(Bloomberg) — A formerly cautious analyst at SVB Leerink has changed his tune on the potential sales of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Covid-19 treatment, remdesivir.Even bullish Wall Street analysts have been critical of Gilead’s chances of making a profit from the treatment, which received an emergency use designation from U.S. regulators in May. Public advocates have argued against drug and vaccine makers making any profit from the global pandemic but SVB Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges is now forecasting that sales of remdesivir may reach $7.7 billion in 2022.Less than two months ago, Porges had said investors were giving a “generous amount of credit” for a drug that likely won’t be sold for a profit.The latest change is reason enough for Porges to raise his rating on Gilead shares to outperform from market perform, and increase his price target to $94, just $3 shy of the current Street high target. The new target, up from $85 previously, also includes more than $1 billion in sales from potential cancer medicines in a partnership with Arcus Biosciences Inc.“A valuation of $94+ is realistic, perhaps as soon as the company declares its price for commercial sale of remdesivir,” Porges wrote in a note to clients. He expects commercial sales of the drug to be priced at roughly $5,000 per course of treatment in the U.S., and $4,000 in Europe. Gilead, which has said it’s donating 1.5 million vials of the medicine globally, has probably already doled out that supply and will have to announce a price soon, according to the analyst.Clinicians are still awaiting more detailed results from the drug, which has shown a modest benefit in some studies. Meanwhile, biotechnology companies including Moderna Inc. are racing to develop a vaccine. Porges’s view, however, is that “SARS-nCoV2 is not going away, or being eliminated by vaccination.”Gilead shares rose as much as 1.5% in Wednesday trading. The stock has struggled since remdesivir received its authorization, and is down about 8% from May 1.(Updates shares in final paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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At the end of February we announced the arrival of the first US recession since 2009 and we predicted that the market will decline by at least 20% in (Recession is Imminent: We Need A Travel Ban NOW). In these volatile markets we scrutinize hedge fund filings to get a reading on which direction each […]

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(Bloomberg) — One Friday evening last December, employees of game designer Star Theory Games each received the same unusual recruitment message over LinkedIn. It struck them as bizarre for two reasons. One, it came from an executive producer at the publishing company funding their next video game. Two, it said the game—in the works for the previous two years—was being pulled from their studio.“This was an incredibly difficult decision for us to make, but it became necessary when we felt business circumstances might compromise the development, execution and integrity of the game,” Michael Cook, the executive at Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., wrote in the message, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. “To that end, we encourage you to apply for a position with us.”It was strange and disconcerting news to Star Theory’s employees. Normally, an announcement like this would be delivered in a companywide meeting or an email from Star Theory’s leadership team. The contract with Take-Two was the studio’s only source of revenue at the time. Without it, the independent studio was in serious trouble. The LinkedIn message went on to say Take-Two was setting up a new studio to keep working on the same game Star Theory had been developing, a sequel to the cult classic Kerbal Space Program. Take-Two was looking to hire all of Star Theory’s development staff to make that happen. “We are offering a compensation package that includes a cash sign-on bonus, an excellent salary, bonus eligibility and other benefits,” Cook wrote.When employees returned to the office on Monday, Star Theory founders Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor convened an all-hands meeting. The two men had been in discussions about selling their company to Take-Two but were dissatisfied with the terms, they explained. The game’s cancellation was a shock, but the founders assured staff that Star Theory still had money in the bank and could try to sign other deals, according to five people who attended the meeting and asked not to be identified, citing the risk of litigation. Berry and Mavor encouraged employees to stick together and stay at the company.The next few weeks were chaos, employees said. Take-Two hired more than a third of Star Theory’s staff, including the studio head and creative director. By March, as the coronavirus pandemic choked the global economy, any hope of saving the business appeared to be lost, and Star Theory closed its doors.Even by the cutthroat standards of the video game business, Take-Two’s tactics were extreme. The company behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise is one of America’s largest publishers, with a market value of $15 billion. The stock is up 10% this year and trading near an all-time high, thanks