Fitbit bought by Google for $2.1B - CBC.ca

Fitbit is being acquired by Google's parent company for about $2.1 billion US, a deal that enables the internet company to step back into the hotly contested market for smartwatches and health and fitness trackers.

Fitbit is a pioneer in wearable technology, but it's been shredded by that competition. The company's market capitalization soared to just under $10 billion after becoming a public company in 2015. Its value this week is well below $2 billion.

Google has struggled to stake out a presence in the wearables market. Its years-earlier foray into smartwatches that used its Android Wear software has largely faded. This deal could give it more of an opportunity to compete with the Apple Watch.

"Google doesn't want to be left out of the party," said analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities. "If you look at what Apple has done with wearables, it a missing piece of the puzzle for Google."

When rumours of a potential buyout by Google surfaced earlier this week, Fitbit shares soared almost 30 per cent. The stock jumped another 17 per cent at the opening bell Friday.

'Close look from regulators' predicted

Alphabet said it will pay $7.35 per share for the company, which were trading at $7.20 each after the deal was announced.

"With Google's resources and global platform, Fitbit will be able to accelerate innovation in the wearables category, scale faster, and make health even more accessible to everyone," Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park said in a statement.

Fitbit has 28 million active users worldwide and has sold more than 100 million devices. The company said that its privacy and security guidelines won't change and that it will continue to be transparent about the data it collects and why. Fitbit said that it never sells personal information and that its health and wellness data will not be used for the advertisements that drive Google's main business.

Fitbit's privacy policy says data it collects include a user's date of birth, gender, height, weight, and for some users it also stores logs tracking their food and water intake, as well as sleep and female health patterns.

The deal is expected to close next year if approved by regulators and Fitbit shareholders.

Ives said it will likely face additional scrutiny at a time when federal antitrust enforcers and Congress have launched broad investigations into the market dominance of Google and other major tech companies.

"This is definitely going to get a very close look from regulators," he said.

We’ve signed an agreement to acquire <a href="https://twitter.com/fitbit?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Fitbit</a>. Together, we aim to spur innovation in wearables and build helpful products to benefit more people around the world. <a href="https://t.co/HSfQVWnHJB">https://t.co/HSfQVWnHJB</a>

&mdash;@Google

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November 01, 2019 at 09:26PM

14 SeaBus sailings to be cancelled this afternoon, TransLink confirms - Vancouver Is Awesome

The SeaBus departs North Vancouver. File photo by Cindy Goodman/North Shore News

TransLink has confirmed that 14 SeaBus sailings will be cancelled this afternoon due to the transit strike issued by Unifor, the union representing bus operators and transit maintenance workers.

Earlier today, Coast Mountain Bus Company issued a statement asking Unifor to resume contract talks. However, the initial phase of the job action began at 8 a.m., with operators not wearing their CMBC uniforms and maintenance workers not doing overtime.

Yesterday, TransLink stated that it expected the strike would result in cancellations, but that it wasn’t sure which trips would be cancelled, or how many.

Now, the transit authority states that at least 14 SeaBus sailings are cancelled for this afternoon.

Vancouver Is Awesome spoke to Ben Murphy, Senior Media Relations Advisor, TransLink, who explained how the cancellations will affect service.

“The 14 sailings represent seven round-trip sailings,” explained Murphy. “As a result, we expect sailings to run every 15 minutes. Right now they are every ten minutes.”

Murphy adds that SeaBus increased sailings in the late summer. Before Sept. 3, they operated every 15 minutes between Waterfront and Lonsdale Quay. As such, they would be running on the previous schedule.

With this in mind, TransLink is unable to confirm how many buses will be cancelled, or on which routes service will be disrupted.

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November 01, 2019 at 11:57PM

Encana's move won't trigger stampede into US: Vermilion CEO - BNNBloomberg.ca

It’s not likely that other major Canadian energy companies will follow Encana Corp.’s footsteps to re-domicile in the United States, according to the chief executive of Vermilion Energy Inc.  

“I cannot really think of [another] significant Canadian company that I would expect to re-domicile,” Anthony Marino told BNN Bloomberg in an interview Thursday after Encana Corp. said it would legally move its home base south of the border and change its name to Ovintiv Inc. in the process.

