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(Reuters) -Wolfspeed shares surged 33% on Tuesday, after the chipmaker successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a substantially reduced debt load. The move has restored investor confidence in the company's prospects to become a leading provider of silicon carbide semiconductors, known for their energy efficiency, to electric-vehicle makers amid growing electrification and increasing chip content in automobiles. "Wolfspeed has emerged from its expedited restructuring process, marking the beginning of a new era," CEO Robert Feurle had said on Monday. "We are well positioned to capture rising demand in end-markets, such as AI, EVs, industrial and energy, that are rapidly growing and recognizing silicon carbide's potential," Feurle said. Wolfspeed had filed for bankruptcy protection in June due to deepening economic uncertainty stemming from changing U.S. trade policies and weakening demand. Since then, it has restructured, worked toward extending debt maturities and made significant leadership changes, including naming industry veteran Van Issum as its chief financial officer. The company said on Monday it had achieved its goal of reducing overall debt by about 70%. Wolfspeed, however, has canceled all legacy shares in its bankruptcy restructuring, issuing just 1.3 million new shares to existing investors at a steep exchange ratio of less than 1% per old share. This reduces prior shareholders' stake since the bulk of the new equity goes to creditors and backstop investors, leaving legacy holders with only a sliver of ownership. Owing to analysts' expectations of continued losses at Wolfspeed, the company carries a negative multiple. That compares with the 12-month-forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17.9 for Onsemi and 16.7 for NXP, according to data compiled by LSEG. (Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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By Jaspreet Singh and Supantha Mukherjee (Reuters) -Spotify founder-CEO Daniel Ek will step down to become executive chairman in January, the Swedish streaming company said on Tuesday as it named longtime executives Gustav Soderstrom and Alex Norstrom as co-CEOs. The leadership change comes as Spotify expands into podcasts and audiobooks amid questions over how it will balance growth and profitability. Its U.S. shares were down about 3% after gaining 63% this year. "Ek leaves the CEO role on a high note, with big boots to fill for the incoming CEOs," said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore. As executive chairman, Ek will focus on capital allocation and long-term strategy in what the company called a European-style chairman role. He is one of Europe's most prominent tech entrepreneurs, having built Spotify into a rare global consumer technology leader from the region.  The billionaire said he will continue to steer the company's strategy. "I will be more involved than a typical US chairman. So think of it a little bit like moving from a player to a coach," said Ek, who has been on the company's board since 2008. Spotify remains the clear market leader with nearly 700 million monthly users and more than 100 million tracks, far ahead of Apple Music's roughly 90 million subscribers.  But it faces competition from YouTube Music's vast video-integrated catalog and Amazon Music's Prime-linked offerings, which give rivals distinct advantages in certain markets. Despite Spotify's dominance, pressure on profit margins have persisted as artists push for higher payouts and the ad-supported tier expands. Global revenue from recorded music rose 4.8% to $29.6 billion in 2024. Streaming exceeded $20 billion for the first time and subscription streaming accounted for more than half of it, according to IFPI's Global Music Report. FROM STARTUP TO GIANT Founded in 2006, Stockholm-based Spotify helped transform a music industry that had been shrinking for years due to piracy and falling CD sales. Its U.S. debut in 2011 came as industry revenue had slumped. Still, the company reported its first annual profit only in 2024, after a slew of price increases and cost-cutting efforts. Billionaire Ek is often cited as a champion of Europe's ability to produce companies that can compete with U.S. and Asian tech giants. Soderstrom, currently chief product and technology officer, oversees global tech strategy and product development, while Norstrom, as chief business officer, manages subscriber and advertising businesses along with music, podcast and audiobook operations.  They will report to Ek who also serves on the board. The three executives have worked together for a decade and a half. "Norstrom is deeply interested in knowledge about product, and I'm very interested in business," Soderstrom said. "So we run this as a single team. Several high-profile firms such as Oracle and Netflix have adopted a co-CEO model to better manage their operations as they become more complex and globally diversified. "The big unknown is why Spotify needs an executive chairman and two chief executives as that conjures up the idea that too many cooks spoil the broth," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Jaspreet Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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(Reuters) -HR software provider Paychex on Tuesday reported higher expenses in the first quarter overshadowing a lift to its annual earnings forecast, and dragging the company's shares down 6.2% in early trading. Total expenses surged 29% to $998.1 million in the June-to-August quarter, fueled by higher compensation costs and amortization of intangible assets tied to its acquisition of payroll processing