to increased demand from people stuck at home. Take-Two cultivated a leading position in publishing through a mix of big-budget games developed in-house and by a tightknit group of studio partners. Publishers like Take-Two control a project’s financing, marketing and distribution, giving them a great deal of leverage over most developers they sign.The swift demise of Star Theory and the events of its three final months, which have not been previously reported, highlight the frailty of those business relationships and the power dynamics within the industry.Brian Roundy, a spokesman for Take-Two’s Private Division publishing label, said the company contacted “every member of the development team” at Star Theory with an invitation to join the new studio, called Intercept Games. “More than half of the team is now at Intercept Games,” Roundy wrote. “In doing so, we are empowering our deeply passionate and talented team to focus on quality, and we are thrilled with the progress that they are making on the game.” Star Theory’s Berry and Mavor didn’t respond to requests for comment.Patrick Meade, a senior engineer at Star Theory, said he turned down the job offer from Take-Two. He declined to discuss the events in detail but said he didn’t want to work for a big company where he wouldn’t have the same degree of influence or financial benefits if the game were a hit. “I was at a small studio, where the work I did had a massive impact on our success,” Meade said. “When I see myself at any large corporation, that is fundamentally not true.”Berry and Mavor started their game studio in 2008 in Bellevue, Washington. They called it Uber Entertainment, later changing the name to Star Theory following the rise of a certain ride-hailing company. Early hits included Monday Night Combat, a cartoonish shooter that sold more than 300,000 copies, and Planetary Annihilation, a strategy game that raised more than $2 million on Kickstarter.In 2017, Star Theory began working with Take-Two on its most high-profile project. Take-Two had purchased the rights to a popular flight simulation game developed by another independent studio and contracted Star Theory to make a sequel. The original game, Kerbal Space Program, allowed players to construct and launch rockets using realistic physics. It sold more than 2 million copies, was critically acclaimed and even led to partnerships with NASA and the European Space Agency. Gamers, like moviegoers, tend to flock to brands they know, so working on a well-liked franchise is a chance for a studio to increase sales and gain exposure.The view inside Star Theory was that development on Kerbal Space Program 2 was proceeding smoothly, according to the people who worked on the project. A preview of the game on display at the Penny Arcade Expo in September left fans impressed, and Take-Two’s public enthusiasm for the title was rising, said Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen & Co.Late last year, Take-Two agreed to extend Star Theory’s development deadline by six months to add new content to the game. That kicked off a new round of contract negotiations. All seemed well, said the people who worked on the game, until Dec. 6, when the project was pulled and the LinkedIn messages went out. At the hastily called staff meeting a few days later, the founders said in addition to sale talks, they had been trying to clarify royalty terms, which were unclear in their contract, they told employees.Three of Star Theory’s leaders—Jeremy Ables, the studio chief; Nate Simpson, the creative director; and Nate Robinson, the lead producer—departed for Take-Two’s new studio immediately. Other staff mulled whether to go, torn between leaving and abandoning their colleagues or staying and risking their livelihoods, they said. One employee, who asked not to be identified, said they felt a mix of confusion and fury, adding that they’d never been put in this type of position.The attempt at hiring away the development team came with business risks, both for the project and for Take-Two if word got out, said Creutz. “They've got a game they've got high hopes for, and they have now potentially injected an enormous amount of disruption into the development process,” he said. “You could be taking a reputational risk as well, if you want other studios to work with you and it appears that you play this kind of move when things don't go the way you want.”About a dozen of Star Theory’s 30 employees wound up leaving for Take-Two’s new studio, while the rest stuck around in an attempt to save the business, they said. By January, the remaining team had a plan in place: Each employee would spend the next two months brainstorming new ideas and building prototypes. Then they would pitch the best ones to publishers at the Game Developers Conference in mid-March in the hope of securing a new deal, the five workers said. The annual conference is always full of publishers looking to make investments in indie studios with proven track records.Then came the pandemic. The conference was canceled, leaving Star Theory with nowhere to take its pitches. Publishers, sensing an economic downturn, tightened their spending. On March 4, Star Theory shut down. Each worker received a month’s pay and two months of health insurance, said three former employees. A few joined their former colleagues at Take-Two’s Intercept Games.Kerbal Space Program 2 remains in development at Intercept. The game had been set to come out this year, but the company said last month it was delaying the release until the fall of 2021. “With everything going on in the world today due to the Covid-19 outbreak,” the company said, “we’re facing many unique challenges.