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Markets Live: Trouble for the FAANGs

Follow our Markets Live blog for the latest news that affects your portfolio
April 21, 2021
  • Catch up with last night's Apple event 
  • Netflix crumbles as pandemic boom fades 
  • Daily Mail sues Google

Good morning and welcome to the IC’s live blog, where our writers round-up the biggest business stories of the day. 

It looks like the European Super League (ESL) project may already be crumbling, less than a week after the news of its launch leaked. It emerged last night that all six English clubs are preparing to withdraw from the tournament, after a fierce backlash from fans, rival teams and politicians. 

We would not be surprised if the remaining Spanish and Italian clubs soon follow suit. It already looks like broadcasters do not want to touch the ESL with a barge-pole. Amazon (US:AMZN) has suggested that it would not air it on Prime Video, even as it grows its live sports streaming service. But its statement that it had “not been involved in any discussions” for the proposed league makes us question whether the ESL bothered to get broadcasters on board in the first place. 

Elsewhere in the world of streaming, Netflix (US:NFLX) revealed last night that it added 3.98m subscribers in the first quarter, around 2m lower than its internal forecast. It marked a sharp slowdown from huge gains this time last year, sending its shares down 9 per cent in after-hours trading. But the company was more profitable than expected - operating income more than doubled to around $2bn, compared to $954m in the last three months of 2020. It plans to start buying back shares this quarter.  

It’s been a busy night in California. Over in Cupertino, Apple (US:AAPL) hosted its first event of the year - launching a new iPad Pro, a new iMac and huge changes to its podcast service. Meanwhile in San Francisco, social gaming platform Discord has reportedly walked away from deal talks with Microsoft (US:MSFT). And finally, in Mountain View, Alphabet (US:GOOGL) has been smacked with an antitrust complaint from Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) over its advertising and search activities.

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