firm Paycor, earlier this year. Spending on technology, sales and marketing also rose as Paychex pushed ahead with strategic investments and integrated the newly acquired business. Despite the higher expenses, Paychex raised its annual adjusted earnings growth forecast to a range of 9%–11%, from its prior outlook of 8.5%–10.5%. The company said it continues to benefit from gains in client numbers, boosted by Paycor's addition, as well as growth in worksite employees under its human resources solutions segment. The company's revenue rose 17% to $1.54 billion in the quarter ended Aug. 31, in line with analysts' estimates, according to data compiled by LSEG. Paychex serves over 745,000 clients and offers a comprehensive suite of services including HR outsourcing, payroll processing, human capital management technology, as well as retirement and insurance solutions. On an adjusted basis, the company posted first-quarter profit per share of $1.22, compared with analysts' estimate of $1.21. (Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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(Reuters) -Spotify's founder-CEO Daniel Ek will become executive chairman in January, the Swedish music streaming company said on Tuesday as it named longtime executives Gustav Soderstrom and Alex Norstrom as co-CEOs. Ek, who has served on Spotify's board since 2008, will focus on capital allocation and long-term strategy in what the company called a European-style chairman role. Here are five key facts about Spotify's new co-CEOs: GUSTAV SODERSTROM * Soderstrom holds a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and data communications from Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology. * In 2003, he founded Kenet Works, a company that made community software for mobile phones and served as its CEO until it was acquired by Yahoo! in 2006. * Before joining Spotify in 2009, Soderstrom was the director of product and business development for Yahoo! Mobile. * He is also a startup seed investor and the founder of 13th Lab, which developed software enabling cameras to map and understand real-world spaces in 3D; 13th Lab was acquired by Facebook's Oculus in December 2014. * In his nearly 17-year career at Spotify, Soderstrom has held several leadership roles, most recently as chief product and technology officer overseeing global tech strategy and product development. ALEX NORSTROM * Norstrom holds a Master of Science degree in business and economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. * He joined Spotify in 2011, after serving as chief new business officer at King.com, the company behind Candy Crush. * Norstrom also served on the board of fintech company Circle from 2016 through December 2019. * Over his more than 14 years at Spotify, he has held various leadership roles, most recently chief business officer, managing subscriber and advertising businesses, as well as music, podcast, and audiobook operations. * His experience also includes marketing, global markets, partnerships, licensing, payments and customer service. (Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Jaspreet Singh and Supantha Mukherjee (Reuters) -Spotify founder-CEO Daniel Ek will step down to become executive chairman in January, the Swedish streaming company said on Tuesday as it named longtime executives Gustav Soderstrom and Alex Norstrom as co-CEOs. The leadership change comes as Spotify expands into podcasts and audiobooks amid questions over how it will balance growth and profitability. Its U.S. shares were down about 3% after gaining 63% this year. "Ek leaves the CEO role on a high note, with big boots to fill for the incoming CEOs," said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore. As executive chairman, Ek will focus on capital allocation and long-term strategy in what the company called a European-style chairman role. He is one of Europe's most prominent tech entrepreneurs, having built Spotify into a rare global consumer technology leader from the region.  The billionaire said he will continue to steer the company's strategy. "I will be more involved than a typical US chairman. So think of it a little bit like moving from a player to a coach," said Ek, who has been on the company's board since 2008. Spotify remains the clear market leader with nearly 700 million monthly users and more than 100 million tracks, far ahead of Apple Music's roughly 90 million subscribers.  But it faces competition from YouTube Music's vast video-integrated catalog and Amazon Music's Prime-linked offerings, which give rivals distinct advantages in certain markets. Despite Spotify's dominance, pressure on profit margins have persisted as artists push for higher payouts and the ad-supported tier expands. Global revenue from recorded music rose 4.8% to $29.6 billion in 2024. Streaming exceeded $20 billion for the first time and subscription streaming accounted for more than half of it, according to IFPI's Global Music Report. FROM STARTUP TO GIANT Founded in 2006, Stockholm-based Spotify helped transform a music industry that had been shrinking for years due to piracy and falling CD sales. Its U.S. debut in 2011 came as industry revenue had slumped. Still, the company reported its first annual profit only in 2024, after a slew of price increases and cost-cutting efforts. Billionaire Ek is often cited as a champion of Europe's ability to produce companies that can compete with U.S. and Asian tech giants. Soderstrom, currently chief product and technology officer, oversees global tech strategy and product development, while Norstrom, as chief business officer, manages subscriber and advertising businesses along with music, podcast and audiobook operations.  They will report to Ek who also serves on the board. The three executives have worked together for a decade and a half. "Norstrom is deeply interested in knowledge about product, and I'm very interested in business," Soderstrom said. "So we run this as a single team. Several high-profile firms such as Oracle and Netflix have adopted a co-CEO model to better manage their operations as they become more complex and globally diversified. "The big unknown is why Spotify needs an executive chairman and two chief executives as that conjures up the idea that too many cooks spoil the broth," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Jaspreet Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

