Latest news with #CraigMoffett
CNBC
11-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Apple's answer is not to get a new CEO, says Craig Moffett
Craig Moffett, Moffett Nathanson founder and Dominic Rizzo, T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund portfolio manager, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the challenging times for Apple CEO Tim Cook, the threats Apple faces and much more.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
HBO Family Among Cable Networks Being Shut Down By Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down cable networks HBO Family, ThrillerMax, MovieMax and OuterMax. The move, reported earlier this week by Cord Cutters News, was confirmed to Deadline by a person familiar with the decision. More from Deadline Kim Cattrall Turned Down 'Sex And The City' Role 4 Times Due To "Self-Inflicted Ageism" International Insider: Animated In Annecy; Warner Split; Sarandos In Spain Pay-TV Falls To 1987 Levels, But Wall Street Analyst Thinks It Could Be "Finding The Long-Imagined Bottom" Charter Spectrum systems informed their customers of the impending change. 'At Spectrum, we are committed to providing you with exceptional service and want to alert you of changes before they happen,' the distributor told subscribers. 'Effective on or after August 15, 2025, HBO Family, ThrillerMax, MovieMax, & OuterMax will cease programming and will no longer be available.' The move is the latest concession to the shrinkage of the traditional pay-TV bundle. HBO Family, for example, once had a clear reason for being during the linear era. In an on-demand, streaming world, though, its lineup of long-tail movies like Dolphin Tale, Spy Kids or Beetlejuice Beetlejuice have diminishing value for distributors. Non-ad-supported linear networks are also endangered species lately, with even a larger player, Starz, having just 30% of its total subscriptions in linear. Aside from WBD, major cable network parents including NBCUniversal and Disney have also unplugged cable networks. The business is also being separated out from the rest of media portfolios given the ongoing decline in subscribers and revenue. Despite the secular downturn, the networks remain lucrative assets, throwing off considerable cash flow and profit. Longtime industry analyst Craig Moffett, in a report earlier this week, took note of a potential leveling off in pay-TV subscriber levels. Although total pay-TV penetration has fallen to 1987 levels, he believes first-quarter data from distributors shows the industry may be 'finding the long-imagined bottom.' Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
CNBC
09-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Apple WWDC didn't change my thesis on the stock, says MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett
Craig Moffett, MoffettNathanson partner and senior analyst, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss Moffett's thoughts on Apple's WWDC.
Mint
07-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Apple's growing list of problems clouds AI reboot
It says something about Apple's current status that its trailing position in artificial intelligence isn't the company's biggest problem. It might seem to be next week, though. Investors are glum ahead of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off Monday. The stock has slid 20% since the first of the year, which is the worst run the shares have experienced ahead of the company's WWDC event since at least 2010. Apple's big tech peers now use their own annual developer events almost exclusively to tout their progress in AI. But Apple's conference this year is expected to mainly demonstrate how far behind the company is in what is considered a once-in-a-generation technological shift. The Apple Intelligence service introduced at last year's conference is still a work in progress, and the Siri digital assistant is still awaiting a promised AI makeover. That won't be coming next week, at least based on a rare admission Apple made three months ago that its planned Siri upgrade was taking longer than expected. 'Apple will be much more cautious about overpromising and will refrain from showing features that aren't yet ready for prime time," Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson predicted in a report Thursday. But AI is only one of the significant problems Apple is facing now. Tariffs threaten the profit margins of the company's hardware business. And the president of the U.S. is openly pressuring Apple to effectively undo its two-decade-old business model of exclusively producing its devices overseas. Then there is services, which drive an outsize portion of Apple's bottom line. Legal challenges hang over the fees the company earns from app developers, as well as the payments it receives from Google to make the search engine the default option on Apple's devices. Those fees and payments together comprise a substantial part of Apple's services arm that generates annual gross profit margins of 74%—twice the margins the company's device business commands. 'We caution that Apple has material risks to its revenue growth, margins, and valuation multiple," Needham analyst Laura Martin wrote in a report on Wednesday, where she downgraded the stock to a 'hold" rating. Against the risk of tariffs, App Store fee reductions and the loss of Google payments, Apple's slow start in AI seems almost a minor worry. The company hasn't been marketing Apple Intelligence as a premium service that would cost users extra—a notable contrast to the approach of Microsoft and Alphabet's Google, which are charging money for most of the generative AI tools sold to their customers. But Apple needs to give customers more reasons to buy its devices, and upgrade them more frequently. Its flagship iPhone business has been in a rut, with revenue growth relatively flat over the past two years and expected to be flat again for the current fiscal year ending in September. The lack of new AI offerings is expected to weigh on the next cycle as well, with Wall Street expecting iPhone revenue growth of only 3% in fiscal 2026, according to FactSet estimates. 'We believe that, for this stock to work, it must have the catalyst of an iPhone replacement cycle, which we do not foresee in the next 12 months," Needham's Martin wrote in her report. Apple has a lot of very loyal customers—more than 2.35 billion active devices make up its installed base—who won't necessarily bail over a single piece of missing software. But the company that disrupted the smartphone market could be disrupted itself if generative AI creates a new class of devices that obviate the need for a touch screen slab in everyone's pocket. OpenAI just nabbed Jony Ive, the famed Apple designer who crafted the original versions of most of Apple's current product line, as part of an ambition to eventually ship 100 million 'AI companions." The first devices are expected to come out next year. The famously secretive Apple could very well spring some of its own surprises by then. But it will have to do so while juggling its global supply chain and deftly navigating the legal challenges to its App Store fees and Google payments. Apple isn't even officially a party to the Google case, which might limit its options to shape the outcome. Apple's slow start in AI is a problem, but compared to its other challenges, at least it is more under its control.
