Farage: Badenoch must apologise for ‘crazy conspiracy theory’ on Reform numbers
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — As Jamahl Mosley has continued to adjust Orlando ‘s lineups in the absence of Paolo Banchero , the Magic coach has seemingly found one that thrives on both ends of the court. It’s who the Magic have started the last two games, including Friday night against the Nets at Barclays Center: Jalen Suggs, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Franz Wagner, Wendell Carter Jr. and Goga Bitadze. It’s also a group that wasn’t possible to put on the floor when Carter missed 12 games in a row due to left foot plantar fasciitis. But until Banchero (torn right abdominal muscle) returns to the court, it’s a lineup that allows the Magic to spread the floor on offense, attack the paint and impose their will on defense. “It’s kind of hard to score on that,” said Caldwell-Pope said of Orlando’s newest starting lineup after the Magic’s fifth win in a row and their 11th in the past 12 games Friday. At 6-foot-5, he and Suggs are technically the shortest players amongst the lengthy group that includes the 6-10 Wagner, 6-10 Carter and 6-11 Bitadze. “When you’ve got me, Suggs, [and] Franz guarding the wings, and then if you get past us, you’ve got two big guys down there,” Caldwell-Pope said. He described Carter and Bitadze as shot-blockers who can also change a lot of shots and clean up the glass for Orlando (14-7). “They’re getting rebounds for us and that’s when we get out and push in transition; what we’re starting to get better at,” the veteran guard said of Orlando’s two big men. And Caldwell-Pope is right. The lineup of Suggs, Caldwell-Pope, Wagner, Carter and Bitadze has allowed zero offensive boards to opponents in the two games they’ve played together, according to NBA.com . As an entire team, the Magic outrebounded the Nets 40-35, which included an 11-5 advantage on offensive boards. They added 13 blocks (5 of which came from Bitadze) and 13 steals. By the end of the night, Orlando had scored 34 points of 20 Brooklyn turnovers. Beede’s Breakdown: How Magic’s 3s powered NBA Cup win at Nets “It’s working,” Bitadze told reporters in the locker room about playing alongside Carter. “We’re locking it up. Teams are really struggling to score against us, so I guess we are playing good defense.” The advanced numbers back up his claim. Among the six Magic lineups that have played at least 29 minutes together, the quintet of Suggs, Caldwell-Pope, Wagner, Carter and Bitadze has a team-best net-rating at plus-48.3, according to NBA.com. That’s thanks to not only a solid 98.3 defensive rating but also an impressive 146.6 offensive rating. While still a small sample size, it’s noteworthy for a new starting lineup from the Magic. “I’m sure it’s an adjustment for them two as well, but I feel like they’re doing a great job,” Wagner said of the Carter-Bitadze duo. “Obviously, it requires a little bit of communication [with] guys playing out of their position, especially Wendell. “But I feel like Wendell’s doing a great job of finding his way back into things,” he added. As Bitadze has found success in the paint on offense, it’s been Carter who helps out on the perimeter on offense. They’re also both capable passers, with Carter dishing out 4 assists vs. Brooklyn and Bitadze 3. Although he only made his lone 3-point attempt vs. Brooklyn, Carter’s presence alone impacts Caldwell-Pope, Suggs and Wagner, a trio that shot 9 of 17 (53%) from distance on Friday. “I haven’t been shooting it well, so he can spread the floor and we crash the glass and dominate the glass inside with me and him, too,” Bitadze said about playing alongside Carter. “Defensively as well, we’re a force, so it’s easy.” Added Carter about the duo after practice Saturday: “It’s not really an adjustment. We’re both defensive-minded players and we take a lot of pride on the defensive end. Playing with Goga, if anything it makes a lot easier on that end.” But the Magic aren’t satisfied. They know the work continues through the long haul after just a quarter of the way through the season and entering a Sunday afternoon re-match against the Nets (9-11). Gary Harris (left hamstring strain) will miss his third consecutive contest against Brooklyn. “We can do even better than this,” Bitadze said. “We always expect the best and not let other teams score at all. We would love that — not to let them score. But it’s been working well.” The Magic also understand and appreciate the job done by Mosley since Banchero went down Oct. 30 at Chicago. Orlando has gone 11-5 in the time Banchero has missed. “Shoutout to Mosley for keeping us together,” Bitadze said of his coach. “To really focus on defense is hard in this league, and that’s what we’ve done. We’re winning games; we’re trusting our defense. So it’s working well. “We’ve got to keep trusting.” Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com Up next ... Magic at Nets When: 3:30, Sunday, Barclays Center TV: FanDuel Sports Network FloridaThe Reform UK leader pushed back against reports suggesting that legal action would be the next step, saying he would make a decision in the next couple of days about his response if there is no apology for the “crazy conspiracy theory”. Mr Farage also said the party has “opened up our systems” to media outlets, including The Daily Telegraph and The Financial Times, in the interests of “full transparency to verify that our numbers are correct”. His remarks came after Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused Mr Farage of “fakery” in response to Reform claiming they had surpassed the Tories in signed-up members. Mrs Badenoch said Reform’s counter was “coded to tick up automatically”. A digital counter on the Reform website showed a membership tally before lunchtime on Boxing Day ticking past the 131,680 figure declared by the Conservative Party during its leadership election earlier this year. Mr Farage, on whether he was threatening legal action or not, told the PA news agency: “I haven’t threatened anything. I’ve just said that unless I get an apology, I will take some action. “I haven’t said whether it’s legal or anything.” He added: “All I’ve said is I want an apology. If I don’t get an apology, I will take action. “I will decide in the next couple of days what that is. So I’ve not specified what it is.” Mr Farage, on the move to make membership data available to media organisations, said: “We feel our arguments are fully validated. “She (Mrs Badenoch) has put out this crazy conspiracy theory and she needs to apologise.” On why Mrs Badenoch had reacted as she did, Mr Farage said: “I would imagine she was at home without anybody advising her and was just angry.” Mr Farage, in a statement issued on social media site X, also said: “The accusations of fraud and dishonesty made against me yesterday were disgraceful. “Today we opened up our systems to The Telegraph, Spectator, Sky News and FT in the interests of full transparency to verify that our data is correct. “I am now demanding Kemi Badenoch apologises.” A Conservative Party source claimed Mr Farage was “rattled” that his Boxing Day “publicity stunt is facing serious questions”. They added: “Like most normal people around the UK, Kemi is enjoying Christmas with her family and looking forward to taking on the challenges of renewing the Conservative Party in the New Year.” Mrs Badenoch, in a series of messages posted on X on Thursday, said: “Farage doesn’t understand the digital age. This kind of fakery gets found out pretty quickly, although not before many are fooled.” There were 131,680 Conservative members eligible to vote during the party’s leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak in the autumn. Mrs Badenoch claimed in her thread that “the Conservative Party has gained thousands of new members since the leadership election”. Elsewhere, Mr Farage described Elon Musk as a “bloody hero” and said he believes the US billionaire can help attract younger voters to Reform. Tech entrepreneur Mr Musk met Mr Farage earlier this month at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, amid rumours of a possible donation to either Mr Farage or Reform. Mr Farage told The Daily Telegraph newspaper: “The shades, the bomber jacket, the whole vibe. Elon makes us cool – Elon is a huge help to us with the young generation, and that will be the case going on and, frankly, that’s only just starting. “Reform only wins the next election if it gets the youth vote. The youth vote is the key. Of course, you need voters of all ages, but if you get a wave of youth enthusiasm you can change everything. “And I think we’re beginning to get into that zone – we were anyway, but Elon makes the whole task much, much easier. And the idea that politics can be cool, politics can be fun, politics can be real – Elon helps us with that mission enormously.”
