In this Jan. 5, 2018 file photo, Nicole Kidman appears at the 7th annual AACTA International Awards in Los Angeles. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Amazon Studios says it's signed a deal with Nicole Kidman and her production company for TV and movie projects.
Under the "first-look" deal, Amazon and Kidman's Blossom Films will develop original series for Amazon Prime Video and big-screen films.
In a statement Thursday, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke called Kidman "a force of nature" as an actress and a producer.
Blossom Films, founded by Kidman and Per Saari, produced the Emmy-winning series "Big Little Lies" for HBO.
Amazon is striking deals with other prominent Hollywood figures, including "Get Out" filmmaker Jordan Peele.
Another major streaming service, Netflix, has landed top producers Ryan Murphy ("American Horror Story") and Shonda Rhimes ("Scandal").
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