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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(Bloomberg) — Investors could face more name confusion this week when ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. joins Zoom Video Communications Inc. on the Nasdaq Stock Market.ZoomInfo, which provides data on sales prospects, is expected to price its initial public offering on June 3 and begin trading under the ticker symbol ZI the following day. It will join three other publicly traded companies globally whose names begin with Zoom, the most well-known of which is the maker of video-conferencing software that has become a household name during the coronavirus pandemic.The surging popularity of Zoom Video, used daily by millions of people for remote face-to-face interactions, has fueled a three-fold rally in its stock this year. But for a brief time, it caused even bigger spikes in the shares of Zoom Technologies Inc, a Beijing-based company with few operations to speak of. That stock traded under the symbol ZOOM and had been moribund for years before Zoom Video’s IPO in April 2019 helped revive it.”The challenging part is we’re just running out of names that are distinctive,” said A.J. Ericksen, corporate partner at Baker Botts, in an interview. “So you’ll get some that sound alike and it gets even worse when you start with tickers — which was a big problem with Zoom Technologies. The retail investors start typing in ‘Zoom’ and get that.”ZOOM’s daily volume soared from about 30,000 shares on April 10, 2019, to nearly 1 million shares eight days later, while the stock price rose about five-fold over three trading days. Things were quieter until the coronavirus started to spread rapidly across the U.S. this spring, sparking a surge in Zoom video chats and sending shares of its doppelganger up more than 10-fold.That volatility captured the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which halted trading in Zoom Technologies for two weeks on March 25. The regulator cited concerns about ticker confusion and a lack of public disclosures since 2015. Ultimately Zoom Technologies changed its ticker symbol from ZOOM to ZTNO.“I think it’s just going to be left to ‘buyer beware,’” Ericksen said.Of course, ZoomInfo has little in common with Zoom Technologies aside from its name. The Vancouver, Washington-based company has about 202,000 paying users, $293 million in revenue last year and is backed by Carlyle Group, according to a filing.It’s unclear whether Zoom Corp., a Japanese seller of video and sound recording devices, has also benefited from name confusion. Its stock rallied to a four-month high in April but has since fallen about 14%.Meanwhile, Zoom Video shares continue to chug higher. The stock has gained 27% since Friday, when it was added to the MSCI World Index. On Tuesday, the company nearly doubled its annual revenue forecast after a blowout first quarter in which customers with more than 10 employees jumped 354% compared with the same period a year ago.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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German travel operator TUI and Boeing Co (BA) have reached an agreement on a comprehensive package of measures to offset the financial impact of the grounding of the planemaker’s 737 MAX jets.The two-year compensation package includes a new delivery schedule for the 737 MAX aircraft of which the travel company had an order of 61. As a result, less than half of the originally planned 737 MAX aircraft will be delivered to TUI in the next two years with the timing also being delayed.The associated payment schedules have been adapted accordingly, TUI said in a statement. The financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed as its details are confidential. However, TUI said that the compensation deal covers a “significant portion of the financial impact, as well as credits for future aircraft orders”."We have reached a fair agreement that strengthens our long-standing relationship with Boeing,” TUI CEO Fritz Joussen said. “It supports our plan to downsize the aircraft fleet and reduce the capital requirements for aircraft investments in the Group."With its five airlines in Germany, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, TUI is one of Boeing's largest European customers for the 737 aircraft. Temporary suspension of aircraft production had begun in January after the company grounded the 737 MAX jet last year following a second crash.The ailing planemaker said last week it restarted 737 MAX production at its factory in Renton, Washington, albeit at a low rate and is planning to gradually ramp up production this year.Boeing has been cutting jobs and streamlining operations as travel restrictions tied to the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in a deep cut in the number of commercial jets and services its customers need over the next few years. Last month, the planemaker reported that it did not receive a single