“I think Encana was sort of the most obvious of the possibilities.”

Marino said for his oil and gas company in particular, there’s no significant long-term advantage from a tax or investor perspective to re-domicile.

“Our roots are in Canada, we are already set up with a very efficient head office operation,” he said. “There’s no reason to make the shift.”

Marino noted that 60 per cent of his Calgary-based company’s production is in North America with a “big, big majority” of that being in Canada.

Encana CEO Doug Suttles said exposing his company to “increasingly larger pools of investment in U.S. index funds and passively managed accounts” is one of the advantages in re-domiciling –  but that it’s not making the move for political reasons.

He stressed his commitment to Canada and that the business has been successful in the country.    

“We did want to make sure that people don’t see this as some negative reflection on Canada,” Suttles told BNN Bloomberg. “We’re proud of our heritage, we’re proud of our presence here, and we have every intent on continuing to invest in this country.”

Marino echoed Suttles’ sentiment about having a presence in Canada.

“I think it’s just incumbent on us, and the rest of the industry, to make investors aware that Canada does offer some significant advantages in profitability,” he said.  “And I don’t think re-domiciling to the United States is required to get that message out.”

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November 01, 2019 at 06:22PM

Posthaste: 'Perplexed' — Analysts question wisdom of Encana's big move to the U.S., cut price target - Financial Post

Good Morning!

Analysts and industry observers are questioning the wisdom of Encana Corp.’s decision to move its headquarters to the United States.

CIBC Capital Markets said actions such as changing corporate names and headoffices rarely create desired outcomes.

Analyst Jon Morrison wrote that “we find ourselves a bit perplexed as to the path that Encana is taking.”

“While we view there to be some merit to the company re-domiciling in the U.S., we do not believe the fact that Encana has been a Canadian-headquartered entity has led to any material share price underperformance,” the brokerage noted, adding that longer-term share price outperformance can only be achieved with continued performance, free cashflow generation.

Other analysts think the company that might soon be known as Ovintiv may become a takeover target. A report by Sanford C. Bernstein titled “Is ‘Ovintiv’ Latin for ‘takeout candidate’?” noted that the move “removes the potential poison pill” of a federal law known as Investment Canada Act which has prevented cross-border deals in the past including BHP Group’s proposed acquisition of Potash Corp. about a decade ago, according to a Bloomberg news report.

The relocation of its main office will increase access to capital, including passive investors, but analyst Bob Brackett isn’t convinced: “E&P multiples are set by the quality of the assets and organization and ECA’s share price already reflects the market’s view and so a rerating of the stock on the redomiciling is not obvious to us.”

In a pithy comment, Peters & Co. noted “there are currently a number of other Canadian and U.S. alternatives that provide higher growth over the next few years and are also trading at discounted multiples.”

Meanwhile, Eight Capital analyst Phil Skolnick said it’s cutting his recommendation on Encana Corp. to neutral from buy.

National Bank Financial Group also cuts its price target to US$7.50 from US$8 previously. The stock fell 6.7 per cent on the TSX to $5.16 per share. “We believe it (the move) could provide future optionality for further separation from its Canadian roots, which could set up to accelerate possible A&D (acquisitions and divestitures) activity.”

Here’s what you need to know this morning:

• Representatives from Indigenous, youth, labour, health care, social justice and environmental movements will hold a press conference to call on the minority Liberal government to move quickly to show Canadians that it will fulfil its climate promises
• The Economic Club of Canada presents Victor G. Dodig, president and CEO, CIBC, with a speech about the importance of Canada’s energy sector
• University of Regina researcher Patricia Elliot to be in court to try to get inspection reports from the 2016 Husky oil spill into the North Saskatchewan River released
• Notable Earnings: Sleep Country Canada Holdings Inc., Fairfax Financial Holdings Inc., Aecon, TC Energy Corp., Imperial Oil Limited, Baytex Energy Corp., Cameco

Canada’s oilpatch has been struggling since oil prices bottomed out in late 2014, so its troubles are not exactly a new development. Roughly 50,000 jobs have been lost over the past five years, and an estimated 7,600 positions are at risk of being lost in 2019, according to Petroleum Labour Market Information, a division of Energy Safety Canada. The unemployment rate among young men in Alberta is now at a whopping 19.9 per cent, up almost four percentage points from a month ago, writes Vanmala Subramaniam.