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The St. Petersburg City Council voted Thursday to spend more than $23 million to repair the hurricane-shredded roof of Tropicana Field , with the goal of having the home of the Tampa Bay Rays ready for the 2026 season. The vote followed a decision earlier this week by the Pinellas County Commission to delay until December a vote on revenue bonds needed to finance a new, $1.3 billion Rays ballpark, a project that is in serious jeopardy according to Rays executives. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Chewy ( CHWY -0.45% ) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Dec 04, 2024 , 8:00 a.m. ET Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: Operator Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Chewy third quarter 2024 earnings call. My name is Emily, and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator instructions] I will now hand the call over to our host, Chewy CFO, David Reeder, to begin. David, please go ahead. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Thank you for joining us on the call today to discuss our third quarter results for fiscal year 2024. Joining me today is Chewy CEO, Sumit Singh. Our earnings release, which was filed with the SEC earlier today, has been posted to the investor relations section of our website. In addition to the earnings release, a presentation summarizing our results is also available on our website at investor.chewy.com. On our call today, we will be making forward-looking statements, including statements concerning Chewy's financial results and performance, industry trends, strategic initiatives, share repurchase program, and the environment in which we operate. Such statements are considered forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and other factors described in the section titled Risk Factors in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 and in our other filings with the SEC, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by our forward-looking statements. Reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. Also, note that the forward-looking statements on this call are based on information available to us as of today's date. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law. Also, during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP items to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided on our investor relations website and in our earnings release. These non-GAAP measures are not intended as a substitute for GAAP results. Additionally, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons discussed on today's call will be against the comparable period of fiscal year 2023. Finally, this call in its entirety is being webcast on our investor relations website. A replay of the audio webcast will also be available on our investor relations website shortly. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Sumit. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Thank you, Dave, and thank you all for joining us on today's call. Our third quarter results continued to build on the positive momentum we observed in Q2. We delivered top-line growth exceeding the high end of our net sales guidance range, a sequential increase in active customers, continued adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, and robust free cash flow generation. These results underscore the durability of our business model and our team's relentless focus on high-quality execution and operational discipline. With that, let's dive into the details. Q3 net sales increased by approximately 5% to $2.88 billion. Both the strength of our flagship Autoship program and our customers' loyalty in nondiscretionary categories, particularly within consumables and health, anchored our Q3 net sales performance. Our Autoship program enables high visibility and predictability in our business and drives customer stickiness for Chewy. Autoship customer sales reached $2.3 billion in the quarter, representing 80% of Q3 net sales and a year-over-year increase of approximately 9%. Nondiscretionary categories, including consumables and healthcare products and services, accounted for 85% of Q3 net sales. Customers appreciate our comprehensive product catalog and our ongoing efforts to refresh assortment across food, treats, and hard goods. Over the last few quarters, we have increased our assortment across popular categories such as pet tech, vet food, and supplements, to name a few, adding several new premium brands, most of which launched exclusively on chewy.com. Additionally, we are continuously rolling out enhancements to our on-site and in-app experiences to ensure we are providing an even more enjoyable and convenient shopping journey for pet parents. Last quarter, I spoke about our efforts to redesign our mobile app and make the overall app experience more convenient for customers. In Q3, both unique customers who placed at least one order on the app and average app monthly active users or app MAU increased in the mid-teens range compared to Q3 of last year. I am excited by the strong engagement we continue to observe through our mobile app and the experience it brings to our customers. Continuing on the topic of customers, I am pleased to share that Q3 marked another quarter of sequential active customer growth, building on the momentum we established coming out of our second quarter. Our efforts to enhance shopping experiences, expand assortment, and various ongoing innovations, combined with our powerful marketing and CRM strategy, continue to drive outperformance, while macro normalization steadily continues in the background. We ended the third quarter with approximately 20.2 million active customers, up 160,000 sequentially. We now expect to end fiscal 2024 with active customers up modestly over last year, a trend which we expect to continue to strengthen in 2025. Turning to profitability. We generated $138 million of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, representing a 4.8% margin and approximately 180 basis points of margin expansion year over year. Our Q3 adjusted EBITDA results reflect a continuation of our strong gross margin performance, our disciplined approach to cost management, and the ongoing benefits of fixed cost leverage as we scale. Our increasing profitability has enabled us to continue to return meaningful capital to shareholders, as reflected by the incremental $342 million we deployed to shareholders in the third quarter. Now, let me provide an update on some of Chewy's strategic initiatives and innovations. The Sponsored Ads business continues to perform well. And as expected, we remain on track to reach the low end of our previously stated long-term target range of 1% to 3% of net sales in fiscal 2024. We remain on track with our 1P technology migration and look forward to starting the new fiscal year fully converted to our 1P software platform. Moving to Chewy's healthcare offerings. I am proud of the progress our team has made this year across healthcare products and services, especially Chewy Vet Care or CVC. With the launch of Chewy Vet Care Clinics earlier this year, we not only unlocked the $25 billion vet services TAM opportunity, but we are also observing compelling complementarities across the entire Chewy ecosystem. We have six clinics opened today and expect to reach the high end of our previously stated target range of four to eight clinic openings in 2024 later this fiscal year. Performance across our clinic footprint is promising, and I'm happy to share that the early signs of success we spoke about last quarter have continued through Q3. The proportion of new-to-Chewy customers acquired through Chewy Vet Care continues to outperform relative to expectations. Additionally, broader ecosystem benefits, including cross-category shopping and post-clinic visit purchases on chewy.com, have strengthened since last quarter, indicating that our ability to seamlessly connect care with commerce is resonating with pet parents. I would also like to take a moment to talk about Chewy+, our paid membership program. Recall that we launched Chewy+ in summer 2024 to a representative sample of customers. Since launching the program, we have been carefully studying the shopping behavior of Chewy+ members and are tracking several key indicators of success, including the program's potential to accelerate wallet share consolidation and drive stronger cross-category engagement. Based on the data we have analyzed over the last several months, we are seeing that Chewy+ members consistently place more orders, have higher cross-category penetration and greater mobile app engagement relative to non-Chewy+ customers. Furthermore, we are seeing higher Autoship adoption rates from this early cohort of customers, signaling a potentially compelling flywheel effect off the Chewy+ program. While contribution to the overall enterprise remains immaterial, we are encouraged by these early results and look forward to introducing the program to our broader base of customers. Touching on Canada, where we completed a full year of operations in Q3. The Canadian business, while still relatively small and immaterial to the overall scale of Chewy, continues to improve across key metrics, including Autoship penetration, net sales growth, and profitability. Additionally, we remain focused on strengthening brand awareness in Canada and are excited by the brand partnership we recently signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. We believe Chewy's passion for pets perfectly aligned with Torontonians' passion for the Maple Leafs, and we are bringing this to life with dynamic advertising and interactive fan moments during games at Scotiabank Arena. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge a notable milestone for Chewy with our recent inclusion in the S&P 400 index as of November 6th. We view our inclusion in this index as an endorsement of our performance, our enduring business, and our compelling growth opportunities ahead. In closing, I would like to thank all of our dedicated Chewy team members for their hard work and strong execution in the third quarter. We are now focused on executing through our final quarter of 2024 and are excited about the customer engagement we have seen thus far through this holiday season and look forward to ending fiscal year 2024 on a high note. With that, I will turn the call over to Dave. