In this Dec. 6, 2013, file photo, Robin Thicke, left, and T.I. perform “Blurred Lines” at the Grammy Nominations Concert Live! at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Composer Hans Zimmer, crooner R. Kelly and members of such bands as the Go-Go’s, the Black Crowes, Linkin Park and Three 6 Mafia are supporting Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke and T.I. in their appeal in the ongoing legal dispute over the hit song “Blurred Lines.”
More than 200 musicians filed a brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to express concern about the ruling last year in a case brought by the children of Marvin Gaye, who sued for copyright infringement claiming “Blurred Lines” copied Gaye’s hit “Got to Give it Up.”
The musicians said the ruling could have “adverse impact on their own creativity, on the creativity of future artists, and on the music industry in general.”
Gaye’s descendants won a $7.4 million verdict, which a judge reduced to $5.3 million.
Mark Zuckerberg talks about the Orion AR glasses during the Meta Connect conference on Sept. 25, 2024, in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
Meta Platforms Inc. posted sharply higher profit and revenue for its fourth quarter on Wednesday, thanks to higher ad revenue on its social media properties, sending its shares up in after-hours trading even as it forecast increasing expenses on its artificial intelligence efforts.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expects 2025 to "be the year when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people, and I expect Meta AI to be that leading AI assistant."
The Menlo Park, California-based company earned $20.83 billion, or $8.02 per share, in the October-December quarter. That's up 49% from $14.02 billion, or $5.33 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue grew 21% to $48.39 billion from $40.11 billion.
Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $6.76 per share on revenue of $47 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.
"We continue to make good progress on AI, glasses, and the future of social media," Zuckerberg said in a statement.
For the current quarter, Meta said expects revenue of $39.5 billion to $41.8 billion. Analysts are expecting revenue at the high end of that range — $41.68 billion.
The company also said it expects expenses in the range of $114 billion to $119 billion, driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation. Meta had 74,067 employees as of Dec. 31, up 10% from a year earlier.
"Meta's Q4 performance underscores the company's resilience in a still-uncertain digital ad market. By beating both earnings and revenue estimates, they've demonstrated that cost discipline and efficiency gains are paying dividends," said Jesse Cohen, an analyst with Investing.com. "However, the real headline is their commitment to aggressive capital expenditures.... Read More