Encana CEO Doug Suttles. Ted Rhodes/Postmedia

Policymakers have been scrambling to keep up with the traditional energy industry’s downturn and quell a brewing sense of resentment and hopelessness in the Western provinces. On the election trail, the rhetoric of “retraining oil and gas workers” to transition to jobs in renewable energy or cleantech was frequently touted as a solution, but the reality of that transition is incredibly complex, and involves far more than just retraining.

— Please send your news, comments and stories to yhussain@postmedia.com. — Yadullah Hussain @yad_Fpenergy

With files from The Canadian Press, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg

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November 01, 2019 at 07:57PM

Desjardins revises data theft impact numbers, says 4.2 million affected - CTV News

MONTREAL -- The Desjardins Group data theft is much more widespread than first thought and actually hit 4.2 million members, the banking co-operative's chief executive said Friday.

Guy Cormier told a news conference the revised number -- which represents the entirety of the Levis, Que.-based organization's membership -- were victims.

Desjardins Group initially reported in June that 2.9 million customers had been impacted by the theft -- 2.7 million individuals and 173,000 businesses in Ontario and Quebec.

The breach involved personal information -- including social insurance numbers -- but did not include banking information or passwords.

Quebec provincial police provided Desjardins with the news on Thursday.

"This is not a new breach, this is the same breach with the same employee who did the same pattern, but the bad news today is that the SQ (provincial police) is sure that it's for the whole group and all the 4.2 million members," Cormier said.

On Friday, Desjardins wasn't in a position to specify if more of its business clients were also affected.

Desjardins offered a subsidized subscription to an Equifax credit monitoring service after the initial announcement of the breach, and Cormier says some 40 per cent of its customers have signed up for it.

Cormier said any members who weren't contacted at that time will be notified, beginning Nov. 4.

The co-operative said it would offer any clients who had been victims of identity theft access to lawyers and experts and reimburse them for certain expenses incurred as a result.

Cormier said that he hopes the public takes notice of the efforts taken in the past four-and-a-half months.

"I think they saw that Desjardins was really pro active on that side," Cormier said. "It's really bad that yesterday we received this information from the SQ (police), but I think compared to June 20, our members can see, and they saw Desjardins was standing up and that's what I hope they see."

Cormier noted Friday that since the theft was publicized, there have been no instances of fraud involving members accounts.

In September, Quebec provincial police questioned 17 people of interest and conducted multiple property searches as part of an investigation dubbed "Portier."

The force said it met 91 witnesses in the Quebec City, Montreal and Laval areas, but didn't making a formal arrest.

Desjardins has said a single employee -- since fired -- was allegedly responsible for the breach detected in December 2018.

A police spokesperson said Friday the investigation into the breach was ongoing.

In addition, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and Quebec's access to information commission are also investigating.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2019.

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November 01, 2019 at 10:25PM

Google to acquire Fitbit, valuing the smartwatch maker at about $2.1 billion - CNBC

Google parent company Alphabet will buy Fitbit, putting the tech giant head to head with Apple in the fitness tracking space. The deal values Fitbit around $2.1 billion at a fully diluted equity value, according to Friday's announcement.

Fitbit's stock surged 16%, while shares of Alphabet were up about 0.8%

Google will pay $7.35 per share in cash for the acquisition, Fitbit said. Fitbit's all time high share price was $51.90 on Aug. 5, 2015, a couple months after its stock market debut at $30.40. The deal is expected to close in 2020, according to the announcement.

On Monday, Fitbit's stock surged more than 30% on news that Alphabet had made an offer to acquire the smartwatch maker. As of Monday's close, Fitbit's market cap sat at $1.5 billion, up $340 million from the previous trading day.