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Thank you, Sumit. Third quarter net sales grew 4.8% year over year to 2.88 billion, exceeding the high end of the guidance range we provided last quarter. The pricing, promotion, and discount environment remained stable throughout the quarter. As such, year-over-year revenue growth was primarily driven by active customer growth and cross-category product penetration, resulting in continued customer wallet share gain. We ended the quarter with 20.2 million active customers, reflecting a sequential net increase of approximately 160,000 customers. Gross additions exceeded pre-COVID levels, and gross churn improved year over year. Within gross engross additions, both new customers and reactivations grew year over year in the quarter. We are encouraged by the positive momentum in active customers and expect these trends to continue through the balance of the year. Against the backdrop of a modestly improving pet industry and strong Chewy-specific execution, we now expect to end fiscal year 2024 with modest year-over-year active customer growth. Third quarter Autoship customer sales increased by 8.7% to 2.3 billion, outpacing total net sales growth in the quarter by approximately 390 basis points. Autoship customer sales as a percentage of total net sales increased by 290 basis points to 80%, a new company record. Additionally, we continued to grow share of wallet with Q3 net sales per active customer, or NSPAC, reaching $567. Moving to profitability. We reported third quarter gross margin of 29.3%, representing 80 basis points of margin expansion year over year. Our growing Sponsored Ads business was the largest driver of gross margin improvement in the quarter, followed by product mix shift into premium categories, including consumables and pharmacy. Additionally, promotional activity in the third quarter was in line with our expectations, and the promotional environment to date in the fourth quarter remains rational. Shifting to operating expenses. Please note that my discussion of SG&A exclude share-based compensation expense and related taxes. Third quarter SG&A totaled 546 million, or 19% of net sales, representing 90 basis points of improvement on a year-over-year basis. SG&A leverage was primarily driven by continued discipline and efficiency with respect to corporate payroll, fulfillment, and other at scale efficiency benefits. Third quarter advertising and marketing expense was 191.8 million or 6.7% of net sales. I would note that we expect advertising and marketing expenses to come in at the high end of our previously stated range of 6% to 7% of net sales for the full year. This is primarily due to the timing of certain marketing campaigns in Q4. Third quarter adjusted net income was 84.9 million, representing a 34% increase year over year. Net income for the quarter was 3.9 million, which translated into $0.01 earnings per share on both a basic and diluted basis. Finally, we reported adjusted EBITDA of 138.2 million, representing a 4.8% adjusted EBITDA margin and 180 basis points of year-over-year margin expansion, driven by the improvements in gross margin and SG&A described earlier. We reported free cash flow of 151.8 million in the third quarter, reflecting 183.5 million of net cash provided by operating activities and 31.7 million of capital expenditures. Our third quarter trailing 12-month free cash flow was over 360 million and demonstrates our ability to generate increasing levels of free cash flow while continuing to invest in our growth initiatives and returning significant capital to shareholders. I'd now like to provide an update on our share repurchase activity completed in the quarter. In September, concurrently with a 500 million underwritten secondary offering of Class A common stock by BC Partners, we repurchased approximately 10.2 million shares of Class A common stock directly from BC Partners for an aggregate repurchase price of 300 million. This repurchase transaction allowed us to continue to reduce the ownership position of our largest shareholder and was executed separately from our existing $500 million share repurchase program. Additionally, during the quarter, we repurchased approximately 1.6 million shares of Class A common stock, spending approximately 42.4 million under our 500 million share repurchase program. At the end of the quarter, we had approximately 424.8 million of remaining capacity under the program for future repurchases. Collectively, the company has repurchased and retired a total of 30.7 million shares year to date. Our ability to generate increasing levels of profitability and free cash flow will continue to enable us to invest in our business and return meaningful capital to shareholders. We ended the quarter with approximately 508 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and we remain debt-free, with an overall liquidity position of approximately 1.3 billion. With that, I'd like to turn to our fourth quarter and updated full year 2024 guidance. We anticipate fourth quarter net sales of between 3.18 billion and 3.20 billion, or approximately 13% year-over-year growth, which reflects the full impact of the 53rd week, and we are narrowing and raising our full year 2024 net sales outlook to be between 11.79 billion and 11.81 billion or approximately 6% year-over-year growth. This range includes the impact of a 53-week 2024 fiscal year. And as previously noted, the 53rd week will be fully reflected in the fourth quarter of 2024. We are raising our full year 2024 adjusted EBITDA margin guidance to a range of 4.6% to 4.8%. The midpoint of our full year adjusted EBITDA margin guidance range indicates approximately 140 basis points of year-over-year margin expansion and implies approximately 3.4% adjusted EBITDA margin for the fourth quarter. Consistent with our comments last quarter pertaining to the quarterly progression of 2024 adjusted EBITDA margin, we expect Q4 adjusted EBITDA margin to decline sequentially due to typical seasonality and the timing of certain investments, primarily pertaining to marketing campaigns. Given the results of our previous three quarters, we anticipate 2024 capital expenditures to come in at the low end of our previously stated range of 1.5% to 2% of net sales, and we expect free cash flow conversion to remain above 80% for the full year. Finally, we expect basic shares outstanding at fiscal 2024 year-end to be approximately 415 million. This incorporates the nearly 31 million shares that we have repurchased and retired year to date and does not incorporate any potential future share repurchases. In closing, our third quarter results reflect another quarter of strong execution. I want to thank our incredible Chewy team members for their collective efforts as we continue to execute against our strategic priorities to deliver long-term profitable growth. With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for questions. Questions & Answers: Operator Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator instructions] Our first question today comes from the line of Nathan Feather with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Nathan Feather -- Analyst Thanks for the question and congrats on the strong results. Really encouraging to see the continued momentum. Active customer growth continues to accelerate. Can you double-click on what you're seeing in overall pet ownership trends and how we should think about the relative contribution to customer growth as compared to some of the idiosyncratic initiatives you've been working on? And then given the expectation for customer growth to improve further in '25, how should we think about the key puts and takes you're considering for growth in the year? Thank you. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Hey, Nathan. This is Sumit. I'll start and Dave will jump in wherever he sees appropriate. So, in terms of household formation trends, I think you started with that, we continue to see signs of industry normalization. Pricing remains stable. Inflation continues to move toward a more normalized level. In fact, we saw no benefit of pricing, as we mentioned on the earnings call, as we move through Q3. Regarding pet household formation, of course, there's no single truth -- source of truth for this data. Our triangulation, you know, continues to tell us that latest adoption and relinquishment trends are both trending in a better direction. We believe year-over-year adoption growth was in the high single-digit to low double-digit ranges, and relinquishment were down low single digits. So, overall, we observed a return to positive net adoptions in cycle of Q3 from an external point of view. In terms of -- let me see, you had another question here. Double-click and do about expectation for active customer growth in '25 and puts and takes. So, I mean, there's a lot going on. Ultimately, we believe -- you know, as I mentioned last quarter, the active customer growth that we are driving now -- you know, two times now as a trend -- is largely due to our own efforts, and the industry continues to normalize in the background, which is, of course, a stabilizing factor that is very good to see. On our side, you know, enhancing on-site and mobile experiences, expanding assortment, performance on the CRM strategy, and all of that is sort of what's working in conjunction. As we move into '25, what has really started to work for us is our focus on connecting the marketing funnel to expanded audiences, and driving that funnel exposure is enabling our teams to find both the right level of efficiency, as well as the flexibility to move spend up and down the funnel to capture both share of voice and demand. And when we bring them to the site, we are able to convert them effectively with the previous efforts that I've talked about around improvement of site experience, customer choices, assortment, other innovations, etc. So, our '25 strategy is very much in line with, you know, operating the playbook that we've uncovered and strengthened for ourselves in '24. Another data point that I just want to draw your attention to, more of a recall from last quarter, is we said, you know, we have an improved ability to identify and segment customers and target them, you know, to drive improved second purchase rates, Autoship signups, mobile app engagement, etc., etc. And so, on the background, you know, we've now sort of played this playbook for at least two quarters. We're going to rinse and repeat in Q4 and 2025, strengthening our channel and share performance in the market. Nathan Feather -- Analyst Great. Thank you. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Thank you, Nate. Operator The next question comes from Curtis Nagle with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Curtis, please go ahead. Curtis Nagle -- Analyst Awesome. Thanks very much for taking the question. So, I want to focus a bit on the 4Q guidance and maybe specifically on the comments in terms of the advertising and marketing spend. Just in terms of context, you know, at the high end of the range, you know, around 7% for the year, it implies like a really big dollar increase, right, certainly relative to the other quarters. Like, no relative leverage from the extra week. So, you know, I guess, just kind of digging into that, you know, what does this spend pertain to? Looks to me like implied like $40 million to $50 million year over year. Is that correct? And, you know, are there specific products or customers you're targeting? Is it one-time? Just, you know, kind of dig into that and kind of how we should specifically, you know, think about that increase and whether you're just applying some conservatism or not. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Good morning and thanks for the question. I'll take this one, and then, Sumit, if you want to build upon any of it, you know, let me know. And I'll build upon Sumit's comments about active customers. So, in the third quarter, when you think about the elements that go into gross additions, you've got new customers added, you've got reactivations, and then, of course, you have churn. And we actually saw improvement across all three of those metrics in the third quarter on a year-over-year basis. And so, we're entering the fourth quarter with some momentum on the activities that we're driving across those three elements I mentioned. We're entering the fourth quarter with the continuation of what we believe is a normalizing industry, as we previously referenced with moderating inflation, as well as the shelter data that we've mentioned previously as well, which has continued in the third quarter. So, with that momentum going into the fourth quarter, there's a couple of elements to consider. Number one, you typically have a little bit higher elevated advertising and marketing in the fourth quarter given the holiday season, as well as the timing of certain campaigns. And then building on that, we see an opportunity in the industry in the fourth quarter where we believe that we want to invest and lean in to the fourth quarter such that we can continue to build on what we believe are some improvement in the industry and then continue that, of course, into 2025. So, you know, net-net, you take a step back, you think about what we've told you for the year in terms of our guidance, active customer growth, flat to down in the first half, flat to up in the second half, ending flat. We've moved up that guidance. We've pulled in that guidance. And we see an opportunity to invest in the fourth quarter in advertising and marketing, and we're doing that. For the full year, we'll be at the high end of the 6% to 7% range. And as you mentioned, to get to the high end of that 6% to 7% range for the year, that would imply being above 7% specifically for the fourth quarter. Sumit. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Yeah. Curtis, I would just like to add more of a reminder on the conversations that we've had on this call in the past, which is, you know, we spend based on the ROI and the LTV potential that we're seeing in the current cohort of customers that we pick up from market and the existing customer base that we're developing share of wallet on. So, in the past, as you know, we've swung the marketing spend all the way to the left, you know, down 70 basis points, 80 basis points from our average. And now, we're picking that back up. Why didn't we spend in the past and why are we spending now? Well, because we didn't see the ROI in the past and we are now. The cohorts that were acquiring, the efficiencies that we're gaining based on the full funnel audience expansions that I talked about are really compelling and behooves us to be able to invest to continue this trend, as well as solidify growth for year 2025 and beyond. If you kind of see something -- let me share some of the data points that we're seeing. You know, the -- you know, our orientation is three-fourths of the customers that we're picking up had at least one SKU from a repeatable category. And that's an encouraging trend because it promotes Autoship growth and builds the layer cake that then sort of compels and, you know, spins the flywheel in a more efficient manner. We're seeing, you know, these new customers' reorder rates and settlement rates improving, you know, as our engagements with these consumable-type categories. You know, when you look at year-to-date '24 new customer cohorts, in terms of year-over-year reorder rates, in the first few periods of post-acquisition, you know, we're running roughly 300 basis points to 500 basis points higher than the three months averages. So, these are just some data points on the background that allows us to sort of study and, you know, increase or decrease the values of propensity you know, modeling and, therefore, go out and invest if we see the returns. That's what we're doing right now. Curtis Nagle -- Analyst OK. And then just -- that makes total sense. Just a quick follow-up. The points you made in answering Nathan's question on the adoptions were really interesting. I think you said, you know, up on a gross add basis high singles to low double, relinquishment was down low singles. So, you know, net, a pretty good number. What -- how did that compare to 2Q? Just trying to, you know, sort of size it in terms of relative improvement. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director It's positive by -- I think the margins extended by low to mid-single-digit ranges relative to Q2. Curtis Nagle -- Analyst OK. Awesome. Appreciate it. Thank you. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Sure. Operator The next question comes from Doug Anmuth with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Doug Anmuth -- Analyst Great. Thanks for taking the questions. Two, if I could. First, just on vet clinics, looks like you're on track to the eight locations by year-end. Can you talk more about what you've learned this year and how that informs your '25 expansion plans and the investments that may be required then? And then, Sumit, if you could also perhaps give us an update on automation, just kind of how you're tracking relative to the 70% to 80% kind of long-term percentage of volume that you've talked about over time? Thanks. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Yeah. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director You take the first. I'll take -- David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Yeah. So, with respect to the vet clinics, you know, as we talked about, we were planning to roll out four to eight vet clinics this year. We're going to be at the high end of that range. The positive trends that we've seen on vet clinics have continued. Some of those positive metrics has been, you know, the operational utilization of those clinics, it's been high. The customer engagement from those clinics and the corresponding customer service levels have been high. The net promoter kind of score around those clinics and the service level, high. The new customer cross-category penetration, new customers to Chewy that come in through vet clinics and then their propensity to go to chewy.com and then shop online at chewy.com, also high. In fact, more than half of those new customers, consistent with last quarter -- actually an improvement from last quarter, are leaving the vet clinic, new customer to Chewy, and then going online and also shopping at chewy.com. So, all the metrics across the vet clinics are trending positive. I'll leave the 2025 guidance for 2025. But I would just tell you that we've been very encouraged by our engagement with customers. We're encouraged by the size of the TAM, roughly 25 billion, that we've opened up through these vet clinics, and we're excited about continuing to grow our presence in this space. Sumit, anything that you would build on there? Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director On the automation, no, that's perfect. Thank you. On the automation side, Doug, we continue to trend upwards. A little less than half of our volume is now shipping through our 2G fulfillment centers and, you know, touching some sort of automation in the network. And that, combined with the improved, you know, supply chain tooling that we have, you know, is allowing us to execute through a really strong peak. And we continue to gain those efficiencies and flow through the bottom line, as you can see in the opex scaling that Dave talked about in the -- on the script. Happy to dive deeper in any area, if you like. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer And just to build on that comment and using some data points from the third quarter, given the efficiencies that you've mentioned, we had an improvement on the variable fulfillment side, we had improvement on the fixed fulfillment side. In other words, we got more fixed cost absorption through those fulfillment centers. And orders every quarter this year, year over year, so Q1, Q2, Q3, on a year-over-year basis, orders are up across all those quarters and in total year to date. In fact, we had our highest order period during this most recent peak -- holiday peak cycle over the last week or so. And so, the team is executing very well, and the automation that's been referenced here is a big contributor to that, both in terms of output, as well as efficiency and productivity. Did you have a follow-up, Doug? Doug Anmuth -- Analyst That's great. Thank you, both. Appreciate it. No. All good. Thank you. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Thanks. Operator The next question comes from David Bellinger with Mizuho. David, please go ahead. David Bellinger -- Analyst Hey. Good morning. Thanks for the questions. First one, I wanted to revisit the app, which I think you mentioned last quarter was around 20% of revenues. Is there any update on how quickly that percentage could ramp up? How fast can we get to 30% or 40%? And then secondly, how should we think about the P&L impact of that? Can you simply bypass marketing spend and sort of get more leverage on the ad expense line by getting more volumes through your app? Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Hi, David. So, we're -- this is a priority for us, and we are essentially ramping up our efforts very quickly to be able to push this volume. I would, you know, consider this not a few quarters of effort, but perhaps a couple of years of efforts to get to sort of market standard rates of, you know, above 40%, 45% of our -- so doubling kind of the volume that is moving through the app. But the progress that we are making on a quarter-over-quarter basis is something that we like. And of course, yes, we like it for the fact that it's a closed-loop ecosystem. It allows us to collect 1P data, market on a 1P basis, you know, take advantage of the direct traffic, stay in touch with customers, you know, who are really more engaged, and capitalize on the trends that we see in the app, which are highly encouraging from an overall conversion of revenue into profitability point of view. For example, you know, Autoship engagement rates are higher in the app. AOVs are higher in the app. Retention rates in apps are several hundred basis points higher than customers who engage with us over the web or desktop. You know, the cross-category attachment that we see go through the app is higher. So, all in all, it's just not only a more productive experience, it's also a more enjoyable and personalized experience that allows us to build a quality of relationship that we believe will be even stronger, alongside the P&L benefits that come with it. We'll size the benefits side, I think, in 2025, so I'm taking that question to note and we'll come back in 2025 and size it up. David Bellinger -- Analyst All right. Perfect. We'll come back on that one. And then just a follow-up, in your 10-Q filing, it looked like there was some new language around a project on the finance IT side. Not meaningful from a capital investment perspective. But can you elaborate on the SG&A portion, how much will that detract in 2025 and are there any deficiencies within the system that this is correcting? David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer No, there are no deficiencies in the system that this is correcting. This is a new capability for us. So, I think it's -- you should think about this as, you know, the migration of some of our planning engines to a more comprehensive online suite. And by being able to do that, which at no material impact really to the P&L, by being able to do that, we're able to, you know, get more granularity with respect to all of our operations. And we're also going to be able to apply some AI to those same operations to get some automated intelligence and reporting out of the system in a more comprehensive way. David Bellinger -- Analyst Perfect. Thank you, both. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Thanks, David. Operator The next question comes from Steven Zaccone with Citigroup. Steven, please go ahead. Steve Zaccone -- Analyst Hi. Good morning. Thanks very much for taking my question. First question I had was just on pricing. Sumit, you said there was no benefit from pricing in the third quarter. How do you see that playing out in 4Q, and then any preliminary views on 2025? It seems like the industry overall has been flattish for some time. So, your thoughts on maybe what it looks like next year will be helpful. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Yeah. So, hi, Steve. This is David. I'll take this one, and then, Sumit, if you want to build on it, chime in. With respect to pricing in third quarter, really no material benefit nor detriment in the third quarter with respect to pricing. We had goodness on the gross margin line, largely driven by Sponsored Ads and product mix. And then, of course, that flowed all the way through the P&L, ultimately, to give us a pretty sizable EBITDA beat for the quarter on a year-over-year basis, roughly half driven by gross margin and half driven by leverage through the remainder of the P&L. But really, no impact either way from pricing. With respect to fourth quarter, you know, you typically do have some pricing and discounting in the fourth quarter related to the holiday season. We fully baked that into our guidance for the fourth quarter. But again, no material kind of impact from inflation nor deflation, which the inflation piece is obviously we had seen in prior years and in prior periods, but really no meaningful impact really throughout 2024. We had a little bit in the first quarter. Second quarter, it moderated significantly. Third quarter, relatively nonexistent. Fourth quarter, expecting the same other than the traditional seasonality. And that's how we're kind of expecting rolling into 2025. We're expecting those trends to largely continue. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Yeah. The overall environment, Steven, the market remains very rational with, of course, some seasonal spikes that you would expect as we played through the Cyber Week last week, which was a very good week for us. You know, if you remember our comments from the beginning of this year, the composition of revenue has shifted from, you know, part pricing, part unit growth or structural growth coming into Q1 of this year to -- much more weighted toward structural growth as we exit this year. You know, we are not seeing deflation happen in the category. The category that, of course, is more elastic right now as we move to Q4, particularly Cyber, is more on the hard goods and discretionary side, but you would expect that, you know, as the industry normalizes and we push volumes through this seasonal holiday peak season. But outside of that, you should expect '25 -- you know, if you recall our long-term growth algorithm, the revenue is a function of active customer growth in the low to mid-single-digit and NSPAC growth in the mid to high single digit, and there's a benefit of roughly 2% to 2.5% of pricing built in when the industry normalizes. And that long-term growth algorithm, we expect, will come true as the industry continues to normalize and we move out of '24 into '25 and '26. Steve Zaccone -- Analyst OK. That's very helpful. The follow-up I had is just in the context of raising the customer count outlook and then the commentary about that strengthening in 2025, how much of that is driven by the industry data points getting a little bit better, like you mentioned, pet adoptions, versus your own idiosyncratic efforts, you know, talking about marketing and stuff of that nature? Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Yeah, it's hard to put a ratio on it, but we believe a majority of this change that we have seen is driven by internal efforts. And so, we are bullish, you know, that we should get an incremental tailwind, you know, when the industry fully normalizes. Currently, we are not taking that into account because we'd like to be -- we'd like that to sit on top. And so, present our -- presently, our comments around, you know, us growing active customer is on the back of efforts that we are internally driving and seeing success with. Steve Zaccone -- Analyst Very helpful. Thanks for the questions. Operator The next question comes from Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. Rupesh Parikh -- Analyst Good morning and thanks for taking my question. Also, congrats on this quarter. So, just going back to the hard goods category, we'd love to get more color in terms of what you saw during the quarter, expectations going forward. And then from a tariff perspective, does any exposure on the tariff front? Thank you. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director So, I'll take the first part. Dave will chime in on the second one. So, we're -- as you can see -- I mean, you know, hard goods continues to improve, and it did in Q3 as well. And so, on the backdrop, it's really good to kind of recognize the industry normalizing. You know, we are viewing the steady improvement in hard goods performance as a result of both our efforts that I've talked about and indicative of that industry stabilization. Specific to our efforts, it includes expanding assortment across several merch classes. We've been very focused on bringing in, you know, high value-added assortment onto the platform. And our suppliers and vendors are very excited to partner with us there. We're focused on upgrading site experience to improve padding, discovery, and conversion, and we are marrying that up with thoughtful campaign execution. And so, these efforts -- you know, the -- so we believe the work done by our teams is paying off. And I also want to note that we will only fully benefit, you know, from this when we start to see a more fulsome recovery in discretionary purchasing. But we're happy with the results so far. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer And building on that, like, we're excited about our goods growing two quarters in a row now on a year-over-year basis. So, both second quarter this year and third quarter of this year have now grown on a year-over-year basis. We're pretty excited about that growth. And we're also excited about the early trends that we've seen here in fourth quarter. So, don't want to, you know, guide by a product category, but certainly we feel good about hard goods, where we stand today in the fourth quarter. With respect to the tariff question that you mentioned, you know, we have a very small reliance and presence on China specifically. We do source some hard goods from China, primarily related to some of our hard goods. But the vast, vast majority of our net sales at Chewy are, you know, pretty much domestic -- domestically sourced. So, our reliance on the region in our -- the impact of any potential tariff is relatively low on Chewy. Rupesh Parikh -- Analyst Great. Thank you. I'll pass it along. Operator The next question comes from Mark Mahaney with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead, Mark. Mark Mahaney -- Analyst Thanks. Two questions, please. This active customer growth, can you tell how much of that is from reactivated customers, customers you've had in the past who churned off for whatever reasons and have come back? And if so, any color on what those reasons are? And then secondly, it sounds like competitive intensity is relatively moderate given your comments on pricing. But other than pricing, is there anything else you're seeing notable in the competitive landscape? Thank you. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Hi, Mark. A greater number of customers were from net new customers that we acquired relative to the reactivated customers that we count toward gross adds. The other encouraging factor that we saw this time was, you know, the cohort stabilization that we've been talking about. So, churn stabilized, as we would expect, which was Dave's earlier comment on all three indicators were positive: net new, reactivated, as well as lower churn. But between the gross add, the portion of net new customers on an absolute basis absolutely exceeded reactivations. So, we were happy to see that, of course, and we would want that. And then if you combine that with some of the results that I shared around how these cohorts are engaging in terms of second purchase rates, etc., that is encouraging to see. On the retention side, you know, we're tracking settled orders, which is a metric that we, you know, developed as we came out of the COVID time frame so to be really able to see third order settlement rates so that we're not calling early success or early, you know, wins on these customer cohorts. And we're seeing third order customer settlement rates also improve from cohorts that we've acquired from P5 of this year and before that. So, all encouraging signs. Competitive intensity, you're right. It seems relatively moderate. Pricing environment is rational. And overall, you know, we're playing a pretty strong playbook, continuing to differentiate ourselves, both in terms of the basics of, you know, the category around price and convenience and assortment, but also in bringing new innovations to life. Super excited about Chewy+, super excited about the app initiative. Canada is ramping well. Sponsored Ads are ramping well, too. Nothing else to report. Mark Mahaney -- Analyst OK. Thank you, Sumit. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Sure. Operator The next question comes from Shweta Khajuria with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead. Shweta Khajuria -- Analyst Thank you so much for taking my questions. Let me try two, please. One is could you please talk to some of the marketing channels that are working really well for you, were a positive surprise or have been a positive surprise for you over the past couple of quarters as you lean into different channels and seeing better returns? That's one. And then second is could you please talk about trends you saw quarter to date, so through October, November, December, and how the trend did versus your internal expectations? Thanks a lot. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Sure. So, I won't fully satisfy your curiosity on specific marketing channels working for us. I would reorient us back to the comment I made at the start of the call, which, if you were trying to draw, hey, what's different, I would focus on, you know, the comment around really connecting the marketing funnel to expanded audiences and driving that full funnel exposure. That has been the most significant change that we've made over the last few quarters. Combine that with our ability to target those customers when they arrive on our platforms and drive to better conversion I believe is a powerful recipe, which we are continuing to perfect. So, more room to go there. But we're excited about what we are seeing so far. So, I would likely just stick with that. Any color on quarter-to-date trends? We're happy with quarter-to-date performance. Our -- we just wrapped up our Cyber Week. And by all measure of the word, I would classify peak holiday event performance to be successful. We had a thoughtful and curated plan, comprised of great assortment, offers, experience, and marketing strategy. And customers, in return, engaged robustly with the visits and spending exceeding our expectations, driving some of the biggest net sales day in Chewy history. So, we're -- and as you heard from Dave in the prepared remarks, we're increasing our net sales guidance range for the year. And while we did not specifically call out the last few weeks that we've played through, this increase is a result of the strength that we are currently seeing in the engine. Anything to add? David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Yeah. If I could build on that with a few softer points here that don't necessarily show up in the P&L but they certainly give us a good brand umbrella, number one, Chewy Claus. I'll call that out, especially this time of year. And it's a program where pets submit their Santa wish list. And it's gotten quite a bit of traction in prior years. It's gotten even more traction this year. It's not part of a, you know, paid marketing program, but it is a program that's organic and it's trending. And it's a program that when people associate pets, pet parents, the humanization of pets in an emotive category like this, it is an organic trend that gets a lot of play this time of year, and it's a program that we love to run. And then finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't just point out the wow experience that our customer service provides every day and the brand uplift and emotive attachment to Chewy that that type of program does. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Shweta, if the CFO is talking about it, the Chewy Claus program must really be working there. Shweta Khajuria -- Analyst Thank you, Sumit. Thanks, Dave. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Thanks. Operator We have time for one more question. And so, our final question today comes from Anna Andreeva with Piper Sandler. Anna, please go ahead. Anna Andreeva -- Analyst Great. Thanks so much. Happy to have made it. And congrats. Nice results. Two questions from us. I wanted to follow up on hard goods. Sumit, just remind us what's the size of your own brands business within that. Are you starting to see growth there, and should that continue into next year? And is own brands still a higher-margin category for Chewy? And secondly, I guess, to date, FC automation has been a pretty big story here, and you quantified that benefit in the 10-Q, to opex. Can you remind us how many FCs are automated now? What's the benefit and opex savings you see per FC? And how many do you still left to automate ahead into '25 or beyond? Thank you so much. David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Sure. Let me start perhaps with hard goods. And again, if you go into the 10-Q, you'll see that we report on hard goods, as I mentioned earlier, after several kind of quarters where we had experienced decline in the past. We have had two consecutive quarters now with growth in hard goods year over year. So, the second quarter, we grew year over year. The third quarter, we've grown year over year again. And in fact, we've grown faster than we did in the second quarter. And while we don't guide by, you know, some -- a product line or category, we did -- we have experienced some good trends in hard goods here in the fourth quarter. So, we're quite pleased from that perspective. With regards to our own private brands, either within hard goods or other categories, you know, we don't comment extensively on that. I would say, in general, private brands for us has been stable. We have several initiatives that -- where we are expanding assortment across both consumables, as well as hard goods. Most of those initiatives are future benefits and not really reflected in the P&L that we've produced for third quarter or that were guiding for fourth quarter. So, those benefits are yet to come. But hard goods, in general, up two consecutive quarters, trending well for fourth quarter; and then private brands within hard goods, continuing to improve assortment and selection. Sumit. Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director And I would just say that even though, you know, the relative stability is absolutely right, you know, if you recall, this is an area of opportunity that we recognized as a strategic pillar. We want to get net sales penetration up to mid-teens level. And at that scale, we expect private brands to contribute, you know, up to 500 basis points of higher gross margin to the core business. For hard goods, you know, we've mentioned in the past that penetration for our private brands is in the mid-teens to high-teens level. It fluctuates, you know, in that range across the year, and we are relatively stable in that penetration. In terms of automation, six fulfillment centers are currently automated. What I would recall -- what I would draw your attention to is, you know, at Capital Markets Day, we said we can, you know, continue to automate across our network and reach or touch over 70% of volume in one way, shape, or form to push through these improved processes. And if you look at just the FC itself, you know, we have said it drives improvement to the tune of up to 50% in productivity, 30% in volume per square foot, and up to 60% improvements in ergonomics and safety. And those results are pretty true even now. Operator Those are all the questions we have time for today. [Operator instructions] Duration: 0 minutes Call participants: David Reeder -- Chief Financial Officer Sumit Singh -- Chief Executive Officer and Director Nathan Feather -- Analyst Curtis Nagle -- Analyst Doug Anmuth -- Analyst David Bellinger -- Analyst Steve Zaccone -- Analyst Rupesh Parikh -- Analyst Mark Mahaney -- Analyst Shweta Khajuria -- Analyst Anna Andreeva -- Analyst More CHWY analysis All earnings call transcripts