(Reuters) -CoreWeave said it has signed a $14 billion agreement with Meta to supply computing power, the latest multi-billion-dollar deal as businesses ramp up infrastructure to meet the demand for artificial intelligence applications. Shares of CoreWeave surged 12% following the news on Tuesday. Under the agreement, Meta has committed to pay around $14.2 billion through December 14, 2031, with the option to expand through 2032 for additional cloud computing capacity, CoreWeave said in a filing. AI technology developers are rushing to sign multi-billion-dollar deals to lock in infrastructure quickly, boosting valuations of these backend service providers such as CoreWeave, which is now valued at $60 billion. The boom has also raised questions about the "circular" financing, as many AI tech firms invest in and sign supply deals with each other. This has also sparked worries about whether the surge in valuation is a bubble. The deal with Meta would also allow CoreWeave to fill data center capacity beyond its largest customer, Microsoft. Meta has been one of the biggest proponents of AI, investing tens of billions into data centers across the U.S. and paying athlete salaries to hire top AI software engineers while competition intensifies. The social media firm did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. As a part of the agreement, CoreWeave will provide the Facebook-parent access to Nvidia's latest GB300 systems, according to a Bloomberg report, citing an interview with the data center operator's CEO Michael Intrator. The new deal comes a week after CoreWeave signed a third multi-billion dollar cloud expansion deal with OpenAI to aid the ChatGPT maker with its computational needs. CoreWeave executives had then noted sky-high demand from clients. CoreWeave operates AI data centers in the U.S. and Europe, offering access to Nvidia's graphic processing units, which are highly sought after for training and running large AI models. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Jaspreet Singh and Supantha Mukherjee (Reuters) -Spotify founder-CEO Daniel Ek will step down to become executive chairman in January, the Swedish streaming company said on Tuesday as it named longtime executives Gustav Soderstrom and Alex Norstrom as co-CEOs. The leadership change comes as Spotify expands into podcasts and audiobooks amid questions over how it will balance growth and profitability. Its shares slipped about 2.5% in premarket trading after gaining 63% this year. As executive chairman, Ek will focus on capital allocation and long-term strategy in what the company called a European-style chairman role. He is one of Europe's most prominent tech entrepreneurs, having built Spotify into a rare global consumer technology leader from the region.  The billionaire said he will continue to steer the company's strategy. "I will be more involved than a typical US chairman. So think of it a little bit like moving from a player to a coach," said Ek, who has been on the company's board since 2008. Spotify remains the clear market leader with nearly 700 million monthly users and more than 100 million tracks, far ahead of Apple Music's roughly 90 million subscribers.  But it faces competition from YouTube Music's vast video-integrated catalog and Amazon Music's Prime-linked offerings, which give rivals distinct advantages in certain markets. Despite Spotify's dominance, pressure on profit margins have persisted as artists push for higher payouts and the ad-supported tier expands. "Naturally, there will be some disruption given the change and the significant achievements under Ek's stewardship, which have been remarkable," said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore. Global revenue from recorded music rose 4.8% to $29.6 billion in 2024. Streaming exceeded $20 billion for the first time and subscription streaming accounted for more than half of it, according to IFPI's Global Music Report. FROM STARTUP TO GIANT Founded in 2006, Stockholm-based Spotify helped transform a music industry that had been shrinking for years due to piracy and falling CD sales. Its U.S. debut in 2011 came as industry revenue had slumped. Still, the company reported its first annual profit only in 2024, after a slew of price increases and cost-cutting efforts. Billionaire Ek is often cited as a champion of Europe's ability to produce companies that can compete with U.S. and Asian tech giants. Soderstrom, currently chief product and technology officer, oversees global tech strategy and product development, while Norstrom, as chief business officer, manages subscriber and advertising businesses along with music, podcast and audiobook operations.  They will report to Ek who also serves on the board. The three executives have worked together for a decade and a half. "Norstrom is deeply interested in knowledge about product, and I'm very interested in business," Soderstrom said. "So we run this as a single team. Several high-profile firms such as Oracle and Netflix have adopted a co-CEO model to better manage their operations as they become more complex and globally diversified. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