order in April, while it was also grappling with 108 order cancelations for its grounded 737 MAX plane.Shares advanced 1.5% to $155.60 in Wednesday’s pre-market trading, trimming this year’s plunge to 53%.Susquehanna analyst Charles Minervino this week reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $175 price target, as he believes that a steady recovery in air travel off the lows seen in 2Q should lift demand for aftermarket services in the coming quarters.Overall Wall Street analysts are cautiously optimistic on Boeing shares. The Moderate Buy consensus is divided into 8 Buy, 11 Hold and 1 Sell rating. The $161.61 average price target implies 5.4% upside potential in the stock in the next 12 months. (See Boeing’s stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Boeing Cuts 6,770 Jobs In U.S.; CFRA Upgrades Stock To Buy   Ryanair Cuts Traffic Target By Almost 50% For Coming Year, Seeks To Reduce Boeing Plane Deliveries Boeing Gets No Orders in April, Customers Cancel 737 MAX Jets More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Facebook And PayPal Invest In Indonesian App Gojek * Google In $5 Billion U.S. Lawsuit For Collecting Users’ ‘Private’ Internet Data    * Alibaba Rolls Out Online Business Services As Covid-19 Boosts Digitalization Need * Glu Mobile Sinks On $100M Public Offering Announcement

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In 2020, business phone services go far beyond having an office PBX installed. Powered by Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) technology, business telephony suites now include a multitude of options, from video conferencing to voicemail-to-email features.With the VoIP market predicted to double to $150 billion globally by 2024, providers are further bolstering their offers with additional communication channels, integrations with other platforms, CRM features, and AI analytics capabilities.Here is an overview of the offers by the top five VoIP-powered business phone services on the market in 2020.1 – Nextiva Recently named the best business phone service by U.S. News, Nextiva is one of the top business phone systems available.The company provides cutting-edge cloud communications services, available on mobile and desktop apps, as well as VoIP phones, or – via adapter – regular desk phones. The offer is replete with headache-saving features like find-me-follow-me, integrations with many business applications, voicemail-to-email, and voicemail-to-text capabilities, and enhanced IVR based on conversational AI.But Nextiva's offer also encompasses a rich set of additional tools. The company's NextOS platform lets you optimize productivity and enhance customer experience through advanced analytics, including predictive analysis, and machine learning features. Cospace, Nextiva's new team collaboration tool, is based on the company's own years of experience with a distributed workforce. The tool is an invaluable aid to many of Nextiva's clients, especially in navigating the corona crisis with suddenly remote teams.Finally, Nextiva also scores big on reliability and customer service. With an uptime of 99.999% ('five-nines'), safeguarded by a large number of distributed data centers, the provider is one you can count on. The company's customer service is outstanding, available 24/7 via email, live chat, and phone. In fact, Nextiva has just been awarded multiple Stevie awards \- for the fifth consecutive year.In terms of pricing, Nextiva's basic tier is available for $19.95 per user and month. Costs for additional lines decreases with the number of users.2 – AircallAircall is a more specialized VoIP service providing complete call center solutions. The platform operates entirely in the cloud, without extra hardware.Setting up a call center takes a few clicks in Aircall's online interface, and admin is similarly straightforward. Call centers can be tailored for various uses, but always with the needs of sales and customer support teams in mind.Covering voice and video calling as well as messaging, Aircall's service is accessible through the company's desktop, mobile, and web applications.Many included services make the lives of call center operators and users easier. A feature-rich, native CRM system is complemented by helpdesk functionalities, tools for sales support, and productivity aids.Another big plus is Aircall's App Marketplace, which offers a rich host of extensions. Apps like Avoma or ExecVision transcribe and analyze business conversations, yielding actionable insights. Other apps allow for designing surveys or sales automation. Furthermore, Aircall natively integrates with HubSpot and Salesforce, and allows further extensions through Zapier.Compared to other providers on this list, Aircall definitely operates in higher price spheres. Their basic plan starts at $30 per user and month, includes only limited functionalities, and requires a minimum of three users. The full range of features is unlocked at $50 per user and month.3 – OnSIPOnSIP offers powerful yet simple VoIP business telephony services. At highly attractive prices.OnSIP provides both mobile and desktop apps enabling voice and video calling, conferencing, and messaging. It also includes features like auto attendants, voicemail-to-email, find-me-anywhere, and ACD queues. Native integrations are available for