Green and Jamiel score long TDs and Lehigh rallies to defeat Richmond 20-16 in FCS playoff openerDAMASCUS In the Kabun neighborhood of Damascus, Syrians are struggling to rebuild their lives after the regime's devastation. The most visible scars of the 13-year civil war are found in Kabun, where Syrians fought for freedom against the Bashar Assad regime. Located 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from central Damascus, Kabun was once home to a thriving Tailors Bazaar with a population of nearly 100,000. Today, much of Kabun is reduced to rubble, with remnants of the Ba'ath regime’s oppression evident in the ruins. Some debris has even become mass graves, said residents. In the nearby Tishreen neighborhood, returnees are living without services like electricity or water, surrounded by buildings scarred by shrapnel, bullets and fires. The remnants of bombs used by Assad and his allies are found on the roofs of the few houses left standing. Amid the destruction, children playing symbolize hope for a better future. Al-Merri family holds on in last standing house The al-Merri family -- father, son and grandson -- is holding on in the last remaining house in Kabun. Samir al-Merri, 58, has lived in Kabun since the 1980s. Before the war, the neighborhood was home to people from across Syria, Iraq and Yemen, with a bustling Tailors Bazaar. "The Tailors Bazaar used to be busy. Now, nothing is left. It’s completely destroyed," Samir noted. He shared the pain of losing his son in 2012, who was detained by the regime. "I stayed here under bombardment until 2015, hoping to find him. I saw nearly 300 bodies in the streets, executed with shots to the head," he said. “In the end, I lost hope. We had four houses, but now only one remains.” Samir received confirmation that his son, Faris, died in 2016 in the Sednaya Prison, known as the “human slaughterhouse.” His other son was killed in an Israeli airstrike during mandatory military service near a base housing Iranian forces. 'I felt like a criminal in my own country' Samir's son, Ahmed, 40, fled the bombings in 2016 and returned to Kabun in 2021. Before the revolution, they avoided politics, but after the uprising, Ahmed realized the oppression they had been living under. “We were living on a farm. The regime’s men controlled everything -- our house, car, property -- they all belonged to them,” said Ahmed. Ahmed, who avoided military service, explained that after returning to Syria, the military tried to force him into the army. “I’m 40 now, what could I do in the army? I have five children. Who would take care of them? Who would I fight against? Syrians like me," he said. “I always felt like a criminal in my own country. I was constantly running, paying bribes at every checkpoint. They threatened to send me to Sednaya. My house was looted. I’m happy the regime has fallen,” he added. “I’m happy for my children. Now I can travel freely without checkpoints or questions.” 'Regime stole my childhood' Mohammed, 22, the youngest member of the al-Merri family, said his childhood was marked by “bombardments, bombs, and explosions.” “The regime stole my childhood, my youth, my life. I have nothing left. At 22, I’m starting my life from scratch,” he said. “I was a deserter, hiding at home. They tried to force me into the army for no reason.” *Writing by Alperen Aktas in Istanbul
McDermott, AFC East-leading Bills refreshed coming out of bye week, and looking ahead to host 49ersTrump asks Supreme Court to pause law that could ban TikTok
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Email:Send Email [ https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=24kv-loadbreak-elbow-surge-arrester-in-medium-voltage-networks ] Country: China Website: https://www.ahelek.com/ This release was published on openPR.ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Gratifying as it was for Sean McDermott to catch up with his family and get some rest during Buffalo’s bye week, the Bills coach on Wednesday found comfort returning to his weekly routine and familiar wardrobe — a gray T-shirt and sweatpants. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Gratifying as it was for Sean McDermott to catch up with his family and get some rest during Buffalo’s bye week, the Bills coach on Wednesday found comfort returning to his weekly routine and familiar wardrobe — a gray T-shirt and sweatpants. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Gratifying as it was for Sean McDermott to catch up with his family and get some rest during Buffalo’s bye week, the Bills coach on Wednesday found comfort returning to his weekly routine and familiar wardrobe — a gray T-shirt and sweatpants. “When I’m not wearing those, I go to my closet and I don’t know what to wear. I’m kind of like not myself,” he said before pulling up his hoodie for emphasis to reveal the gray shirt he had on underneath. “So I was telling some of the guys this morning, ‘It’s good to be back.’” Though there remain challenges ahead, these are upbeat times in Buffalo. The Bills (9-2) are off to their best start since 1992. They remain in contention for the AFC’s top seed by entering their break following a 30-21 win over Kansas City (10-1). And Buffalo is in position to clinch its fifth straight AFC East title as early as Sunday. To do so, the Bills would need Miami to lose to Green Bay on Thursday night, and Buffalo to win its game over San Francisco (5-6) on Sunday night. Buffalo has won six straight since back-to-back losses at Baltimore and Houston, and scored 30 or more points in each of its past five outings. Refreshed as McDermott sounded and appeared, it didn’t take long for him to revert to his game-at-a-time script when assessing what’s on the line this weekend. “We’re mostly focused on our level of play this week against a good football team,” he said. McDermott shed little light on the status of Buffalo’s lengthy list of injured players. There’s no timetable yet on Matt Milano being activated off injured reserve, even though the starting linebacker practiced fully for the first time since tearing his left biceps during a training camp practice in mid-August. Milano has actually missed nearly 14 months since sustaining a season-ending injury to his right leg in Week 5 last season. Milano revealed little during a brief interview following practice. “I feel all right. Getting back into it with the team,” said Milano, who no longer wore a red non-contact jersey in practice. Meantime, rookie receiver Keon Coleman, who has missed two games with a right wrist injury, and starting right tackle Spencer Brown, who missed one game with an ankle injury, were limited in practice. Tight end Dalton Kincaid (knee) was Buffalo’s only player not practicing. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. The Bills also opened the three-week window for backup rookie defensive tackle DeWayne Carter (wrist) and backup offensive lineman Tylan Grable (groin) to return. McDermott has another positive going for him revolving around the bye week. The Bills are 8-0 coming out of their break since McDermott took over as coach in 2017. “I don’t really have the, hey, this is exactly what we do formula,” McDermott said on whether he’s changed his bye week approach. “It’s more of us really just getting back to what we do, getting back to basics.” ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Advertisement Advertisement
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NoneEvery day millions of people share more intimate information with their accessories than they do with their spouse. Wearable technology — smartwatches, smart rings, fitness trackers and the like — monitors body-centric data such as your heart rate, steps taken and calories burned, and may record where you go along the way. Like Santa Claus, it knows when you are sleeping (and how well), it knows when you’re awake, it knows when you’ve been idle or exercising, and it keeps track of all of it. People are also sharing sensitive health information on , including online mental health and counseling programs. Some women use period tracker apps to map out their monthly cycle. These devices and services have excited consumers hoping for better insight into their health and lifestyle choices. But the lack of oversight into how body-centric data are used and shared with third parties has prompted concerns from privacy experts, who warn that the data could be sold or lost through data breaches, then used to raise insurance premiums, discriminate surreptitiously against applicants for jobs or housing, and even perform surveillance. The use of wearable technology and medical apps surged in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, but indicates that current laws offer little protection for consumers who are often unaware just how much of their health data are being collected and shared by companies. “I’ve been studying the intersections of emerging technologies, data-driven technologies, AI and human rights and social justice for the past 15 years, and since the pandemic I’ve noticed the industry has become hyper-focused on our bodies,” said Mozilla Foundation technology fellow Júlia Keserű, who conducted the research. “That permeates into all kinds of areas of our lives and all kinds of domains within the tech industry.” The report “From Skin to Screen: Bodily Integrity in the Digital Age” recommends that existing data protection laws be clarified to encompass all forms of bodily data. It also calls for expanding national health privacy laws to cover health-related information collected from health apps and fitness trackers and making it easier for users to opt out of body-centric data collections. Researchers have been raising alarms about health data privacy for years. Data collected by companies are often sold to data brokers or groups that buy, sell and trade data from the internet to create detailed consumer profiles. Body-centric data can include information such as the fingerprints used to unlock phones, face scans from facial recognition technology, and data from fitness and fertility trackers, mental health apps and digital medical records. One of the key reasons health information has value to companies — even when the person’s name is not associated with it — is that advertisers can use the data to send targeted ads to groups of people based on certain details they share. The information contained in these consumer profiles is becoming so detailed, however, that