Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock rose 0.4% in Friday premarket trading after revised terms for the US$69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) were provisionally accepted by the UK competition watchdog.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it still had "limited residual concerns with the new deal", but Microsoft has come back with some new remedies that it accepts "should" address these residual concerns, though this is just its provisional conclusion.
Activision Blizzard's shares gained 1.8% ahead of the opening bell.
Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) shares tumbled more than 16% in premarket trading as the children’s publishing, education and media company reported a drop in revenue and a growing loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 when compared to the same period last year.
For the quarter ended August 31, 2023, it reported revenue of $228.5 million, down 13% from $262.9 million in the year-ago quarter. This also failed to meet the Street expectation of revenue of $268.8 million, per Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Flux Power (NASDAQ:FLUX) after Thursday’s close reported full-year 2023 revenue that rose 57% to $66.3 million, missing the analyst consensus forecast by $0.14 million. Shares swooned more than 16% ahead of the opening bell on Friday after gaining more than 13% during the Thursday session.
The developer of advanced lithium-ion energy storage solutions for electrification of commercial and industrial equipment also recorded a loss of $0.42 per share for the 12 months ending June 30, missing estimates by $0.01.
Meanwhile, Google’s exclusive contracts hindered DuckDuckGo’s ability to pitch browsers becoming the default for their private browsing modes, CEO Gabriel Weinberg testified Thursday.
DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine and competitor to Google. Weinberg testified as part of the antitrust case against Google brought by the US Department of Justice.
Elsewhere, Lachlan Murdoch will officially inherit his father’s massive media empire after a decision Thursday named him the sole chairman of News Corp.
Lachlan, Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son, now sits at the helm of the company behind Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, among others. Rupert will continue to serve as chairman emeritus.