Rebecca Day

Spotify shares fell after the streaming service reported a $46.8 million Q3 operating loss vs. a $63 million operating profit in the 2019 quarter. Revenue grew to $2.3 billion vs. $1.9 billion in Q3 2019, said Thursday's shareholder letter. Monthly average users (MAUs) advanced 29% to 320 million. Premium subscribership grew 27%, or 5% sequentially, to 144 million. Ad-supported users increased 31%, 9% sequentially, to 185 million. Shares closed 3.4% lower Thursday at $266.87.

Amid persistent COVID-19 travel restrictions, Savant created a virtual tour of its New York Experience Center as a way for dealers to educate clients and designers about benefits of home control, lighting design and audio/video systems, said Angie Larson, vice president-sales operations, on a Wednesday video call.

Online sales will top $2 billion every day Nov. 1-21, swelling to $3 billion daily Nov. 22-Dec. 3, Adobe Analytics forecast Wednesday. Overall, Nov. 1-Dec. 31 holiday season e-commerce sales will total $189 billion, “shattering all previous records” with a 33% year-on-year surge, Adobe said. Overall retail growth is expected to tick up 1%-1.5%.

Wireless was more than two-thirds of Silicon Labs’ IoT business in Q3, helping to drive overall revenue to the high end of guidance at $221.3 million, down from $223 million in the year-ago quarter but up from $207.5 million in Q2. Revenue from IoT products set a record at $133 million, up 16% from Q2, said Chief Financial Officer John Hollister on a Wednesday investor call.

Qualcomm began sampling its next-generation Immersive Home Platforms, successor to its mesh networking platforms, said the company Tuesday. Its Wi-Fi 6 and 6E products are due in the market next year, it said.

Give consumers what they want and let them shop the way they want, said Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner on a National Retail Federation webinar Tuesday, noting retailers must adapt to the different ways consumers expect to shop in uncertain times. COVID-19 accelerated initiatives the retailer had in its sights two or more years down the line, he said.

Google's decision to discontinue its three-year-old Nest Secure do-it-yourself security system wasn’t a surprise, given Google’s $450 million investment in security stalwart ADT in August, Parks Associates analyst Brad Russell told us. It raises questions about the staying power of the DIY security system market, Russell said, noting the low uptake of recurring monthly contracts in the segment vs. the 88% adoption among professionally installed systems.

Quibi, the short-form video service founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg in 2018 and headed by former HP CEO Meg Whitman, was a “bad idea -- that inexplicably -- managed to raise $1.75 billion” in funding, Brightcove analyst Jim O’Neill emailed Thursday, reacting to the service's shutdown after only six months. In a joint letter to employees, investors and partners Wednesday, Katzenberg and Whitman announced they're “winding down the business” and seeking buyers for Quibi’s content and technology assets.

Declines in sports viewership during the COVID-19 pandemic are a “cause for concern,” blogged Lightshed Partners Wednesday (password needed), saying sports viewership is “getting slaughtered” in the competition for time and attention. Sports leagues “may have to evolve their media strategies to avoid the more existential risks ahead for their partners,” said analysts.

Amazon delivered two-thirds of its U.S. parcels in July, 274 million items, topping FedEx, said ABI analyst Susan Beardslee on a Wednesday webinar. Total retail revenue this year is forecast at $5.3 trillion, slipping 1.99%, with $70 billion from e-commerce, $4.2 trillion from brick-and-mortar stores. E-commerce is more than 14% of U.S. retail sales, she said. ABI pegs Amazon 2020 e-commerce sales at $310 billion, followed by Walmart at $41 billion. Beardslee noted Walmart started a Prime competitor this year. The top 10 retailers generate an estimated 63% of all U.S. digital sales. A growing concern for e-commerce companies is lack of qualified commercial truck drivers as the market recovers from COVID-19. More than 88,000 drivers were furloughed in April and either found other employment or retired, said the analyst. She cited a high incidence of noncompliant drivers found in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse database, who hadn’t started a return to duty process as of August. The combination is resulting in driver shortages approaching 2018 levels, she said. That’s expected to “impact the cost to shippers,” as shippers incur costs to acquire and maintain talent; that cost is likely to be passed on to consumers, she said. Eighty percent of shoppers expect to use the buy online, pick up in store fulfillment option this season; 50% of retailers plan to offer it, she said.