when paired with other data sets that include location information, it could be possible to target specific individuals, Keserű said. Location data can “expose sophisticated insights about people’s health status, through their visits to places like hospitals or abortions clinics,” Mozilla’s report said, adding that “companies like Google have been reported to keep such data even after promising to delete it.” revealed that data brokers were selling sensitive data on individuals’ mental health conditions on the open market. While many brokers deleted personal identifiers, some provided names and addresses of individuals seeking mental health assistance, according to the report. In two public surveys conducted as part of the research, Keserű said, participants were outraged and felt exploited in scenarios where their health data were sold for a profit without their knowledge. “We need a new approach to our digital interactions that recognizes the fundamental rights of individuals to safeguard their bodily data, an issue that speaks directly to human autonomy and dignity,” Keserű said. “As technology continues to advance, it is critical that our laws and practices evolve to meet the unique challenges of this era.” Consumers often take part in these technologies without fully understanding the implications. Last month, that users submit X-rays, PET scans, MRIs and other medical images to Grok, the platform’s artificial intelligence chatbot, to seek diagnoses. The issue alarmed privacy experts, but many X users heeded Musk’s call and submitted health information to the chatbot. While X’s privacy policy says that the company will not sell user data to third parties, it does share some information with certain business partners. Gaps in existing laws have allowed the widespread sharing of biometric and other body-related data. Health information provided to hospitals, doctor’s offices and medical insurance companies is protected from disclosure under the , known as HIPAA, which established federal standards protecting such information from release without the patient’s consent. But health data collected by many wearable devices and health and wellness apps don’t fall under HIPAA’s umbrella, said Suzanne Bernstein, counsel at Electronic Privacy Information Center. “In the U.S. because we don’t have a comprehensive federal privacy law ... it falls to the state level,” she said. But not every state has weighed in on the issue. Washington, Nevada and Connecticut all recently passed laws to provide safeguards for consumer health data. that aimed to require tech companies to adhere to strengthened privacy provisions regarding the collection, sharing, use or sale of consumer health data. In California, the California Privacy Rights Act regulates how businesses can use certain types of sensitive information, including biometric information, and requires them to offer consumers the ability to opt out of disclosure of sensitive personal information. “This information being sold or shared with data brokers and other entities hypercharge the online profiling that we’re so used to at this point, and the more sensitive the data, the more sophisticated the profiling can be,” Bernstein said. “A lot of the sharing or selling with third parties is outside the scope of what a consumer would reasonably expect.” Health information has become a prime target for hackers seeking to extort healthcare agencies and individuals after accessing sensitive patient data. Health-related cybersecurity breaches and ransom attacks increased more than 4,000% between 2009 and 2023, targeting the booming market of body-centric data, which is expected to exceed $500 billion by 2030, according to the report. “Nonconsensual data sharing is a big issue,” Keserű said. “Even if it’s biometric data or health data, a lot of the companies are just sharing that data without you knowing, and that is causing a lot of anxiety and questions.”
Risk-tolerant investors hunting for growth often gravitate toward technology stocks -- and for good reason. These companies are driving some of the world's top social, economic, and cultural changes, after all. That's why so many of these tickers experience great gains (and a select few see outright massive ones). Indeed, the right tech stock can make you a millionaire with just a relatively small investment. Is SoundHound AI ( SOUN -1.16% ) such a millionaire-making name? Maybe. The stock's 300% price spike since late October certainly suggests at least some investors see big things in its foreseeable future. Before you take the same plunge in anticipation of becoming a millionaire within the next 10 years, however, there are a few things you'll want to consider. SoundHound's (very) cool interactive voice technology SoundHound is an artificial intelligence (AI) technology company. Its specialty is voice-based solutions, like turning a spoken drive-thru order into a written prep list for the fast-food restaurant staff, or hands-free activation (or deactivation) of an automobile's features. By leveraging the full potential of modern large language model (or LLM) AI, it can even support assistance-minded conversations with users of its tech. And customers are paying for access to its solutions. Restaurant management software provider Toast has integrated SoundHound's voice ordering technology into its offerings, while hamburger chain White Castle has directly secured access to it as a means of streamlining its drive-thrus. Carmaker Stellantis -- parent to Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, and others -- has utilized SoundHound's in-car solutions in some of its more driver-interactive vehicles. Streaming music platform Pandora (owned by SiriusXM ) can now be managed by subscribers' voices thanks to SoundHound AI. All told, this company monetized its technology to the tune of $25 million during the quarter ending in September, up 89% year over year. There's more growth on the horizon, too. Market research outfit Straits Research believes the global speech recognition industry is poised to grow at an annualized pace of 17% through 2032, jibing with outlooks from Technavio as well as Polaris Market Research. This business being its sole focus, SoundHound AI is seemingly well-positioned to capture at least its fair share of this growth. This possibility is the top reason at least a small handful of investors are piling in, perhaps in anticipation of riding the stock's coattails to reach the millionaire mark in the relatively near future. If you're thinking of doing the same, though, know that there's a fairly low likelihood of this stock actually making you a millionaire by 2035 no matter how much capital you commit to it today. In fact, there's arguably more risk than reward. Overvalued for any time frame There's no denying this company has significantly raised the bar on the voice-based artificial intelligence front. It's successfully monetizing its technology, too. Indeed, as Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives recently noted, "SoundHound represents an underappreciated pure-play AI company" that's likely to report accelerated growth and new market prospects over the course of 2025. There are legitimate concerns about its longer-term growth prospects, however. Chief among them is the fact that, while impressive, there's nothing particularly unique about its technology . Take OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet Google's Gemini as examples. Both are capable of offering text-based AI-generated conversations, and Google has already developed a serviceable speech-to-text tool for some of its offerings. Microsoft 's AI assistant, Copilot, can also be voice-based. Tweaking any of these solutions into a tool that's akin to SoundHound AI's wouldn't be a great leap. It's just that these companies have thus far opted not to. Microsoft, Google, and ChatGPT owner OpenAI all certainly enjoy access to deeper developmental pockets though. If and when any of them attempt to step onto SoundHound's turf, they could easily topple the smaller outfit. This fragility makes the second concern surrounding this stock all the more troubling. That's the stock's valuation. SoundHound AI shares are incredibly expensive. Never even mind the company's current lack of profits. It's obviously difficult to value any company operating in the red. You own a stock based on where the organization is going rather than where it is, but the future isn't always clear. Investors simply believe SoundHound will be fiscally viable at some point in time even with no real clarity as to when that might be. And maybe it will eventually swing to a profit. Even by the most forgiving valuation standards, though, at roughly 100 times its trailing-12-month revenue, this stock's still wildly expensive. For the sake of comparison, the S&P 500 's current price-to-sales ratio is in the ballpark of 3.1. Said in more practical terms, SoundHound AI's top line could grow more than 30-fold from here and shares would still be priced in line with its peers where it stands right now. The stock's really not any more promising in the near term, either. Analysts' current consensus price target of $14.36 is 40% below SoundHound shares' present price. Sure, target prices can and do rise over time. It could be a long time before the analyst community's consensus catches up with the stock's current level, however, if it ever does. The company continues to issue new stock to raise funds in the meantime, diluting existing shareholders. It's not clear when this practice is set to slow down. Not enough reward to justify the risk, but... Never say never. SoundHound could make you a millionaire by 2035. It might acquire or develop a new marketable tech with a wider defensive moat than its voice-based AI currently has, for instance. From an odds-making perspective though, that's a very low-likelihood prospect. There are just too many short-term headwinds already blowing, and too many long-term headwinds waiting in the wings. Don't sweat it too much if you're looking for millionaire-making stocks, however. They're out there. It's just that SoundHound AI isn't one of them. Check out these tickers if you can stomach the risk required of promising millionaire-making prospects.United Internet AG (OTCMKTS:UDIRF) Short Interest Down 83.6% in December