Slack, Microsoft, Google Analytics, Salesforce and Zendesk, and others. OnSIP's intuitive online admin portal makes it easy to set up and manage.What really makes this service stand out, though, are its flexible pricing options, which even include a free plan.In terms of paid plans, customers can choose between an unlimited per-user plan for a monthly $18.95, or a pay-as-you-go plan for a standard monthly $49.95 per account and 2.9 cents per minute. OnSIP's sayso service is free, enabling website visitors to click-to-call you directly.One aspect of OnSIP's pricing may be an advantage or a drawback depending on your specific needs: an extensive menu of features that can be added individually to plans.While you won't end up paying for features you never use, subscribing to a large number of added features like hold music, call recording, or an enhanced dashboard, can quickly drive up the subscription fee.4 – VonageFlexible and scalable, this platform offers over 50 tools complementing their basic VoIP services. The platform is available on both smartphone and desktop apps, and can boast a five-nines uptime.In terms of features, Vonage offers omnichannel support, for voice and video calling, messaging, live chats, and even social media integrations. Users can hold video conferences with up to 300 participants, have access to Amazon Chime, and can make use of tools like virtual receptionists.Customer support is competent, though only emergency service is available outside weekday (8 a.m. – midnight ET) and weekend (9 a.m. – 9 p.m. ET) hours, which may be inconvenient if you have offices outside the U.S.Vonage's SMB offer starts at a price of $19.99 per user and month, going down to $14.99 for up to 99 users on the Mobile plan, which does not support desk phones. The Premium and Advanced plans begin at $29.99 and $39.99 respectively, with the latter including set-up by the company. For larger businesses and enterprises, custom pricing applies.Vonage offers a broad set of features, high reliability, and high flexibility. It's a particularly good fit for growing businesses, scaling smoothly. For very small businesses, however, you might get more value for your money elsewhere.5 – DialpadFinally, Dialpad is another contender with a truly impressive set of features, with perhaps the strongest focus on AI features out of all the options on this list. Its core business phone service runs on desktop and mobile apps, as well as VoIP-enabled desk phones. Voice, video, email, chat, and text messaging are all included, and so are all the standard VoIP telephony features like queuing and routing. But this is where Dialpad is only getting started. AI plays a large part in the provider's ecosystem. Features powered by AI and machine learning include automated note-taking during calls and real-time sales support. Voicemail and calls are automatically recorded and transcribed, form the basis of Dialpad's extensive analytics capabilities, which yield in-depth insights. Dialpad also shines when it comes to integrations, natively connecting to G Suite, Office 365, Salesforce, HubSpot, UberConference, and Slack. Like Aircall, Dialpad makes other integrations possible by taking advantage of Zapier's services. Customer service is 24/7 via live chat as well as round the clock on phone on weekdays (PST). In terms of pricing, Dialpad's basic tier runs to $20 per user and month. It's limited in its analytics features and restricted to one business location. The full feature set including 24/7 phone support and advanced analytics only becomes available with the $35 per user and month enterprise plan. Dialpad is a solid provider of business telephony with an impressive number of features and integration options. It may, however, not be the ideal fit for small business, as many useful features others include by default are only available in the higher tiers.The Bottom LineWith the broad offer of VoIP business phone service providers, there is a suitable option for virtually any business out there.Whether you gravitate towards specialized services like Aircall, price-competitive options like OnSIP, or providers that can boast all-round excellence like Nextiva, doing research on the perks that each package comes with, and crunching the numbers on plans, will pay off in the end.Because at the end of the day, your choice of a business phone service suite, with all its integrations and tools, will form a strong basis on which to build your business communications strategy. Choose wisely and keep in mind the age-old adage – that communication is key.See more from Benzinga * Nextiva CEO Tomas Gorny On Launching New Team Collaboration Software And Helping Businesses Through COVID-19(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Stock futures extended gains Wednesday morning as investors set their sights on more major cities’ plans to reopen businesses in the near-term as the coronavirus pandemic eased.

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In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among […]

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The coronavirus pandemic and accompanying financial crisis is putting particular pressure on the finances of student loan borrowers and on Congress to do something about a “broken” system.

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