Biotech Novavax (NVAX) has announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) will provide up to $60 million in funding to assist with the manufacturing of NVX‑CoV2373, Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Shares are currently surging 15% in Friday’s pre-market trading.The news comes after the company failed to make the cut as one of the five COVID-19 vaccine finalists selected for the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed project.NVX‑CoV2373 is a vaccine candidate engineered from the genetic sequence of SARS‑CoV‑2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. It consists of a stable, prefusion protein antigen made using the company’s proprietary nanoparticle technology and Matrix‑M adjuvant.According to Novavax, the funding will help support its production of several components of the vaccine that will be manufactured in the U.S.The agreement includes a 2020 delivery of 10 million doses of NVX‑CoV2373 for DoD that could be used in Phase 2/3 clinical trials or under an Emergency Use...
Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Slack Technologies Inc. (NYSE: WORK) are forming a strategic partnership that will help the two companies take on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) whose Teams video-calling software is also gaining popularity.What Happened Amazon has licensed Slack, a work-oriented collaboration tool for the use of its employees. In return, Slack will utilize Amazon Web Services' Chime software to underpin its own video-calling feature, reported CNBC. The collaboration between the two companies will help them better compete with Microsoft, whose Teams video-calling software is increasingly popular among companies and schools amid the ongoing pandemic.In an announcement made Thursday, the two companies disclosed that Slack would deepen the use of AWS services. Why It Matters The partnership is in addition to Slack's cloud contract with AWS, for which Slack will pay AWS $425 million over a five-year period until April 2025. According to CNBC, Slack has run its service on...
(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s dollar broke through the key 70 U.S. cents mark on expectations that markets have witnessed the worst of the coronavirus’ carnage on the global economy.The Aussie jumped as much 0.9% on Friday to 70.04 U.S. cents, the highest level since early January when the virus outbreak had yet to explode into a pandemic. It has risen 27% after sliding to a near 18-year low in March, and is seen as a favored asset to buy among investors cheering the re-opening of economies from Singapore to Germany.“The Aussie is on a tear, and with markets undergoing a massive reappraisal of risk, it’s hard to rule out the currency rallying even more,” said Janu Chan, senior economist at St. George Bank Ltd. in Sydney. “The currency is one of the easiest ways for investors to express their risk sentiment, and Australia’s containment of the virus, the RBA’s refraining from going...
Broadcom (AVGO) has reported an in-line April quarter, and guided to an in-line July quarter at $5.75B (consensus $5.8B). Shares in AVGO gained 1% in Thursday’s after-hours trading following the earnings release.Specifically, Q2 Non-GAAP EPS of $5.14 was in-line with consensus expectations, while GAAP EPS of $1.17 beat by $0.21. Revenue of $5.74B climbed 4% from the previous year, and topped Street estimates by $50M. Meanwhile Q2 adjusted EBITDA was $3.2B, again, coming in slightly higher than the $3.11B consensus.Semiconductor Solutions reported revenue of $4,027M (-1% y/y) but Infrastructure software revenue came in strong at $1,715M (+21% y/y).“Second quarter results were in-line with our expectations, and saw limited impact from the effects of COVID-19,” commented Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom Inc. “Looking ahead, our third quarter guidance for semiconductors reflects a surge in demand from cloud, telecom and enterprise customers, offset by supply chain constraints and an expected substantial reset in wireless.”At the...
Shares in Slack Technologies (WORK) plunged 15% in Thursday’s after-hours trading after the company reported a solid F1Q21 but withdrew full year billings guidance. Slack also revealed an exciting new strategic collaboration with Amazon (AMZN)- but that wasn’t enough to send shares higher.Revenue, billings, margin, and FCF were ahead of consensus with Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of -$0.02 beating Street expectations by $0.04. Similarly GAAP EPS of -$0.13 beat by $0.04 and revenue of $201.7M delivered strong year-over-year growth of 50%, while topping expectations by $13.58M.Meanwhile calculated billings came in at $206M vs consensus of $189.2M, and representing 38% year-over-year growth.F2Q guidance came in higher than consensus as well, and FY21 was raised on revenue, FCF and margin. Calculated billings guidance was withdrawn due to the ongoing uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, but the consensus had been for guidance of $1.000.9B (+30.8% Y/Y).“Q1 was a phenomenal quarter for Slack, with the addition of 12,000...
