Business: PayPal warns that the virus is hurting revenue.
Apple has reported issues with suppliers; Tesla has closed Shanghai Gigafactory
PayPal became the latest technology company to say its business is being hurt by the coronavirus outbreak as the payments processor on Thursday said sales for its current business quarter will likely fall short of its most- optimistic expectations due to the spread of the disease.
Before U. S. stock markets opened, PayPal said that while its business trends remain strong, “international cross- border e- commerce activity has been negatively impacted by COVID-19 (coronavirus).” The company said that because of the effects of coronavirus, it expects its first- quarter revenue to be at the low end of its previously announced range of $ 4.78 billion to $ 4.84 billion in sales.
PayPal said it was “continuing to closely monitor this evolving situation,” but couldn’t estimate how long the coronavirus situation would impact its business. The company said it would give another update on the matter when it reports its full first- quarter results in April.
PayPal ’ s announcement came on the heels of Microsoft saying late Wednesday that because of the effects of coronavirus, it doesn’t expect to meet revenue forecasts for its More Personal Computing business, which is the segment of its operations that includes Windows. Microsoft earlier gave a revenue range of $10.75 billion to $11.15 billion for the business segment.
Earlier this month, Apple said that because of the impact of coronavirus on its suppliers in China, it doesn’t expect to meet its March quarter revenue target range of $ 63 billion to $ 67 billion, and supplies of iPhones will be “temporarily constrained” as its supply chain gets back up to speed.
Tesla has also seen its Chinese operations affected by the spread of coronavirus, as the electric carmaker shut down its Shanghai Gigafactory for a week and half in late January and early February as part of an effort to halt the spread of the disease. Tesla said at the time that some of its vehicle deliveries in China would be delayed due to the temporary shutdown.