite Aid Corp RAD planned to dispense abortion pill mifepristone in a limited number of its pharmacies and would serve customers in person or through mail delivery.
• "We are committed to ensuring equitable access to customers prescribed this product," Reuters reported citing Rite Aid's emailed statement.
• Earlier this month, the FDA allowed U.S. pharmacies to offer abortion pills.

Bloomberg

Consumer Lending Capital One Financial Lets Go Over 1,000 Tech Employees

• Capital One Financial Corp COF cut 1,100 positions in its technology segment in a move to improve its efficiency.
• The company planned to eliminate its "Agile" job family and integrate it into existing engineering and product manager roles, it said in a statement. The affected employees had been invited to apply for other roles in the bank, with hundreds of open positions across the company.

Nintendo Eyes Higher Switch Production To Tap Demand, Signaling An Ease In Parts Crisis

• Nintendo Co., Ltd. NTDOF NTDOY reportedly planned to boost production of its six-year-old Switch console in the coming fiscal year after shipping roughly 21 million Switch consoles in the year ending March.
• Nintendo cut its sales forecast for the console to 19 million units in November due to the component crisis but now looked to make more to tap into the robust demand.

Photo: Sundry Photography via Shutterstock