Fitbit Insire HR

Todd Haselton | CNBC

Following the announcement, Google's hardware chief Rick Osterloh released a blog post explaining how the acquisition can help Google advance its ambitions for Wear OS, its software for smartwatches.

"By working closely with Fitbit's team of experts, and bringing together the best AI, software and hardware, we can help spur innovation in wearables and build products to benefit even more people around the world," Osterloh said. "Google also remains committed to Wear OS and our ecosystem partners, and we plan to work closely with Fitbit to combine the best of our respective smartwatch and fitness tracker platforms."

Google will not use health and wellness data from Fitbit for its ads, according to the announcement.

The move comes after Google announced a deal to buy $40 million worth of Fossil's smartwatch technology in January. Fossil was already one of the primary brands building smartwatches on Google's Wear OS.

Buying Fitbit could help Google extend its "ambient computing" hardware strategy, where the company aims to be a part of users' lives wherever they are. The company has hinted at its health and hardware ambitions with the introduction of several new products in October, including the new Pixel 4 smartphone, and the hiring of former Geisinger Health CEO David Feinberg last year to consolidate its health-care strategy.

Fitbit has suffered headwinds as Apple's popular smartwatch grows. Fitbit lowered its guidance for the year in its July earnings release, citing weaker-than-expected sales of its new lightweight watch.

As of the end of 2018, Apple owned about half of the global smartwatch market in terms of units shipped, according to Strategy Analytics. Google currently licenses its Wear operating system to companies such as Fossil but does not make its own smartwatch.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/01/google-to-acquire-fitbit-valuing-the-smartwatch-maker-at-about-2point1-billion.html

2019-11-01 14:06:54Z
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Exxon Mobil earnings drop 49% in the third quarter on lower oil prices - CNBC

Exxon Mobil reported a 49% decline in third-quarter earnings on lower oil prices and higher costs. The results, however, did slightly top Wall Street expectations and the shares were a bit higher in early trading.

Exxon earned $3.2 billion in the third quarter, down from $6.2 billion in the same period a year ago.

Here's how the energy giant's results fared relative to Wall Street expectations:

• Adjusted earnings: 75 cents per share vs. 67 cents expected by Refinitiv
• Revenue: $65.05 billion vs. $64.79 billion expected expected by Refinitiv
• Upstream income: $2.17 billion vs. $2.36 billion expected from FactSet estimates
• Downstream income: $1.23 billion vs. $1 billion expected from FactSet estimates
• Chemicals income: $241 million vs. $223.6 million expected from FactSet estimates

The company spent $7.7 billion on capital and exploration expenditures, including in the key Permian Basin area. Oil-equivalent production rose 3% compared to a year earlier, reaching 3.9 million barrels per day. Liquid production and natural gas volumes also increased by 4% and 1%, respectively.

The largest spike came from production in the Permian Basin, which grew 7% from the second quarter of 2019, and more than 70% year-over-year.

"We are making excellent progress on our long-term growth strategy," Exxon Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said. "Growth in the Permian continues to drive increased liquids production and we are ahead of schedule for first oil in Guyana. The value of our position in Guyana improved further this quarter with an additional discovery, our fourth this year. We are also making good progress on our advantaged investments in the Downstream and Chemical," he added.

Woods also said that Exxon made progress on divesting its assets, which the company forecasts will generate $15 billion in cash by 2025.

"The competitiveness of our portfolio was further enhanced with the divestment of non-strategic assets, reaching almost a third of our 2021 objective of $15 billion," he said.

Earnings were boosted by a favorable $300 million tax-related item.

For the year, Exxon stock is down 1% through Thursday's close, lagging both the S&P 500 and the energy sector. The S&P 500 is up 21% in 2019 while the energy sector is up 1%.

Last quarter, Exxon beat top and bottom line estimates, as strength in the company's upstream business offset weakness in the refining and chemical divisions. Profit did decline by 21%, however.

Falling oil prices, oversupply concerns and high production are among the factors that have hit the energy sector hard. It's also especially vulnerable to any signs of a global growth slowdown.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/01/exxon-mobil-xom-q3-2019-earnings-beat-estimates.html

2019-11-01 12:47:42Z
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