Alphabet finally reveals YouTube revenue—$15 billion in 2019

Google parent offers increased transparency to improve dealings with shareholders.

When it comes to dealing with shareholders, has Google’s parent, Alphabet, turned over a new leaf? The decision of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to step away from day-to-day involvement in the tech-holding company last month stirred hopes on Wall Street that Alphabet would take on more of the trappings of a conventional company when it comes to dealing with shareholders. So it was notable that, with his first quarterly earnings report on Monday, new boss Sundar Pichai gave Wall Street something it had long wanted: a look under the covers, with a new level of disclosure about the group’s YouTube and cloud computing divisions.

The heightened transparency was accompanied by other vestiges of a more shareholder-friendly approach. These included a promise to apply a “sharper focus” to investment in Alphabet's “moonshot” projects, where losses have been mounting, and a commitment to at least maintain a stock buyback program that reached $18.4 billion in 2019, more than double the year before. It was unfortunate, then, that Pichai’s first quarter flying solo was sullied by lackluster figures.

The Google search advertising business is still going strong, but non-advertising revenue came up well short of expectations, due mainly to a decline in hardware led by weaker sales of the Pixel smartphone. Also, the company’s operating profit margin slipped as losses from its moonshot projects—including its driverless car, drone delivery, and drug discovery units—jumped more than 50 percent, to $2 billion. The news sliced $40 billion from Alphabet’s stock market value in after-market trading on Monday, robbing it of the $1 trillion market valuation it first obtained last month.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/02/alphabet-chief-lifts-the-covers-on-earnings/

Google 'Bug' Sent Videos to the Wrong Users

If you downloaded content from Google Photos using Google Takeout, you may have been affected

On Monday evening, some users of Google Takeout, which lets you download data from your Google apps, received what the Verge calls a "nonchalant email" from the company about a "technical issue," and it's one that's raising eyebrows. Per a statement sent by Google to 9to5Google, individuals who used Google Takeout to export content from their Google Photos stash between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25 may have been affected by a "bug" that sent them either an incomplete archive or a complete stranger's videos.

The email sent to users didn't say how many videos were erroneously disseminated, nor exactly how many people were affected, though Google noted in its statement that less than 0.01% of Google Photo users tapping into Takeout fell prey to the problem. The Verge notes that even that seemingly tiny percentage could still mean plenty of people were affected, as Google Photos has more than a billion users. Without further elaboration, the company noted the issue had been "identified and resolved" and "an in-depth analysis" has been conducted to prevent similar problems in the future, adding that no other Google products were involved. "We are very sorry this happened."

https://www.newser.com/story/286503/google-bug-sent-videos-to-the-wrong-users.html

Jeffrey Epstein estate sale: Executors unload $195,000 Bentley, Mercedes, other assets

Executors winding down the estate of disgraced financier Jeffrey E. Epstein have raised more than $1 million through the sales of his assets and account liquidations. In a delayed court filing that had been extended until last Friday, lawyers for Epstein’s estate showed that his reported net worth has increased by about $80 million since his death, and listed some of his pricey assets they’ve sold off. The $80 million change in part was due to a recalculation of what he was worth at the time of his death. The items sold by the executors include several luxury cars, among them a 2018 Bentley let go for $195,000 and a 2019 Mercedes-Benz for $133,000. The purchasers were not disclosed.

In all, the executors said slightly more than $1 million has been raised from asset sales and liquidating four accounts tied to shell companies. The detailed accounting of Epstein’s estate also showed that his main banking for day-to-day operations was done through two banks in Puerto Rico — Banco Popular and 1 First Bank. Epstein’s net worth upon his death by hanging last Aug. 10 was estimated at the time at $550 million. In their first quarterly filing, executors of his estate estimate the current value of his total assets at about $634.8 million. They received an extension last Dec. 18 to file their first quarterly report by Jan. 31, 2020, and they were given 120 days to file an inventory of Epstein’s assets, something normally done in 90 days.

Executors revised upward the value of his assets at time of death to more than $628 million. They said his cash on hand at that time was about $9.4 million. Expenditures since then have reduced that balance to about $7.6 million. The revelations in court documents were made public on Monday amid this week’s expected probate hearing in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the attorney general has put a lien on the Epstein estate in a bid to seize the two islands there that he owned. Executors have filed a motion calling the lien improper.

Lawyers for victims will go before a judge as well as executors of the estate to fight it out Tuesday over where certain claims will be settled and by whom. U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George, a relative newcomer to the office, recently filed a motion to intervene to give the local government a say in matters of estate settlement, on the grounds that some of Epstein’s underage victims were abused locally. In a court filing last month, she alleged that Epstein continued to bring underage women to his properties as recently as 2018, and at least as young as 12.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article239915658.html