Amazon blew past Q4 guidance of $112 billion-$121 billion -- and analysts' consensus of $119.6 billion -- posting $125.6 billion in revenue, up 44%, in a holiday quarter padded with October Prime Day receipts. Third-party units were 55% of total paid units during the quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky on Tuesday’s earnings call. Olsavsky downplayed changes resulting from Tuesday’s announcement that CEO Jeff Bezos will transition to executive chair in Q3. The move is part of succession planning put in place five years ago, he said. Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy will assume the corporate CEO title when Bezos steps down in Q3. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a Tuesday investor note it’s not clear that Bezos will withdraw from day-to-day oversight of the business, “as we expect him to continue to be integrally involved in company strategy.” The analyst doesn’t foresee major changes at the company with Jassy at the helm and expects the transition to be “seamless and largely inconsequential.” Amazon assumed $4 billion in COVID-19 operating costs in the quarter -- including additional employee pay during the holidays -- bringing total 2020 pandemic costs to over $11.5 billion, Olsavsky said. Amazon's revenue guidance for Q1 is $100 billion-$106 billion, for growth of 33-40% vs. Q1 2020. Operating income is expected to be $3 billion-$6.5 billion vs. $4 billion in Q1 2020. Guidance assumes about $2 billion of COVID-19 costs, said the company.

Spotify shares closed 8% lower Wednesday, at $317.25, after conservative Q1 revenue guidance based on pandemic uncertainties and ongoing effects on user, subscriber and revenue growth. Revenue guidance for Q1 is $2.4 billion-$2.6 billion with 354 million-364 million monthly active users (MAUs), including 155 million-158 million paid, said the company's Q4 shareholder letter Wednesday. Q4 revenue was $2.6 billion vs. $2.3 billion in the year-ago quarter. MAUs rose 8% to 345 million -- 155 million premium, 199 million ad-supported -- but premium user retention rate slipped year on year; the company expects churn to decline in 2021. Average revenue per user (ARPU) among premium subscribers fell by $5.12. Moving into 2021, COVID-19 “still has the potential to be a headwind, as it's difficult to fully gauge its impact,” said CEO Daniel Ek on a Wednesday investor call. Though sheltering at home in 2020 led to more listeners turning to Spotify for music and podcasts, “it also created disruption in listening habits, consumption hours and the release of new music and podcasts,” Ek said. Responding to an analyst question on whether conservative guidance is an indication user growth has peaked, Chief Financial Officer Paul Vogel cited promotional activity in Q1 2020 that didn’t repeat in Q1 this year. He also noted a pull-forward of listeners in a strong Q4. Spotify announced family plan price hikes Monday in 25 additional markets and full portfolio price increases in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland to improve ARPU, Ek said. The music service had 2.2 million podcasts on the platform in Q4, up from over 1.9 million in Q3. A quarter of total MAUs engaged with podcasts last quarter, up from 22% in Q3, Ek said, and consumption hours doubled from Q4 2019.

Uber will buy Drizly, the e-commerce alcohol marketplace, for $1.1 billion, 90% in stock, they said Tuesday. Drizly’s marketplace will be integrated into the Uber Eats app, they said. The deal is expected to close by June 30.

Amazon will pay about $62 million to settle allegations that it deceived Amazon Flex drivers about promised tips 2016-19, the FTC announced with a 4-0 vote Tuesday. The company allegedly withheld about $62 million from drivers and started delivering all promised tips only when it learned of an agency investigation in 2019. Amazon stopped paying drivers the “promised rate of $18-25 per hour plus the full amount of customer tips" and started giving them "a lower hourly rate,” the agency alleged. The platform didn’t tell drivers about the change, despite promises they would earn 100% of tips, the agency said: “Amazon used the customer tips to make up the difference between the new lower hourly rate and the promised rate.” Acting Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Commissioner Noah Phillips were pleased that drivers will get “every dollar” back, saying agency authority can be improved: “Congress can give us direct penalty authority to deter deception aimed at workers in the internet-enabled gig economy and rulemaking authority under the Administrative Procedure Act to address systemic and unfair practices that harm those workers.” The threat of civil penalties will deter wrongdoing, they said. Commissioner Rohit Chopra said he agrees with them that “preying on workers justifies punitive measures far beyond the restitution provided here, and I believe the FTC should act now to deploy dormant authorities to trigger civil penalties and other relief in cases like this one.” Amazon fielded hundreds of complaints after the change “as drivers became suspicious when their overall earnings decreased,” the FTC said. Complainants received Amazon responses falsely claiming they were still making 100% of tips, the agency said. Amazon returned to paying drivers the full amount in August 2019, the agency said. The company is barred from making such changes again without receiving the driver’s informed consent. "While we disagree that the historical way we reported pay to drivers was unclear, we added additional clarity in 2019 and are pleased to put this matter behind us," a company spokesperson said. "Amazon Flex delivery partners play an important role in serving customers every day, which is why they earn among the best in the industry at over $25 per hour on average.”

Ford sees 5G as a "big opportunity with what we will do with Google and beyond,” a spokesperson said when we asked about fifth-generation wireless. The carmaker named Google Cloud its preferred cloud provider for data, artificial intelligence and machine learning as part of a six-year partnership, the companies announced Monday. Ford will continue supporting Apple CarPlay, the Ford spokesperson said: “We have always offered customers connected vehicle choice for their third-party apps and services and will continue to.” Ford’s recently launched Sync 4 system provides USB-less CarPlay functionality to make it easier to integrate with Ford vehicles, he noted.

Users of major smartphone operating systems can “tap and ride” on the Los Angeles Metro, said Cubic Friday. It developed the app, which just added Android capability, with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the bus and rail system.

Amid “all aspects of modern life” converting to the use of "digital channels" during the COVID-19 pandemic, “the need to establish trust in the digital identities of customers, citizens, partners and employees is rising rapidly,” said Mitek Systems CEO Max Carnecchia on a fiscal Q1 call Thursday. Digital identity verification, Mitek’s core business, “has never been more relevant,” he said. “Rapid advances in artificial intelligence are enabling novel forms of fraud," said Carnecchia. "Increased scale and frequency of data breaches are all adding heightened pressure on organizations to protect their customers’ data and access.” Cyber thieves and “their methods of crime continued to evolve” in 2020, “so even the best anti-fraud programs need to be continually assessed and refined,” he said. “Organizations no longer have the luxury to simply verify access at the point of onboarding. Instead, they need to continuously authenticate and know exactly who their customers are across all channels and throughout the customer lifecycle.”

Forty percent of corporate boards will install a dedicated cybersecurity committee by 2025, up from less than 10% now, Gartner reported Thursday. Gartner canvassed 265 board members globally May through June, finding cybersecurity threats were second to regulatory compliance lapses among the highest risks, it said: “Relatively few directors feel confident that their company is properly secured against a cyberattack.” Though Gartner research before COVID-19 found 61% of organizations were struggling to hire security professionals, the shift to remote work helped alleviate the talent search, it said. “It proved that some, if not all, security capabilities could be delivered remotely.”

Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., requested comment by Feb. 5 on a discussion draft of a bill to amend Communications Decency Act Section 230 to ensure “civil rights laws apply” to advertisement targeting. Ad targeting limits user visibility of ads based on personal data like gender, race, hobbies, interests and location, Clarke said Thursday: It perpetuates inequities. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said, “We know all too well how marketing efforts have been targeted to exclude marginalized groups.”

Silicon Labs and Edge Impulse are collaborating on machine learning on the chipmaker’s EFR32 wireless SoCs and EFM32 microcontrollers, they said Wednesday.