(Reuters) -CoreWeave said it has signed a $14 billion agreement with Meta to supply computing power, the latest multi-billion dollar deal as businesses ramp up infrastructure to meet the demand for artificial intelligence applications. Shares of CoreWeave surged 10% in premarket trading following the news on Tuesday. There has been a wave of billion-dollar deals in recent months, with many AI tech firms making investments and supply deals with each other, raising questions about "circular" financing and concerns whether capital will continue to flow. A surge in valuations of these companies has also sparked worries among investors about whether the AI stock boom is a bubble. Meta has been one of the biggest proponents of AI, investing tens of billions into data centers across the U.S. and paying athlete salaries to hire top AI software engineers while competition intensifies. The social media firm did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. As a part of the agreement, CoreWeave will provide the Facebook-parent access to Nvidia's latest GB300 systems, according to a Bloomberg report, citing an interview with the data center operator's CEO Michael Intrator. The new deal comes a week after CoreWeave signed a third multi-billion dollar cloud expansion deal with OpenAI to aid the ChatGPT maker with its computational needs. CoreWeave executives had then noted sky-high demand from clients. CoreWeave operates AI data centers in the U.S. and Europe, offering access to Nvidia's graphic processing units, which are highly sought after for training and running large AI models. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Jaspreet Singh and Supantha Mukherjee (Reuters) -Spotify founder-CEO Daniel Ek will step down to become executive chairman in January, the Swedish streaming company said on Tuesday as it named longtime executives Gustav Soderstrom and Alex Norstrom as co-CEOs. The leadership change comes as Spotify expands into podcasts and audiobooks amid questions over how it will balance growth and profitability. Its shares slipped about 2.5% in premarket trading after gaining 63% this year. As executive chairman, Ek will focus on capital allocation and long-term strategy in what the company called a European-style chairman role. He is one of Europe's most prominent tech entrepreneurs, having built Spotify into a rare global consumer technology leader from the region.  The billionaire said he will continue to steer the company's strategy. "I will be more involved than a typical US chairman. So think of it a little bit like moving from a player to a coach," said Ek, who has been on the company's board since 2008. Spotify remains the clear market leader with nearly 700 million monthly users and more than 100 million tracks, far ahead of Apple Music's roughly 90 million subscribers.  But it faces competition from YouTube Music's vast video-integrated catalog and Amazon Music's Prime-linked offerings, which give rivals distinct advantages in certain markets. Despite Spotify's dominance, pressure on profit margins have persisted as artists push for higher payouts and the ad-supported tier expands. "Naturally, there will be some disruption given the change and the significant achievements under Ek's stewardship, which have been remarkable," said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore. Global revenue from recorded music rose 4.8% to $29.6 billion in 2024. Streaming exceeded $20 billion for the first time and subscription streaming accounted for more than half of it, according to IFPI's Global Music Report. FROM STARTUP TO GIANT Founded in 2006, Stockholm-based Spotify helped transform a music industry that had been shrinking for years due to piracy and falling CD sales. Its U.S. debut in 2011 came as industry revenue had slumped. Still, the company reported its first annual profit only in 2024, after a slew of price increases and cost-cutting efforts. Billionaire Ek is often cited as a champion of Europe's ability to produce companies that can compete with U.S. and Asian tech giants. Soderstrom, currently chief product and technology officer, oversees global tech strategy and product development, while Norstrom, as chief business officer, manages subscriber and advertising businesses along with music, podcast and audiobook operations.  They will report to Ek who also serves on the board. The three executives have worked together for a decade and a half. "Norstrom is deeply interested in knowledge about product, and I'm very interested in business," Soderstrom said. "So we run this as a single team. Several high-profile firms such as Oracle and Netflix have adopted a co-CEO model to better manage their operations as they become more complex and globally diversified. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

(Reuters) -CoreWeave said it has signed a $14 billion agreement with Meta to supply computing power, the latest multi-billion dollar deal as businesses ramp up infrastructure to meet the demand for artificial intelligence applications. Shares of CoreWeave surged 10% in premarket trading following the news on Tuesday. As a part of the agreement, CoreWeave will provide the Facebook-parent access to Nvidia's latest GB300 systems, according to a Bloomberg report, citing an interview with the data center operator's CEO Michael Intrator. The new deal comes a week after CoreWeave signed a third multi-billion dollar cloud expansion with OpenAI to aid the ChatGPT maker with its computational needs while executives note sky-high demand from clients. Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)