Wall Street Journal
06-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Apple's Growing List of Problems Clouds AI Reboot
It says something about Apple's AAPL -1.08%decrease; red down pointing triangle current status that its trailing position in artificial intelligence isn't the company's biggest problem. It might seem to be next week, though. Investors are glum ahead of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off Monday. The stock has slid 20% since the first of the year, which is the worst run the shares have experienced ahead of the company's WWDC event since at least 2010. Apple's big tech peers now use their own annual developer events almost exclusively to tout their progress in AI. But Apple's conference this year is expected to mainly demonstrate how far behind the company is in what is considered a once-in-a-generation technological shift. The Apple Intelligence service introduced at last year's conference is still a work in progress, and the Siri digital assistant is still awaiting a promised AI makeover. That won't be coming next week, at least based on a rare admission Apple made three months ago that its planned Siri upgrade was taking longer than expected. 'Apple will be much more cautious about overpromising and will refrain from showing features that aren't yet ready for prime time,' Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson predicted in a report Thursday. But AI is only one of the significant problems Apple is facing now. Tariffs threaten the profit margins of the company's hardware business. And the president of the U.S. is openly pressuring Apple to effectively undo its two-decade-old business model of exclusively producing its devices overseas. Then there is services, which drive an outsize portion of Apple's bottom line. Legal challenges hang over the fees the company earns from app developers, as well as the payments it receives from Google to make the search engine the default option on Apple's devices. Those fees and payments together comprise a substantial part of Apple's services arm that generates annual gross profit margins of 74%—twice the margins the company's device business commands. 'We caution that Apple has material risks to its revenue growth, margins, and valuation multiple,' Needham analyst Laura Martin wrote in a report on Wednesday, where she downgraded the stock to a 'hold' rating. Against the risk of tariffs, App Store fee reductions and the loss of Google payments, Apple's slow start in AI seems almost a minor worry. The company hasn't been marketing Apple Intelligence as a premium service that would cost users extra—a notable contrast to the approach of Microsoft and Alphabet's GOOGL 0.10%increase; green up pointing triangle Google, which are charging money for most of the generative AI tools sold to their customers. But Apple needs to give customers more reasons to buy its devices, and upgrade them more frequently. Its flagship iPhone business has been in a rut, with revenue growth relatively flat over the past two years and expected to be flat again for the current fiscal year ending in September. The lack of new AI offerings is expected to weigh on the next cycle as well, with Wall Street expecting iPhone revenue growth of only 3% in fiscal 2026, according to FactSet estimates. 'We believe that, for this stock to work, it must have the catalyst of an iPhone replacement cycle, which we do not foresee in the next 12 months,' Needham's Martin wrote in her report. Apple has a lot of very loyal customers—more than 2.35 billion active devices make up its installed base—who won't necessarily bail over a single piece of missing software. But the company that disrupted the smartphone market could be disrupted itself if generative AI creates a new class of devices that obviate the need for a touch screen slab in everyone's pocket. OpenAI just nabbed Jony Ive, the famed Apple designer who crafted the original versions of most of Apple's current product line, as part of an ambition to eventually ship 100 million 'AI companions.' The first devices are expected to come out next year. The famously secretive Apple could very well spring some of its own surprises by then. But it will have to do so while juggling its global supply chain and deftly navigating the legal challenges to its App Store fees and Google payments. Apple isn't even officially a party to the Google case, which might limit its options to shape the outcome. Apple's slow start in AI is a problem, but compared to its other challenges, at least it is more under its control. Write to Dan Gallagher at
