Plus, banks wrapped up the sale of $5.5 billion in debt backed by X, showing that investors are eager to bet on Elon Musk given his proximity to President Trump. And Uber’s earnings disappoint even as it highlights plans for the arrival of robotaxis. Pierre Bienaimé hosts.
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[00:00:02] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, February 5th. I'm Pierre Bien-Aimé for The Wall Street Journal. We're exclusively reporting that Google is eliminating goals to hire more minority employees. In an email to Employees Today, the company said it would no longer set hiring targets to improve representation in its workforce. It's also reviewing some diversity, equity and inclusion programs in light of recent court decisions and executive orders by President Trump
[00:00:28] aimed at curbing DEI in the government and federal contractors. Google's moves are part of a pullback across Silicon Valley. The company said it would maintain its resource groups for underrepresented employees. Wall Street is clamoring to get a piece of X. According to people familiar with the matter, banks wrapped up the sale of $5.5 billion in debt backed by Elon Musk's social media company today.
[00:00:54] Investors, including PIMCO and Citadel, agreed to buy the loans at $0.97 on the dollar. The floating rate debts carry an interest rate of about 11 percent, with borrowing costs several percentage points above even the riskiest loans on Wall Street. The sale shows that investors are eager to bet on Musk given his proximity to President Trump.
[00:01:13] At a meeting with potential investors last week, X reported 2024 adjusted earnings, before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, of about $1.25 billion, and annual revenue of $2.7 billion. And Uber stock fell after the company reported lower-than-expected operating income. In the December quarter, operating income rose from a year earlier to $770 million, but significantly undershot the roughly $1.2 billion analysts had expected.
[00:01:44] Uber also highlighted preparations for the arrival of robo-taxis. The adoption of Waymo self-driving cars in cities like San Francisco and Tesla's robo-taxi plans have investors pondering whether the technology poses a threat or an opportunity for Uber. The company's share price fell about 7.5 percent. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Thursday's Tech News Briefing podcast. The next episode is a Tech News Briefing podcast.