Bank of Ozarks to report earnings today
Bank of the Ozarks plans to report second-quarter earnings today before the stock market opens.
Executives with the Little Rock bank will hold a conference call to discuss the report at 10 a.m. To access the call, dial (844) 466-4111 and ask for the Bank of the Ozarks call.
Bank of the Ozarks had $11.4 billion in assets as of March 31. It has 177 offices in Arkansas, Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.
-- David Smith
Cellphone failed water test, report says
NEW YORK -- Consumer Reports says a Samsung phone that's advertised as being "water-resistant" actually isn't.
The problem appears limited to the Galaxy S7 Active, a rugged model available only through AT&T in the U.S. The standard S7 and S7 Edge models have the same claims on water resistance and passed tests.
Consumer Reports, a nonprofit organization that is well respected for its product testing, said Friday that it can't recommend the Active because it doesn't meet Samsung's own claims. By contrast, Consumer Reports rates the S7 and S7 Edge phones as "Excellent" for their displays, battery life and cameras.
Maria Rerecich, Consumer Reports' director of electronics testing, said she was surprised the Active failed. She said Samsung's claims are usually "fairly good."
Samsung told Consumer Reports that it is investigating and has received very few complaints. Samsung told The Associated Press that while the Active is meant to be one of the most rugged phones out there, "there may be an off-chance that a defective device is not as watertight as it should be."
Samsung says all S7 phones, including the Active, are designed to survive in up to 5 feet of water for 30 minutes. Consumer Reports says that after a half-hour in water, the Active's screen flashed green and other colors and didn't respond to touch. Tiny bubbles appeared on the camera lenses. Consumer Reports tested a second Active phone to verify results and it also failed.
-- The Associated Press
Uber loan strategy said to raise $1.15B
LOS ANGELES -- Uber has reportedly raised $1.15 billion in a new high-yield loan that will allow the company to take advantage of low interest rates without diluting the equity of early investors.
Uber will pay a yield of about 5 percent on the loan, underwritten by a group led by Morgan Stanley and also including Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Los Angeles Times previously reported that Uber had asked banks such as Barclays and Morgan Stanley to help it sell a loan valued between $1 billion and $2 billion.
The move is the latest strategy implemented by the San Francisco startup as it fuels its worldwide expansion. After years of aggressive investment from venture-capital and private-equity firms, the company turned last month to Saudi Arabia's sovereign-wealth fund for a $3.5 billion investment.
Uber's leveraged loan is similar to a junk bond, since both are considered high risk, but can return higher yields. Uber is apparently willing to deal with the risk in an attempt to preserve ownership and value in its shares.
Despite a valuation of roughly $68 billion, Uber continues to acquire money as it competes in markets such as China, where it has stiff competition from services such as Didi Chuxing, which recently raised $1 billion in funding from Apple.
Uber has no interest in raising funds in the public markets anytime soon. Company Chief Executive Travis Kalanick has said an initial public offering may be as far as 10 years away.
-- Los Angeles Times
Univision sues Charter over payments
Univision Holdings Inc. sued Charter Communications Inc. and accused the cable company of attempting to shortchange it on programming fees after acquiring Time Warner Cable Inc., in a case that highlights the tension between programmers and distributors as pay-TV subscribers decline.
Charter is claiming it's entitled to pay lower programming rates under a long-term contract between Time Warner Cable and Univision that runs through June 2022, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in New York state court Friday.
One reason that Charter bought Time Warner Cable in May was because it could save on programming costs by paying Time Warner Cable's rates. The combined company has millions more subscribers now, giving it more leverage when negotiating fees with programmers to carry their channels.
Cable operators are trying to reduce the rising cost of programming because they must pass on the costs to consumers in the form of higher monthly bills. That, in turn, is prompting more customers to cancel their pay-TV service and cobble together cheaper online options such as Netflix Inc. and Dish Network Corp.'s Sling TV, putting more pressure on the TV industry.
-- Bloomberg News
Facebook to boost Messenger privacy
Facebook is taking a big step toward keeping Messenger users' conversations safe from prying eyes: The company is testing a new feature it calls "secret conversations," which uses end-to-end encryption to lock up messages.
Using end-to-end encryption means that only the sender and recipient of a message will able to unlock and read it -- even Facebook itself won't be able to see the text. In a blog post Friday announcing the test, Facebook highlighted sensitive topics such as health and financial information as among the reasons users might want to use it.
End-to-end encryption has seen a boom in popularity in recent years as mainstream tech companies have started integrating it into their products amid heightened cybersecurity and surveillance fears. But that boom has also raised concerns from some law enforcement officials that it could stop them from being able to access the communications of criminals and terrorists even when investigators obtain a warrant.
The Messenger feature will not be turned on by default; users will have to choose to start a secret conversation. In addition to providing end-to-end protections, the feature will also allow users to set a time limit for how long each message will remain visible in a conversation. However, secret conversations currently don't support some popular features, like sharing GIFs or videos.
Only a limited number of Messenger users will be able to try out the feature for now, but Facebook says it plans to make it more widely available later this summer.
-- The Washington Post
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