PayPal rode the pandemic’s e-commerce spike to its “strongest quarter” since eBay spun it off as an independent public company five years ago, said CEO Dan Schulman on a Q2 investor call Wednesday evening. “Merchants are embracing a digital-first strategy, and these trends have fueled the rapid rise of digital payments. These are durable and meaningful tailwinds.” Q2 transactions grew 26% to 3.7 billion, “rivaling the volumes that we usually experience during the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday,” said Schulman. PayPal added 21.3 million new customers, a 140% increase from the 2019 quarter, he said. “Net new actives” in Q2 exceeded the number of new customers added in all of 2016, he said. PayPal ended the quarter with 346 million active accounts, he said. “Given our momentum, I believe that we will add approximately 70 million net new actives this year.” PayPal is seeing “a tremendous amount of new cohorts coming in that have never used e-commerce before,” he said. Seniors are “the fastest-growing segment of net new actives,” he said. The stock closed 4.3% higher Thursday at $192.51.
CEOs think businesses will emerge from the pandemic “using more contract workers and fewer permanent staff,” and videoconferencing will replace much business travel, reported the Conference Board Thursday. It canvassed more than 1,300 CEOs globally, finding only 47% predicting pre-COVID-19 revenue levels return sometime in 2021. Chief executives think the crisis “will compel them to accelerate their digital transformation plans and rethink their business models” but don’t see an urgent need to restructure their supply chains, it said. Flexible work schedules will the biggest change emerging from the pandemic, it said. Permanently increasing the number of employees who can work remotely will be the second biggest.
A record-high 71% of U.S. homes were using content streaming or download services when canvassed July 24-26, said CTA Thursday. Nearly one in 10 booked telehealth appointments or other online health services, it said: “Different types of streaming and download services remain a primary way for households to stay entertained during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as some live sports return to TV, notable new albums drop and exciting video games release.”
Dougherty & Co. modeled a 21.5% year-on-year Dolby Labs revenue decline, before the company's Monday fiscal Q3 earnings report, reflecting negative impact from COVID-19 “on production volumes and the worldwide shutdown of the exhibition business.” Dolby’s application programming interface strategy is “beginning to take shape,” analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Thursday. Its technology is being integrated into applications vs. its “historic focus on devices,” Frankel said, citing news from the quarter that SoundCloud rolled out mastering with Dolby audio, Sonos’ new Arc sound bar can play Atmos music from services including Amazon Music and Tidal, and Apple’s iOS 14 will enable playback of Atmos content through AirPod Pro earphones. The first Dolby Cinema reopened in Korea since the pandemic, with two more to reopen by year-end, said the analyst.
Incompas’ show scheduled for Sept. 14-16 in Las Vegas will be virtual. “As much as we all had hoped to be able to meet in person this September … the well-being of our attendees and exhibitors takes precedence," said CEO Chip Pickering. “Given the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, we will be moving to an all-virtual 2020 INCOMPAS Show.” Earlier Tuesday, CTA did the same with CES 2021 (see 2007280034). Our news bulletin is here. (It's in front of the pay wall, like some other coronavirus coverage.)
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is considering permanently revising international traffic in arms regulations so industry employees involved in ITAR can work remotely, said Wednesday's Federal Register. DDTC said, due to industry requests, it will extend through this year temporary telework measures, which had been set to expire July 31. The agency will use that time to “fully investigate the possibility and ramifications of making this modification, or a variation thereof, a permanent revision,” and may seek comments. DDTC said the extension will “provide regulated entities with staffing flexibilities” during the pandemic and it seems "regulated entities will continue to engage in social distancing measures for the foreseeable future.”
Lattice Semiconductor’s consumer business sales declined 17% from Q1 and 43% from the year-ago Q2, said CEO Jim Anderson on a Tuesday evening investor call. Lattice supplies processors for smart home devices and other consumer tech products. “The decline reflects a full quarter of COVID-19 demand impact as well as the expected shift in the mix of our revenue profile over time,” said Anderson. “We remain focused on serving the areas of the consumer market that include applications with consistent multiyear revenue streams and higher margins, where our solutions are enabling customers to differentiate their products.”
Increased "working and schooling from home" due to COVID-19 resulted in a strong PC market in Q2, said Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su on a Tuesday investor call. Desktop processor sales declined sequentially, but AMD had record quarterly unit shipments and revenue in laptop processors. AMD 90 days ago expected COVID-19-related weakness to bring the PC market down in the second half, she said: It’s now expecting PC processor sales will grow. The pandemic increased the “overall” PC market and stimulated a “strong shift from desktop to notebooks,” she said. “The second half will continue to be good for notebooks and PCs overall and that's part of this idea that PCs are now essential.” The stock closed 12.5% higher Wednesday at $76.09.
The pandemic is creating challenges and “opportunities for us and our industry,” supplying headsets for COVID-19's “hybrid work environment,” said Poly interim CEO Bob Hagerty on a quarterly call Tuesday. “Hybrid working trends are here to stay.” It’s estimated 30% to 40% of employees globally “will continue to work from home, with many adopting a flexible work schedule, splitting their time between the office and home.” The “net effect” is a bigger total addressable market “and a long-term growth opportunity for our company, which we are working aggressively to capitalize on,” he said. Headset demand remains “elevated,” putting stress on Poly’s supply chain, said Hagerty. “Our factory in Mexico is capable of running at full capacity, but we are having to flex our production based on component availability.” The stock closed 17.4% higher Wednesday at $21.89.
Semiconductor supplier Amkor Technology experienced strong Q2 demand in its communications and consumer “end markets,” driving 31% revenue growth year over year, said CEO Giel Rutten on a Monday investors call. Though global smartphone unit shipments are expected to decline in 2020, Amkor had first-half growth in its 4G products, plus “a steady ramp” of its 5G components, including its RF, front-end, modem, sensor and artificial intelligence products, he said. Computing grew 13% sequentially and year over year, exceeding expectations in “all applications,” including PCs and laptops, he said. “While the semiconductor supply chain has responded very well to the coronavirus challenges, we are still dealing with an environment of dynamic forecast changes as customers try to balance limited visibility with inventory levels."