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Crypto heavyweight Coinbase said on Tuesday it has bought investment platform Echo in a nearly $375 million cash-and-stock deal, aiming to bring fundraising tools to its platform. Dealmaking within the digital assets industry has picked up pace this year as a crypto-friendly Trump administration encourages companies to expand their business in the U.S. Last week, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken unveiled a $100 million deal for futures exchange Small Exchange, paving the way to launch a fully U.S.-based derivatives suite. Echo’s platform makes raising capital and investing more accessible to the crypto community through private and public token sales. “We want to create more accessible, efficient, and transparent capital markets,” Coinbase said in a blog post. While Coinbase will start with crypto token sales via Echo’s Sonar platform, the company later plans on expanding support to tokenized securities and real-world assets. Echo was founded by crypto trader Jordan Fish, widely known by his “Cobie” pseudonym. The platform has helped crypto projects raise more than $200 million since its launch two years ago. In May, Coinbase had struck a $2.9 billion deal for crypto options provider Deribit, plugging a gap in its derivatives portfolio and strengthening its international presence. Arasu Kannagi Basil, Reuters
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E-Commerce
General Motors lifted its financial outlook for the year and slightly lowered its expected hit from tariffs, as the automaker awaits expected relief on tariffs in the U.S. while confronting a weakening market for electric vehicles. The company now expects its annual adjusted core profit to be between $12.0 billion to $13.0 billion, compared with its prior estimate of $10.0 billion to $12.5 billion. The Detroit automaker said tariffs would hit its bottom line less than anticipated, lowering its updated impact to a range of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion, from a previous $4 billion to $5 billion. Shares rose about 8% in premarket trading. GM’s outlook hike lifted crosstown peer Ford and U.S.-listed shares of Stellantis nearly 2% each in premarket trade. EARNINGS TOP WALL ST EXPECTATIONS GMs quarterly adjusted earnings per share dropped to $2.80, beating LSEG analysts expectation of $2.31. The auto giant earlier this month took a $1.6 billion charge from changes to its EV strategy. At the end of September, a $7,500 tax credit on battery-powered models went away, and there has been further loosening of regulations around vehicle emissions. In a letter to shareholders, GM CEO Mary Barra said she expects the company to incur future charges related to EVs. By acting swiftly and decisively to address overcapacity, we expect to reduce EV losses in 2026 and beyond, she said. Revenue for the quarter ended September marginally fell to $48.6 billion from a year earlier. U.S. car sales have stayed strong despite uncertainty around the tariffs, rising 6% in the third quarter. While automakers have largely avoided raising sticker prices to offset their tariff costs, American car shoppers have continued to opt for pricier models and added features. TARIFF RELIEF FOR U.S. AUTO INDUSTRY GM said it plans to mitigate 35% of its anticipated tariff hit. There is relief on the horizon for many U.S. automakers, after U.S. President Donald Trump approved an order to expand credits for U.S. auto and engine production, allowing companies to receive a credit equal to 3.75% of the suggested retail price for U.S. assembled vehicles through 2030 to offset import tariffs on parts. I also want to thank the President and his team for the important tariff updates they made on Friday. The MSRP offset program will help make U.S.-produced vehicles more competitive over the next five years,” Barra said in a letter to shareholders. Global companies have flagged more than $35 billion in costs from U.S. tariffs heading into third-quarter earnings. Investors are still waiting on trade deals to be ironed out with Mexico and Canada, analysts noted, as well as with South Korea, a major exporter of cars for GM. Automakers have been ramping up U.S. investments to offset Trumps levies. GM announced in June that it would invest $4 billion at three U.S. facilities in Michigan, Kansas, and Tennessee. The automaker imports about half of the vehicles it sells in the U.S., mainly from Mexico and South Korea. Stellantis earlier this month said it plans to invest $13 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. GM SCALES BACK EV AMBITIONS Barra in 2021 announced the companys ambition to produce only EVs by 2035, a goal she has since stopped referencing publicly, instead saying customer demand will guide the automakers lineup. Sales of EVs were strong for GM and across the industry in the third quarter, as shoppers raced to take advantage of the tax credit, but they still comprised less than 10% of the companys overall sales. To spur consumer demand, GM planned to offer a program that would have allowed its dealers to continue offering the tax credit on EV leases. It has since backtracked on the initiative following backlash from lawmakers, including Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a former car dealer. Ford also scrapped its program with the same aim. Other automakers, including Hyundai and Stellantis, are offering incentives to slash the prices consumers pay for their EVs. Nora Eckert and Nathan Gomes, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Disney+ and Hulu subscription cancellations rose during the month that ABC briefly cancelled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” according to data from subscription analytics company Antenna.Walt Disney Co. owns the streaming platforms and ABC. ABC pulled the show off the air for less than a week in September in the wake of criticism over his comments related the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.Antenna estimates total cancellations in September were 4.1 million for Hulu and 3 million for Disney+. The “churn rate,” or the percentage of customers that cancel their subscriptions in a specific month, jumped from 5% in August to 10% in September for Hulu. That figure jumped 4% in August to 8% in September for Disney+.However, signups were higher in September for both Hulu and Disney+ than the prior five months.Antenna is a subscription analytics company that tracks U.S. consumer data. The data excludes subscribers in bundle deals.In its most recent earnings report for the quarter ended June 28, Disney reported 183 million Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions.Disney declined to comment. Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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